The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 161/212

"'If you go back to Plattville!'" she said in a low voice. "What do you

mean?"

"I don't know. I've been dull lately, and I thought I might go somewhere

else." Caught in a witchery no lack of possession could dispel, and which

the prospect of loss made only stronger while it lasted, he took little

thought of what he said; little thought of anything but of the gladness it

was to be with her again.

"'Somewhere else?' Where?"

"Anywhere."

"Have you no sense of responsibility? What is to become of your paper?"

"The 'Herald'? Oh, it will potter along, I think."

"But what has become of it in your absence, already? Has it not

deteriorated very much?"

"No," he said; "it's better than it ever was before."

"What!" she cried, with a little gasp.

"You're so astounded at my modesty?"

"But please tell me what you mean," she said quickly. "What happened to

it?"

"Isn't the 'Herald' rather a dull subject? I'll tell you how well Judge

Briscoe looked when he came to see me; or, rather, tell me of your summer

in the north."

"No," she answered earnestly. "Don't you remember my telling you that I am

interested in newspaper work?"

"I have even heard so from others," he said, with an instant of dryness.

"Please tell me about the 'Herald'?"

"It is very simple. Your friend, Mr. Fisbee, found a substitute, a

relative six feet high with his coat off, a traction engine for energy and

a limited mail for speed. He writes me letters on a type writer suffering

from an impediment in its speech; and in brief, he is an enterprising

idiot with a mania for work-baskets."

Her face was in the shadow.

"You say the--idiot--is enterprising?" she inquired.

"Far more enterprising and far less idiot than I. They are looking for oil

down there, and when he came he knew less about oil than a kindergarten

babe, and spoke of 'boring for kerosene' in his first letter to me; but he

knows it all now, and writes long and convincing geological arguments. If

a well comes in, he is prepared to get out an extra! Perhaps you may

understand what that means in Plattville, with the 'Herald's' numerous

forces. I owe him everything, even the shares in the oil company, which he

has persuaded me to take. And he is going to dare to make the 'Herald' a

daily. Do you remember asking me why I had never done that? It seemed

rather a venture to try to compete with the Rouen papers in offering State

and foreign news, but this young Gulliver has tacked onto the Associated

Press, and means to print a quarto--that's eight pages, you know--once a

week, Saturday, and a double sheet, four pages, on other mornings. The

daily venture begins next Monday."