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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42015 ***
+
+HELEN IN THE EDITOR'S CHAIR
+
+by
+
+RUTHE S. WHEELER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Goldsmith Publishing Company
+Chicago
+
+Copyright, 1932
+The Goldsmith Publishing Company
+Made in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+     I. The Weekly Herald.                                  13
+    II. Startling News.                                     22
+   III. In The Editor's Chair.                              34
+    IV. Through the Storm.                                  50
+     V. Reporting Plus.                                     62
+    VI. A New Week Dawns.                                   75
+   VII. The First Issue.                                    93
+  VIII. Mystery in the Night.                              111
+    IX. Rescue on Lake Dubar.                              124
+     X. Behind the Footlights.                             139
+    XI. New Plans.                                         160
+   XII. Special Assignment.                                177
+  XIII. Helen's Exclusive Story.                           195
+   XIV. The Queen's Last Trip.                             209
+    XV. Success Attends.                                   225
+
+
+
+
+Helen in the Editor's Chair
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+                          _The Weekly Herald_
+
+
+Thursday!
+
+Press day!
+
+Helen Blair anxiously watched the clock on the wall of the assembly room.
+Five more minutes and school would be dismissed for the day. How those
+minutes dragged. She moved her books impatiently.
+
+Finally the dismissal bell sounded. Helen straightened the books in her
+desk and, with the 162 others in the large assembly of the Rolfe High
+School, rose and marched down to the cloak room. She was glad that school
+was over for, to her, Thursday was the big day of the week.
+
+Press day!
+
+What magic lay in those two words.
+
+By supper time the _Rolfe Herald_ would be in every home in town and,
+when families sat down to their evening meal, they would have the paper
+beside them.
+
+Helen's father, Hugh Blair, was the editor and publisher of the _Herald_.
+Her brother, Tom, a junior in high school, wrote part of the news and
+operated the Linotype, while Helen helped in the office every night after
+school and on Saturdays.
+
+On Thursday her work comprised folding the papers as they came off the
+clanking press. Her arms ached long before her task was done, but she
+prided herself on the neatness of the stacks of papers that grew as she
+worked.
+
+"Aren't you going to stay for the final sophomore debate tryouts?" asked
+Margaret Stevens. Margaret, daughter of the only doctor in Rolfe, lived
+across the street from the Blairs.
+
+"Not this afternoon," smiled Helen, "this is press day."
+
+"I'd forgotten," laughed Margaret. "All right, hurry along and get your
+hands covered with ink."
+
+"Come over after supper and tell me about the tryouts," said Helen.
+
+"I will," promised Margaret as she turned to the classroom where the
+tryouts were to be held.
+
+The air was warm and Helen, with her spring coat over her arm, hurried
+from the high school building and started down the long hill that led to
+the main street.
+
+Rolfe was a pretty midwestern village tucked away among the hills
+bordering Lake Dubar, a long, narrow body of water that attracted summer
+visitors from hundreds of miles away.
+
+The main street, built along a valley that opened out on the lake shore,
+was a broad, graveled street, flanked by a miscellaneous collection of
+stores and shops. Some of them were of weather-beaten red brick, others
+were of frame and a few of them, harking back to pioneer days, had false
+fronts. In the afternoon sun, it presented a quiet, friendly scene.
+
+Helen reached the foot of the school house hill and turned on to the main
+street. On the right of the street and just two blocks from the lake
+shore stood the one-story frame structure housing the postoffice and her
+father's printing plant. The postoffice occupied the front half of the
+building and the _Herald_ office was the rear.
+
+Helen walked down the alleyway between the postoffice and the Temple
+furniture store. She heard the noise of the press before she reached the
+office and knew that her father had started the afternoon run.
+
+The _Herald_, an eight page paper, used four pages of ready print and
+four pages of home print. Each week's supply of paper was shipped from
+Cranston, where four pages filled with prepared news and pictures, were
+printed. The other four, carrying local advertisements and news of Rolfe
+and vicinity were printed on the aged press in the _Herald_ office.
+
+Helen hurried up the three steps leading to the editorial office. Its one
+unwashed window shut out the sunlight, and the office lay in a
+semi-shadow. Unable to see clearly after the brightness of the sunlight,
+she did not see her father at his desk when she entered the office.
+
+"Hello, Dad," she called as she took off her tam and sailed it along the
+counter where it finally came to rest against a stack of freshly printed
+_Heralds_.
+
+Her father did not answer and Helen was on the point of going on into the
+composing room when she turned toward him. His head still rested on his
+arms and he gave no sign of having heard her.
+
+Concerned over his silence, she hurried to his desk.
+
+"Dad, Dad!" she cried. "What's the matter! Answer me!"
+
+Her father's head moved and he looked up at her. His face was pale and
+there were dark hollows under his eyes.
+
+"I'm all right, Helen," he said, but the usual smile was missing. "Just
+felt a little faint and came in here to take a few minutes rest. I'll be
+all right shortly. You go on and help Tom. I'll be with you in a while."
+
+"But if you don't feel well, Dad, you'd better go home and rest,"
+insisted Helen. "You know Tom and I can finish getting out the paper. Now
+you run along and don't worry about things at the office."
+
+She reached for his hat and coat hanging on a hook at one side of the
+desk. He remonstrated at the prospect of going home with the work only
+half done, but Helen was adamant and her father finally gave in.
+
+"Perhaps it will be best," he agreed as he walked slowly toward the door.
+
+Helen watched him descend the steps; then saw him reach the street and
+turn toward home.
+
+She was startled by the expression she had just seen on her father's
+face. He had never been particularly robust and now he looked as though
+something had come upon him which was crushing his mind and body.
+Illness, worry and apprehension had carved lines in his face that
+afternoon.
+
+Helen went into the composing room where the Linotype, the rows of type
+cases, the makeup tables, the job press and the newspaper press were
+located. At the back end of the room was the large press, moving steadily
+back and forth as Tom, perched on a high stool, fed sheets of paper into
+one end. From the other came the freshly printed papers of that week's
+edition of the _Herald_.
+
+"Shut off the press," called Helen, shouting to make herself heard above
+the noise of the working machinery.
+
+"What say?" cried Tom.
+
+"Shut it off," his sister replied.
+
+Tom scowled as he reached for the clutch to stop the press. He liked
+nothing better than running the press and when he had it well under way,
+usually printed the whole edition without a stop unless the paper became
+clogged or he had to readjust the ink rollers.
+
+"What's the idea?" he demanded. "I'm trying to get through so I can play
+some baseball before dark."
+
+"Dad's sick," explained Helen, "and I made him go home. Do you know
+what's the matter?"
+
+"Gosh, no," said Tom as he climbed down from his stool. "He wasn't
+feeling very well when I came down from school and said he was going in
+the office to rest, but I didn't know he felt that badly."
+
+"Well, he did," replied Helen, "and I'm worried about him."
+
+"We always take him more or less for granted. He goes on year after year
+working in the office, getting enough together to make us all comfortable
+and hoping that he can send us to college some day. We help him when we
+can, but he plugs away day after day and I've noticed lately that he
+hasn't been very perky. Mother has been worried, too. I can tell from the
+way she acts when Dad comes home at night. She's always asking him how he
+feels and urging him to get to bed early. I tell you, Tom, something's
+wrong with Dad and we've got to find out and help him."
+
+"Let's go get Doctor Stevens right now," said the impetuous Tom, and he
+reached to shut off the motor of the press.
+
+"Not now," said Helen. "If Dad thought we weren't getting the paper out
+on time he'd worry all the more. We'll finish the paper and then have
+Doctor Stevens come over this evening. We can fix it so he'll just drop
+in for a social call."
+
+"Good idea," said Tom as he climbed back on his stool and threw in the
+clutch.
+
+The press started its steady clanking and Helen picked up a pile of
+papers and spread them out on one of the makeup stones. Her father had
+printed two of the pages of home news during the morning and these sheets
+were stacked in a pile in one corner. She arranged two piles of papers on
+the makeup table, one pile which her father had printed and one of papers
+which were coming off the press as fast as Tom could keep it rolling.
+
+Helen put on a heavy, blue-denim apron to protect her school dress and
+went to work. With nimble hands she put the sheets of paper together,
+folded them with a quick motion and slid the completed paper off the
+table and onto a box placed close by for that purpose.
+
+The press, of unknown vintage, moved slowly and when Helen started at the
+same time as Tom she could fold the papers as rapidly as they were
+printed. But that day Tom, who had managed to be excused half an hour
+early, had too much of a start and when he finished the press run Helen
+still had several hundred papers to fold.
+
+Tom stopped the press, shut off the motor, raised the ink rollers and
+then pulled the forms off the press and carried them to the other makeup
+table. After washing the ink off the type with a gasoline-soaked rag, he
+gathered an armful of papers Helen had folded and carried them into the
+editorial office. There he got out the long galleys which held the names
+of the subscribers. He inked each galley, placed it in the mailing
+machine, and then fed the papers into the mailer. They came out with the
+name of a subscriber printed at the top of each paper.
+
+The young Blairs worked silently, hastening to complete their respective
+tasks so they could hurry home. Tom had forgotten his plans to play
+baseball and all thought of the outcome of the debate tryouts had left
+Helen's mind. There was one thought uppermost in their minds. What was
+the matter with their father?
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+                            _Startling News_
+
+
+The last paper folded, Helen removed the heavy apron and washed her hands
+at the sink behind the press. When she entered the editorial office Tom
+was putting the last of the papers through the mailer. They gathered them
+up, placed them in a large sack and carried them into the postoffice.
+
+"We won't stop to sweep out tonight," said Helen. "Let's lock up and then
+see Doctor Stevens on our way home. He's usually in his office at this
+time."
+
+Tom agreed and, after putting away the mailing machine, locked the back
+door, closed the windows in the shop and announced that he was ready to
+go.
+
+Helen locked the front door and they walked down main street toward the
+white, one-story building which housed the office of Doctor Stevens, the
+town's only physician.
+
+Tom was tall and slender with wavy, brown hair and brown eyes that were
+always alive with interest. Helen came scarcely above his shoulder, but
+she was five feet two of concentrated energy. She had left her tam at the
+office and the afternoon sun touched her blond hair with gold. Her eyes
+were the same clear blue as her mother's and the rosy hue in her cheeks
+gave hint of her vitality.
+
+They entered Doctor Stevens' waiting room and found the genial physician
+reading a medical journal.
+
+"Hello, Helen! How are you Tom?" He boomed in his deep voice.
+
+"We're fine, Doctor Stevens," replied Helen, "but we're worried about
+Dad."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with your father?" asked the doctor, adjusting
+his glasses.
+
+"Dad wasn't feeling very well when I came down from school at
+three-thirty," said Tom, "and when I started the afternoon press run, he
+went into the office to rest a while. When Helen came in a little after
+four, Dad looked pretty rocky and she made him go home."
+
+"How did he look when you talked with him?" Doctor Stevens asked Helen.
+
+"Awfully tired and mighty worried," replied Helen. "It was his eyes more
+than anything else. He's afraid of something and it has worried him until
+he is positively ill."
+
+"And haven't you any idea what it could be?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I've been thinking about it ever since Dad went home," said Helen, "and
+I don't know of a single thing that would worry him that much."
+
+"Neither do I," added Tom.
+
+"What we'd like to have you do," went on Helen, "is to drop in after
+supper. Make it look like a little social visit and it will give you a
+good excuse to give Dad the once over. We'll be ever so much relieved if
+you will."
+
+"Of course I will," the doctor assured them. "You're probably worrying
+about some little thing and the more you think about it, the larger it
+grows. Possibly a little touch of stomach trouble. What have you been
+trying to cook, lately?" he asked Helen.
+
+"Couldn't be my cooking," she replied. "I haven't done any for a week and
+you know that Mother's good cooking would never make anyone ill."
+
+"I'll come over about seven-thirty," promised Doctor Stevens, "and don't
+you two worry yourselves over this. Your father will be all right in a
+day or two."
+
+Helen and Tom thanked Doctor Stevens and continued on their way home.
+They went back past the postoffice and the _Herald_ and down toward the
+lake, whose waters reflected the rays of the setting sun in varied hues.
+
+A block from the lake shore they turned to their right into a tree-shaded
+street and climbed a gentle hill. Their home stood on a knoll overlooking
+the lake. It was an old-fashioned house that had started out as a three
+room cottage. Additions had been made until it rambled away in several
+directions. It boasted no definite style of architecture, but had a
+hominess that few houses possess. From the long, open front porch, there
+was an unobstructed view down the lake, which stretched away in the
+distance, its far reaches hidden in the coming twilight. A speed boat,
+being loaded with the afternoon mail for the summer resorts down the
+lake, was sputtering at the big pier at the foot of main street. A bundle
+of _Heralds_ was placed on the boat and then it whisked away down the
+lake, a curving streak of white marking its passage.
+
+Helen found her mother in the kitchen preparing their evening meal.
+
+Mrs. Blair, at forty-five, was a handsome woman. Her hair had decided
+touches of gray but her face still held the peachbloom of youth and she
+looked more like an older sister than a mother. She had been a teacher in
+the high school at Rolfe when Hugh Blair had come to edit the country
+paper. The teacher and the editor had fallen in love and she had given up
+teaching and married him.
+
+"How's Dad?" Helen asked.
+
+"He doesn't feel very well," her mother replied and Helen could see lines
+of worry around her mother's eyes.
+
+"Don't worry, Mother," she counselled. "Dad has been working too hard
+this year. In two more weeks school will be over and Tom and I can do
+most of the work on the paper. You two can plan on a fine trip and a real
+rest this summer."
+
+"I hope so," said Mrs. Blair, "for your father certainly needs a change
+of some kind."
+
+Helen helped her mother with the preparations for supper, setting the
+table and carrying the food from the kitchen to the dining room where
+broad windows opened out on the porch.
+
+Tom, who had been upstairs washing the last of the ink from his hands,
+entered the kitchen.
+
+"Supper about ready?" he asked. "I'm mighty hungry tonight."
+
+"All ready," smiled his mother. "I'll call your father."
+
+Helen turned on the lights in the dining room and they waited for their
+father to come from his bedroom. They could hear low voices for several
+minutes and finally Mrs. Blair returned to the dining room.
+
+"We'll go ahead and eat," she managed to smile. "Your father doesn't feel
+like supper right now."
+
+Tom started to say something, but Helen shook her head and they sat down
+and started their evening meal.
+
+Mrs. Blair, usually gay and interested in the activities of the day, had
+little to say, but Helen talked of school and the activities and plans of
+the sophomore class.
+
+"We're going to have a picnic down the lake next Monday," she said.
+
+"That's nothing," said Tom, who was president of the junior class. "We're
+giving the seniors the finest banquet they've ever had."
+
+Whereupon they fell into a heated argument over the merits of the
+sophomores and juniors, a question which had been debated all year
+without a definite decision. Sometimes Tom considered himself the victor
+while on other occasions Helen had the best of the argument.
+
+Supper over, Helen helped her mother clear the table and wash the dishes.
+It was seven-thirty before they had finished their work in the kitchen
+and Mrs. Blair was on her way to her husband's room when Doctor Stevens,
+bag in hand, walked in.
+
+A neighbor for many years, the genial doctor did not stop to knock.
+
+"Haven't been in for weeks," he said, "so thought I'd drop over and chin
+with Hugh for a while."
+
+"Hugh isn't feeling very well," said Mrs. Blair. "He came home from the
+office this afternoon and didn't want anything for supper."
+
+"Let me have a look at him," said Doctor Stevens. "Suppose his stomach is
+out of whack or something like that."
+
+Tom and Helen, standing in the dining room, watched Doctor Stevens and
+their mother go down the hall to their father's bedroom.
+
+The next half hour was one of the longest in their young lives. Tom tried
+to read the continued story in the _Herald_, while Helen fussed at first
+one thing and then another.
+
+The door of their father's room finally opened and Doctor Stevens
+summoned them.
+
+Neither Tom nor Helen would ever forget the scene in their father's
+bedroom that night. Their mother, seated at the far side of the bed,
+looked at them through tear-dimmed eyes.
+
+Their father, reclining on the bed, looked taller than ever, and the
+lines of pain which Helen had noticed in his face that afternoon had
+deepened. His hands were moving nervously and his eyes were bright with
+fever.
+
+"Sit down," said Doctor Stevens as he took a chair beside Hugh Blair's
+bed.
+
+Tom was about to ask his father how he felt, when Doctor Stevens spoke
+again.
+
+"We might as well face this thing together," he said. "I'll tell you now
+that it is going to be something of a fight for all of you, but unless
+I'm mistaken, the Blairs are all real fighters."
+
+"What's the matter Doctor Stevens?" Helen's voice was low and strained.
+
+"Your father must take a thorough rest," he said. "He will have to go to
+some southwestern state for a number of months. Perhaps it will only take
+six months, but it may be longer."
+
+"But I can't be away that long," protested Hugh Blair. "I must think of
+my family, of the _Herald_."
+
+"Your family must think of you now," said Doctor Stevens firmly. "That's
+why I wanted to talk this over with Tom and Helen."
+
+"Just what is wrong, Dad?" asked Tom.
+
+Doctor Stevens answered the question.
+
+"Lung trouble," he said quietly. "Your father has spent too many years
+bent over his desk in that dark cubbyhole of his--too many years without
+a vacation. Now he's got to give that up and devote a number of months to
+building up his body again."
+
+Helen felt the blood racing through her body. Her throat went dry and her
+head ached. She had realized only that afternoon that her father wasn't
+well but she had not been prepared for Doctor Stevens' announcement.
+
+The doctor was talking again.
+
+"I blame myself partly," he was telling Hugh Blair. "You worked yourself
+into this almost under my eyes, and I never dreamed what was happening.
+Too close to you, I guess."
+
+"When do you think Hugh should start for the southwest?" asked Helen's
+mother.
+
+"Just as soon as we can arrange things," replied Doctor Stevens. "This is
+Thursday. I'd like to have him on the way by Saturday night. Every day
+counts."
+
+"That's impossible," protested Hugh Blair, half rising from his bed. "I
+don't see how I can possibly afford it. Think of the expense of a trip
+down there, of living there. What about the _Herald_? What about my
+family?"
+
+A plan had been forming in Helen's mind from the time Doctor Stevens had
+said her father must go to a different climate.
+
+"Everything will be all right, Dad," she said. "There isn't a reason in
+the world why you shouldn't go. Tom and I are capable of running the
+_Herald_ and with what you've saved toward our college educations, you
+can make the trip and stay as long as you want to."
+
+"But I couldn't think of using your college money," protested her father,
+"even if you and Tom could run the _Herald_."
+
+"Helen's got the right idea," said Doctor Stevens. "Your health must come
+above everything else right now. I'm sure those youngsters can run the
+_Herald_. Maybe they'll do an even better job than you," he added with a
+twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"We can run the paper in fine shape, Dad," said Tom. "If you hired
+someone from outside to come in and take charge it would eat up all the
+profits. If Helen and I run the _Herald_, we'll have every cent we make
+for you and mother."
+
+Mrs. Blair, who had been silent during the discussion, spoke.
+
+"Hugh," she said, "Tom and Helen are right. I know how you dislike using
+their college money, but it is right that you should. I am sure that they
+can manage the _Herald_."
+
+Thus it was arranged that Tom and Helen were to take charge of the
+_Herald_. They talked with the superintendent of schools the next day and
+he agreed to excuse them from half their classes for the remaining weeks
+of school with the provision that they must pass all of their final
+examinations.
+
+Friday and Saturday passed all too quickly. Helen busied herself
+collecting the current accounts and Tom spent part of the time at the
+office doing job work and the remainder at home helping with the packing.
+
+Saturday noon Tom went to the bank and withdrew the $1,275 their father
+had placed in their college account. The only money left was $112 in the
+_Herald_ account, just enough to take care of running expenses of the
+paper.
+
+Hugh Blair owned his home and his paper, was proud of his family and his
+host of friends, but of actual worldly wealth he had little.
+
+Doctor Stevens drove them to the Junction thirty miles away where Hugh
+Blair was to take the Southwestern limited. There was little conversation
+during the drive.
+
+The limited was at the junction when they arrived and goodbyes were
+brief.
+
+Hugh Blair said a few words to his wife, who managed to smile through her
+tears. Then he turned to Tom and Helen.
+
+"Take good care of the _Herald_," he told them, as he gave them a goodbye
+hug.
+
+"We will Dad and you take good care of yourself," they called as he
+climbed into the Pullman.
