Thereupon the city editor instructed Larry how, whenever he heard “Copy!” called, to hurry to the desk, get the sheets of paper on which the articles for the paper were written, and carry them to a room down the hall. There he was to put them in a sort of brass tube, or carrier, drop the carrier into a pipe, and pull a lever, which sent compressed air into the pipe and shot the tube of copy to the composing room. There it would be taken out and set up into type. But Larry’s duties, for the time, ended when he had put the copy in the tube. There were many other little things to do, and errands to run, Mr. Emberg said, but Larry would pick them up in time. “Now then, Peter,” called Mr. Emberg--“or never mind, I guess you had better do it, Bud,” to the tow-headed office boy. “You show Larry around a bit, so he’ll know where to go when I send him.” “Come ahead,” said Bud with a smile. As they passed Peter, who seemed to be sulking in a corner, Larry heard him utter: “You wait, Larry, or whatever your name is, I’ll fix you for buttin’ in here. You’ll wish you’d never come.” “Don’t mind him,” said Bud. “He’s afraid he’ll lose his job.” “Why?” asked Larry. “Oh, he’s made two or three bad mistakes here lately, and I guess he’s afraid they got you in his place. But don’t let that worry you, only look out for Pete, that’s all, or he may do something you won’t like.” “I will,” replied Larry, as he followed his friend to learn something about the mysteries of a big newspaper office. CHAPTER VII THE MISSING COPY Bud first showed Larry how to work the pneumatic or compressed-air tube. Around it stood several other boys who seemed to be quite busy. Now and then one would dash in with a bunch of paper, grab a tube, stuff the copy in, and yank the lever over. A hissing, as the imprisoned air rushed into the pipe, told that the copy was on its way to the composing room. “Where are those boys from; other papers?” asked Larry. “Gosh, no!” exclaimed Bud. “No boy from another paper would dare come in here; that is while he worked for another paper. We’d think he was trying to get wind of some exclusive story we had. Those boys are from the different departments. One carries copy from the state department, another from the sporting room, and another from the telegraph desk.” Then Bud briefly explained that there were several editors on the paper. One took charge of all the news in the city, and this was Mr. Emberg. Another handled all the foreign news that came in over the telegraph. Still another took charge of all matters that happened in the state outside of the city and the immediate surrounding territory. Then there was the sporting editor, who looked after all such things as football and baseball games, racing, wrestling, and so on. Each editor had a separate room, and there were one or two boys in each department to carry copy to the tube room, whence it was sent up to the printers.