If you find it impossible to deal with us, there is no harm
done. If our paper has no influence, we cannot possibly injure you. That,
of course, is entirely for you to judge. If, any time between now and
Sunday night, you conclude to act otherwise, a wire to our office will
hold things over until we have had an opportunity of coming to an
arrangement with you. If not, this article will be published on Monday
morning. I wish you a very good afternoon, sir.'
John said nothing, but watched his visitor out on the pavement, and then
returned to the making of his report.
On Monday morning, as he came in by train, his eye caught a flaming
poster on one of the bill-boards at the station. It was headed _Financial
Field_, and the next line, in heavy black letters, was, 'The Mica Mining
Swindle,' Kenyon called a newsboy to him and bought a copy of the paper.
There, in leaded type, was the article before him. It seemed, somehow,
much more important on the printed page than it had looked in the proof.
As he read it, he noticed an air of truthful sincerity about the
editorial that had escaped him during the brief glance he had given it on
Friday. It went on to say that the Austrian Mining Company had sunk a
good deal of money in the mine, and that it had never paid a penny of
dividends; that they merely kept on at a constant loss to themselves in
the hope of being able to swindle some confiding investors--but that even
their designs were as nothing compared to the barefaced rascality
contemplated by John Kenyon.
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