"That's right," agreed the reporter, further impressed by the frank
sincerity of the Mississippian.

"The only condition in my mind, Mr. Haines, is that the man should ask
himself searchingly whether or not he's competent to give the service.
But I seem to be talking a good deal. Suppose we get to the interview.
Expect your time is short. We'd better begin."

"I thought we were in the interview?" smiled the correspondent.

"In it!" exclaimed Langdon. "Well, if this is it, it isn't so bad. I
see you use a painless method. When I was down in Vicksburg a reporter
backed me up in a corner, slipped his hand in his hip pocket and
pulled out a list of questions just three feet four inches long.

"He wanted to know what I thought concerning the tariff on aluminium
hydrates, and how I stood about the opening of the Tento Pu
Reservation of the Comanche Indians, and what were my ideas about the
differential rate of hauls from the Missouri River.

"He was a wonder, that fellow! Kinder out of place on a Mississippi
paper. I started to offer him a job, but he was so proud I was afraid
he wouldn't accept it. However, it gives you my idea of a reporter."

"If you've been against that, I ought to thank you for talking to me,"
laughed Haines.

"Then you don't want to know anything about that sort of stuff?" said
Langdon, with a huge sigh of relief.