"Certainly not! Not for our purposes. He was a dead wolf with his sheep's wool all smeared and spotted. You'll never quite understand the newspaper game, I'm afraid, lady of my heart." "How brown your eyes are, Ban!" said Io. CHAPTER XII Politics began to bubble in The Patriot office with promise of hotter upheavals to come. The Laird administration had shown its intention of diverting city advertising, and Marrineal had countered in the news columns by several minor but not ineffective exposures of weak spots in the city government. Banneker, who had on the whole continued to support the administration in its reform plans, decided that a talk with Willis Enderby might clarify the position and accordingly made an evening appointment with him at his house. Judge Enderby opened proceedings with typical directness of attack. "When are _you_ going to turn on us, Banneker?" "That's a cheerful question," retorted the young man good-humoredly, "considering that it is you people who have gone back on The Patriot." "Were any pledges made on our part?" queried Enderby. Banneker replied with some spirit: "Am I talking with counsel under retainer or with a personal friend?" "Quite right. I apologize," said the imperturbable Enderby. "Go on." "It isn't the money loss that counts, so much as the slap in the face to the paper. It's a direct repudiation. You must realize that." "I'm not wholly a novice in politics." "But I am, practically." "Not so much that you can't see what Marrineal would be at." "Mr. Marrineal has not confided in me." "Nor in me," stated the lawyer grimly. "I don't need his confidence to perceive his plans." "What do you believe them to be?" No glimmer of a smile appeared on the visage of Judge Enderby as he countered, "Am I talking with a representative of The Patriot or--" "All right," laughed Banneker. "_Touche!_ Assume that Marrineal has political ambitions. Surely that lies within the bounds of propriety." "Depends on how he pushes them. Do you read The Patriot, Banneker?" The editor of The Patriot smiled. "Do you approve its methods in, let us say, the political articles?" "I have no control over the news columns." "Don't answer my question," said the lawyer with a fine effect of patience, long-suffering and milky-mild, "if it in any way discommodes you." "It all comes to this," disclosed Banneker. "If the mayor turns on us, we can't lie down under the whip and we won't. We'll hit back." "Of course." "Editorially, I mean." "I understand. At least the editorials will be a direct method of attack, and an honest one. I may assume that much?" "Have you ever seen anything in the editorial columns of The Patriot that would lead you to assume otherwise?" "Answering categorically I would have to say 'No.' "Answer as you please."