It is the rule of the department, of course, that no fireman shall talk “for publication;” and the unfortunate “newspaper tout” who reports a fire has to depend to an impossible extent upon his own eye. It is only after he has made personal friends of men or officers that he gets any “inside story” of what has happened, and then only on condition that he is careful to conceal the name of his informant. And it is not merely the “authorities” who enforce this rule; the men themselves uphold it; and the fireman who allows himself to be interviewed suffers the same sort of treatment from his fellows that a schoolboy gets from his class when he “tattles” to his teacher. The men carry in their inside pockets, secretly, newspaper clippings in which they have been mentioned honorably, but they only show these--ostensibly at least--to complain that their names have been misspelled. Such is the modesty of nature! Now the “newspaper tout” whom Farley had mentioned on the way back from the fruit wharf fire, had a shrewd suspicion of what was going on, under the surface of affairs, among the crew of the _Hudson_. His attempts to “pump” the men, after the burning of the _Sachsen_, had failed for the obvious reason that the secret to be concealed was a dangerous one. But, after the fire in the lumber yard, he caught a friendly fireman off duty, full of an enthusiastic admiration for Keighley’s work on the gas tanks, and he succeeded in finding out enough to show him that he was on the trail of a “good story” if he could only hunt it down. After some preliminary scouting and scenting about, he came boldly to Keighley himself. “Captain,” he said--for the captain knew him by sight--“where did you learn that trick of making a water screen with three streams of a tower?” The captain settled down in his swivel chair and replied, “I’m runnin’ a fire-boat. What’re yuh talkin’ about water towers?” The reporter nodded. “I know. I was at that lumber yard blaze. I saw you do that trick with the water screen.” Keighley said, “Say, young fellah, why don’t yuh read the papers?” “Oh, I know all about that,” the newspaper man replied. “That’s the way the papers had it. But I saw what happened.” Keighley rose. “Yuh did, eh? Then what the hell’re yuh botherin’ _me_ about it fer? I got enough to do t’ atten’ to my own bus’ness without pokin’ any nose into newspaper muddles. _You_ atten’ to yer toutin’ an’ I’ll atten’ to my fires.” “All right, captain,” the reporter called after him as he went out. “I’ll get that story yet.” (And he got it, too. _This_ is it!) XIV