+
+Cries of "boooo-ard," sounded along the train. The porters swung their
+footstools up into the vestibules, the whistle sounded two short, sharp
+blasts, and the limited rolled away from the station.
+
+Tom, Helen and their mother stood on the platform until the train
+disappeared behind a hill.
+
+When they turned toward home, Tom and Helen faced the biggest
+responsibility of their young lives. It was up to them to continue the
+publication of the _Herald_, to supply the money to keep their home going
+and to build up a reserve which their father could call upon if he was
+forced to use all the money from their college fund.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+                        _In the Editor's Chair_
+
+
+Sunday morning found Tom and Helen Blair entering a new era in their
+lives. While their father sped toward the southwest in quest of renewed
+health, they planned how they could develop the _Herald_.
+
+Their mother was silent through breakfast and several times they saw her
+eyes dim with tears.
+
+"Don't worry, Mother," said Helen. "We'll manage all right and Dad is
+going to pull through in fine shape. Why, he'll be back with us by
+Christmas time."
+
+"I wish I could be as optimistic as you are, Helen," said Mrs. Blair.
+
+"You'll feel better in a few more hours," said Tom. "It's the suddenness
+of it all. Now we've got to buckle down and make the _Herald_ keep on
+paying dividends."
+
+Tom and Helen helped their mother clear away the breakfast dishes and
+then dressed for Sunday school. Mrs. Blair taught a class of
+ten-to-twelve-year-old girls. Tom and Helen were in the upper classes.
+
+The Methodist church they attended was a red brick structure, the first
+brick building built in Rolfe, and it was covered with English ivy that
+threatened even to hide the windows. The morning was warm and restful and
+they enjoyed the walk from home to church.
+
+The minister was out of town on his vacation and there were no church
+services. After Sunday school the Blairs walked down to the postoffice.
+The large mail box which was rented for the _Herald_ was filled with
+papers, circulars and letters.
+
+"We might as well go back to the office and sort this out," said Tom, and
+Mrs. Blair and Helen agreed.
+
+The office was just as Tom and Helen had left it Thursday night for they
+had been too busy since then helping with the arrangements for their
+father's departure to clean it up.
+
+The type was still in the forms, papers were scattered on the floor and
+dust had gathered on the counter and the desk which had served Hugh Blair
+for so many years.
+
+"I'll open the windows and the back door," said Tom, "and we'll get some
+air moving through here. It's pretty stuffy."
+
+Mrs. Blair sat down in the swivel chair in front of her husband's desk
+and Helen pulled up the only other chair in the office, an uncomfortable
+straight-backed affair.
+
+"You're editor now," Mrs. Blair told Helen. "You'd better start in by
+sorting the mail."
+
+"Tom's in charge," replied Helen as her brother returned to the office.
+
+"Let's not argue," said Tom. "We'll have a business meeting right now.
+Mother, you represent Dad, who is the owner. Now you decide who will be
+what."
+
+"What will we need?" smiled Mrs. Blair.
+
+"We need a business manager first," said Helen.
+
+"Wrong," interjected Tom. "It's a publisher."
+
+"Then I say let's make it unanimous and elect mother as publisher," said
+Helen.
+
+"Second the motion," grinned Tom.
+
+"If there are no objections, the motion is declared passed," said Helen.
+"And now Mother, you're the duly elected publisher of the _Rolfe
+Herald_."
+
+"I may turn out to be a hard-boiled boss," said Mrs. Blair, but her smile
+belied her words.
+
+"We're not worrying a whole lot," said Tom. "The next business is
+selecting a business manager, a mechanical department, an editor, and a
+reporter. Also a couple of general handymen capable of doing any kind of
+work on a weekly newspaper."
+
+"That sounds like a big payroll for a paper as small as the _Herald_,"
+protested Mrs. Blair.
+
+"I think you'll be able to get them reasonable," said Tom.
+
+"In which case," added Helen, "you'd better appoint Tom as business
+manager, mechanical department, and handyman."
+
+"And you might as well name Helen as editor, reporter and first assistant
+to the handyman," grinned Tom.
+
+"I've filled my positions easier than I expected," smiled Mrs. Blair. "As
+publisher, I'll stay at home and keep out of your way."
+
+"Mother, we don't want you to do that," exclaimed Helen. "We want you to
+come down and help us whenever you have time."
+
+"But what could I do?" asked her mother.
+
+"Lots of things. For instance, jot down all of the personal items you
+know about your friends and about all of the club meetings. That would be
+a great help to me. Sometimes in the evening maybe you'd even find time
+to write them up, for Tom and I are going to be frightfully busy between
+going to school and running the _Herald_."
+
+"I'll tell the town," said Tom. "If you'd handle the society news,
+Mother, you could make it a great feature. The _Herald_ has never paid
+much attention to the social events in town. Guess Dad was too busy. But
+I think the women would appreciate having all of their parties written
+up. I could set up a nice head, 'Society News of Rolfe,' and we'd run a
+column or so every week on one of the inside pages."
+
+"You're getting me all excited, Tom," said his mother. "Your father said
+I never would make a newspaper woman but if you and Helen will have a
+little patience with me, I'd really enjoy writing the social items."
+
+"Have patience with you, Mother?" said Helen. "It's a case of whether
+you'll have patience with us."
+
+"We're going to have to plan our time carefully," said Tom, "for we'll
+have to keep up in our school work. I've got it doped out like this.
+Superintendent Fowler says Helen and I can go half days and as long as we
+cover all of the class work, receive full credit. The first half of the
+week is going to be the busiest for me. I'll have to solicit my ads, set
+them up, do what job work I have time for and set up the stories Helen
+turns out for the paper. I could get in more time in the afternoon than
+in the morning so Helen had better plan on taking the mornings on Monday,
+Tuesday and Wednesday away from school."
+
+"It will work out better for her, too," went on Tom. "Many of the big
+news events happen over the week-end and she'll be on the job Monday
+morning. I'll have every afternoon and evening for my share of the work
+and for studying. Then we'll both take Thursday afternoon away from
+school and get the paper out. And on Friday, Mother, if you'll come down
+and stay at the office, we'll go to school all day. How does that sound?"
+
+"Seems to me you've thought of everything," agreed Helen. "I like the
+idea of doing my editorial work in the mornings the first part of the
+week and I'll be able to do some of it after school hours."
+
+"Then it looks like the _Herald_ staff is about ready to start work on
+the next issue," said Tom. "We have a publisher, a business manager and
+an editor. What we need now are plenty of ads and lots of news."
+
+"What would you say, Mother, if Tom and I stayed down at the office a
+while and did some cleaning up?" asked Helen.
+
+"Under the circumstances, I haven't any objections," said their mother.
+"There isn't any church service this morning and you certainly can put in
+a few hours work here in the office to good advantage. I'll stay and help
+you with the dusting and sweeping."
+
+"You run on home and rest," insisted Helen. "Also, don't forget Sunday
+dinner. We'll be home about two or two-thirty, and we'll be hungry by
+that time."
+
+Mrs. Blair picked up the Sunday papers and after warning Tom and Helen
+that dinner would be ready promptly at two-thirty, left them in the
+office.
+
+"Well, Mr. Business Manager, what are you going to start on?" asked
+Helen.
+
+"Mr. Editor," replied Tom, "I've got to throw in all the type from last
+week's forms. What are you going to do?"
+
+"The office needs a good cleaning," said Helen. "I'm going to put on my
+old apron and spend an hour dusting and mopping. You keep out or you'll
+track dirt in while I'm doing it."
+
+Tom took off the coat of his Sunday suit, rolled up his shirt sleeves and
+donned the ink-smeared apron he wore when working in the composing room.
+Helen put on the long apron she used when folding papers and they went to
+work with their enthusiasm at a high pitch. Their task was not new but so
+much now depended on the success of their efforts that they found added
+zest in everything they did.
+
+Helen went through the piles of old papers on her father's desk, throwing
+many of them into the large cardboard carton which served as a
+wastebasket. When the desk was finally in order, she turned her attention
+to the counter. Samples of stationery needed to be placed in order and
+she completely rearranged the old-fashioned show case with its display of
+job printing which showed what the _Herald_ plant was capable of doing.
+
+With the desk and counter in shape, Helen picked up all of the papers on
+the floor, pulled the now heavily laden cardboard carton into the
+composing room, and then secured the mop and a pail of water. The barber
+shop, located below the postoffice, kept the building supplied with warm
+water, and Helen soon had a good pail of suds.
+
+Tom stopped his work in the composing room and came in to watch the
+scrubbing.
+
+"First time that floor has been scrubbed in years," he said.
+
+"I know it," said Helen as she swished her mop into the corners. "Dad was
+running the paper and Mother was too busy bringing us up to come down
+here and do it for him."
+
+"He'll never recognize the old place when he comes back," said Tom.
+
+"We'll brighten it up a little," agreed Helen, as Tom returned to his
+task of throwing in the type.
+
+Helen had the editorial office thoroughly cleaned by one o'clock and sat
+down in her father's swivel chair to rest. Tom called in from the back
+room.
+
+"You'd better plan your editorial work for the week," he said. "I want to
+run the Linotype every afternoon and you'll have to have copy for me."
+
+"What do you want first?" said Helen.
+
+"Better get the editorials ready today," he replied. "They don't have to
+be absolutely spot copy. Dad wrote the first column himself and then
+clipped a column or a column and a half from nearby papers."
+
+"I'll get at it right away," said Helen. "The exchanges for last week are
+on the desk. After I've gone through them I'll write my own editorials."
+
+"Better have one about Dad going away," said Tom and there was a queer
+catch in his voice.
+
+Helen did not answer for her eyes filled with a strange mist and her
+throat suddenly felt dry and full.
+
+Their father's departure for the southwest had left a great void in their
+home life but Helen knew they would have to make the best of it. She was
+determined that their efforts on the _Herald_ be successful.
+
+Helen turned to the stack of exchanges which were on the desk and opened
+the editorial page of the first one. She was a rapid reader and she
+scanned paper after paper in quest of editorials which would interest
+readers of the _Herald_. When she found one she snipped it out with a
+handy pair of scissors and pasted it on a sheet of copy paper. Six or
+seven were needed for the _Herald's_ editorial page and it took her half
+an hour to get enough. With the clipped editorials pasted and new heads
+written on them, Helen turned to the typewriter to write the editorials
+for the column which her father was accustomed to fill with his own
+comments on current subjects.
+
+Helen had stacked the copypaper in a neat pile on the desk and she took a
+sheet and rolled it into the typewriter. She had taken a commercial
+course the first semester and her mastery of the touch system of typing
+was to stand her in good stead for her work as editor of the _Herald_.
+
+For several minutes the young editor of the _Herald_ sat motionless in
+front of her typewriter, struggling to find the right words. She knew her
+father would want only a few simple sentences about his enforced absence
+from his duties as publisher of the paper.
+
+Then Helen got the idea she wanted and her fingers moved rapidly over the
+keys. The leading editorial was finished in a short time. It was only one
+paragraph and Helen took it out of the machine and read it carefully.
+
+  "Mr. Hugh Blair, editor and publisher of the _Herald_ for the last
+  twenty years, has been compelled, by ill health, to leave his work at
+  Rolfe and go to a drier climate for at least six months. In the
+  meantime, we ask your cooperation and help in our efforts to carry out
+  Mr. Blair's ideals in the publication of the _Herald_.
+                                                                 Signed,
+
+                                  Mrs. Hugh Blair, Helen and Tom Blair."
+
+After reading the editorial carefully, Helen called to her brother.
+
+"Come in and see what you think of my lead editorial," she said.
+
+Tom, his hands grimy with ink from the type he had been throwing into the
+cases, came into the editorial office.
+
+He whistled in amazement at the change Helen had brought about. The
+papers were gone from the floor, which had been scrubbed clean, and the
+desk and counter were neat and orderly.
+
+"Looks like a different office," he said. "But wait until I have a chance
+to swing a broom and mop in the composing room. And I'm going to fix some
+of the makeup tables so they'll be a little handier."
+
+Helen handed him the editorial and Tom read it thoughtfully.
+
+"It's mighty short," he said, "but it tells the story."
+
+"Dad wouldn't want a long sob story," replied Helen. "Here's the clipped
+editorials. You can put them on the hook on your Linotype and I'll bring
+the others out as soon as I write them."
+
+Tom returned to the composing room with the handful of editorial copy
+Helen had given him and the editor of the _Herald_ resumed her duties.
+
+She wrote an editorial on the beauty of Rolfe in the spring and another
+one on the desirability for a paved road between Rolfe and Gladbrook, the
+county seat. In advocating the paved road, Helen pointed to the increased
+tourist traffic which would be drawn to Rolfe as soon as a paved road
+made Lake Dubar accessible to main highways.
+
+It was nearly two o'clock when she finished her labor at the typewriter.
+She was tired and hungry. One thing sure, being editor of the _Herald_
+would be no easy task. Of that she was convinced.
+
+"Let's go home for dinner," she called to Tom.
+
+"Suits me," replied her brother. "I've finished throwing in the last
+page. We're all ready to start work on the next issue."
+
+They took off their aprons and while Helen washed her hands, Tom closed
+the windows and locked the back door. He took his turn at the sink and
+they locked the front door and started for home.
+
+"What we need now is a good, big story for our first edition," said Tom.
+
+"We may have it before nightfall if those clouds get to rolling much
+more," said Helen.
+
+Tom scanned the sky. The sunshine of the May morning had vanished.
+Ominous banks of clouds were rolling over the hills which flanked the
+western valley of Lake Dubar and the lake itself was lashed by white
+caps, spurred by a gusty wind.
+
+They went down main street, turned off on the side street and climbed the
+slope to their home.
+
+Mrs. Blair was busy putting some heavy pots over flowers she wanted to
+protect from the wind.
+
+"Dinner's all ready," she told them, "and I've asked Margaret Stevens
+over. She wants to talk with Helen about the sophomore class picnic
+tomorrow."
+
+"I won't have time to go," said Helen. "We'll be awfully busy working on
+the next issue."
+
+"You're on the class committee, aren't you?" asked Tom.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you're going to the picnic. We'll have lots to do on the _Herald_
+but we won't have to give up all of our other activities."
+
+"Tom is right," said Mrs. Blair. "You must plan on going to the picnic."
+
+Margaret Stevens came across the street from her home. Margaret was a
+decided brunette, a striking contrast to Helen's blondness.
+
+"We'll go in and eat," said Mrs. Blair. "Then we'll come out and watch
+the storm. There is going to be a lot of wind."
+
+Margaret was jolly and good company and Helen thought her mother wise to
+have a guest for dinner. It kept them from thinking too much about their
+father's absence.
+
+There was roast beef and hashed brown potatoes with thick gravy, lettuce
+salad, pickled beets, bread and butter, large glasses of rich milk and
+lemon pie.
+
+"I've never tasted a better meal," said Tom between mouthfuls.
+
+"That's because you've been so busy at the office," smiled his mother.
+
+"We were moving right along," agreed Tom. "I got the forms all ready for
+the next issue and Helen has the editorials done."
+
+"Won't you need a reporter?" asked Margaret.
+
+"We may need one but Helen and Mother are going to try and do all the
+news writing," said Tom.
+
+"I mean a reporter who would work for nothing. I'd like to help for I've
+always wanted to write."
+
+"You could be a real help, Margaret," said Helen, "and we'd enjoy having
+you help us. Keep your ears open for all of the personal items and tell
+Mother about any parties. She's going to write the society news."
+
+"We're getting quite a staff," smiled Tom. "I'm open for applications of
+anyone who wants to work in the mechanical department."
+
+"That's not as romantic as gathering and writing news," said Margaret.
+
+"But just as important," insisted Tom.
+
+The room darkened and a particularly heavy gust of wind shook the house.
+From the west came a low rumbling.
+
+Tom dropped his knife and fork and went to the front porch.
+
+"Come here, Helen!" he cried. "The storm's breaking. You're going to have
+your first big story right now!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+                          _Through the Storm_
+
+
+Tom's cry brought the others from the dinner table to the screened-in
+porch which overlooked the lake. He was right. The storm was roaring down
+out of the hills in the west in all its fury.
+
+The black clouds which had been rolling along the horizon when Tom and
+Helen had come home were massed in a solid, angry front. Driven by a
+whistling wind, they were sweeping down on the lake. An ominous fringe of
+yellow wind clouds dashed on ahead and as they reached the porch they saw
+the waters of Lake Dubar whiten before the fury of the wind.
+
+"Looks like a twister," shouted Tom.
+
+His mother's face whitened and she anxiously scanned the sky.
+
+Doctor Stevens ran across from his home.
+
+"Better close all your windows and secure the doors," he warned. "We're
+going to get a lot of wind before the rain comes."
+
+"Tom is afraid of a tornado," said Mrs. Blair.
+
+"The weather is about right," admitted the doctor. "But we won't worry
+until we see the clouds start to swirl. Then we'll run for the storm
+cellar under my house."
+
+Helen and Margaret hurried to help Mrs. Blair close the upstairs windows
+while Tom went around to make sure that the screens were secure. He
+bolted all doors except the one to the porch and when he returned to join
+the others, the tempo of the wind was increasing rapidly.
+
+The wind suddenly dropped to a whisper and Doctor Stevens watched the
+rolling clouds with renewed anxiety. The waters of the lake were calmer
+and the dust clouds which the wind had driven over the water cleared
+partially.
+
+"Look!" cried Helen. "There's a motorboat trying to reach one of the
+boathouses here!"
+
+Through the haze of dust which still hung over the lake they could
+discern the outline of a boat, laboring to reach the safety of the Rolfe
+end of the lake.
+
+"It's Jim Preston," said Doctor Stevens. "He goes down to the summer
+resorts at the far end of the lake every Sunday morning with the mail and
+papers."
+
+"His boat's got a lot of water in it from the way it is riding," added
+Tom. "If the storm hits him he'll never make it."
+
+"Jim should have known better than to have taken a chance when he could
+see this mess of weather brewing," snorted the doctor.
+
+"His wife's sick," put in Mrs. Blair, "and Jim's probably taken an extra
+risk to get home as soon as possible."
+
+"I know," said Doctor Stevens.
+
+"He's bailing by hand," cried Tom. "That means something has gone wrong
+with the water pump on the engine."
+
+"Can you see what boat he has?" asked Doctor Stevens.
+
+"It looks like the Flyer," said Helen, who knew the lines of every
+motorboat on the lake.
+
+"That's the poorest wet weather boat Jim has," said Doctor Stevens.
+"Every white cap slops over the side. She's fast but a death trap in a
+storm. Either the Liberty or the Argosy would eat up weather like this."
+
+"Jim's been overhauling the engines in his other boats," said Tom, "and
+the Flyer is the only thing he has been using this spring."
+
+"Instead of standing here talking, let's get down to the shore," said
+Helen. "Maybe we can get someone to go out and help him."
+
+Without waiting for the others to reply, Helen started running toward the
+lake. She heard a cry behind her and turned to see Tom pointing toward
+the hills in the west.
+
+The wind was whistling again and when she turned to look in the direction
+her brother pointed, she stopped suddenly. The black storm clouds were
+massing for the main attack and they were rolling together.
+
+In the seconds that Helen watched, she saw them swirl toward a common
+center, heard the deafening rise of the wind and trembled as the clouds,
+now formed in a great funnel, started toward the lake.
+
+"Come back, Helen, come back!" Tom shouted.
+
+Forcing herself to overcome the storm terror which now gripped her, Helen
+looked out over the boiling waters of the lake.
+
+The wind was whipping into a new frenzy and she could just barely see the
+Flyer above the white-capped waves. Jim Preston was making a brave effort
+to reach shore and Helen knew that the little group at her own home were
+probably the only ones in Rolfe who knew of the boatman's danger. Seconds
+counted and ignoring the warning cries from her brother, she hurried on
+toward the lake.
+
+The noise of the oncoming tornado beat on her ears, but she dared not
+look toward the west. If she did she knew she would turn and race for the
+shelter and security of Doctor Stevens' storm cellar.
+
+The Flyer was rolling dangerously as Jim Preston made for the shore and
+Helen doubted if the boatman would ever make it.
+
+On and on the sleek craft pushed its way, the waves breaking over its
+slender, speedy nose and cascading back into the open cockpit in which
+Jim Preston was bailing furiously. The Flyer was nosing deeper into the
+waves as it shipped more water. When the ignition wires got wet the motor
+would stop and Preston's last chance would be gone.
+
+Helen felt someone grab her arms. It was Tom.
