"Or asked your father why he didn't take the _Echo_?" "No." "Or tried to worm an article out of Judge Damon?" Paul shook his head. "Then you've some fun ahead of you," remarked Mr. Carter, rising. "I'd wait to do my crowing if I were you." With a grim laugh and a gesture of farewell he swept the boy from the room. CHAPTER III MR. CAMERON TAKES A HAND IN THE GAME As Paul walked down the steps of the Carter mansion he felt, as did David Copperfield in the presence of the waiter, very young indeed. Had Mr. Carter simply been making game of him? And was the business world actually such a network of schemes and complexities? And how did it happen that the printing of a newspaper was such a difficult and expensive undertaking? Why should it be? Paper and ink were common enough commodities surely. All that had to be done was to print, and if a press were at hand it must be the easiest thing in the world to do that. Why did people make such a fuss over printing a paper? Thoughtfully he walked home and turned in at his own door. He was in a very sober frame of mind, unwontedly sober for him; so sober, in fact, that his father, whom he encountered in the hall, exclaimed: "Goodness me, son, you look as if your last friend on earth had perished. What's the matter?" The boy smiled faintly. "Nothing, sir." "But you'd never look like that if there weren't. Come, tell me all about it. What's the trouble?" The gray eyes of the man regarded the lad kindly. "I'm--I'm just thinking." "About what, pray? Something pretty solemn, I'll be bound," persisted his father. "Oh, I've a lot of things on my mind," answered Paul hesitatingly. "Suppose you give me a sample of one of them." "Just business," replied Paul. As the words fell with familiar cadence, Mr. Cameron laughed. How often he had met his wife's troubled inquiries with the same retort. "Business, eh! And how long is it since the burdens of business have fallen on your young shoulders?" "Since yesterday." "And already you are bowed to the earth with worry?" commented his father playfully. "Come, son, what's troubling you?" "The school paper." "Not going to be able to put it through?" "Oh, it's not that," said Paul quickly. "We are going to put it through all right, although at this moment I don't exactly see how. I had no idea it cost so much to get a paper printed." "It isn't the actual printing, so much as the typesetting and all that goes with it, that makes printing an expensive job," explained Mr. Cameron. "Just now, too, paper and ink cost a great deal, and labor is high." "Did people always have to pay so much for paper?" "People didn't always use to have paper, my son." Paul opened his eyes. "What did they print on, then?"