That was all; the deed was done. If the Czar of Russia had ordered the beheading of one of his subjects, the order could not have been obeyed more promptly. A newspaper office is an absolute monarchy, and the editor-in-chief is the monarch, particularly when, as is the case with the Transport, the editor is also the principal owner. He distributes his favors or his frowns according to his own sweet will. If he had said, “I do not like Sumner’s work, let him go,” Dick’s career in that office would have come to an untimely end. The city editor makes rules for his reporters, but the editor-in-chief sweeps them away with a breath when he chooses. “Very well, sir,” said the city editor; and from that moment Dick’s salary was forty dollars a week, besides the ten dollars or more extra that he could make by writing specials. CHAPTER VII. DICK LANDS IN MEXICO WITH A FAMILY. Dr. Goode took pains to have a talk with Dick a few nights after his unexpected increase of salary. “I’m not going to congratulate you on your good fortune, Sumner,” he said, “till I see whether it is a good thing for you or the opposite. It may prove to be the worst thing that ever happened you, though I hope not. It all depends upon yourself. You have made a brilliant beginning, and I think you are sure to hold out if you keep yourself in check. “Above all things, don’t let the size of your head increase; don’t ‘get a swelled head,’ as the boys say. Your falling into favor with the old man is more accident than anything else.” Dick had often heard that expression used before. The editor-in-chief is generally called “the old man,” even when he happens to be one of the youngest men in the office. “It’s not because you are such a tremendous fellow that you have been advanced in this way,” the doctor went on. “You have done good work, but other men do good work too. Your refusing to take a bribe in Saratoga I take no account of at all; that was a matter of course. I should be sorry to think you could have done anything else. In the ordinary course of events, after the good work you have done, you would have been raised in a few months to perhaps twenty-five dollars a week, and then a little higher after a year or so. But the old man has taken a fancy to you and your work, and pushed you ahead with a jump. That thing happens sometimes, and I am glad that it has happened to you. But don’t take too much of the credit to yourself. It is luck, chance, fate, providence, whatever you choose to call it; your own merit has precious little to do with it. “Though it has something, I’ll admit,” he continued, laying his hand, as he had done before, on Dick’s knee. “The old man must have been pleased with some of your articles, as we all were. But be careful of yourself; more careful now than ever. You know what the prince’s smile means to the courtier. Your position in the office is better than it has been, for the prince is known to have smiled upon you. But hold your horses.”