+
+"Come back!" he cried. "The tornado will be on us in another five
+minutes!"
+
+"We've got to help Mr. Preston," shouted Helen, and she refused to move.
+
+"All right, then I stay too," yelled Tom, who kept anxious eyes on the
+approaching tornado.
+
+The Flyer was less than a hundred yards from shore but was settling
+deeper and deeper into the water.
+
+"It's almost shallow enough for him to wade ashore," cried Helen.
+
+"Wind would sweep him off his feet," replied Tom.
+
+The speedboat was making slow progress, barely staggering along in its
+battle against the wind and waves.
+
+"He's going to make it!" shouted Helen.
+
+"I hope so," said Tom, but his words were lost in the wind.
+
+Fifty yards more and the Flyer would nose into the sandy beach which
+marked the Rolfe end of the lake.
+
+"Come on, Flyer, come on!" cried Helen.
+
+"The engine's dying," said Tom. "Look, the nose is going under that big
+wave."
+
+With the motor dead, the Flyer lost way and buried its nose under a giant
+white-cap.
+
+"He's jumping out of the boat," added Helen. "It's shallow enough so he
+can wade in if he can keep his feet."
+
+Ignoring the increasing danger of the tornado, they ran across the sandy
+beach.
+
+"Join hands," cried Helen. "We can wade out and pull him the last few
+feet."
+
+Realizing that his sister would go on alone if he did not help her, Tom
+locked his hands in hers and they plunged into the shallow water.
+
+Jim Preston, on the verge of exhaustion, staggered through the waves.
+
+The Flyer, caught between two large rollers, filled with water and
+disappeared less than ten seconds after it had been abandoned.
+
+The boatman floundered toward them and Tom and Helen found themselves
+hard-pressed to keep their own feet, for a strong undertow threatened to
+upset them and sweep them out into the lake.
+
+Preston lunged toward them and they caught him as he fell.
+
+Tom turned momentarily to watch the approach of the tornado.
+
+"Hurry!" he cried. "We'll be able to reach Doctor Stevens' storm cellar
+if we run."
+
+"I can't run," gasped Preston. "You youngsters get me to shore. Then save
+yourselves."
+
+"We'll do nothing of the kind," said Helen.
+
+With their encouragement, Preston made a new effort and they made their
+escape from the dangerous waters of the lake.
+
+Alone, Helen or Tom could have raced up the hill to Doctor Stevens in
+less than a minute but with an almost helpless man to drag between them,
+they made slow progress.
+
+"We've got to hurry," warned Tom as the noise of the storm told of its
+rapid approach.
+
+"Go on, go on! Leave me here!" urged Preston.
+
+But Helen and Tom were deaf to his pleas and they forced him to use the
+last of his strength in a desperate race up the hill ahead of the
+tornado.
+
+Doctor Stevens met them half way up the hill and almost carried Preston
+the rest of the way.
+
+"Across the street and into my storm cellar," he told them.
+
+"Is the tornado going to hit the town?" asked Helen as they hurried
+across the street.
+
+"Can't tell yet," replied Doctor Stevens.
+
+"There's a common belief that the hills and lake protect us so a tornado
+will never strike here," said Tom.
+
+"We'll soon know about that," said the doctor grimly.
+
+They got the exhausted boatman to the entrance of the cellar, where Mrs.
+Blair was anxiously awaiting their return.
+
+"Are you all right, Helen?" she asked.
+
+"A little wet on my lower extremities," replied the young editor of the
+_Herald_. "I simply had to go, mother."
+
+"Of course you did," said Mrs. Blair. "It was dangerous but I'm proud of
+you Helen."
+
+Mrs. Stevens brought out blankets and wrapped them around Jim Preston's
+shoulders while Margaret took candles down into the storm cellar.
+
+The noise of the storm had increased to such an intensity that
+conversation was almost impossible.
+
+Doctor Stevens maintained his watchful vigil, noting every movement of
+the tornado.
+
+The sky was so dark that the daylight had faded into dusk although it was
+only a few minutes after three. The whole western sky was filled with
+coal-black clouds and out of the center of this ominous mass rushed the
+lashing tongue which was destroying everything it touched.
+
+On and on came the storm, advancing with a deadly relentlessness. A farm
+house a little more than a mile away on one of the hills overlooking the
+lake exploded as though a charge of dynamite had been set off beneath it.
+
+"It's terrible, terrible," sobbed Margaret Stevens, who had come out of
+the cellar to watch the storm.
+
+"We're going to get hit," Tom warned them.
+
+"I've got to get home," said Jim Preston, struggling out of the blankets
+which Mrs. Stevens had wrapped around him. "My wife's all alone."
+
+"Stay here, Jim," commanded Doctor Stevens. "You couldn't get more than
+three or four blocks before the storm strikes and your place is clear
+across town. Everybody into the cellar," he commanded.
+
+Mrs. Stevens and Helen's mother went first to light the candles. They
+were followed by Margaret and Helen, then Tom and Jim Preston and finally
+the doctor, who remained in the doorway on guard.
+
+"What will this do to the _Herald_?" Helen whispered to Tom.
+
+Her brother nudged her hard.
+
+"Don't let Mother hear you," he replied. "There is nothing we can do now
+except hope. The _Herald_ building may not be destroyed."
+
+Helen dropped to the floor and her head bowed in prayer. Their father's
+illness had been a blow and to have the _Herald_ plant destroyed by a
+tornado would be almost more than they could bear.
+
+The noise of the tornado was terrific and they felt the earth trembling
+at the fury of the storm gods.
+
+Helen had seen pictures of towns razed by tornadoes but she had never
+dreamed that she would be in one herself.
+
+Suddenly the roar of the storm lessened and Doctor Stevens cautiously
+opened the door of the storm cellar.
+
+"We're safe!" he cried.
+
+They trooped out of the cellar. The tornado had swung away from Rolfe
+without striking the town itself and was lashing its way down the center
+of Lake Dubar.
+
+"It will wear itself out before it reaches the end of the lake,"
+predicted Jim Preston.
+
+"I don't believe any houses in town were damaged," said Doctor Stevens.
+"A hen house and garage or two may have been unroofed but that will be
+about all."
+
+"How about the farmers back in the hills?" asked Helen.
+
+"They must have fared pretty badly if they were in the center of the
+storm," said the doctor. "I'm going to get my car and start out that way.
+Someone may need medical attention."
+
+"Can I go with you?" asked Helen. "I want to get all the facts about the
+storm for my story for the _Herald_."
+
+"Glad to have you," said the doctor.
+
+"Count me in," said Margaret Stevens. "I've joined Helen's staff as her
+first reporter," she told her father.
+
+"If you want to go down the lake in the morning and see what happened at
+the far end I'll be glad to take you," suggested Jim Preston. "I'm mighty
+grateful for what you and Tom did for me and I'll have the Liberty ready
+to go by morning."
+
+"What about the Flyer?" asked Tom.
+
+"I'll have to fish her out of the lake sometime next week," grinned the
+boatman. "I'm lucky even to be here, but I am, thanks to you."
+
+Doctor Stevens backed his sedan out of the garage and Helen started
+toward the car.
+
+"You can't go looking like that," protested her mother. "Your shoes and
+hose are wet and dirty and your dress looks something like a mop."
+
+"Can't help the looks, mother," smiled Helen. "I'll have to go as I am.
+This is my first big news and the story comes first."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+                            _Reporting Plus_
+
+
+Clouds which followed the terrific wind unleashed their burden and a gray
+curtain of rain swept down from the heavens.
+
+"Get your slickers," Doctor Stevens called to the girls and Helen raced
+across the street for her coat and a storm hat.
+
+"Better put on those heavy, high-topped boots you use for hiking," Tom
+advised Helen when they had reached the shelter of their own home.
+"You'll probably be gone the rest of the afternoon and you'll need the
+boots."
+
+Helen nodded her agreement and rummaged through the down stairs closet
+for the sturdy boots. She dragged them out and untangled the laces. Then
+she kicked off her oxfords and started to slide her feet into the boots.
+Her mother stopped her.
+
+"Put on these woolen stockings," she said. "Those light silk ones will
+wear through in an hour and your heels will be chafed raw."
+
+With heavy stockings and boots on, Helen slipped into the slicker which
+Tom held for her. She put on her old felt hat just as Doctor Stevens' car
+honked.
+
+"Bye, Mother," she cried. "Don't worry. I'll be all right with the doctor
+and Margaret."
+
+"Get all the news," cautioned Tom as Helen ran through the storm and
+climbed into the doctor's sedan.
+
+Margaret Stevens was also wearing heavy shoes and a slicker while the
+doctor had put on knee length rubber boots and a heavy ulster.
+
+"We'll get plenty of rain before we're back," he told the girls, "and
+we'll have to walk where the roads are impassable."
+
+They stopped down town and Doctor Stevens ran into his office to see if
+any calls had been left for him. When he returned his face was grave.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Margaret.
+
+"I called the telephone office," replied her father, "and they said all
+the phone wires west of the lake were down but that reports were a number
+of farm houses had been destroyed by the tornado."
+
+"Then you think someone may have been hurt?" asked Helen.
+
+"I'm afraid so," admitted Doctor Stevens as he shifted gears and the
+sedan leaped ahead through the storm. "We'll have to trust to luck that
+we'll reach farms where the worst damage occurred."
+
+The wind was still of nearly gale force and the blasts of rain which
+swept the graveled highway rocked the sedan. There was little
+conversation as they left Rolfe and headed into the hill country which
+marked the western valley of Lake Dubar.
+
+The road wound through the hills and Doctor Stevens, unable to see more
+than fifty feet ahead, drove cautiously.
+
+"Keep a close watch on each side," he told the girls, "and when you see
+any signs of unusual damage let me know."
+
+They were nearly three miles from Rolfe when Margaret told her father to
+stop.
+
+"There's a lane to our right that is blocked with fallen tree trunks,"
+she said.
+
+Doctor Stevens peered through the rain. A mail box leered up at them from
+a twisted post.
+
+"This is Herb Lauer's place," he said. "I'll get out and go up the lane."
+
+The doctor picked up his medical case and left the motor running so the
+heat it generated would keep ignition wires dry.
+
+One window was left open to guard against the car filling with gas and
+the girls followed him into the storm. They picked their way slowly over
+the fallen trees which choked the lane. When they finally reached the
+farmyard a desolate scene greeted them.
+
+The tornado, like a playful giant, had picked up the one story frame
+house and dashed it against the barn. Both buildings had splintered in a
+thousand pieces and only a huddled mass of wreckage remained.
+Miraculously, the corn crib had been left almost unharmed and inside the
+crib they could see someone moving.
+
+Doctor Stevens shouted and a few seconds later there came an answering
+cry. The girls followed him to the crib and found the family of Herb
+Lauer sheltered there.
+
+"Anyone hurt?" asked Doctor Stevens.
+
+"Herb's injured his arm," said Mrs. Lauer, who was holding their two
+young children close to her.
+
+"Think it's broken, Doc," said the farmer.
+
+"Broken is right," said Doctor Stevens as he examined the injury. "I'll
+fix up a temporary splint and in the morning you can come down and have
+it redressed."
+
+The doctor worked quickly and when he was ready to put on the splint had
+Margaret and Helen help him. In twenty minutes the arm had been dressed
+and put in a sling.
+
+"We'll send help out as soon as we can," said Doctor Stevens as they
+turned to go.
+
+Helen had used the time to good advantage, making a survey of the damage
+done to the farm buildings and learning that they were fully protected by
+insurance. Mrs. Lauer, between attempts to quiet the crying of the
+children, had given Helen an eye-witness account of the storm and how
+they had taken refuge in the corn crib just before the house was swirled
+from its foundations.
+
+Back in the car, the trio continued their relief trip. The rain abated
+and a little after four o'clock the sun broke through the clouds. Ditches
+along the road ran bankful with water and streams they crossed tore at
+the embankments which confined them.
+
+"The worst is over," said Doctor Stevens, "and we can be mighty thankful
+no one has been killed."
+
+Fifteen minutes later they reached another farm which had felt the
+effects of the storm. The house had been unroofed but the family had
+taken refuge in the storm cellar. No one had been injured, except for a
+few bruises and minor scratches.
+
+At dusk they were fifteen miles west of Rolfe and had failed to find
+anyone with serious injury.
+
+"We've about reached the limit of the storm area," said Doctor Stevens.
+"We'll turn now and start back for Rolfe on the Windham road."
+
+Their route back led them over a winding road and before they left the
+main graveled highway Doctor Stevens put chains on his car. They ploughed
+into the mud, which sloshed up on the sides of the machine and splattered
+against the windshield until they had to stop and clean the glass.
+
+Half way back to Rolfe they were stopped by a lantern waving in the road.
+
+Doctor Stevens leaned out the window.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked.
+
+A farmer stepped out of the night into the rays of the lights of the car.
+
+"We need help," he cried. "The storm destroyed our house and one of my
+boys was pretty badly hurt. We've got to get him to a doctor."
+
+"I'm Doctor Stevens of Rolfe," said Margaret's father as he picked up his
+case and opened the door.
+
+"We need you doctor," said the farmer.
+
+Helen and Margaret followed them down the road and into a grassy lane.
+
+Lights were flickering ahead and when they reached a cattle shed they
+found a wood fire burning. Around the blaze were the members of the
+farmer's family and at one side of the fire was the blanket-swathed form
+of a boy of ten or eleven.
+
+"One of the timbers from the house struck him while he was running for
+the storm cave," explained the farmer. "He just crumpled up and hasn't
+spoken to us since. It's as though he was asleep."
+
+Doctor Stevens examined the boy.
+
+"He got a pretty nasty rap on the head," he said. "What he needs is a
+good bed, some warm clothes and hot food. We'll put him in my car and
+take him back to Rolfe. He'll be all right in two or three days."
+
+The doctor looked about him.
+
+"This is the Rigg Jensen place, isn't it?" he asked.
+
+"I'm Rigg Jensen," said the farmer. "You fixed me up about ten years ago
+when my shotgun went off and took off one of my little toes."
+
+"I remember that," said Doctor Stevens. "Now, if you'll help me carry the
+lad, we'll get him down to the car."
+
+"Hadn't I better go?" asked Mrs. Jensen. "Eddie may be scared if he wakes
+up and sees only strangers."
+
+"Good idea," said Doctor Stevens, as they picked up the boy and started
+for the car.
+
+Helen went ahead, carrying the lantern and lighting the way for the men.
+They made the boy comfortable in the back seat and his mother got in
+beside him.
+
+"Better come along," Doctor Stevens told the father.
+
+"Not tonight," was the reply. "Mother is with Eddie and I know he'll be
+all right now. I've got to take the lantern and see what happened to the
+livestock and what we've got left."
+
+There was no complaint in his voice, only a matter-of-factness which
+indicated that the storm could not have been prevented and now that it
+was all over he was going to make the best of it.
+
+Half an hour later they reached the gravel highway and sped into Rolfe.
+Doctor Stevens drove directly to his office and several men on the street
+helped him carry Eddie Jensen inside.
+
+"You'd better run along home," he told the girls, "and get something to
+eat."
+
+When Helen reached home, Tom was waiting on the porch.
+
+"Get a story?" he asked.
+
+The young editor of the _Herald_ nodded.
+
+"Anyone hurt?" Tom insisted.
+
+"No one seriously injured," replied Helen, "but a lot of farm buildings
+were destroyed."
+
+"I've been checking up on the damage down the lake," said Tom, "that new
+summer resort on the east shore got the worst of it. The phone office
+finally got through and they estimate the damage at the resort at about
+$50,000."
+
+"Doctor Stevens believes the damage along the west half of the valley
+will amount to almost a $100,000," said Helen.
+
+"That's a real story," enthused Tom. "It's big enough to telephone to the
+state bureau of the Associated Press at Cranston. They'll be glad to pay
+us for sending it to them."
+
+"You telephone," said Helen. "I'd be scared to death and wouldn't be able
+to give them all the facts."
+
+"You're the editor," replied Tom. "It's your story and you ought to do
+the phoning. Jot down some notes while I get a connection to Cranston."
+
+Tom went into the house to put in the long distance call just as Helen's
+mother hurried across from the Stevens home.
+
+"Are you all right, dear?" her mother asked.
+
+"Not even wet," replied Helen. "The coat and boots protected me even in
+the heaviest rain. Tom's just gone inside to call the Associated Press at
+Cranston and I'm going to tell them about the storm."
+
+"Hurry up there," came Tom's voice from inside the house. "The Cranston
+operator has just answered."
+
+"And I haven't had time to think what I'll say," added Helen, half to
+herself.
+
+Without stopping to take off her cumbersome raincoat, she hurried to the
+telephone stand in the dining room and Tom turned the instrument over to
+her.
+
+"All ready," he said.
+
+Helen picked up the telephone and heard a voice at the other end of the
+wire saying, "This is the state bureau of the Associated Press at
+Cranston. Who's calling?"
+
+Mustering up her courage, Helen replied, "this is Helen Blair, editor of
+the _Rolfe Herald_. We've had a tornado near here this afternoon and I
+thought you'd want the facts."
+
+"Glad to have them," came the peppy voice back over the wire. "Let's go."
+
+Helen forgot her early misgivings and briefly and concisely told her
+story about the storm, giving estimates of damage and the names of the
+injured. In three minutes she was through.
+
+"Fine story," said the Associated Press man at Cranston. "We'll mail you
+a check the first of the month. And say, you'd better write to us. We can
+use a live, wide-awake correspondent in your town."
+
+"Thanks, I will," replied Helen as she hung up the receiver.
+
+"What did he say?" asked Tom.
+
+"He told me to write them; that they could use a correspondent at Rolfe."
+
+"That's great," exclaimed Tom. "One more way in which we can increase our
+income and it means that some day you may be able to get a job with the
+Associated Press."
+
+"That will have to come later," said Helen's mother, "when school days
+are over."
+
+"Sure, I know," said Tom, "but creating a good impression won't hurt
+anything."
+
+Mrs. Blair had a hot supper waiting, hamburger cakes, baking powder
+biscuits with honey, and tea, and they all sat down to the table for a
+belated evening meal.
+
+Helen related the events of her trip with Doctor Stevens and Tom grew
+enthusiastic again over the story.
+
+"It's the biggest news the _Herald_ has had in years. If we were putting
+out a daily we'd be working on an extra now. Maybe the _Herald_ will be a
+daily some day."
+
+"Rolfe will have to grow a lot," smiled his mother.
+
+"I guess you're right," agreed Tom.
+
+Tom and Helen helped their mother clear away the supper dishes and after
+that Helen went into the front room and cleared the Sunday papers off the
+library table. She found some copypaper and a pencil in the drawer and
+sat down to work on her story of the storm.
+
+The excitement of the storm and the ensuing events had carried her along,
+oblivious of the fatigue which had increased with the passing hours. But
+when she picked up her pencil and tried to write, her eyes dimmed and her
+head nodded. She snuggled her head in her arms to rest for just a minute,
+she told herself. The next thing she knew Tom was shaking her shoulders.
+
+"Ten o'clock," he said, "and time for all editors to be in bed."
+
+Helen tried to rub the sleep from her eyes and Tom laughed uproariously
+at her efforts.
+
+"It's no use," he said. "You're all tired out. You can write your story
+in the morning. To bed you go."
+
+"Have I been asleep all evening?" Helen asked her mother.
+
+"Yes, dear," was the reply, "and I think Tom's right. Run along to bed
+and you'll feel more like working on your story in the morning."
+
+Goodnights were said and Helen, only half awake, went to her room, thus
+ending the most exciting day in her young life.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+                           _A New Week Dawns_
+
+
+Monday morning dawned clear and bright. There were no traces in the sky
+of the storm which on the previous day had devastated so many farms west
+of Rolfe. The air was warm with a fragrance and sweetness that only a
+small town knows in springtime.
+
+Helen exchanged greetings with half a dozen people as she hurried down
+the street to start her first day at the office as editor of the
+_Herald_.
+
+Grant Hughes, the postmaster, was busy sweeping out his office but he
+stopped his work and called to Helen as she turned down the alley-way
+which led to the _Herald_ office.
+
+"Starting in bright and early, aren't you?"
+
+"Have to," smiled Helen, "for Tom and I have only half days in which to
+put out the paper and do the job work."
+
+"I know, I know," mused the old postmaster, "but you're chips off the old
+block. You'll make good."
+
+"Thanks, Mr. Hughes," said Helen. "Your believing in us is going to
+help."
+
+She hastened on the few steps to the office and opened the doors and
+windows for the rooms were close and stuffy after being closed overnight.
