penitential abasement. Despite the relish of the words, Hal rather hoped
that the editor would refuse to publish his masterpiece. He itched to
use that whip.




CHAPTER VI

LAUNCHED


For purposes of vital statistics, the head office boy of the Worthington
"Daily Clarion" was denominated Reginald Currier. As this chaste
cognomen was artistically incompatible with his squint eye, his militant
swagger, and a general bearing of unrepressed hostility toward all
created beings, he was professionally known as "Bim." Journalism, for
him, was comprised in a single tenet; that no visitor of whatsoever kind
had or possibly could have any business of even remotely legitimate
nature within the precincts of the "Clarion" office. Tradition of the
place held that a dent in the wall back of his desk marked the
termination of an argument in which Reginald, all unwitting, had essayed
to maintain his thesis against the lightweight champion of the State who
had come to call on the sporting editor.

There had been a lull in the activities of this minor Cerberus when the
light and swinging footfall of one coming up the dim stairway several
steps at a time aroused his ready suspicions. He bristled forth to the
rail to meet a tall and rather elegant young man whom he greeted with a
growl to this effect: