endeavoring to train some rather delinquent villagers to abjure the
comatose state and get radio-active.

[Sidenote: The real hero of the war]

The immediate suggestion, though, came from a little argument over the
teacups, when my boy Bert suggested that Rowan was the real hero of
the Cuban War. Rowan had gone alone and done the thing--carried the
message to Garcia.

[Sidenote: The increasing demand]

It came to me like a flash! Yes, the boy is right, the hero is the man
who does his work--who carries the message to Garcia. I got up from
the table, and wrote "A Message to Garcia." I thought so little of
it that we ran it in the Magazine without a heading. The edition
went out, and soon orders began to come for extra copies of the March
"Philistine," a dozen, fifty, a hundred; and when the American News
Company ordered a thousand, I asked one of my helpers which article it
was that had stirred up the cosmic dust.

"It's the stuff about Garcia," he said.

[Sidenote: George H. Daniels]

The next day a telegram came from George H. Daniels, of the New York
Central Railroad, thus: "Give price on one hundred thousand Rowan
article in pamphlet form--Empire State Express advertisement on
back--also how soon can ship."