+The young editor of the _Herald_ paused to look around the composing
+room. Tom had certainly done a good job cleaning up the day before. The
+four steel forms which would hold the type for the week's edition were in
+place, ready for the news she would write and the ads which it would be
+Tom's work to solicit. The Linotype seemed to be watching her in a very
+superior but friendly manner and even the old press was polished and
+cleaned as never before.
+
+Helen returned to the editorial office, rolled a sheet of copypaper into
+her typewriter, and sat down to write the story of the storm. She might
+have to change certain parts of the story about the condition of the
+injured later in the week but she could get the main part of it written
+while it was still fresh in her memory.
+
+Hugh Blair had always made a point of writing his news stories in simple
+English and he had drilled Helen and Tom in his belief that the simpler a
+story is written the more widely it will be read. He had no time for the
+multitudes of adjectives which many country editors insist upon using,
+although he felt that strong, colorful words had their place in news
+stories.
+
+With her father's beliefs on news writing almost second nature, Helen
+started her story. It was simple and dramatic, as dramatic as the sudden
+descent of the storm on the valley. Her fingers moved rapidly over the
+keyboard and the story seemed to write itself. She finished one page and
+rolled another into the machine, hardly pausing in her rapid typing.
+
+Page after page she wrote until she finally leaned back in her swivel
+chair, tired from the strain of her steady work.
+
+She picked up the half dozen pages of typed copy. This was her first big
+story and she wanted it to read well, to be something of which her father
+would be proud when he read the copy of the paper they would send him.
+She went over the story carefully, changing a word here, another there.
+Occasionally she operated on some of her sentences, paring down the
+longer ones and speeding up the tempo of the story. It was nine-thirty
+before she was satisfied that she had done the best she could and she
+stuck the story on the copy spindle, ready for Tom when he wanted to
+translate it into type on the Linotype.
+
+Helen slid another sheet of copypaper into her typewriter and headed it
+"PERSONALS." Farther down the page she wrote four items about out-of-town
+people who were visiting in Rolfe. She had just finished her personals
+when she heard the whistle of the morning train.
+
+The nine forty-five in the morning and the seven-fifteen in the evening
+were the only trains through Rolfe on the branch line of the A. and T.
+railroad. The nine forty-five was the upbound train to Cranston, the
+state capital. It reached Cranston about one o'clock, turned around there
+and started back a little after three, passing through Rolfe on its down
+trip early in the evening, its over-night terminal being Gladbrook, the
+county seat.
+
+Helen picked up a pencil and pad of paper, snapped the lock on the front
+door and ran for the depot two blocks away. The daily trains were always
+good for a few personals. She meant to leave the office earlier but had
+lost track of the time, so intense had been her interest in writing her
+story of the storm.
+
+The nine forty-five was still half a mile below town and puffing up the
+grade to the station when Helen reached the platform. She spoke to the
+agent and the express man and hurried into the waiting room. Two women
+she recognized were picking up their suit cases when she entered. Helen
+explained her mission and they told her where they were going. She jotted
+down the notes quickly for the train was rumbling into town. The local
+ground to a stop and Helen went to the platform to see if anyone had
+arrived from the county seat.
+
+One passenger descended, a tall, austere-looking man whose appearance was
+not in the least inviting but Helen wanted every news item she could get
+so she approached him, with some misgiving.
+
+"I'm the editor for the _Rolfe Herald_," she explained, "and I'd like to
+have an item about your visit here."
+
+"You're what?" exclaimed the stranger.
+
+"I'm the editor of the local paper," repeated Helen, "and I'd like a
+story about your visit in town."
+
+"You're pretty young for an editor," persisted the stranger, with a smile
+that decidedly changed his appearance and made him look much less
+formidable.
+
+"I'm substituting for my father," said Helen.
+
+"That quite explains things," agreed the stranger. "I'm Charles King of
+Cranston, state superintendent of schools, and I'm making a few
+inspections around the state. If you'd like, I'll see you again before I
+leave and tell you what I think of your school system here."
+
+"I'm sure you'll thoroughly approve," said Helen. "Mr. Fowler, the
+superintendent, is very progressive and has fine discipline."
+
+"I'll tell him he has a good booster in the editor," smiled Mr. King.
+"Now, if you'll be good enough to direct me to the school I'll see that
+you get a good story out of my visit here."
+
+Helen supplied the necessary directions and the state superintendent left
+the depot.
+
+The nine forty-five, with its combination mail and baggage car and two
+day coaches, whistled out and Helen returned to the _Herald_ office.
+
+She found a farmer from the east side of the valley waiting for her.
+
+"I'd like to get some sale bills printed," he said, "and I'll need about
+five hundred quarter page bills. How much will they cost?"
+
+Helen opened the booklet with job prices listed and gave the farmer a
+quotation on the job.
+
+"Sounds fair enough," he said. "At least it's a dollar less than last
+year."
+
+"Paper doesn't cost quite as much," explained Helen, "and we're passing
+the saving on to you. Be sure and tell your neighbors about our
+reasonable printing prices."
+
+"I'll do that," promised the farmer. "I'll bring in the copy Tuesday and
+get the bills Friday morning."
+
+"My brother will have them ready for you," said Helen, "but if you want
+to get the most out of your sale, why not run your bill as an ad in the
+_Herald_. On a combination like that we can give you a special price. You
+can have a quarter page ad in the paper plus 500 bills at only a little
+more than the cost of the ad in the paper. It's the cost of setting up
+the ad that counts for once it is set up we can run off the bills at very
+little extra cost."
+
+"How much circulation do you have?"
+
+"Eight hundred and seventy-five," said Helen. "Three hundred papers go in
+town and the rest out on the country routes." She consulted her price
+book and quoted the price for the combination ad and bills.
+
+"I'll take it," agreed the farmer, who appeared to be a keen business
+man.
+
+"Tell you what," he went on. "If you'd work out some kind of a tieup with
+the farm bureau at Gladbrook and carry a page with special farm news you
+could get a lot of advertising from farmers. If you do, don't use
+'canned' news sent out by agricultural schools. Get the county agent to
+write a column a week and then get the rest of it from farmers around
+here. Have items about what they are doing, how many hogs they are
+feeding, how much they get for their cattle, when they market them and
+news of their club activities."
+
+"Sounds like a fine idea," said Helen, "but we'll have to go a little
+slowly at first. My brother and I are trying to run the paper while Dad
+is away recovering his health and until we get everything going smoothly
+we can't attempt very many new things."
+
+"You keep it in mind," said the farmer, "for I tell you, we people on the
+farms like to see news about ourselves in the paper and it would mean
+more business for you. Well, I've got to be going. I'll bring my copy in
+tomorrow."
+
+"We'll be expecting it," said Helen. "Thanks for the business."
+
+She went around to the postoffice and returned with a handful of letters.
+Most of them were circulars but one of them was a card from her father.
+She read it with such eagerness that her hands trembled. It had been
+written while the train was speeding through southwestern Kansas and her
+father said that he was not as tired from the train trip as he had
+expected. By the time they received the card, he added, he would be at
+Rubio, Arizona, where he was to make his home until he was well enough to
+return to the more rigorous climate of the north.
+
+Helen telephoned her mother at once and read the message on the card.
+
+"I'm going to write to Dad and tell him all about the storm and how happy
+we are that everything is going well for him," said Helen.
+
+"I'll write this afternoon," said her mother, "and we'll put the letters
+in one envelope and get them off on the evening mail. Perhaps Tom will
+find time to add a note."
+
+Helen sat down at the desk, found several sheets of office stationery and
+a pen, and started her letter to her father. She was half way through
+when Jim Preston entered.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Blair," he said. "I've got the _Liberty_ ready to go
+if you'd like to run down the lake and see how much damage the twister
+caused at the summer resorts."
+
+"Thanks," replied Helen, "I'll be with you right away." She put her
+letter aside and closed the office. Five minutes later they were at the
+main pier on the lakeshore.
+
+The _Liberty_, a sturdy, 28-foot cruiser, was moored to the pier. The
+light oak hood covering the engine shone brightly in the morning sun and
+Helen could see that Jim Preston had waxed it recently. The hood extended
+for about fourteen feet back from the bow of the boat, completely
+enclosing the 60 horsepower engine which drove the craft. The steering
+wheel and ignition switches were mounted on a dash and behind this were
+four benches with leather covered cork cushions which could be used as
+life preservers.
+
+The boatman stepped into the _Liberty_ and pressed the starter. There was
+the whirr of gears and the muffled explosions from the underwater exhaust
+as the engine started. The _Liberty_ quivered at its moorings, anxious to
+be away and cutting through the tiny whitecaps which danced in the
+sunshine.
+
+Helen bent down and loosened the half hitches on the ropes which held the
+boat. Jim Preston steadied it while she stepped in and took her place on
+the front seat beside him.
+
+The boatman shoved the clutch ahead, the tone of the motor deepened and
+they moved slowly away from the pier. With quickening pace, they sped out
+into the lake, slapping through the white caps faster and faster until
+tiny flashes of spray stung Helen's face.
+
+"How long will it take us to reach Crescent Beach?" asked Helen for she
+knew the boatman made his first stop at the new resort at the far end of
+the lake.
+
+"It's nine miles," replied Jim Preston. "If I open her up we'll be down
+there in fifteen or sixteen minutes. Want to make time?"
+
+"Not particularly," replied Helen, "but I enjoy a fast ride."
+
+"Here goes," smiled Preston and he shoved the throttle forward.
+
+The powerful motor responded to the increased fuel and the _Liberty_
+shook herself and leaped ahead, cutting a v-shaped swath down the center
+of the lake. Solid sheets of spray flew out on each side of the boat and
+Preston put up spray boards to keep them from being drenched.
+
+Helen turned around and looked back at Rolfe, nestling serenely along the
+north end of the lake. It was a quiet, restful scene, the white houses
+showing through the verdant green of the new leaves. She could see her
+own home and thought she glimpsed her mother working in the garden at the
+rear.
+
+Then the picture faded as they sped down the lake and Helen gave herself
+up to complete enjoyment of the boat trip.
+
+There were few signs along the shore of the storm. After veering away
+from Rolfe it had evidently gone directly down the lake until it reached
+the summer resorts.
+
+In less than ten minutes Rolfe had disappeared and the far end of the
+lake was in view. Preston slowed the _Liberty_ somewhat and swung across
+the lake to the left toward Crescent Beach, the new resort which several
+wealthy men from the state capital were promoting.
+
+They slid around a rocky promontory and into view of the resort.
+Boathouses dipped crazily into the water and the large bath-house, the
+most modern on the lake, had been crushed while the toboggan slide had
+been flipped upside down by the capricious wind.
+
+The big pier had collapsed and Preston nosed the _Liberty_ carefully
+in-shore until the bow grated on the fresh, clean sand of the beach.
+
+Kirk Foster, the young manager of the resort, was directing a crew of men
+who were cleaning up the debris.
+
+The boatman introduced Helen to the manager and he willingly gave her all
+the details about the damage. The large, new hotel had escaped unharmed
+and the private cottages, some of which were nicer than the homes in
+Rolfe, had suffered only minor damage.
+
+"The damage to the bathhouse, about $35,000, was the heaviest," said the
+manager, "but don't forget to say in your story that we'll have things
+fixed up in about two weeks, and everything is insured."
+
+"I won't," promised Helen, "and when you have any news be sure and let me
+know."
+
+"We cater to a pretty ritzy crowd," replied the manager, "and we ought to
+have some famous people here during the summer. I'll tip you off whenever
+I think there is a likely story."
+
+Jim Preston left the mail for the resort and they returned to the
+Liberty, backed out carefully, and headed across the lake for Sandy
+Point, a resort which had been on the lake for more years than Helen
+could remember.
+
+Sandy Point was popular with the townspeople and farmers and was known
+for its wonderful bathing beach. Lake Dubar was shallow there and it was
+safe for almost anyone to enjoy the bathing at Sandy Point.
+
+The old resort was not nearly as pretentious as Crescent Beach for its
+bathhouses, cottages and hotel were weather beaten and vine-covered. Art
+Provost, the manager, was waiting for the morning mail when the Liberty
+churned up to the pier.
+
+"Storm missed you," said the boatman.
+
+"And right glad I am that it did," replied Provost. "I thought we were
+goners when I saw it coming down the lake but it swung over east and took
+its spite out on Crescent Beach. Been over there yet?"
+
+"Stopped on the way down," replied Jim Preston. "They suffered a good bit
+of damage but will have it cleaned up in a couple or three days."
+
+"Glad to hear that," said Provost, "that young manager, Foster, is a fine
+fellow."
+
+Helen inquired for news about the resort and was told that it would be
+another week, about the first of June, before the season would be under
+way.
+
+They left Sandy Point and headed up the lake, this time at a leisurely
+twenty miles an hour. Helen enjoyed every minute of the trip, drinking in
+the quiet beauty of the lake, its peaceful hills and the charm of the
+farms with their cattle browsing contentedly in the pastures.
+
+It was noon when they docked at Rolfe and Helen, after thanking the
+boatman, went home instead of returning to the office.
+
+Tom had come from school and lunch was on the table. Helen told her
+brother of the sale of the quarter page ad for the paper and the 500
+bills.
+
+"That's fine," said Tom, "but you must have looked on the wrong page in
+the cost book."
+
+"Didn't I ask enough?"
+
+"You were short about fifty cents," grinned Tom, "but we'll make a profit
+on the job, especially since you got him to run it as an ad in the
+paper."
+
+"What are you going to do this afternoon?" Mrs. Blair asked Tom.
+
+"I'll make the rounds of the stores and see what business I can line up
+for the paper," said the business manager of the _Herald_. "Then there
+are a couple of jobs of letterheads I'll have to get out of the way and
+by the time I get them printed the metal in the Linotype will be hot and
+I can set up Helen's editorials and whatever other copy she got ready
+this morning."
+
+"The storm story runs six pages," said Helen, "and when I add a few
+paragraphs about the summer resorts, it will take another page. Is it too
+long?"
+
+"Not if it is well written."
+
+"You'll have to judge that for yourself."
+
+"I walked home with Marg Stevens," said Tom, "and she said to tell you
+the sophomore picnic planned for this afternoon has been postponed until
+Friday. A lot of the boys from the country have to go home early and help
+clean up the storm damage."
+
+"Suits me just as well," said Helen, "for we'll have the paper off the
+press Thursday and I'll be ready for a picnic Friday."
+
+Tom went to the office after lunch and Helen walked to school with
+Margaret. Just before the assembly was called to order, one of the
+teachers came down to Helen's desk and told her she was wanted in the
+superintendent's office. When Helen reached the office she found
+Superintendent Fowler and Mr. King, the state superintendent of schools,
+waiting for her. The state superintendent greeted her cordially and told
+Superintendent Fowler how Helen had met him at the train.
+
+"I promised to give her a story about my visit," he explained, "and I
+thought this would be a good time."
+
+Superintendent Fowler nodded his agreement and the state school leader
+continued.
+
+"I hope you'll consider it good news," he told Helen, "when I say that
+the Rolfe school has been judged the finest in the state for towns under
+one thousand inhabitants."
+
+"It certainly is news," said Helen. "Mr. Fowler has worked hard in the
+two years he has been here and the _Herald_ will be glad to have this
+story."
+
+"I thought you would," said Mr. King, and he told Helen in detail of the
+improvement which had been made in the local school in the last two years
+and how much attention it was attracting throughout the state.
+
+"You really ought to have a school page in the local paper," he told
+Helen in concluding.
+
+"Perhaps we will next fall," replied the young editor of the _Herald_.
+"By that time Tom and I should be veterans in the newspaper game and able
+to add another page of news to the _Herald_."
+
+"We'll talk it over next August when I come back to get things in shape
+for the opening of the fall term," said Superintendent Fowler. "I'm
+heartily in favor of one if Tom and Helen can spare the time and the
+space it will require."
+
+Helen returned to the assembly with the handful of notes she had jotted
+down while Mr. King talked. Her American History class had gone to its
+classroom and she picked up her textbook and walked down the assembly,
+inquiring eyes following her, wondering why she had been called into the
+superintendent's office. They'd have to read the _Herald_ to find out
+that story.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+                           _The First Issue_
+
+
+At the close of school Helen met Margaret Stevens in the hall outside the
+assembly room.
+
+"What is my first assignment going to be?" asked Helen's reporting staff.
+
+"I think it would be a good idea if you went to the teachers and got all
+the school news," Helen suggested. "It is almost the end of the year and
+most of the classes are planning parties and programs of various kinds."
+
+"I'll do it right away," promised Margaret and she hurried off on her
+first newspaper assignment.
+
+Helen smiled at her friend's enthusiasm and she hoped that it wouldn't
+wear off for Margaret was clever, knew a great many people and could be a
+real help if she made up her mind to gather news. In return, all Helen
+could offer would be the experience and the closer friendship which their
+constant association would mean.
+
+The young editor of the _Herald_ walked down the street alone, for most
+of the students had left the building while she had been talking with
+Margaret.
+
+When she reached the _Herald_ office she heard the steady hum of the
+electric motor of the Linotype and the clack of its long arm as Tom sent
+the lines of matrices into the mould to come out in the form of shiny,
+hot lead slugs--new type for their first edition of the _Herald_.
+
+Tom rose from his chair before the Linotype keyboard and came into the
+editorial office.
+
+"That's a fine story on the storm," he told Helen. "It's so interesting I
+can't make any time getting it into type; keep stopping to read your
+descriptions again."
+
+"I've got another good story," Helen replied, and she told her brother
+all about the visit of the state superintendent of schools and of his
+praise for the local school.
+
+"What a front page we'll have to send to Dad," chuckled Tom. "And to
+match your good news stories, I made the rounds of the stores the first
+thing this afternoon and got the ads lined up. I couldn't get the copy
+for all of them but I know just how much space each store will take.
+We'll have a 'pay dirt' issue this week with a little more than 250
+inches of ads and at 25 cents a column inch that means better than $60
+worth of business. Not bad for a starter, eh?"
+
+"Won't that crowd the inside pages?"
+
+"A little," Tom conceded, "but we've got to make every cent we can. I've
+been doing a little figuring on our expenses and how much business we
+ought to have. We think of the _Herald_ as an eight page paper. That's
+true, but four of the pages are printed at Cranston by the Globe Printing
+Company with our serial story, pictures of news of the world, fashion and
+menu suggestions and world news in general on them. We seldom if ever put
+ads on our front page and that leaves only three pages for which we can
+sell ads and on which we must earn enough to pay expenses, keep the
+family going and build up a surplus to take care of Dad when he needs
+more money. Those three six column pages have 360 column inches, 120 to
+each page, and at our rate of 25 cents an inch for advertising we've got
+to sell a lot to make the grade."
+
+"I hadn't figured it out like that," Helen admitted, "but of course
+you're right. Can't we expand the paper some way to get more business?
+Only this morning the farmer that came in to see about the sale bills
+said he wished we would run a farm page and the school superintendent
+would like to have a school page next fall."
+
+"The farm page," Tom said, "would undoubtedly bring us more business and
+the first time I have a half day to spare I'll take the old car and go
+down to Gladbrook and see the county agent.
+
+"Maybe I can get some job work from the offices at the courthouse," he
+added hopefully.
+
+The telephone rang and Helen answered the call. It was from a woman who
+had out-of-town guests and the young editor jotted the names down on a
+pad of paper. That done she turned to her typewriter and wrote the item,
+for with her half days to work she had to write her stories as soon as
+she had them.
+
+Margaret bounced in with a handful of notes.
+
+"I've got half a dozen school stories," she exclaimed. "Almost every
+teacher had something for me and they're anxious to see their school news
+in the paper."
+
+"I thought they would be," Helen smiled. "Can you run a typewriter?"
+
+"I'm a total stranger," Margaret confessed. "I'll do a lot better if I
+scribble my stories in longhand, if Tom thinks he can read my scrawls."
+
+"I'll try," came the reply from the composing room, "but I absolutely
+refuse to stand on my head to do it."
+
+"They're not that bad," laughed Margaret, "and I'll try to do especially
+well for you."
+
+Helen provided her first assistant with copypaper and Margaret sat down
+at the desk to write her stories. The editor of the _Herald_ then devoted
+her attention to writing up the notes she had taken in her talk with the
+state superintendent of schools. It was a story that she found slow to
+write for she wanted no mistakes in it.
+
+The afternoon was melting in a soft May twilight when Tom snapped the
+switch on the Linotype and came into the editorial office.
