"That was a dam' bad story you wrote of the Sippiac killings."
"I didn't write it."
"Didn't uh? You were there."
"My story went to the office cat."
"What was the stuff they printed? Amalgamated Wire Association?"
"No. Machine-made rewrite in the office."
"It wasn't dishonest. The Ledger's too clever for that. It was unhonest.
You can't be both neutral and fair on cold-blooded murder."
"You weren't precisely neutral in The Courier."
Edmonds chuckled. "I did rather put it over on the paper. But that was
easy. Simply a matter of lining up the facts in logical sequence."
"Horace Vanney says you're an anarchist."
"It's mutual. I think he's one. To hell with all laws and rights that
discommode _Me_ and _My_ interests. That's the Vanney platform."
"He thinks he ought to have advertised."
"Wise guy! So he ought."
"To secure immunity?"
It required six long, hard puffs to elicit from Edmonds the opinion:
"He'd have got it. Partly. Not all he paid for."
"Not from The Ledger," said Banneker jealously. "We're independent in
that respect."
Edmonds laughed. "You don't have to bribe your own heeler. The Ledger
believes in Vanney's kind of anarchism, as in a religion."
"Could he have bought off The Courier?"
"Nothing as raw as that.
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