"
"And you'd do it--no matter who might happen to get in the way of the
burning grease?"
"We print the news, and we try to get all the news there is. But it
would have to be straight goods, Blount; no 'ifs' and 'ands' about it.
I'm not saying that you couldn't produce the goods, you know. If you
could break into Gantry's and Kittredge's private files, the trick would
be turned. But I know well enough you're not going to do that."
Blount got up out of the broken chair and buttoned his coat.
"I needn't take any more of your time just now," he said. "I merely
wanted to know how far you'd go if somebody should happen along at the
last moment and give you a plain map of the road."
"We'll go as far, and drive as hard, as any newspaper this side of the
Missouri River. But we've got to have the facts--don't forget that."
Blount was turning to go, but he faced around again sharply.
"Do you mean to tell me, Blenkinsop, that you don't know, as well as you
know you're alive, that this campaign is honeycombed with deals and
trades and dishonesty and trickery in every legislative district?" he
demanded.
Again the ghastly smile which was only a deepening of the natural
furrows flitted across the editor's face.
"Of course, I know it," he returned. "But you'll excuse me if I say
that I scarcely expected to have the railroad company's field-manager
come and tell me about it.
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