+
+"Almost six o'clock," he said, "and time for us to head for home and
+supper."
+
+Margaret, who had been at the desk writing for more than an hour,
+straightened her cramped back.
+
+"Ouch!" she exclaimed. "I never thought reporting could be such work and
+yet so much fun. I'm getting the biggest thrill out of my stories."
+
+"That's about all the pay you will get," grinned Tom.
+
+They closed the office and started home together. They had hardly gone a
+block when Helen stopped suddenly.
+
+"Give me the office key, Tom," she said. "I started a letter to Dad this
+morning and it got sidetracked when someone came in. I'm going back and
+get it. I can finish it at home and mail it on the seven-fifteen when I
+come down to meet the train."
+
+"I'll get it for you," said Tom and started on the run for the office. He
+got her half-finished letter, and rejoined Helen and Margaret, who had
+walked slowly.
+
+"I'll add a few lines to your letter," Tom said. "Dad will be glad to
+know we've lined up a lot of ads for our first issue."
+
+Doctor Stevens came out of his office and joined them in their walk home.
+
+"How are all the storm victims?" asked Helen.
+
+"Getting along fine," said the doctor. "I can't understand why there
+weren't more serious injuries. The storm was terrific."
+
+"Perhaps it is because most of them heard it coming and sought shelter in
+the strongest buildings or took refuge in cellars," suggested Tom.
+
+"I suppose that's the explanation."
+
+"I'll finish my school stories tomorrow afternoon," promised Margaret as
+she turned toward her home.
+
+The twilight hour was the one that Helen liked best of all the busy hours
+of her day. From the porch she could look down at the long, deep-blue
+stretch of water that was Lake Dubar while a liquid-gold sun settled into
+the western hills. Purple shadows in the little valleys bordering the
+lake, lights gleaming from farm house windows on far away hills, the
+mellow chime of a freight train whistling for a crossing and over all a
+pervading calmness that overcame any feeling of fatigue and brought only
+a feeling of rest and quiet to Helen. It was hard to believe that a
+little more than 24 hours before this peaceful scene had been threatened
+with total destruction by the fury of the elements.
+
+Helen's mother called and the _Herald_ editor went into the dining room.
+Tom, his hands scrubbed clean of printer's ink, was at the table when
+Helen took her place.
+
+Mrs. Blair bowed her head in silent prayer and Tom and Helen did
+likewise.
+
+"Didn't I see you working in the garden this morning when I went down the
+lake with Jim Preston?" Helen asked her mother.
+
+"Probably. I'm planning a larger garden than ever. We can cut down on our
+grocery bills if we raise more things at home."
+
+"Don't try to do too much," Tom warned, "for we're depending on you as
+the boss of this outfit now. I'll help you with the garden every chance I
+get."
+
+"I know you will," his mother replied, "but I thoroughly enjoy working
+outdoors. If you'll take care of the potato patch, I'll be able to do the
+rest and still find time to write a few social items for the paper."
+
+"Did you get any today?" Helen asked.
+
+"Nearly half a dozen. The Methodist Ladies Aid is planning a spring
+festival, an afternoon of quilting and a chicken dinner in the evening
+with everyone invited."
+
+"And what a feed they put out," added Tom. "I'll have to see their
+officers and get an ad for the paper."
+
+Supper over and the dishes washed, dried and put away, Helen turned her
+attention to finishing the letter to her father. Tom also sat down to
+write a note and when they had finished Mrs. Blair put their letters in
+the envelope with her own, sealed it and gave it to Helen.
+
+Margaret Stevens stuck her head in the door.
+
+"Going up to school for the sophomore-junior debate?" she asked.
+
+"I've got to meet the seven-fifteen first," Helen replied. "I'll meet you
+at school about seven-thirty."
+
+"Wait a minute, Marg," said Tom. "I guess I'll go along and see just how
+badly the sophomores are beaten. Of course you know you kids haven't got
+a chance."
+
+"Be careful, Tom," Helen warned. "Margaret is captain of our debate
+team."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," chuckled Tom. "No offense."
+
+"It will be an offense, though," smiled Margaret, "and the juniors will
+be on the receiving end of our verbal attack."
+
+"Look out for a counter attack," Tom grinned.
+
+"We'll be home early, mother," said Helen as they left the house.
+
+"I hope the sophomores win," her mother said. "Tom and his juniors are
+too sure of themselves."
+
+The seven-fifteen coughed its way into town, showering the few people on
+the platform with cinders. Helen ran to the mail car and dropped her
+letter into the mail slot.
+
+Mr. King, the state superintendent of instruction, was the only passenger
+leaving but there were several Rolfe people getting off the train. She
+got their names and stopped to talk a minute or two with the agent.
+
+"I'll have some news for next week's paper," he told her, but refused to
+say another word about the promised story and Helen went on to the high
+school.
+
+The assembly was well filled with students and a scattering of parents
+whose children were taking part in the inter-class debate. The senior
+debaters had already eliminated the freshmen and the winner of the
+sophomore-junior debate would meet the seniors for the championship of
+the school.
+
+Helen looked around for a seat and was surprised to see her mother beside
+Mrs. Stevens.
+
+"I didn't know you planned to come," Helen said.
+
+"I didn't," smiled her mother, "but just after you left Mrs. Stevens ran
+over and I decided to come with her."
+
+The debate was on the question of whether the state should adopt a paving
+program which would reach every county. The sophomores supported the
+affirmative and the juniors the negative. The question was of vital
+interest for it was to come to a vote in July and, if approved, Rolfe
+would get a place on the scenic highway which would run along the western
+border of the state, through the beautiful lake country. It would mean an
+increased tourist trade and more business for Rolfe.
+
+Margaret had marshalled her facts into impressive arguments and the
+weight of the evidence was with her team but the juniors threw up a smoke
+screen of ridicule to hide their weaker facts and Helen felt her heart
+sinking as the debate progressed. Margaret made the final rebuttal for
+the sophomores and gave a masterful argument in favor of the paved road
+program but the last junior speaker came back with a few humorous remarks
+that could easily confuse the judges into mistaking brilliant humor for
+facts.
+
+The debate closed and the judges handed their slips with their decisions
+to Superintendent Fowler. Every eye in the assembly watched the
+superintendent as he unfolded the slips and jotted down the results. He
+stood up behind his desk.
+
+"The judges vote two to one in favor of the sophomores," he announced.
+
+There was a burst of applause and students and parents crowded around the
+victorious team to congratulate it. When it was all over, Mrs. Blair,
+Mrs. Stevens, Margaret, Helen and Tom started home together.
+
+"And we didn't have a chance," Margaret chided Tom.
+
+"I still think we have the best team," insisted Tom. "The judges got a
+little confused."
+
+"If they were confused, Tom," his mother said, "it was by the juniors.
+Your team didn't have the facts; they resorted to humor and ridicule. I
+think it is a fine victory for the sophomores."
+
+Tuesday morning Helen looked over the stories Margaret had written the
+afternoon before and wrote a long story about the sophomore-junior
+debate, stressing the arguments in favor of the paving program which the
+sophomores had brought out. She was thoroughly in agreement and meant to
+devote space in the _Herald_, both editorially and from a news
+standpoint, to furthering the passage of the good roads program.
+
+The farmer who had called the day before came in with his copy for the ad
+and sale bills.
+
+"I've talked over the farm page idea with my brother," Helen told him,
+"and we'll get one started just as soon as he can find the time to go to
+Gladbrook and see the county agent."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that," replied the farmer, "and I'll pass the word
+around to our neighbors. Also, if you had a column of news each week from
+the courthouse it would help your paper. A lot of farmers take one of the
+Gladbrook papers just for that reason. They want courthouse news and
+can't get it in the _Herald_."
+
+"We'll see about that, too," promised Helen.
+
+She had almost forgotten that she was to write to the state bureau of the
+Associated Press and apply for the job as correspondent for Rolfe and the
+nearby vicinity. She wrote one letter, was dissatisfied, tore it up and
+wrote a second and then a third before she was ready to mail it. As Tom
+had said, it would be one way of increasing their income and at the same
+time might help her to secure a job later.
+
+Margaret finished her school stories after school that afternoon and
+Helen visited all of the stores down town in search of personals. Several
+fishermen had been fined for illegal fishing and she got that story from
+the justice of the peace. She called on the ministers and got their
+church notices.
+
+Wednesday was their big day and Helen worked hard all morning writing her
+personals. The main news stories about the storm, the visit of the state
+superintendent and the high school debate were already in type and Tom
+had finished setting most of the ads.
+
+When Helen came down after school Tom called her into the composing room.
+He had the ads for the two inside pages placed in the forms. One of the
+pages they devoted to the editorials and the other they filled with
+personal items about the comings and goings of local people.
+
+The ads were placed well in the pages and when Tom finished putting in
+the type he stood back and looked at his handiwork.
+
+"I call that mighty good makeup," he said. "Pyramiding the ads on the
+left side of the page makes them look better and then we always have news
+on the right-hand side."
+
+Helen agreed that the pages were well made up and Tom locked the type
+into the steel forms, picked up one of the pages and carried it to the
+press. The other page was put on and locked into place.
+
+Tom washed his hands and climbed up to take his place on the press. The
+paper for that issue of the _Herald_ had come down from Cranston the day
+before with four pages, two and three and six and seven already printed.
+Pages four and five, filled with local news and ads, were on the press.
+Tom would get them printed in the next two hours and on Thursday
+afternoon would make up and print page one and page eight.
+
+He smoothed the stack of paper on the feeding board, put a little
+glycerine on his fingers so he could pick up each sheet and feed it into
+the press, and then threw on the switch. The motor hummed. Tom fed one
+sheet into the press and pushed in the clutch. The press shook itself out
+of its week-long slumber, groaned in protest at the thought of printing
+another week's issue, but at the continued urging of the powerful motor,
+clanked into motion.
+
+"See how the ink looks," Tom called and Helen seized the first few
+papers. Her brother stopped the press and climbed down to look over the
+pages for possible corrections.
+
+"Looks all right," he conceded as he scanned the cleanly printed page.
+
+"Wonder how Dad will like our new editorial head and the three column box
+head I set for your personals?"
+
+"He'll like them," Helen said. "The only reason he didn't do things like
+that was because he didn't have the strength."
+
+Tom nodded, wiped a tear from his eyes, and went back to feeding the
+press. Helen kept the papers stacked neatly as they came out and it was
+nearly six o'clock before Tom finished the first run.
+
+"We'll go home and get something to eat," he said, "and then come back.
+I've got some more copy to set on the Linotype and you write your last
+minute stories. Maybe we'll have time to make up part of the front page
+before we go home tonight. I'd like to have you here and we'll write the
+heads together and see how they look."
+
+"Are you going to head all of the front page stories?" asked Helen.
+
+"If I have time," Tom replied. "It improves the looks of the paper; makes
+it look newsy and alive."
+
+Supper was waiting for them when they reached home and Tom handed his
+mother a copy of the two inside pages they had just printed.
+
+"It looks fine," enthused Mrs. Blair, "and the ads are so well arranged
+and attractive. Tom, you've certainly worked hard, and, Helen, I don't
+see where you got so many personals."
+
+"We're going to use your column of social news on page eight," Tom went
+on. "It's on the last run and in that way we can be sure of getting in
+all of your news."
+
+"I have three more items," said his mother. "They're all written and
+ready to be set up."
+
+"We're going back for a while after supper," said Helen, "but I don't
+think it will take us over a couple of hours to finish, do you, Tom?"
+
+"About nine-thirty," replied Tom, who was devoting himself
+whole-heartedly to a large baked potato.
+
+When they returned to the office Helen finished the last of her items in
+half an hour. By eight-thirty Tom had all of the news in type and had
+made the necessary corrections from the proofs which Helen had read.
+
+"We need a head for the storm story," he said. "A three line, three
+column 30 point one ought to be about right. You jot one down on a sheet
+of paper and I'll try and make it fit."
+
+Helen worked several minutes on a headline. "This is the best I can do,"
+she said:
+
+                    "TORNADO CAUSES $150,000 DAMAGE
+                     NEAR ROLFE SUNDAY; MISSES TOWN
+                     BUT STRIKES RESORT ALONG LAKE"
+
+"Sounds fine," Tom said. "Now I'll see how it fits." He set up the
+headline and Helen wrote a two column one for the story of the Rolfe
+school being the best for its size in the state.
+
+Tom put the headlines on the front page and placed the stories under
+them. Shorter stories, some of them written by Margaret, filled up the
+page and they turned their attention to page eight, the last one to be
+made up.
+
+Their mother's social items led the page, followed by the church notices
+and the last of Helen's personals.
+
+"We've got about ten inches too much type," said Tom. "See if some of the
+personals can't be left out and run next week."
+
+Helen culled out six items that could be left out and Tom finished making
+up the page. Tomorrow he would print the last two pages and Helen would
+assemble the papers and fold them. Their first issue of the _Herald_ was
+ready for the press.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+                         _Mystery in the Night_
+
+
+Helen and Tom hurried home from school Thursday noon, ate a hasty lunch
+and then went on to the _Herald_ office to finish their task of putting
+out their first issue of the paper.
+
+Helen stopped at the postoffice for the mail and Tom went on to unlock
+the office, put the pages on the press and start printing the last run.
+
+In the mail Helen found a letter postmarked Rubio, Arizona, and in her
+Father's familiar handwriting. She ran into the _Herald_ office and on
+into the composing room where Tom was locking the last page on the old
+flat-bed press.
+
+"Tom," she cried, "here's a letter from Dad!"
+
+"Open it," he replied. "Let's see what he has to say."
+
+Helen was about to tear open the envelope when she paused.
+
+"No," she decided. "Mother ought to be the one to read it first. I'll
+call her and tell her it's here. She'll want to come down and get it."
+
+"You're right," agreed Tom as he climbed up on the press. He turned on
+the motor and threw in the clutch. The old machine clanked back and
+forth, gathering momentum for the final run of the week.
+
+Helen eagerly scanned the front page as it came off the press. It was
+heavy with fresh ink but she thrilled at the makeup on page one. There
+were her stories, the one about the tornado and the other about the high
+standing of the local school. Tom's heads looked fine. The paper was
+bright and newsy--easy to read. She hoped her Dad would be pleased.
+
+With the final run on the press it was Helen's task to assemble and fold
+the papers. She donned a heavy apron, piled the papers on one of the
+makeup tables and placed a chair beside her. With arms moving
+methodically, she started to work, folding the papers and sliding them
+off the table onto the chair.
+
+Tom had just got the press running smoothly when there was a grinding
+crash followed by the groaning of the electric motor.
+
+Helen turned quickly. Something might have happened to Tom. He might have
+slipped off his stool and fallen into the machinery of the press.
+
+But Tom was all right. He reached for the switch and shut off the power.
+
+"What happened?" gasped Helen, her face still white from the shock.
+
+"Breakdown," grunted Tom disgustedly. "This antique has been ready for
+the junk pile for years but Dad never felt he could afford to get a new
+one or even a good second-hand one."
+
+"What will we do?" asked Helen anxiously. "We've got to get the paper
+out."
+
+"I'll run down to the garage and get Milt Pearsall to come over. He's a
+fine mechanic and Dad has called on him before when things have gone
+wrong with the press."
+
+Tom hastened out and Helen resumed her task of folding the few papers
+which had been printed before the breakdown. Everything had been going so
+smoothly until this trouble. Now they might be delayed hours if the
+trouble was anything serious.
+
+She heard someone call from the office. It was her mother and she
+hastened out of the composing room.
+
+"Here's the letter," she said, pulling it out of a pocket in her dress.
+"We knew you'd be anxious to hear."
+
+"Why didn't you open it and then telephone me?" her mother asked.
+
+"We could have done that," Helen admitted, "but we thought you'd like to
+be the first to open and read it."
+
+"You're so thoughtful," murmured her mother. With hands that trembled in
+spite of her effort to be calm, she opened the letter and unfolded the
+single page it contained. Helen waited, tense, until her mother had
+finished.
+
+"How's Dad?" she asked.
+
+"His letter is very cheerful," replied Mrs. Blair, handing it to Helen.
+"Naturally he is tired but he says the climate is invigorating and he
+expects to feel better soon."
+
+"Of course he will," agreed Helen.
+
+"Where's Tom?"
+
+"The press broke down and he went to the garage to get Milt Pearsall."
+
+"I hope it's nothing serious," said her mother. "Is there something I can
+do?"
+
+"If you've got the time to spare, I'd like to have you look over our
+first issue. Here's a copy."
+
+Helen's mother scanned the paper with keen, critical eyes.
+
+"It looks wonderful to me," she exclaimed. "I like the heads on the front
+page and you've so many good stories. Tom did splendidly on the ads. How
+proud your father will be when he gets a copy."
+
+"I thought perhaps you'd like to write his address on a wrapper and we'll
+put it in the mail tonight when the other papers go out," said Helen.
+
+Mrs. Blair nodded and addressed the wrapper Helen supplied.
+
+"If you're sure there's nothing I can do at the office," she said, "I'll
+go on to the kensington at Mrs. Henderson's."
+
+"Don't forget to pick up all the news you can at the party," cautioned
+Helen.
+
+"I won't," promised her mother.
+
+Helen had just finished folding the papers when Tom returned with Milt
+Pearsall.
+
+The mechanic was a large, heavy-set man with a mop of unruly hair, eyes
+that twinkled a merry blue, and lips that constantly smiled.
+
+"Hello, Editor," he boomed. "Press broke again, Tom says. Huh, expected
+it to happen most anytime. Well, let's see what's the matter."
+
+He eased his bulk down under the press, dug into his tool kit for a
+flashlight and wormed his way into the machinery.
+
+"Get me the long wrench," he directed Tom.
+
+The request complied with, there followed a number of thumps and whacks
+of steel against steel, a groan as Pearsall bumped his head in the
+crowded quarters, and finally a grunt of satisfaction.
+
+The mechanic crawled from under the press, a smudge of ink across his
+forehead. He wiped his hands thoughtfully.
+
+"Some day," he ventured, "that old press is going to fall apart and I
+won't be able to tease it back again."
+
+"What was the trouble?" asked Tom.
+
+"Cross bar slipped out of place and dropped down so it caught and held
+the bed of the press from moving. Good thing you shut off the power or
+you might have snapped that rod. Then we'd have been out of luck until I
+could have made a new one."
+
+"How much will it be?" Tom asked.
+
+The big mechanic grinned.
+
+"Oh, that's all right, Tom," he chuckled. "Just forget to send me a bill
+for my subscription. That's the way your Dad and I did."
+
+"Thanks a lot for helping us out," said Tom, "and I'll see that you don't
+get a subscription dun."
+
+Tom climbed back to his place on the press, turned on the power and eased
+the clutch in gently. Helen watched anxiously, afraid that they might
+have another breakdown but the old machine clanked along steadily and she
+picked up the mounting pile of papers and returned to her task of
+folding.
+
+Paper after paper she assembled, folded and slid onto the pile on the
+chair. When the chair overflowed with papers she stopped and carried them
+into the editorial office and piled them on the floor.
+
+Tom finished his press run and went into the editorial office to get out
+their old hand mailer and start running the papers through to stamp the
+names and addresses on each one.
+
+After an hour of steady folding Helen's arms ached so severely she
+stopped working and went into the editorial office.
+
+"Getting tired?" Tom asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"You run the mailer for a while and I'll fold papers," said her brother.
+"That will give you a rest."
+
+Helen agreed and they switched work. She clicked the papers through the
+mailer at a steady pace.
+
+"Papers ready?" called the postmaster from his office in the front half
+of the _Herald_ building.
+
+"The city list is stamped and ready," replied Helen. "I'll bring them in
+right away."
+
+"Never mind," said Mr. Hughes, "I'll save you a trip."
+
+"Matter of fact," continued the postmaster when he entered the office, "I
+wanted to see what kind of an issue you two kids got out."
+
+Helen handed him an unstamped paper and he sat down in the one vacant
+chair. She valued the old postmaster's friendship highly and awaited his
+comment with unusual interest.
+
+"One of the best issues of the _Herald_ I've ever seen," he enthused when
+he had finished looking over the paper. "Your stories have got all your
+Dad's 'get up and go' and these headlines are something new for the
+_Herald_. Believe I like 'em."
+
+"Some people may not," said Helen, "so we'll appreciate all of the
+boosting you do."
+
+"I'll do plenty," he chuckled as he picked up an armful of papers and
+returned to the postoffice.
