nd
suppression, he pointed out, had been the chief factor in the disastrous
spread of the contagion. Early recognition of the danger and a frank
fighting policy would have saved most of the sacrificed lives. The blame
lay, not with those who had disclosed the peril, but with those who had
fostered it by secrecy; probing deeper into it, with those who had
blocked such reform of housing and sanitation as would have checked a
filth disease like typhus. In time this would be indicated more
specifically. Tenements which netted twelve per cent to their owners and
bred plagues, the "Clarion" observed editorially, were good private but
poor public investments. Whereupon a number of highly regarded
Christian citizens began to refer to the editor as an anarchist.

The "Clarion" principle of ascertaining "the facts behind the news" had
led naturally to an inquiry into ownership of the Rookeries. Wayne had
this specifically in charge and reported sensational results from the
first.

"It'll be a corking follow-up feature," he said. "Later we can hitch it
up to the Housing Reform Bill."

"Make a fifth page full spread of it for Monday."

"With pictures of the owners," suggested Wayne.

"Why not this way? Make a triple lay-out for each one. First, a picture
of the tenement with the number of deaths and cases underneath. Then the
half-tone of the owner. And, beyond, the picture of the house he lives
in. That'll give contrast."

"Good!" said Wayne. "Fine and yellow."

By Sunday, four days after the opening story, all the material for the
second big spread was ready except for one complication. Some involution
of trusteeship in the case of two freeholds in Sadler's Shacks, at the
heart of the Rookeries, had delayed access to the records. These two
were Number 3 and Number 9 Sperry Street, the latter dubbed "the
Pest-Egg" by the "Clarion," as being the tenement in which the
pestilence was supposed to have originated. These two last clues, Wayne
was sure, would be run down before evening. Already the net of publicity
had dragged in, among other owners of the dangerous property, a high
city official, an important merchant, a lady much given to blatant
platform philanthropies, and the Reverend Dr. Wales's fashionable
church. It was, indeed, a noble company of which the "Clarion" proposed
to make martyrs on the morrow.

One man quite unconnected with any twelve per cent ownership, however,
had sworn within his ravaged soul that ther