“From now on,” she said to nobody in particular, and not at all for the purpose of giving information, “this paper is going to be run for one single purpose. It’s going to do everything that pompous little fat man, with his ears growing out of his shoulders, doesn’t want it to. It’s going to hunt for things he doesn’t like. It is going to annoy and plague and prod him. If a paper like this can make a man like him uncomfortable, he’ll never know another peaceful moment....” Evan Pell looked up from his table--over the rims of his spectacles--and regarded her with interest. “Indeed!” he said. “And what, if I may ask, has caused this--er-- declaration of policy?” “He looked at me,” Carmel said, “and he--he wiggled all his chins at me.” Tubal thrust his head through the doorway. “What’d he do?” he demanded, belligerently. “If he done anythin’ a gent shouldn’t do to a lady I’ll jest ca’mly walk over there and twist three-four of them chins clean off’n him.” “I wish you would.... I wish you would.... But you mustn’t.... He gave me orders. He told me I was to let him read every bit of copy which went into this paper. He said I must have his O. K. on everything I print.” “Ah!” said Evan Pell. “And what did you rejoin?” “I told him this was my paper, and so long as it was mine, I should do exactly what I wanted with it, and then I turned my back and walked away leaving him looking like a dressed-up mushroom--a fatuous mushroom.” “A new variety,” said Pell. “I--I’ll make his life miserable for sixty days anyhow.” “If,” said Pell, “he permits you to continue for sixty days.” “I’ll continue, not for sixty days, but for years and years and years--till I’m an old, gray-headed woman--just to spite him. I’ll make this paper pay! I’ll show him he can’t threaten me. I’ll----” “Now, Lady,” said Tubal, “if I was you I’d set down and cool off. If you’re spoilin’ fer a fight you better go into it level-headed and not jest jump in flailin’ your arms like a Frenchy cook in a tantrum. Abner Fownes hain’t no infant to be spanked and put to bed. If you calc’late to go after his scalp, you better find out how you kin git a grip onto his hair.” “And,” said Pell, “how you can prevent his--er--getting a grip on yours.” “I don’t believe he’s as big a man as he thinks he is,” said Carmel. “I have read somewhere--I do not recall the author at the moment--a word of advice which might apply to this situation. It is to the effect that one should never underestimate an antagonist.” “Oh, I shan’t. I’ll cool down presently, and then I’ll be as cold-blooded and calculating as anybody. But right now I--I want to--stamp on his pudgy toes.”