+
+Margaret Stevens bustled in after school in time to help carry the last
+of the papers to the postoffice and she insisted on sweeping out the
+editorial office.
+
+"You're just 'white' tired," she scolded Helen. "Sit down and I'll swing
+this broom a few times."
+
+"I am a little tired," admitted Helen. "How about you, Tom?"
+
+"Me for bed just as soon as I get home and have something to eat," agreed
+her brother. "Guess we were all worked up and nervous over our first
+issue."
+
+"You were a real help, Margaret," said Helen, "and I hope you'll like
+reporting well enough to stick with us."
+
+"I'm crazy about it," replied Margaret, wielding the broom with new
+vigor.
+
+Conversation among the sophomores the next morning at school was devoted
+solely to the class picnic in the afternoon. The refreshment committee
+had been busy and each member of the class was to furnish one thing.
+Helen was to bring pickles and Margaret's mother was baking a large
+chocolate cake.
+
+The class was dismissed at noon for the rest of the day, to meet again at
+one o'clock at Jim Preston's boat landing for the trip down the lake to
+the picnic grounds on Linder's farm.
+
+There were 18 in the sophomore class and it was necessary for the boatman
+to make two trips with the _Liberty_ to transport them to the picnic
+grounds. Helen and Margaret were in the first boat load and were the
+first ones out on the sandy beach at Linder's. The rambling old
+farmhouse, famous for its home cooked chicken dinners, set back several
+hundred feet from the lake shore. To the left of the farm was a dense
+grove of maples. The picnic was to be along the shore just in front of
+the maples where there was ample shade to protect the group from the warm
+rays of the sun.
+
+Miss Carver, the class advisor, rented two rowboats at Linder's, and the
+class took turns enjoying cruises along the shore, hunting unusual rocks
+and shells for their collection at school.
+
+The day previous Miss Carver and another teacher had come down the lake
+and made arrangements for a treasure hunt. The first clue was to be
+revealed at three o'clock and the class, divided into two groups, was to
+compete to see which group could find the hidden treasure. The first clue
+took them to the Linder farmyard, the second through the maples to an old
+sugarhouse, and the third brought them out of the timber and along a
+meadow where placid dairy cattle looked at them with wondering eyes. The
+fourth clue was found along the stream which cut through the meadow and
+Helen, leading one group, turned back toward the lake. A breeze was
+freshening out of the west and the sun dropped rapidly toward the shadows
+which were enfolding the hills.
+
+The final clue took them back to their picnic ground and they arrived
+just ahead of Margaret and her followers to claim the prize, a two pound
+box of chocolates.
+
+Miss Carver had laid out the baskets and hampers of food and the girls,
+helped by the boys in their clumsy way, started serving the supper.
+
+One of the boys built a bonfire and with the coming of twilight and the
+cooling of the air its warmth felt good. The flames chased the shadows
+back toward the timber and sent dancing reflections out on the ruffled
+waters of Lake Dubar.
+
+The afternoon in the open had whetted their appetites and they enjoyed
+their meal to the fullest. Thick, spicy sandwiches disappeared as if by
+magic, pickles followed in quick order and the mounds of potato salad
+melted away.
+
+They stopped for a second wind before attacking the cakes and cookies but
+when those fortresses of food had been conquered the boys cut and
+sharpened sticks and the girls opened a large sack of marshmallows.
+
+More wood was heaped on the fire and they gathered around the flames to
+toast the soft, white cubes.
+
+With the wind whispering through the trees and the steady lap, lap, lap
+of the waves on the shore, it was the hour for stories and they settled
+back from the fire to listen to Miss Carver, whose reputation as a story
+teller was unexcelled.
+
+"It was a night like this," she started, "and a class something like this
+one was on a picnic. After supper they sat down at the fire to tell ghost
+stories, each one trying to outdo the other in the horror of the things
+they told."
+
+From somewhere through the night came a long drawn out cry rising from a
+soft note to a high crescendo that sent shivers running up and down the
+back of everyone at the fireside.
+
+Helen laughed.
+
+"It's only the whistle of a freight train," she assured the others, but
+they all moved closer to the fire.
+
+"While they told stories," went on Miss Carver, "the blackness of the
+night increased, the stars faded and over all there was a canopy of such
+darkness as had never been seen before. The wind moaned dismally like a
+lost soul and the waters of the lake, white-capped by the breeze,
+chattered against the rocky beach. The last ghost story was being told by
+one of the boys. He told how people disappeared as if by magic, leaving
+no trace behind them, uttering no sound. Some of the other stories had
+been surprising, but this one gave the class the creeps and everyone
+turned to see if the others were there."
+
+Involuntarily Helen reached out to clasp Margaret's hand and when she
+failed to find it, turned to the spot where Margaret had been sitting
+beside her a few minutes before.
+
+Margaret had disappeared!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+                         _Rescue on Lake Dubar_
+
+
+Helen stared hard at the place where her friend should have been. Had the
+magic of Miss Carver's story been so strong that she was imagining
+things? She rubbed her eyes and looked again. There was no mistake.
+Margaret had disappeared!
+
+Helen's cry caught the attention of the other members of the class and
+Miss Carver stopped her story.
+
+"What's the matter, Helen?" the teacher asked.
+
+"Look," cried Helen dazedly, pointing to the spot where Margaret had been
+sitting, "Margaret's gone!"
+
+Miss Carver's eyes widened and she gave a little shudder. Then she smiled
+to reassure Helen and the other members of the class.
+
+"Probably Margaret slipped away and is hiding just to add a thrill to my
+ghost story. I'll call her."
+
+"Margaret, oh, Margaret!" The teacher's voice rang through the night. She
+cupped her hands and called again when there was no response to her first
+one. Once more she called but still there was no answer from the massed
+maples behind them or the dark waters of the lake.
+
+"This is more than a joke," muttered Ned Burns, the class president.
+"We'd better get out and have a look around."
+
+He stepped toward the fire, threw on an armful of fresh, dry sticks, and
+the flames leaped higher, throwing their reflection further into the
+night.
+
+"We'll take a look into the woods," he told Miss Carver, "and you and the
+girls hunt along the lake shore. Margaret might have fallen and hurt
+herself."
+
+Miss Carver agreed and the girls gathered around her. There was a queer
+tightness in Helen's throat and a tugging at her heart that unnerved
+her--a vague, pressing fear that something was decidedly wrong with
+Margaret.
+
+The boys disappeared into the shadows of the timber and the girls turned
+toward the lake shore.
+
+They had just started their search when Miss Carver made an important
+discovery.
+
+"Girls," she cried, "One of the rowboats we rented this afternoon is
+missing!"
+
+Helen ran toward the spot, the other girls crowding around her. They
+could make out the marks of the boat's keel in the sand and a girl's
+footprints.
+
+"Those prints were made by Margaret's shoes," said Helen. "You can see
+the marks of the heel plates she has on her oxfords."
+
+"We'll call the boys," said Miss Carver, and Helen thought she detected a
+real note of alarm in the teacher's voice although Miss Carver was making
+every possible effort to appear calm.
+
+When the boys arrived, Miss Carver told them of their discovery and Ned
+Burns took charge of the situation.
+
+"We'll get in the other rowboat," he said, "and start looking for
+Margaret. In the meantime, someone must go up to Linder's farmhouse and
+telephone town. Margaret's father ought to know she's out on the lake in
+the boat. Also call Jim Preston and if he hasn't started down with the
+_Liberty_, have him come at once."
+
+"I'll go to the farm," volunteered Helen.
+
+"O. K.," nodded Ned as he selected two other boys to accompany him in the
+rowboat. They pushed off the sandy beach, dropped the oars in the locks,
+and splashed away into the night.
+
+"Don't you want someone to go to the farmhouse with you?" Miss Carver
+asked Helen.
+
+But Helen shook her head and ran up the beach. She didn't want anyone
+with her; she wanted to be alone. The other girls didn't realize the
+seriousness of the situation. She could understand what Margaret had
+done. Realizing that Miss Carver would tell them a first rate thriller of
+a ghost story, Margaret had decided to add an extra thrill by
+disappearing for a few minutes. But something had gone wrong and she
+hadn't been able to get back.
+
+Helen paused and looked over the black, mysterious waters of Lake Dubar.
+What secret were they keeping from her? Thoughts of what might have
+happened to Margaret brought the queer, choky sobs again and she ran on
+toward Linder's where the welcome glow of light showed through the
+windows of the farmhouse.
+
+Old Mr. Linder came to the door in answer to Helen's quick, insistent
+knocks.
+
+"What's the matter, young Lady?" he asked, peering at her through the
+mellow radiance of the kerosene lamp which he held in one hand.
+
+"I'm Helen Blair," she explained, "and one of my classmates has
+disappeared from our picnic party down the beach. One of the boats we
+rented from you is missing and we're sure Margaret is adrift on the lake
+and unable to get back. I'd like to use your telephone to let her father
+know and to call Jim Preston."
+
+"Why, certainly," said Mr. Linder, "I don't wonder at your hurry. Come
+right in and use the phone. Who did you say the girl was?"
+
+"Margaret Stevens," Helen replied.
+
+"Must be Doctor Stevens' daughter," said the farmer.
+
+"She is," Helen replied, as she reached the telephone in the hallway.
+
+While Helen was ringing for the operator at Rolfe, Mr. Linder stuck his
+head in the living room.
+
+"Mother," he said, "Doctor Stevens' daughter is adrift somewhere on the
+lake in one of our boats. I'm going down and see if I can help find her."
+
+Mrs. Linder came into the hall and Helen heard her husband telling her
+what had happened. Then the Rolfe operator answered and Helen gave her
+the number of Doctor Stevens' office.
+
+The doctor answered almost instantly and Helen, phrasing her sentences as
+tactfully as possible so as not to unduly alarm the doctor, told him what
+had happened.
+
+"Sounds just like Margaret," he snorted. "I'll be right down. Now don't
+worry too much, Helen," he added.
+
+"I won't, Doctor Stevens," promised Helen with a shaky attempt at
+cheerfulness.
+
+Then she called Jim Preston's home and learned that he had left fifteen
+minutes before and should be almost down to Linder's.
+
+"We'll go down to the landing and wait for Jim," said Mr. Linder as he
+lighted a lantern he had brought from the kitchen.
+
+"Everything will come out all right," Mrs. Linder assured Helen.
+
+The farmer led the way down to the landing. The wind was freshening
+rapidly and Helen saw Mr. Linder anxiously watching the white caps which
+were pounding against the sandy beach.
+
+Down the beach their picnic campfire was a red glow and Helen could see
+Miss Hughes and the girls huddled around it. The boys who had not
+accompanied Ned Burns were walking up and down along the shore.
+
+She turned and looked up the lake. Two lights, one red and one green, the
+markers of the _Liberty_, were coming down the lake.
+
+"Jim Preston will be here in another minute," said Mr. Linder, "and with
+the searchlight he's got on the _Liberty_ it won't take us long to find
+Doctor Stevens' daughter."
+
+Helen nodded miserably as the _Liberty_ slowed down and swung its nose
+toward the Linder pier. There was the grinding of the reverse gear as Jim
+Preston checked the speed of his boat and left it drift against the pier.
+
+"Don't shut it off, Jim," cried the farmer. "Doc Stevens' daughter is
+adrift in the lake in one of my rowboats. We've got to go out and look
+for her."
+
+They climbed into the boat and Jim Preston backed the _Liberty_ away from
+the pier.
+
+"How did it happen?" he asked Helen. She told him briefly and he shook
+his head, as though to say, "too bad, it's getting to be a nasty night on
+the lake."
+
+The boatman opened the throttle, the motor roared its response and the
+_Liberty_ leaped ahead and down the lake. They ran parallel to the shore
+until they were opposite the picnic ground. There Jim Preston slowed
+down, got the direction of the wind, and turned the nose of the _Liberty_
+toward the open and now wind-tossed lake. He snapped on the switch and a
+crackling, blue beam of light cut a path ahead of the boat.
+
+"Keep the searchlight moving," he directed the farmer, who stood up in
+the _Liberty_, his hands on the handles of the big, nickel lamp.
+
+The boatman held the _Liberty_ at about one third speed and they moved
+almost directly across the lake while Mr. Linder kept the searchlight
+swinging in an arc to cover the largest possible area.
+
+A third of the way across they sighted a boat far to their right and Jim
+Preston swung the nose of the _Liberty_ around sharply and opened the
+throttle. They sliced through the white caps at a pace that drenched them
+with the flying spray but they were too intent on reaching the distant
+boat to stop and put up the spray boards.
+
+Helen's keen eyes were the first to identify the boat.
+
+"It's the boys," she cried. "They're beckoning us on."
+
+Jim Preston checked the _Liberty_ carefully and nosed alongside the
+tossing rowboat.
+
+"No sign of Margaret," admitted Ned Burns, "and the lake's getting too
+rough for us to stay out much longer. We've had half a dozen waves break
+over us now."
+
+"Better get in with us," advised Preston.
+
+"Hand me the oars," said Mr. Linder, "and we'll let the rowboat drift.
+I'll pick it up in the morning."
+
+The boys tossed their oars into the _Liberty_ and scrambled up into the
+motorboat.
+
+Jim Preston threw in the clutch and the _Liberty_ leaped ahead to resume
+its search for Margaret. Helen's lips were dry and fevered despite the
+steady showers of spray and her heart hammered madly. Lake Dubar had
+always had a nasty reputation for ugliness in a fresh, sharp wind but
+Helen had never before realized its true danger and what a lost and
+helpless feeling one could have on it at night, especially when a friend
+was missing.
+
+There was no conversation as the _Liberty_ continued across the choppy
+expanse of the lake. The searchlight picked up the far shore of the lake
+with the waves hammering against the rocks which lined that particular
+section. It was a grim, unnerving picture and Helen saw Jim Preston's jaw
+harden as he swung the _Liberty_ around the cross back to Linder's side
+of the lake.
+
+Back and forth the searchlight swung in its steady, never tiring arc, but
+it revealed only the danger of Lake Dubar at night. There was no sign of
+Margaret.
+
+They reached the shore from which they had started and turned around for
+a third trip across the lake. This time they slapped through the waves at
+twenty-five miles an hour and every eye was trained to watch for some
+sign of the missing boat and girl.
+
+Helen caught a flash of white just as the searchlight reached the end of
+its arc.
+
+"Wait!" she cried. "I saw something far to the right."
+
+Preston slapped the wheel of the _Liberty_ over and the speedboat roared
+away in the direction Helen pointed, its questing searchlight combing the
+waves.
+
+"There it is again," Helen cried and pointed straight ahead where they
+could discern some object half hidden by the waves.
+
+"That's one of my boats," muttered old Mr. Linder as they drew nearer,
+"but it doesn't look like there was anyone in it."
+
+"Don't, don't say that!" cried Helen. "There must be someone there.
+Margaret must be in it!"
+
+In her heart she knew Mr. Linder was right. The boat was rolling in the
+choppy waves and there was no one visible.
+
+"It's half full of water," exclaimed Ned Burns as they drew nearer and
+Jim Preston throttled down the _Liberty_ and eased in the clutch.
+
+Helen pushed them aside and stared at the rowboat, fully revealed in the
+glaring rays of the searchlight. Tragedy was dancing on the waters of
+Lake Dubar that night, threatening to write an indelible chapter on the
+hearts of Helen and her classmates for there was no sign of Margaret in
+the boat.
+
+"Maybe she shoved the boat out into the lake and hid in the woods," said
+Ned Burns.
+
+"She wouldn't do that," protested Helen.
+
+They edged nearer the rowboat, Preston handling the _Liberty_ with care
+lest the waves created by the boat's powerful propeller capsize the
+smaller boat.
+
+"There's something or someone in the back end," cried Ned Burns, who was
+three or four inches taller than anyone else in the boat.
+
+Helen stood on tip-toe.
+
+"It's Margaret," she cried. "Something's wrong. It looks like she's
+asleep."
+
+But sleep in a water-logged rowboat in the middle of Lake Dubar was out
+of the question and Helen realized instantly that something unusual had
+happened to Margaret, something which would explain the whole joke which
+had turned out to be such a ghastly nightmare.
+
+Jim Preston eased the _Liberty_ alongside the rowboat and Mr. Linder
+reached down and picked Margaret up. There was a dark bruise over her
+left eye and her clothes were soaked.
+
+The boatman found an old blanket in one of the lockers and they wrapped
+Margaret in it and pillowed her head in Helen's lap.
+
+Margaret's eyes were closed tightly but she was breathing slowly and her
+pulse was irregular.
+
+"Hurry," Helen whispered to Jim Preston. "Head for Linder's. Her father
+will be there by this time."
+
+The boatman sensed the alarm in Helen's words and he jerked open the
+throttle of the _Liberty_ and sent the boat racing through the night. In
+less than five minutes they were slowing down for the pier. The lights of
+a car were at the shore end of the landing and someone with an electric
+torch was awaiting their arrival. It was Doctor Stevens, pacing along the
+planks of the landing stage.
+
+"Have you found Margaret?" he cried as the _Liberty_ sidled up to the
+pier.
+
+"Got her right here," replied Jim Preston, "but she's got a bad bump on
+her head."
+
+Doctor Stevens jumped into the boat and turned his flashlight on
+Margaret's face. Helen saw his lips tighten into a thin straight line. He
+felt her pulse.
+
+"Run ahead," he told Ned Burns, "and tell Mother Linder to open one of
+those spare beds of hers and get me plenty of hot water."
+
+He stooped and picked Margaret up in his arms, carrying her like a baby.
+Mr. Linder hurried ahead to light the way.
+
+Helen stopped to talk with Jim Preston for a moment.
+
+"I think you'd better take the class home," she said. "There's nothing
+more they can do here."
+
+"Will you go back with them now?" asked the boatman.
+
+"No, I'm going to stay here tonight. I'll phone mother."
+
+Helen turned and ran toward the farmhouse. Inside there was an air of
+quiet, suppressed activity.
+
+Doctor Stevens had carried Margaret into the large downstairs bedroom
+which Mother Linder reserved for company occasions. Two kerosene lamps on
+a table beside the bed gave a rich light which softened the pallor of
+Margaret's cheeks.
+
+Doctor Stevens was busy with an injection from a hypodermic needle,
+working as though against time. Tragedy had danced on the tips of the
+waves a few minutes earlier but how close it came to entering the
+farmhouse only Doctor Stevens knew at that hour for Margaret's strength,
+sapped by the terrifying experience on the lake, was near the breaking
+point and only the injection of a strong heart stimulant saved her life.
+
+Two hours later, hours which had been ages long to Helen as she sat
+beside the bed with the doctor, Margaret opened her eyes.
+
+"Don't talk, Marg," begged Helen. "Everything is all right. You're in a
+bedroom at the Linders and your father is here with you."
+
+Margaret nodded slightly and closed her eyes. It was another hour before
+she moved again and when she did Mother Linder was at hand with a
+steaming bowl of chicken broth. The nourishing food plus the hour of calm
+sleep had partially restored Margaret's strength and when she had
+finished the broth she sat up in bed.
+
+"I've been such a little fool," she said, but her father patted her hand.
+
+"Don't apologize for what's happened," he said. "We're just supremely
+happy to have you here," his voice so low that only Margaret and Helen
+heard him.
+
+"I thought it would be a good joke to disappear when Miss Carver started
+telling the ghost story," explained Margaret. "I got the boat out into
+the lake without anyone seeing me and let it drift several hundred feet.
+When I tried to put the oars in the locks I stumbled, dropped them
+overboard and that's the last I knew, except that for hours I was
+falling, falling, falling, and always there was the noise of the waves."
+
+Margaret slipped back into a deep, restful sleep when she had finished
+her story. Helen, worn by the hours of tension, slid out of her chair and
+onto the floor, and when Doctor Stevens picked her up she was sound
+asleep.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+                        _Behind the Footlights_
+
+
+By the first of the following week the near tragedy of the picnic seemed
+only a terrible nightmare to Helen and Margaret and they devoted all of
+their extra time to helping Tom get out the next edition of the _Herald_.
+
+Monday morning's mail brought a long letter from Helen's father, a letter
+in which he praised them warmly for their first edition of the _Herald_.
+He added that he had recovered from the fatigue of his long trip into the
+southwest and was feeling much stronger and a great deal more cheerful.
+The newsy letter brightened the whole atmosphere of the Blair home and
+for the first time since their father had left, Tom and Helen saw their
+mother like her old self, smiling, happy and humming little tunes as she
+worked about the house.
