But our present business with the news columns is to
catch them for you to educate."
"Quite so! You lure them into the dive where I wait to preach them a
sermon."
After that conversation Banneker definitely decided that Severance's
activities must be curbed. But when he set about it, he suffered an
unpleasant surprise. Marrineal, thoroughly apprised of the new man's
activities (as he was, by some occult means of his own, of everything
going on in the office), stood fast by the successful method, and let
Banneker know, tactfully but unmistakably, that Severance, who had been
transferred to the regular payroll at a highly satisfactory figure, was
to have a free hand. So the ex-religious editor continued to stroll
leisurely through his unauthoritative and influential routine,
contributing his commentary upon the news as it flowed in. He would
saunter over to the make-up man's clotted desk, run his eye over the
dummy of the morrow's issue, and inquire;
"Wasn't there a shooting scrape over a woman in a big West-Side
apartment?... Being kept by the chap that was shot, wasn't she?... Oh, a
bank clerk?... Well, that's a pretty dull-looking seventh page. Why not
lift this text of the new Suburban Railways Bill and spread the shooting
across three columns? Get Sanderson to work out a diagram and do one of
his filmy line drawings of the girl lying on the couch.
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