signature, the 'Clarion' will run it, at fifty cents a word."

"You dirty blackmailer!" said Hal slowly.

"Hard names go with this business, my young friend," said the other
coolly.

"At present you've got me checked. But you don't always keep your paid
bully with you, I suppose. One of these days you and I will meet--"

"And you'll land in jail."

"He talks awfully young, doesn't he?" said Mr. Ellis, shaking a solemn
head.

"As for blackmail," continued Sterne, a bit eagerly, "there's nothing in
that. We've never asked Dr. Surtaine for a dollar. He hasn't got a thing
on us." "You never asked him for advertising either, I suppose," said
Hal bitterly.

"Only in the way of business. Just as we go out after any other
advertising."

"If he had given you his ads.--"

"Oh, I don't say that we'd have gone after him if he'd been one of our
regular advertisers. Every other paper in town gets his copy; why
shouldn't we? We have to look out for ourselves. We look out for our
patrons, too. Naturally, we aren't going to knock one of our
advertisers. Others have got to take their chances."