+
+Events crowded one on another as the school year neared its close. There
+were final examinations, the junior-senior banquet, the annual sophomore
+party and finally, graduation exercises.
+
+The seniors had been rehearsing their play, "The Spell of the Image," for
+a month and for the final week had engaged a special dramatic instructor
+from Cranston to put the finishing touches on the cast. Helen had read
+the play several times. It was a comedy-drama concerning the finding of
+an ancient and valuable string of pearls in an old image. It had action,
+mystery and romance and she thrilled when she thought that in two more
+years she would be in her own class play.
+
+The dramatic instructor arrived. She was Anne Weeks, a slender,
+dark-haired girl of 25 who had attended the state university and majored
+in dramatics. Every boy in high school promptly thought he was in love
+with her.
+
+The seniors rehearsed their parts every spare hour and every evening. The
+play was to go on Thursday night with the graduation exercises Friday
+evening.
+
+Dress rehearsal was called for Tuesday and Helen went down to the opera
+house to peek in and see how it was going. She found a disconsolate cast
+sitting around the stage, looking gloomily at Miss Weeks.
+
+"This looks more like a party of mourners than a play practice," observed
+Helen.
+
+"It's just about that bad," replied Miss Weeks. "Sarah Jacobs has come
+down with a severe cold and can't talk, which leaves us in a fine
+pickle."
+
+"Won't she be able to go on Thursday night?"
+
+"It will be at least a week before she'll be able to use her voice for a
+whole evening," Miss Weeks said. "In the meantime, we've got to find
+another girl, about Sarah's size, to play her part and every member of
+the senior class is in the play now."
+
+She stopped suddenly and looked at Helen.
+
+"You're about Sarah's size," she mused, "and you're blonde and you have
+blue eyes. You'll do, Helen."
+
+"Do for what?" asked the astounded Helen.
+
+"Why, for Sarah's part," exclaimed Miss Weeks. "Come now, hurry up and
+get into Sarah's costume," and she pointed to a dainty colonial dress
+which the unfortunate Sarah was to have worn in the prologue.
+
+"But I don't know Sarah's part well enough," said Helen. "I've only read
+the play twice and then just for fun."
+
+"You'll catch on," said Miss Weeks, "if you're half as smart as I think
+you are."
+
+"Go on, Helen," urged the seniors. "Help us out. We've got to put the
+play across or we'll never have enough money to pay Miss Weeks."
+
+"Now you know why I'm so anxious for you to take the part," smiled the
+play instructor.
+
+"I'll do my best," promised Helen, gathering the costume under her arm
+and hurrying toward the girls' dressing room.
+
+Ten minutes later she emerged as a dainty colonial dame. Miss Weeks
+stared hard at her and then smiled an eminently satisfactory smile.
+
+"Now if she can only get the lines in two nights," she whispered to
+herself.
+
+Helen's reading of the play had given her a thorough understanding of the
+action and they went through the prologue without a slip. Scenery was
+shifted rapidly and the stage changed from a colonial ballroom to a
+modern garden scene. Costumes kept up with the scenery and when the
+members of the cast reappeared on the stage they were dressed in modern
+clothes.
+
+Helen poured over the pages of the play book and because she had only a
+minor part in the first act, got through it nicely. The second act was
+her big scene and she was decidedly nervous when it came time for her
+cue. One of the seniors was to make love to her and she didn't especially
+like him. But the play was the thing and the seniors certainly did need
+someone to take the vacant part.
+
+She screwed up her courage and played the rôle for all it was worth. Once
+she forgot her lines but she managed to fake a little conversation and
+they got back to the regular lines without trouble.
+
+When the curtain was rung down on the third act Miss Weeks stepped out of
+the orchestra pit where she had been directing the changes in minor
+details of the action and came over to Helen.
+
+"You're doing splendidly," she told the young editor of the _Herald_.
+"Don't worry about lines. Read them over thoroughly sometime tomorrow and
+we'll put the finishing touches on tomorrow night."
+
+When Helen reached home Tom had returned from the office, his work done
+for the night.
+
+"Thought you were just going down the street to see how play practice was
+coming?" he said.
+
+"I did," Helen replied, "and I'm so thrilled, Tom. Sarah Jacobs, who has
+the juvenile lead in the play is ill with a sore throat and Miss Weeks
+asked me to take the part."
+
+"Are you going to?"
+
+"I have," smiled Helen. "That's where I've been. Rehearsing for the play
+Thursday night."
+
+"Well, you're a fine editor," growled Tom. "How am I going to get out the
+paper?"
+
+"Oh, you don't need to worry about copy," Helen assured him. "Margaret
+has half a dozen stories to turn in tomorrow noon and I'll have all of
+mine written by supper time. And I'll do my usual work Thursday
+afternoon."
+
+"I was just kidding," grinned Tom. "I think it's great that Miss Weeks
+picked you to fill in during the emergency. Quite a compliment, I say."
+
+Helen's mother, who had been across the street at the Stevens', came home
+and Helen had to tell her story over again.
+
+"What about your costumes?" asked her mother.
+
+"The class rents the colonial dress for the prologue," explained Helen,
+"and for the other acts Miss Weeks is going to loan me some smart frocks
+from her own wardrobe. We're practically the same size."
+
+"What a break for you," Tom laughed. "You'll be the smartest dressed girl
+in the class if I know anything about Miss Weeks."
+
+"Which you don't!" retorted his sister.
+
+Helen's regular Wednesday morning round of news gathering took her to the
+depot to meet the nine forty-five and she found the agent waiting.
+
+"Remember I promised you a story this week?" he said.
+
+"I'm ready to take it," Helen smiled. "What we want is news, more news
+and then more news."
+
+"This is really a good story," the railroad man assured her. "Wait until
+you see the nine forty-five."
+
+"What's the matter? Is it two or three hours late?"
+
+"It will be in right on time," the agent promised.
+
+Helen sat down on a box on the platform to await the arrival of the
+morning local. Resting there in the warm sunshine, she pulled her copy of
+the play book out of her pocket and read the second act, with her big
+scene, carefully. The words were natural enough and she felt that she
+would have little trouble remembering them.
+
+She glanced at the depot clock. It was nine forty. The local should be
+whistling for the crossing down the valley. She looked in the direction
+from which the train was coming. There was no sign of smoke and she knew
+it would be late.
+
+She had picked up her play book and turned to the third act when a mellow
+chime echoed through the valley. It was like a locomotive whistle and yet
+unlike one.
+
+"New whistle on the old engine?" Helen asked the agent.
+
+"More than that," he grinned.
+
+The _Herald's_ editor watched for the train to swing into sight around a
+curve but instead of the black, stubby snout of the regular passenger
+engine, a train of three cars, seemingly moving without a locomotive,
+appeared and rolled smoothly toward the station.
+
+As it came nearer Helen could hear the low roar of a powerful gasoline
+engine, which gradually dropped to a sputtering series of coughs as the
+three car train drew abreast the station.
+
+"Latest thing in local trains," exclaimed the agent. "It's a gas-electric
+outfit with the motive power in the front end of the first car. Fast,
+clean and smooth and it's economical to run. Don't take a fireman."
+
+Helen jotted down hasty notes. Everyone in the town and countryside would
+be interested in seeing and reading about the new train.
+
+The agent gave Helen a hand into the cab where the engineer obligingly
+explained the operation of the gas-electric engine.
+
+The conductor called "All aboo-ord," and Helen climbed down out of the
+cab.
+
+The gasoline engine sputtered as it took up the load of starting the
+train. When the cars were once under way, it settled down to a steady
+rumble and the train picked up speed rapidly and rolled out of town on
+its way to the state capital.
+
+"What do you think of it?" asked the agent.
+
+"It's certainly a fine piece of equipment," said Helen, "but I hate to
+see the old steam engines go. There's something much more romantic about
+them than these new trains."
+
+"Oh, we'll have steam on the freight trains," the agent hastened to add.
+"Give us a good write up."
+
+"I will," Helen promised as she started for the _Herald_ office to write
+her story of the passing of the steam passenger trains on the branch
+line.
+
+Margaret came in with a handful of school stories she had written during
+an assembly hour.
+
+"Congratulations," she said to Helen. "I've just heard about your part.
+You'll put it across."
+
+"I'm glad you think so, Marg, for I'd hate to make a fizzle of it."
+
+Helen finished writing her copy for the paper that afternoon after school
+and before she went home to supper with Tom wrote the headlines for the
+main stories on page one.
+
+"Did you write a story about the sophomore picnic and what happened to
+Margaret?" asked Tom.
+
+"It's with the copy I just put on your machine," Helen replied. "Everyone
+knows something about it and of course there is a lot of talk. I've seen
+Doctor Stevens and Margaret and they both agree that a story is necessary
+and that the simple truth is the best thing to say with no apologies and
+nothing covered up."
+
+"Doc Stevens is a brick," exclaimed Tom. "Most men would raise the very
+dickens if such a story were printed but it will stop idle talk which is
+certainly much worse than having the truth known."
+
+"That's the way he feels," Helen said.
+
+Margaret came over after supper to go down to the opera house with Helen
+for play practice.
+
+"I'm getting almost as big a thrill out of it as Helen," she told Mrs.
+Blair, "only I wouldn't be able to put it across and Helen can."
+
+Miss Weeks had brought three dresses for Helen to wear, one for each act
+in the play. They were dainty, colorful frocks that went well with
+Helen's blondness.
+
+The stage was set with all of the properties for the prologue and Helen
+hastened into the girl's dressing room to put on her colonial costume.
+When she returned to the stage, Miss Weeks was addressing the cast.
+
+"Remember," she warned them, "that this is the last rehearsal. Everything
+is just as it will be tomorrow night. Imagine the audience is here
+tonight. Play up to them."
+
+The main curtain was dropped, the house lights went off and the battery
+of brilliant electrics in the footlights blazed.
+
+The curtain moved slightly; then went up smoothly and disappeared in the
+darkness above the stage. The play was on.
+
+The prologue went smoothly and without a mistake and when the curtain
+dropped the stage became a scene of feverish activity.
+
+"Five minutes to change," Miss Weeks warned them as they went to their
+dressing rooms.
+
+For the first act Helen was to wear a white sport dress with a blazing
+red scarf knotted loosely around her neck. She wiggled into her outfit,
+brushed her hair with deft hands, dabbed fresh powder on her cheeks,
+touched up her lips with scarlet and was ready for her cue. She said her
+lines with an ease and clearness that surprised even herself and was back
+in the wings and on her way to the dressing room almost before she knew
+it.
+
+In the second act Helen had her big part and Miss Weeks had provided a
+black, velvet semiformal afternoon gown. It was fashioned in plain,
+clinging lines, caught around the waist with a single belt of braided
+cloth of gold and with the neckline trimmed in the same material. Golden
+slippers and hose and one bracelet, a heavy, imitation gold band,
+completed the accessories.
+
+Between acts Miss Weeks came into see how the costume fitted.
+
+"Why, Helen," she exclaimed. "You're gorgeous--beautiful. Every boy in
+town will be crazy about you."
+
+"I'll worry about that later," Helen replied. "But I'm so glad you think
+I look all right."
+
+"You're perfectly adorable."
+
+The praise from Miss Weeks buoyed Helen with an inner courage that made
+her fairly sparkle and she played her part for all it was worth. Again
+she forgot her lines but she managed to escape by faking conversation.
+
+When the rehearsal was over, Margaret hastened to the stage.
+
+"You'll be the hit of the show," she whispered to Helen. "And think of
+it, one of the sophomores running away with the seniors play."
+
+"But I don't intend to do that," Helen replied. "I'm only here to help
+them out. Besides, I may forget my lines and make some terrible mistake
+tomorrow night."
+
+"You'll do nothing of the kind," Margaret insisted, as they left the
+theater.
+
+Thursday was Helen's busy day. Final examinations for two periods in the
+morning and then to the office after lunch to help Tom fold and mail the
+week's edition of the _Herald_.
+
+Tom had put the two pages for the last run on the press before going home
+for lunch so when they returned the press was ready for the afternoon's
+work.
+
+Advertising had not been quite as heavy as the first week and Tom had
+used every line of copy Helen had written, but the paper looked clean and
+readable.
+
+Helen stacked the papers on the makeup table and started folding. When
+Tom finished the press run he folded while Helen started stamping the
+names of the subscribers on the papers. By four o'clock every paper was
+in the postoffice and half an hour later they were ready to call it a day
+and lock up the office.
+
+When Helen reached home her mother made her go to her room and rest for
+an hour before supper.
+
+They were eating when Margaret hurried in.
+
+"Here are your tickets," she told Mrs. Blair. "I managed to get them
+exchanged so we'll all be together."
+
+"But I thought you had decided not to go to the play?" Helen said to her
+mother.
+
+"That was before you had a part in it," smiled Mrs. Blair.
+
+"Where are you going to sit?"
+
+"You don't want to know," put in Tom. "If you did, it would make you
+nervous. It's bad enough to know that we'll be there."
+
+The cast had been called to meet on the stage at seven-fifteen for last
+minute instructions. The curtain was at eight-fifteen and that would give
+them an hour to dress and get into makeup.
+
+Miss Weeks had little to say when she faced the group of seniors and the
+lone sophomore.
+
+"Remember that this is no different from last night's rehearsal," she
+told them. "Play up to each other. If you forget a few lines, fake the
+conversation until you can get back to your cues. You will disappoint me
+greatly if you don't put on the best senior play ever given in Rolfe."
+
+Then they were swept away in the rush of last minute preparations for the
+first call. The girl's dressing room was filled with the excited chatter
+of a dozen girls and the air was thick with the smell of grease paint and
+powder. Colonial costumes came out of the large wardrobe which filled one
+side of the room and there was the crisp rustle of silk as the girls
+donned their costumes. Miss Weeks moved through the room, adding a touch
+of makeup here and taking off a bit where some over-zealous young actress
+had been too enthusiastic.
+
+"Ten minutes," Miss Weeks warned the girls. "Everyone out and on the
+stage."
+
+There was a general checkup on costumes and stage properties. Through the
+heavy curtain Helen heard the high school orchestra swing into the
+overture. The electrician moved the rheostat which dimmed the house
+lights. The banks of electrics in the flies about the stage awoke into
+glaring brilliance as the overture reached its crescendo. The stage was
+very quiet. Everyone was ready for the curtain.
+
+All eyes were on Miss Weeks and Helen felt a last second flutter of her
+heart. In another second or two she would be in the full glare of the
+footlights. She was thankful that she had only a few lines in the
+prologue. It would give her time to gain a stage composure and prepare
+for her big scene in the second act.
+
+Miss Weeks' hand moved. The man at the curtain shifted and it started
+slowly upward. Helen blinked involuntarily as she faced the full glare of
+the footlights. Beyond them she could see only a sea of faces, extending
+row on row toward the back of the theater. Somewhere out there her mother
+and Tom would be watching her. And with them would be Margaret and her
+parents.
+
+The play was on and Helen forgot her first nervousness. Dainty colonial
+dames moved about the stage and curtsied before gallant white-wigged
+gentlemen. The prologue was short but colorful. Just enough to reveal
+that a precious string of pearls had been hidden in the ugly little image
+which reposed so calmly on a pedestal.
+
+As the curtain descended, a wave of applause reached the stage. It was
+ardent and prolonged and Miss Weeks motioned for the cast to remain in
+their places. The curtain ascended half way and the cast curtsied before
+it descended again.
+
+"You're doing splendidly," Miss Weeks told them. "Now everyone to the
+dressing rooms to change for the first act. Be back on the stage ready to
+go in five minutes."
+
+The girls flocked to the dressing room. Colonial costumes disappeared and
+modern dresses took their place. Helen slipped into her white sport
+outfit with the scarlet scarf. Her cheeks burned with the excitement of
+the hour. She dabbed her face with a powder puff and returned to the
+stage. The scenery had been shifted for the first act and the curtain
+went up on time to the second.
+
+Helen felt much easier. Her first feeling of stage fright had disappeared
+and she knew she was the master of her own emotions. She refused to think
+of the possibility of forgetting her lines and resolved to put herself
+into the character she was playing and do and act in the coming
+situations, as that character would do.
+
+Helen was on the stage only a few minutes during the first act and she
+had ample time to change for the second. The dressing room was almost
+deserted and she took her time. The heavy, black velvet dress Miss Weeks
+had loaned her was entrancing in its rich beauty and distinctiveness.
+
+She combed her blond hair until it looked like burnished gold. Then she
+pulled it back and caught it at the nape of her neck. It was the most
+simple hair dress possible but the most effective in its sheer
+simplicity.
+
+Other girls crowded into the room. The first act was over. Miss Weeks
+came in and Helen stood up.
+
+"Wonderful, Helen, wonderful," murmured the instructor, but not so loud
+that the other girls would hear.
+
+There was the call for the second act and Helen went onto the stage. The
+senior she played opposite came up.
+
+"All set?" he asked.
+
+Helen smiled, just a bit grimly, for she was determined to play her part
+for all it was worth.
+
+The orchestra stopped playing and the curtain slid upward. She heard her
+cue and walked into the radiance of the lights. She heard the senior, her
+admirer in the play, talking to her. He was telling her of his recent
+adventures and how, at the end of a long, moonlit trail, he had finally
+come upon the girl of his dreams.
+
+Then she heard herself replying, protesting that there was no such thing
+as love at first sight, but that ardent young Irish adventurer refused no
+for an answer and Helen backed away from him.
+
+She heard a warning hiss from the wings but it was too late. She walked
+backwards into a pedestal with a vase of flowers.
+
+There was a sudden crash of the falling pedestal and the tinkle of
+breaking glass.
+
+The audience roared with laughter.
+
+Helen was stunned for the moment. In her chance to make good in high
+school dramatics she had clumsily backed into the stand and upset it,
+breaking the vase. Tears welled into her eyes and her lips trembled. The
+senior was staring at her, too surprised to talk.
+
+The laughter continued, and Helen seized the only chance for escape.
+Could she make it appear that the accident was a part of the play, a
+deliberate bit of comedy?
+
+"Smile," she whispered to the senior. "We can make it look like a part of
+the play. Follow my cue." He nodded slightly to show that he understood.
+
+The laughter subsided enough for them to continue their lines and Helen
+managed to smile. She hoped it wouldn't look too forced.
+
+"Look what you made me do," she said, pointing at the wreckage of the
+vase.
+
+"Sorry," smiled the senior. "I'm just that way about you."
+
+Then they swung back into the lines of the play and three minutes later
+Helen was again in the wings.
+
+Miss Weeks was waiting for her and Helen expected a sharp criticism.
+
+"Supreme comedy," congratulated the dramatic instructor. "How did you
+happen to think of that?"
+
+"But I didn't think of it," protested Helen. "It was an accident. I was
+scared to death."
+
+Miss Weeks stared at her hard.
+
+"Well," she commented, "you certainly carried it off splendidly. It was
+the best comedy touch of the show."
+
+The third act went on and then "The Spell of the Image" was over. The
+curtain came down on the final curtain call. The orchestra blared as the
+audience left the hall while parents and friends trooped onto the stage
+to congratulate the members of the cast.
+
+Helen suddenly felt very tired and there was a mist in her eyes, but she
+brightened visibly when her mother and Tom, followed by the Stevens,
+pushed through the crowd. She listened eagerly to their praises and to
+Tom's whole-hearted exclamations over her beauty and charm.
+
+Then the lights of the stage dimmed. She had had her hour as an actress;
+she knew she had acquitted herself well. The smell of grease, paint and
+powder faded and she was a newspaperwoman again--the editor of the
+_Herald_.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+                              _New Plans_
+
+
+With the end of the school year Tom and Helen were able to give their
+complete time and energies to the _Herald_. When Monday, the first of
+June arrived, they were working on their fourth issue of the _Herald_ and
+Helen had written a number of stories on the last week's activities at
+school, the graduation exercises, the junior-senior dinner and the senior
+class play. She praised Miss Weeks highly for her work with the class
+play and lauded the seniors for their fine acting. Although urged that
+she say something about her own part, Helen steadfastly refused and her
+brother finally gave up in disgust and delved in to the ledger for on his
+shoulders fell the task of making out the monthly bills and handling all
+of the business details of the paper.
+
+When Tom had completed his bookkeeping he turned to his sister.
+
+"Helen," he began, "we're not making enough."
+
+"But, Tom," she protested, "the paper is carrying more advertising than
+when Dad ran it."
