wholly
contented the older man.

"Go ahead with your 'Clarion,' Boyee. Blow your fool head off. Deave us
all deaf. Play any tune you want, and pay yourself for your piping. I
won't interfere--any more'n I can help, being an old meddler by taste.
Blood's thicker than water, they say. I guess it's thicker than
printer's ink, too. Remember this, right or wrong, win or lose, Boyee,
I'm with you."

CHAPTER XVIII

MILLY

All Hal's days now seemed filled with Pierce. Pierce's friends,
dependents, employees, associates wrote in, denouncing the "Clarion,"
canceling subscriptions, withdrawing advertisements. Pierce's club, the
Huron, compelled the abandonment of Mr. Harrington Surtaine's candidacy.
Pierce's clergyman bewailed the low and vindictive tone of modern
journalism. The Pierce newspapers kept harassing the "Clarion"; the
Pierce banks evinced their financial disapproval; the Pierce lawyers
diligently sought new causes of offense against the foe; while Pierce's
mayor persecuted the newspaper office with further petty enforcements
and exactions. Pierce's daughter, however, fled the town. With her went
Miss Esme Elliot. According to the society columns, including that of
the "Clarion," they were bound for a restful voyage on the Pierce yacht.

From time to time Editor Surtaine retaliated upon the foe, employing the
news of the slow progress of Miss Cleary, the nurse, to maintain
interest in the topic. Protests invariably followed, sometimes from
sources which puzzled the "Clarion." One of the protestants was Hugh
Merritt, the young health officer of the city, who expressed his views
to McGuire Ellis one day.

"No," Ellis reported to his employer, on the interview, "he didn't
exactly ask that we let up entirely. But he seemed to think we were
going too strong. I couldn't quite get his reasons, except that he
thought it was a terrible thing for the Pierce girl, and she so young.
Queer thing from Merritt. They don't make 'em any straighter than he
is."

Alone of the lot of protests, that of Mrs. Festus Willard gained a
response from Hal.

"You're treating her very harshly, Hal."

"We're giving the facts, Lady Jinny."

"_Are_ they the facts? _All_ the facts?"

"So far as human eyes could see them."

"Men's eyes don't see very far where a woman is concerned. She's very
young and headstrong, and, Hal, she hasn't had much chance, you know.
She's Elias Pierce's daughter."

"Thus having every chance, one wo