a professional call from his father, and a
companion from whose pockets bulged several sheets of paper.

"Shake hands with Mr. McQuiggan, Hal," said the Doctor. "Make a bow when
you meet him, too. He's your first new business for the reformed
'Clarion.'"

"In what way?" asked Hal, meeting a grip like iron from the stranger.
"News?"

"News! I guess not. Business, I said. Real money. Advertising."

"It's like this, Mr. Surtaine," said L.P. McQuiggan, turning his spare,
hard visage toward Hal. "I've got some copper stock to sell--an A1
under-developed proposition; and your father, who's an old pal, tells me
the 'Clarion' can do the business for me. Now, if I can get a good rate
from you, it's a go."

"Mr. Shearson, the advertising manager, is your man. I don't know
anything about advertising rates."

"Then you'd best get busy and learn," cried Dr. Surtaine.

"I'm learning other things."

"For instance?"

"What news is and isn't."

"Look here, Boyee." Dr. Surtaine's voice was surcharged with a
disappointed earnestness. "Put yourself right on this. News is news; any
paper can get it. But advertising is _Money_. Let your editors run the
news part, till you can work into it. _You get next to the door where
the cash comes in._"

In the fervor of his advice he thumped Hal's desk. The thump woke
McGuire Ellis, who had been devoting a spare five minutes to his
favorite pastime. For his behoof, the exponent of policy repeated his
peroration. "Isn't that right, Ellis?" he cried. "You're a practical
newspaper man."

"It's true to type, anyway," grunted Ellis.

"Sure it is!" cried the other, too bent on his own notions to interpret
this comment correctly. "And now, what about a little reading notice for
McQuiggan's proposition?"

"Yes: an interview with me on the copper situation and prospects might
help," put in McQuiggan.

Hal hesitated, looking to Ellis for counsel.

"You've got to do something for an advertiser on a big order like this,
Boyee," urged his father.

"Let's see the copy," put in Ellis. The trained journalistic eye ran
over the sheets. "Lot of gaudy slush about copper mines in general," he
observed, "and not much information on Streaky Mountain."

"It's an undeveloped property," said McQuiggan.

"Strong on geography," continued Ellis. "'In the immediate vicinity,'"
he read from one sheet, "'lie the Copper Monarch Mine paying 40 per cent
dividends, the Deep Gulch Mine, paying 35 per cent, the