managed to stammer out a few words, though, in spite of his surprise.
"I always thought war correspondents were selected from the most
experienced men in journalism," he said, but Mr. Van Bunting only
laughed. "That's what we have already done, my boy," he said, "and so
far none of our distinguished correspondents have sent us a thing
worth printing that we didn't already know. You see they can't send
any more to us in the way of news than we can get from the War
Department in Washington, and most of these men are too old fogy to
send us anything out of the ordinary line of war correspondence. Now,
what we want is for you to go over there and have some adventures, and
write us something which will be different from what we have had
before from the Philippines. We are sending you, because you have had
no experience at such work, and will be sure to send us something
unusual, and that is what we want. If you can only do as well in the
tropics as you have done here in New York, we shall be more than
satisfied with your work. I am sorry that I won't have time to give
you very complete instructions, but perhaps it will be as well. And
now some of the men are waiting outside to come in and talk this
matter over, so we'll have them in now."

And Archie found himself in the midst of an editorial conference,
during which many things were discussed. The meeting lasted more than
two hours, and finally it was decided that Archie should travel from
New York to San Francisco, and go from there to Manila on the army
transport which was to sail on the twenty-fifth of the month. This
meant that he would have to leave the city in two days' time, and
Archie announced himself as quite willing to do this, as he had few
preparations to make. The editors gave him many instructions about how
he was to address his correspondence, and how he should proceed in the
event of finding it necessary to send despatches by cable. And at the