h. But
we've got it straight that they've been covering up some disease for
weeks."

"What do the certificates call it?"

"Malaria and septic something, I believe."

"Septicaemia hemorrhagica?"

"That's it."

"An alias. That's what they called bubonic plague in San Francisco and
yellow fever in Texas in the old days of concealment."

"It couldn't be either of those, could it?"

"No. But it might be any reportable disease: diphtheria, smallpox, any
of 'em. Even that hardly explains the quicklime."

"Could you look into it for us; for the 'Clarion'?"

"I? Work for the 'Clarion'?"

"Why not?"

"I don't like your paper."

"But you'd be doing a public service."

"Possibly. How do I know you'd print what I discovered--supposing I
discovered anything?"

"We're publishing an honest paper, nowadays."

"_Are_ you? Got this morning's?"

Like all good newspaper men, McGuire Ellis habitually went armed with a
copy of his own paper. He produced it from his coat pocket.

"Honest, eh?" muttered the physician grimly as he twisted the "Clarion"
inside out. "Honest! Well, not to go any farther, what about this for
honesty?"

Top of column, "next to reading," as its contract specified, the lure of
the Neverfail Company stood forth, bold and black. "Boon to Troubled
Womanhood" was the heading. Dr. Elliot read, with slow emphasis, the
lying half-promises, the specious pretenses of the company's "Relief
Pills." "No Case too Obstinate": "Suppression from Whatever Cause":
"Thousands of Women have Cause to Bless this Sovereign Remedy": "Saved
from Desperation."

"No doubt what that means, is there?" queried the reader.

"It seems pretty plain."

"What do you mean, then, by telling me you run an honest paper when you
carry an abortion advertisement every day?"

"Will that medicine cause abortion?"

"Certainly it won't cause abortion!"

"Well, then."

"Can't you see that makes it all the worse, in a way? It promises to
bring on abortion. It encourages any fool girl who otherwise might be
withheld from vice by fear of consequences. It puts a weapon of argument
into the hands of every rake and ruiner; 'If you get into trouble, this
stuff will fix you all right.' How many suicides do you suppose your
'Boon to Womanhood' and its kind of hellishness causes in a year, thanks
to the help of your honest journalism?"

"When I said we were honest, I wasn't thinking of the advertising."

"But I am. Can you be honest on o