Jennie Baxter, Journalist | Page 7

long life," growled the disturbed editor, "he must
allow to-morrow's news to look after itself. Sufficient for the day are
the worries thereof."
"As a general rule that is true," assented the girl, "but I have a most
important piece of information for you that wouldn't wait, and in half
an hour from now you will be writing your to-morrow's leader,
showing forth in terse and forcible language the many iniquities of the
Board of Public Construction."
"Oh," cried the editor, brightening, "if it is anything to the discredit of
the Board of Public Construction, I am glad you came."
"Well, that's not a bit complimentary to me. You should be glad in any
case; but I'll forgive your bad manners, as I wish you to help me. Please
step into this hansom, because I have most startling intelligence to
impart--news that must not be overheard; and there is no place so safe
for a confidential conference as in a hansom driving through the streets
of London. Drive slowly towards the Evening Graphite office," she
said to the cabman, pushing up the trap-door in the roof of the vehicle.
Mr. Stoneham took his place beside her, and the cabman turned his
horse in the direction indicated.
"There is little use in going to the office of the paper," said Stoneham;
"there won't be anybody there but the watchman."

"I know, but we must go in some direction. We can't talk in front of the
Café Royal, you know. Now, Mr. Stoneham, in the first place, I want
fifty golden sovereigns. How am I to get them within half an hour?"
"Good gracious! I don't know; the banks are all closed, but there is a
man at Charing Cross who would perhaps change a cheque for me;
there is a cheque-book at the office."
"Then that's all right and settled. Mr. Stoneham, there's been some
juggling with the accounts in the office of the Board of Public
Construction."
"What! a defalcation?" cried Stoneham eagerly.
"No; merely a shifting round."
"Ah," said the editor, in a disappointed tone.
"Oh, you needn't say 'Ah.' It's very serious; it is indeed. The accounts
are calculated to deceive the dear and confiding public, to whose
interests all the daily papers, morning and evening, pretend to be
devoted. The very fact of such deception being attempted, Mr.
Stoneham, ought to call forth the anger of any virtuous editor."
"Oh, it does, it does; but then it would be a difficult matter to prove. If
some money were gone, now----"
"My dear sir, the matter is already proved, and quite ripe for your
energetic handling of it; that's what the fifty pounds are for. This sum
will secure for you--to-night, mind, not to-morrow--a statement
bristling with figures which the Board of Construction cannot deny.
You will be able, in a stirring leading article, to express the horror you
undoubtedly feel at the falsification of the figures, and your stern
delight in doing so will probably not be mitigated by the fact that no
other paper in London will have the news, while the matter will be so
important that next day all your beloved contemporaries will be
compelled to allude to it in some shape or other."

"I see," said the editor, his eyes glistening as the magnitude of the idea
began to appeal more strongly to his imagination. "Who makes this
statement, and how are we to know that it is absolutely correct?"
"Well, there is a point on which I wish to inform you before going any
further. The statement is not to be absolutely correct; two or three
errors have been purposely put in, the object being to throw
investigators off the track if they try to discover who gave the news to
the Press; for the man who will sell me this document is a clerk in the
office of the Board of Public Construction. So, you see, you are getting
the facts from the inside."
"Is he so accustomed to falsifying accounts that he cannot get over the
habit even when preparing an article for the truthful Press?"
"He wants to save his own situation, and quite rightly too, so he has put
a number of errors in the figures of the department over which he has
direct control. He has a reputation for such accuracy that he imagines
the Board will never think he did it, if the figures pertaining to his
department are wrong even in the slightest degree."
"Quite so. Then we cannot have the pleasure of mentioning his name,
and saying that this honest man has been corrupted by his association
with the scoundrels who form the Board of Public Construction?"
"Oh, dear, no; his name must not be mentioned in any circumstances,
and that is why payment is to