But it remained for that evening's "Telegram" to bring up the heavy guns. From its first edition these headlines stood out, black and bold:-- E.M. PIERCE DEFENDS DAUGHTER * * * * * MAGNATE INCENSED AT UNJUST ATTACKS WILL PUSH CASE AGAINST HER TRADUCERS TO A FINISH There followed an interview in which the great man announced his intention of bringing both civil and criminal action for libel against the "Clarion." McGuire Ellis frowned savagely at the sheet. "Dirty skunk!" he growled. "Meaning our friend Pierce?" queried Hal. "No. Meaning Parker, and the whole 'Telegram' outfit." "Why?" "Because they printed that interview." "What's wrong with it? It's news." "Don't be positively infantile, Boss. Newspapers don't print libel actions brought against other newspapers. It's unprofessional. It's unethical. It isn't straight." "No: I don't see that at all," decided Hal, after some consideration. "That amounts simply to this, that the newspapers are in a combination to discourage libel actions, by suppressing all mention of them." "Certainly. Why not? Libel suits are generally holdups." "I think the 'Telegram' is right. Whatever Pierce says is news, and interesting news." "You bet Parker would never have carried that if his holding corporation wasn't a heavy borrower in the Pierce banks." "Maybe not. But I think we'll carry it." "In the 'Clarion'?" almost shouted Ellis. "Certainly. Let's have Wayne send a reporter around to Pierce. If Pierce won't give us an interview, we'll reprint the 'Telegram's,' with credit." "We'd be cutting our own throats, and playing Pierce's game. Besides, stuff about ourselves isn't news." Hal's inexperience had this virtue, that it was free of the besetting and prejudicial superstitions of the craft of print. "If it's interesting, it's the 'Clarion' kind of news." Ellis, about to protest further, met the younger man's level gaze, and swallowed hard. "All right," he said. "I'll tell Wayne." So the "Clarion" violated another tradition of newspaperdom, to the amused contempt of its rivals, who were, however, possibly not quite so amused or so contemptuous as they appeared editorially to be. Also it followed up the interview with an explicit statement of its own intentions in the matter, which were not precisely music to the savage breast of E.M. Pierce.