Part 16 (2/2)
Hal digested that information in silence for a minute. ”I suppose I was easy. Hurry never yet made a good bargain. But, now that I've got this paper I'm going to run it myself.”
”On the rocks,” prophesied McGuire Ellis. ”Utter and complete s.h.i.+pwreck.
I'm glad I'm off.”
”Is it your habit, Mr. Ellis, to run at the first suggestion of disaster?”
Ellis looked his questioner up and down. ”Say the rest of it,” he barked.
”Why, it seems to me you're still an officer of this s.h.i.+p. Doesn't it enter into your ethics somewhere that you ought to stick by her until the new captain can fill your place, and not quit in the face of the s.h.i.+pwreck you foresee?”
”Humph,” grunted McGuire Ellis, ”I guess you're not quite as young as I thought you were. How long would you want me to stay?”
”About a year.”
”What!”
”On an unbreakable contract. To be editorial manager. You see, I'm prepared to buy ideals.”
”What about my opinion of amateur journalism?”
”You'll just have to do the best you can about that.”
”Give me till to-morrow to think it over.”
”All right.”
Ellis put down the hat and cane which he had picked up preparatory to his departure.
”Not going out after those hundred drinks, eh, Mac?” laughed Sterne.
”Indefinitely postponed,” replied the other.
”The first thing to do,” said Hal decisively, ”is to make amends. Mr.
Sterne, the 'Clarion' is to print a full retraction of the attacks upon my father, at once.”
”Yes, sir,” a.s.sented Sterne, slavishly responsive to the new authority.
Not so McGuire Ellis. ”If you do that you'll make a fool of your own paper,” he said bluntly.
”Make a fool of the paper by righting a rank injustice?”
”Just the point. It isn't a rank injustice.”
”See here, Mr. Sterne: isn't it a fact that this attack was made because my father doesn't advertise with you?”
The editor twisted uneasily in his chair. ”A newspaper's got to look out for its own interests,” he a.s.serted defensively.
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