Hal stood silent, in an attitude of courteous
attention.

"But this is a case of saving time. My visit has to do with the accident
of which you know."

Whether or not Hal knew was undeterminable from sign or speech of his.

"It was wholly the injured woman's fault," pursued Mr. Pierce, and
turned a slow, challenging eye upon Hal.

Over his shoulder the editor-in-chief caught sight of McGuire Ellis
laying finger on lip, and following up this admonition by a gesture of
arms and hands as of one who pays out line to a fish. Douglas fidgeted
on his desperate edge.

"You sent a reporter to interview my daughter. He was impertinent. He
should be discharged."

Still Mr. Pierce was firing into silence. Something rattled and flopped
in a chute at his elbow. He turned, irritably. That Mr. Pierce's
attention should have been diverted even for a moment by this was
sufficient evidence that he was disconcerted by the immobility of the
foe. But his glance quickly reverted and with added weight. Heavily he
stared, then delivered his ultimatum.

"The 'Clarion' will print nothing about the accident."

The editor of the "Clarion" smiled. At sight of that smile some
demon-artist in faces blocked in with lightning swiftness parallel lines
of wrath at right angles to the corners of the Pierce mouth. Through the
lips shone a thin glint of white.

"You find me amusing?" Men had found Elias M. Pierce implacable,
formidable, inscrutable, even amenable, in some circumstances, with a
conscious and godlike condescension; but no opponent had ever smiled at
his commands as this stripling of journalism was doing.

Still there was no reply. In his chair McGuire Ellis leaned back with an
expression of beatitude. The lawyer, shrewd enough to understand that
his principal was being baited, now took a hand.

"You may rely on Mr. Pierce to have the woman suitably cared for."

Now the editorial smile turned upon William Douglas. It was gentle, but
unsatisfying.

"_And_ the reporter will be discharged at once," continued Elias M.
Pierce, exactly as if Douglas had not spoken at all.

"Mr. Ellis," said Hal, "will you 'phone Mr. Wayne to send up the man who
covered the Pierce story?"

The summoned reporter entered the room. He was a youth named Denton, one
year out of college, eager and high-spirited, an enthusiast of his
profession, loving it for its adventurousness and its sense of
responsibility and power. These are the qualities that make