ll it a day,
leaving just a man or two in the office for emergencies, similar
to the early morning dogwatch.

He also took a malicious satisfaction in shooting something into
the office that would keep them all on the jump for the rest of
the day and perhaps late into the night.

Jimmy, accustomed to thinking in headlines, had been formulating a
head for the story; he was now murmuring it to himself as he
hurried to a public telephone: DEATH POINTS A FINGER, DEATH POINTS
A FINGER, over and over again. He saw those words, in letters
three inches high, flaming across the top of the front page.

When the pleasant far-away voice of the operator said: "New York
Eagle" Jimmy barked: "'Lo Ann, gimme the city desk quick, will
you."

"Mr. Hite's wire is busy, will you wait a minute, Mr. Hale?"

"Can't Ann. I got to catch the home, put whoever Hite's talkin' to
on another wire and gimme the chief."

Jimmy had made a request that he would have made only in dire
emergency; he felt he was justified. He heard a faint clicking,
then came Hite's familiar growl:

"Are you drunk, Jimmy? What the hell can be so important that you
must cut in--mebbe you think I'll stop the presses for a feature
story. I--I said I'd pay the expenses of the trip, not for useless,
expensive telephone calls. You could have mailed--"

"'Scuse me, chief. I got a wow of a story. When's the home going
to bed?"

"Just gone; didn't I tell you--"

Jimmy found an effective way of stopping this flow of talk. He cut
in, saying:

"_One, perhaps three of this Tontine group have been murdered
during the past twenty-four hours_."

"What!"

The growl that came over the wire was a scream. Jimmy jerked the
instrument away from his ear.

The explosion kept ringing in his ear painfully. Hale repeated
slowly:

"One, perhaps three of the Tontine group were murdered during the
past twenty-four hours."

The growl that now answered him was Hite's normal voice, with the
tense undertone it held when he had a big story. Jimmy heard
Hite's voice faintly; the city editor was giving orders to the
pressroom that would stop the presses. For the next fifteen
minutes there would be feverish but orderly activity.

"All right, Jimmy, just gimme the flash so I'll have enough for a
head; the copy desk's all gone. Then I'll put you on Roy's wire
and you can give him the story."

Jimmy, with the capacity of the trained newspaper man to tell a
big story in a few words, tol