"Ommh!" said Mr. Chaffner, slowly. "I don't either, only I didn't understand they were _engaged_. It's my business to find and distribute news, and get it fresh, 'scoop it,' as our term is, and so, Mickey, when investigations are going on, and everybody knows a denou--a big surprise is coming, in order to make sure that my paper gets in on the ground floor, I make some investigation for myself, and sometimes by accident, sometimes by intuition, sometimes by sharp deduction we _happen_ to land before the investigators. Of course we have personal, financial, and political reasons for not spoiling the game. Now we haven't gone into the City Hall investigation as Bruce has and we can't show figures, but we know enough to understand where he's coming out; so when the gig upsets, we have our side ready and we'll embroider his figures with what the public is entitled to, in the way of news." "Sure! But I don't see why you act so funny!" "Oh it's barely possible that I've got ahead of your boss on a few features of his investigation." "Aw-w-wh!" said Mickey. "Well I hope you ain't going to rush in and spoil _his_ scoop. You see he doesn't know who he's after, himself. We talk about it a lot of times. I tell him how I've sold papers, and seen men like he's chasing get their dose, and go sick and white, and can't ever face men straight again; but he says stealing is stealing, and cut where it will, those who rob the taxpayers must be exposed. I told him maybe he'd be surprised, and maybe he'd be sorry; but he says it's got to be stopped, no matter who gets hurt." "Well he's got his nerve!" cried the editor. "Yes!" agreed Mickey. "He's so fine himself, he thinks no other men worth saving could go wrong. I told him I wished the men he was after would break their necks 'fore he gets them, but he goes right on." "Mickey, you figure closer than your boss does." "In one way I _do_," conceded Mickey. "It's like this: he knows books, and men, and how things _should_ be; but I know how they _are_. See?" "I certainly see," said the intent listener. "Mickey, when it comes to the place where you think you know better than your boss, while it's bad business for me to tell you, keep your eye open, and maybe you can save him. Books and theories are all right, but there are times when a man comes a cropper on them. You watch, and if you think he's riding for a fall, you come skinning and tell me, not over the 'phone, _come and tell me_. Here, take this, it will get you to me any time, no matter where I am or what I'm doing. Understand?" "You think Mr. Bruce is going to get into trouble?" "His job is to get other people into trouble----" "But he says he ain't got a thing to do with it," said Mickey. "He says they get themselves into trouble."