himself.

"Bad for the paper. 'Kitty the Cutie' was a feature."

"Why did she leave?"

"Just quit. Sent in word about ten days ago that she was through. No
explanation."

"Mr. Ellis, I'm interested in Milly Neal," said the minister, after some
hesitation. "She's helped me quite a bit with our club down here.
There's a lot in that girl. But there's a queer, un-get-at-able streak,
too. Do you know a man named Veltman?"

"Max? Yes. He's foreman of our composing-room."

"She's been with him a great deal lately."

"Why not? They're old friends. No harm in Veltman."

"He's a married man."

"That so! I never knew that. Well, 'Kitty the Cutie' ought to be keen
enough to take care of herself."

"There's the difficulty. She doesn't seem to want to take care of
herself. She's lost interest in the club. For a time she was drinking
heavily at some of the all-night places. And this news of her quitting
here is worst of all. She seemed so enthusiastic about the work."

"Her job's open for her if she wants to come back."

"Good! I'm glad to hear that. It gives me something to work on."

"By the way," said McGuire Ellis, "how do you like the paper?" Sooner or
later he put this question to every one with whom he came in contact.
What he found out in this way helped to make him the journalistic expert
he was.

"Pretty well," hesitated the other.

"What's wrong with it?" inquired Ellis.

"Well, frankly, some of your advertising."

"We're the most independent paper in this town on advertising," stated
Ellis with conviction.

"I know you dropped the Sewing Aid Society advertisement," admitted
Hale. "But you've got others as bad. Yes, worse."

"Show 'em to me."

Leaning forward to the paper on Ellis's desk, the visitor indicated the
"copy" of Relief Pills. Ellis's brow puckered.

"You're the second man to kick on that," he said. "The other was a
doctor."

"It's a bad business, Mr. Ellis. It's the devil's own work. Isn't it
hard enough for girls to keep straight, with all the temptations around
them, without promising them immunity from the natural results of
immorality?"

"Those pills won't do the trick," blurted Ellis.

"They won't?" cried the other in surprise.

"So doctors tell me."

"Then the promise is all the worse," said the clergyman hotly, "for
being a lie."

"Well, I have troubles enough over the news part of the paper, without
censoring the ads. When an advertiser tries to control news or edito