+
+"Yes, but our expenses are high," said Tom. "We've got to look ahead all
+the time. Dad will have used all of the money he took with him in a
+little less than six months. After that it will be up to us to have the
+cash in the bank. Right now we've just a little under a hundred dollars
+in the bank. Current bills will take more than that, and our own living
+expenses, that is for mother and we two, will run at least $100 a month.
+With our total income from the paper only slightly more than $200 a month
+on the basis of the present amount of advertising, you see we're not
+going to be able to save much toward helping Dad."
+
+"Then we'll have to find ways of increasing our volume of business," said
+Helen.
+
+"That won't be easy to do in a town this size," replied Tom, "and I won't
+go out and beg for advertising."
+
+"No one is going to ask you to," said Helen. "We'll make the _Herald_
+such a bright, outstanding paper that all of the business men will want
+to advertise."
+
+"We'll do the best we can," agreed Tom.
+
+"Then let's start right now by putting in a farm page," suggested Helen.
+
+"But there won't be many farm sales from now on," argued Tom.
+
+"No," conceded his sister, "but there is haying, threshing and then corn
+picking and all of the stores have supplies to sell to the farmers."
+
+"I believe you're right. If you'll do the collecting this afternoon, I'll
+go down to Gladbrook and see if we can get the cooperation of the county
+agent. Lots of the townships near here have farm bureaus and I'll get the
+names of all of their leaders and we'll write and tell them what we plan
+to do."
+
+After lunch Tom teased the family flivver into motion and set out for
+Gladbrook while Helen took the sheaf of bills and started the rounds of
+the business houses. She had no trouble getting her money from all of the
+regular advertisers and in every store in which she stopped she took care
+to ask the owner about news of the store and of his family. She noticed
+that it flattered each one and she resolved to call on them at least once
+a week.
+
+Tom returned from Gladbrook late in the afternoon. He was enthusiastic
+over the success of his talk with the county agent.
+
+"He's a fine chap," Tom explained. "Had a course in agricultural
+journalism in college and knows news and how to write it. The Gladbrook
+papers, the _News_ and the _Times_, don't come up in this section of the
+county and he'll be only too glad to send us a column each week."
+
+"When will he start?"
+
+"Next week will be the first one. He'll mail his column every Tuesday
+evening and we'll have it on the Wednesday morning mail. Now, here's even
+better news. I went to several of the department stores at Gladbrook and
+told them we were going to put out a real farm page. They're actually
+anxious to buy space and by driving down there once a week I can get two
+or three good ads."
+
+"How will the local merchants feel?" asked Helen.
+
+"They won't object," replied Tom, "for I was careful to stress that I
+would only accept copy which would not conflict with that used by our
+local stores."
+
+"That was a wise thing to do," Helen said. "We can't afford to antagonize
+our local advertisers. I made the rounds and collected all of the regular
+accounts. There's only about eighteen dollars outstanding on this month's
+bills and I'll get all but about five dollars of that before the week is
+over."
+
+"Want to go to Cranston Friday or Saturday?" asked Tom.
+
+"I surely do," Helen replied. "But what for, Tom, and can we afford it?"
+
+"One of us will have to make the trip," her brother said. "Putting on
+this farm page means we'll have to print two more pages at home, six
+altogether, and will need only two pages of ready-print a week from the
+World Printing Company. We'll go down and talk with their manager at
+Cranston and select the features we want for the two pages they will
+continue to print for us."
+
+"Our most important features in the ready-print now are the comics, the
+serial story and the fashion news for women," said Helen.
+
+"Then we'll have one page of comics," said Tom, "and fill the other page
+with features of special interest to our women readers."
+
+The next three days found the young Blairs so busy getting out the
+current edition of the paper that they had little time to talk about
+their plans.
+
+They had decided to go to Cranston Friday but when Helen found that there
+were special rates for Saturday, they postponed the trip one day. When
+the Friday morning mail arrived, Helen was glad they had changed their
+plans. While sorting the handful of letters, most of them circulars
+destined for the wastepaper basket, she came upon the letter she had been
+looking forward to for days. The words in the upper left hand corner
+thrilled her. It was from the Cranston bureau of the Associated Press.
+
+With fingers that trembled slightly, she tore it open. Would she get the
+job as Rolfe correspondent? A green slip dropped out of the envelope and
+Tom, who had come in from the composing room, reached down and picked it
+up.
+
+"Ten dollars!" he whistled.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Helen, incredulously.
+
+"It's your check from the Associated Press for covering the tornado,"
+explained Tom. "Look!"
+
+Helen took the slip of crisp, green paper. She wasn't dreaming. It was a
+check, made out in her name and for $10.
+
+"But there must be some mistake," she protested. "They didn't mean to pay
+me that much."
+
+"If you think there's a mistake," grinned Tom, "you can go and see them
+when we reach Cranston tomorrow. However, if I were you, I'd tuck it in
+my pocket, invite my brother across the street to the drug store, and buy
+him a big ice cream soda."
+
+"Wait until I see what the letter says," replied Helen. She pulled it out
+of the envelope and Tom leaned over to read it with her.
+
+"Dear Miss Blair," it started, "enclosed you will find check for your
+fine work in reporting the tornado near Rolfe. Please consider this
+letter as your appointment as Rolfe correspondent for the Associated
+Press. Serious accidents, fires of more than $5,000 damage and deaths of
+prominent people should be sent as soon as possible. Telegraph or
+telephone, sending all your messages collect. In using the telegraph,
+send messages by press rate collect when the story is filed in the
+daytime. If at night, send them night press collect. And remember, speed
+counts but accuracy must come first. Stories of a feature or time nature
+should be mailed. We are counting on you to protect us on all news that
+breaks in and near Rolfe. Very truly yours, Alva McClintock,
+Correspondent in charge of the Cranston Bureau."
+
+"He certainly said a lot in a few words," was Tom's comment. "Now you're
+one up on me. You're editor of the _Herald_ and Associated Press
+correspondent and I'm only business manager."
+
+"Don't get discouraged," laughed Helen, "I'll let you write some of the
+Associated Press stories."
+
+"Thanks of the compliment," grinned Tom. "I'm still waiting for that ice
+cream soda, Miss Plutocrat."
+
+"You'll grumble until I buy it, I suppose, so I might as well give in
+right now," said Helen. "Come on. I'm hungry for one myself."
+
+Tom and Helen boarded the nine forty-five Saturday morning and arrived at
+the state capital shortly after noon. It was Helen's first trip to
+Cranston and she enjoyed every minute of it, the noise and confusion of
+the great railroad terminal, the endless bobbing about of the red caps,
+the cries of news boys heralding noonday editions and the ceaseless roar
+of the city.
+
+They went into the large restaurant at the station for lunch and after
+that Tom inquired at the information desk for directions on how to reach
+the plant of the World Printing Company. He copied the information on a
+slip of paper and the two young newspaper people boarded a street car.
+
+Half an hour later they were on the outskirts of the industrial district
+and even before the conductor called their stop, Tom heard the steady
+roar of great presses.
+
+"Here we are," he told Helen as they stepped down from the car and looked
+up at a hulking ten story building that towered above them.
+
+"The Cranston plant of the _Rolfe Herald_," chuckled Helen. "Lead on."
+
+They walked up the steps into the office, gave their names and indicated
+their business to the office girl. After waiting a few minutes they were
+ushered into an adjoining office where an energetic, middle aged man who
+introduced himself as Henry Walker, service manager, greeted them.
+
+"Let's see, you're from the _Rolfe Herald_?" he asked.
+
+"My sister and I are running the paper while Dad is in the southwest
+regaining his health," explained Tom. "We've got to expand the paper to
+increase our advertising space and the only thing we can see to do is cut
+down our ready-print to two pages."
+
+"Explain just what you mean," suggested the service manager.
+
+Tom outlined their advertising field and how they hoped to increase
+business by adding two more pages of home print, one of which would be
+devoted to farm advertising and news and the other to be available for
+whatever additional advertising they could produce.
+
+"We'll be sorry to have you drop two pages of ready-print," said Mr.
+Walker, "but I believe you're doing the right thing. Now let's see what
+you want on the two pages you'll retain."
+
+"Helen is editor," Tom explained, "and it's up to her to pick out what
+she wants."
+
+"You're doing a splendid job on the _Herald_," the service manager told
+Helen. "I get copies of every paper we serve and I've been noticing the
+changes in make-up and the lively stories. However, I am sorry to hear
+about your father but with you two youngsters to give him pep and courage
+he ought to be back on the job in a few months."
+
+"We're sure he will," smiled Helen as she unfolded a copy of their last
+edition of the _Herald_. "I've pasted up two pages of the features I want
+to retain," she explained as she placed them in front of the service
+manager.
+
+"I see," he said. "You're going to be quite metropolitan with a full page
+of comics and a page devoted to women. I'm glad of that. Too many editors
+of weeklies fail to realize that the women and not the men are the real
+readers of their papers. If you run a paper which appeals to women and
+children you'll have a winner. Comics for the youngsters and a serial
+story with a strong love element and fashions and style news for the
+women."
+
+"How about cost?" asked Tom.
+
+"Dropping the two pages won't quite cut your bill with us in half,"
+explained Mr. Walker, "for you're retaining all of our most expensive
+features. However, this new plan of yours will reduce your weekly bill
+about 40 per cent."
+
+"That's satisfactory," agreed Tom, "and we'd like to have it effective at
+once. Helen has written the headings she wants for each page."
+
+"We'll send the pages, made up in the new way, down at the usual time
+next week," promised the service manager, "and when there is anything
+else we can do, don't hesitate to let us know."
+
+When they were out of the building, they paused to decide what to do
+next.
+
+"I liked Mr. Walker," said Helen. "He didn't attempt to keep us from
+making the change. It means less money for his company yet he didn't
+object."
+
+"It was good business on his part," replied Tom. "Now we feel kindly
+toward him and although he has lost temporarily he will gain in the end
+for we'll give him every bit of business we can in the way of ordering
+supplies for job printing and extra stock for the paper."
+
+"If we have time," suggested Helen, "I'd like to go down to the
+Associated Press office."
+
+"Good idea," agreed Tom. "I'd like to see how they handle all of the
+news."
+
+They boarded the first down town street car and got off fifteen minutes
+later in the heart of Cranston's loop district. Across the street was the
+building which housed the _Cranston Chronicle_, the largest daily
+newspaper in the state. They consulted the directory in the lobby of the
+building and took the elevator to the fifth floor where the Associated
+Press offices were located.
+
+They stepped out of the elevator and into a large room, filled with the
+clatter of many machines. A boy, his face smeared with blue smudges off
+carbon paper, rushed up to them and inquired their business.
+
+"I'm Helen Blair, a new correspondent at Rolfe," explained the editor of
+the _Herald_, "and I'd like to see Mr. McClintock, the chief
+correspondent."
+
+"Okay," grinned the boy. "I'll tell him. You wait here."
+
+The youngster hurried across the room to a large table, shaped like a
+half moon and behind which sat a touseled haired chap of indeterminate
+age. He might be 30 and he might be 40, decided Helen.
+
+"Glad to know you, Miss Blair," he said. "You did a nice piece of work on
+the storm."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. McClintock," replied Helen. "But my brother, Tom,
+deserves all of the credit. He suggested calling the story to you."
+
+"Then I'll thank Tom, too," laughed the head of the Cranston bureau of
+the Associated Press.
+
+"We're here today on business for our paper," explained Helen, "and with
+a few minutes to spare before train time hoped you wouldn't mind if we
+came in and saw how the 'wheels go round' here."
+
+"I'll be happy to show you the 'works'," replied Mr. McClintock, and he
+took them over to a battery of electric printers.
+
+"These," he explained, "bring us news from every part of the country,
+east, south and far west. In reality, they are electric typewriters
+controlled from the sending station in some other city. We take the news
+which comes in here, sift it out and decide what will interest people in
+our own state, and send it on to daily papers in our territory."
+
+"Do these electric printers run all day?" asked Tom.
+
+"Some of them go day and night," continued Mr. McClintock, "for the A.P.
+never sleeps. Whenever news breaks, we've got to be ready to cover it.
+That's why we appreciated your calling us on the storm. We knew there was
+trouble in your part of the state but we didn't have a correspondent at
+Rolfe. It was a mighty pleasant surprise when you phoned."
+
+They visited with the Associated Press man for another fifteen minutes
+and would have continued longer if Tom had not realized that they had
+less than twenty minutes to make their train. The last two blocks to the
+terminal were covered at a run and they raced through the train gates
+just before they clanged shut.
+
+"Close call," panted Tom as they swung onto the steps of the local and it
+slid out of the train shed.
+
+"Too close," agreed Helen, who was breathless from their dash.
+
+"Had to make it, though," added Tom, "or we'd have been stranded here
+flat broke with the next train for home Monday night."
+
+"Don't worry about something that didn't happen," Helen said. "I've
+enjoyed every minute of our trip and we're all ready now to start our
+expansion program for the _Herald_ in earnest."
+
+Adding two more pages of home print to the paper meant more work than
+either Tom or Helen had realized. There was more news to be written and
+more ads to be set and another run to be made on the press.
+
+With early June at hand the summer season at the resorts on the lower end
+of Lake Dubar got under way and Helen resolved to make a trip at least
+once a week and run a column or two of personals about people coming and
+going. She also gave liberal space to the good roads election in July,
+stressing the value the paved scenic highway would be to Rolfe.
+
+The two pages of ready-print arrived on Tuesday and Tom and Helen were
+delighted with the appearance of the comic page and the feature page for
+women readers.
+
+"We'll have the snappiest looking paper in the county," chuckled Tom.
+"Dad won't know the old paper when he sees this week's issue."
+
+The county agent kept his promise to send them at least a column of farm
+news and Helen made it a point to gather all she could while Tom went to
+the county seat Tuesday morning and solicited ads for the page. The
+result was a well-balanced page, half ads and half news. Careful
+solicitation of home town merchants also brought additional ads and when
+they made up the last two pages Thursday noon they felt the extra work
+which increasing the size of the paper meant was more than repaid in
+extra advertising.
+
+"I'm printing a number of extra copies this week," explained Tom. "There
+are lots of people around here who ought to take the _Herald_. With our
+expansion program we may pick up some extra subscriptions and we might
+get a chance at the county printing."
+
+"Tom!" exclaimed Helen. "Do you really think we might get to be an
+official county paper."
+
+"I don't see why not," said Tom. "Of course the two Gladbrook papers will
+always be on the county list but there are always three who print the
+legal news and the third one is the _Auburn Advocate_. Auburn isn't any
+larger than Rolfe and I know darned well we have almost as many
+subscriptions as they do."
+
+"How do they decide the official papers?" Helen wanted to know.
+
+"The county board of supervisors meets once a year to select the three
+official papers," Tom explained, "and the three showing the largest
+circulation are selected. It would mean at least $2,000 extra revenue to
+us, most of which would be profit."
+
+"Then why didn't Dad try for it?" Helen asked.
+
+"I'm not sure," said Tom slowly. "There are probably several reasons, the
+principal one being that he wasn't strong enough to make the additional
+effort to build up the circulation list. The other is probably Burr
+Atwell, owner and publisher of the _Auburn Advocate_. I've heard Dad
+often remark that Atwell is the crookedest newspaperman in the state."
+
+"How much circulation do you think the _Advocate_ has now?" Helen asked.
+
+"Their last postoffice statement showed only 108 more than ours," replied
+Tom.
+
+"And when do the supervisors have their annual meeting?"
+
+"About the 15th of December," said Tom. "Now what's up?"
+
+"Nothing much," smiled Helen. "Only, when the supervisors meet next the
+_Rolfe Herald_ is going to have enough circulation to be named an
+official county paper.
+
+"Why Tom," she went on enthusiastically, "think what it would mean to
+Dad?"
+
+"I'm thinking of that," nodded her brother, "but I'm also thinking of
+what Burr Atwell might do to the _Herald_."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+                          _Special Assignment_
+
+
+The enlarged edition of the _Herald_ attracted so much comment and praise
+from the readers that Tom and Helen felt well repaid for their additional
+efforts. Tom sat down and figured out the profit, deducted all expenses,
+and announced that they had made $78 on the edition, which, they agreed,
+was a figure they should strive to reach each week.
+
+"If we can keep that up," commented Tom, "we'll be sitting on top of the
+world."
+
+"But if we were only an official county paper we'd have the moon, too,"
+Helen said.
+
+They discussed the pros and cons of getting enough additional circulation
+to beat the _Auburn Advocate_ and the danger of arousing the anger of
+Burr Atwell, its publisher.
+
+"We don't need to make a big campaign for subscriptions," argued Helen.
+"We've taken the biggest step right now--improving and expanding the
+amount of local and country reading matter. Whenever I have an extra
+afternoon this summer I'll drive out in the country and see if I can't
+get some people who haven't been subscribers to take our paper."
+
+Tom agreed with Helen's suggestion and that very afternoon they took the
+old family touring car, filled it with gas and oil, and ambled through
+the countryside. Tom had a list of farmers who were non-subscribers and
+before the afternoon was over they had added half a dozen new names to
+the _Herald's_ circulation list. In addition, they had obtained at least
+one item of farm news at every place they stopped.
+
+"I call that a good afternoon's work," Helen commented when they drove
+the ancient flivver into the garage at home.
+
+"Not bad at all," Tom agreed. "Only, we'll keep quiet about our
+circulation activities. No use to stir up Burr Atwell until he finds it
+out for himself, which will be soon enough."
+
+The remaining weeks of June passed uneventfully. The days were bright and
+warm with the softness of early summer and the countryside was green with
+a richness that only the middle west knows. Helen devoted the first part
+of each week to getting news in Rolfe and on Fridays and Saturdays took
+the old car and rambled through the countryside, stopping at farmhouses
+to make new friends for the _Herald_ and gather news for the farm page.
+The revenue of the paper was increasing rapidly and they rejoiced at the
+encouraging news which was coming from their father.
+
+The Fourth of July that year came on Saturday, which meant a two day
+celebration for Rolfe and the summer resorts on Lake Dubar. Special
+trains would be routed in over the railroad and the boats on the lake
+would do a rushing business.
+
+The managers of Crescent Beach and Sandy Point planned big programs for
+their resorts and ordered full page bills to be distributed throughout
+that section of the state. The county seat papers had usually obtained
+these large job printing orders but by carefully figuring, Tom put in the
+lowest bids.
+
+Kirk Foster, the manager of Crescent Beach, ordered five thousand posters
+while Art Provost, the owner of Sandy Point, ordered twenty thousand.
+Crescent Beach catered to a smaller and more exclusive type of summer
+visitors while Sandy Point welcomed everyone to its large and hospitable
+beach.
+
+There was not much composition for the posters but the printing required
+hours and it seemed to Helen that the old press rattled continuously for
+the better part of three days as Tom fed sheet after sheet of paper into
+the ancient machine. The wonder of it was that they had no breakdowns and
+the bills were printed and delivered on time.
+
+"All of which means," said Tom when he had finished, "that we've added a
+clear profit of $65 to our bank account."
+
+"If we keep on at this rate," Helen added, "we'll have ample to take care
+of Dad when he needs more money."
+
+"And he'll be needing it sometime this fall," Tom said slowly. "Gee
+whizz, but it sure does cost to be in one of those sanitariums. Lucky we
+could step in and take hold here for Dad."
+
+"We owe him more than we'll ever repay," said Helen, "and the experience
+we're getting now will be invaluable. We're working hard but we find time
+to do the things we like."
+
+Helen planned special stories for the edition just before the Fourth and
+visited the managers of both resorts to get their complete programs for
+the day.
+
+Kirk Foster at Crescent Beach explained that there would be nothing
+unusual there except the special display of night fireworks but Art
+Provost over at Sandy Point had engaged a line of free attractions that
+would rival any small circus. Besides the usual boating and bathing,
+there would be free acts by aerialists, a high dive by a girl into a
+small tank of water, half a dozen clowns to entertain the children, a
+free band concert both afternoon and evening, two ball games and in
+addition to the merry-go-round on the grounds there would be a ferris
+wheel and several other "thrill" rides brought in for the Fourth.
+
+"You ought to have a great crowd," said Helen.
+
+"Goin' to be mighty disappointed if I don't," said the old resort
+manager. "Plannin' a regular rip-snorter of a day. No admission to the
+grounds, but Boy! it'll cost by the time they leave."
+
+"Going to double the prices of everything?" asked Helen.
+
+"Nope. Goin' to have so many things for folks to do they'll spend
+everything they got before they leave."
+
+"In that case," replied Helen, "I see where I stay at home. I'm a
+notorious spendthrift when it comes to celebrating the Fourth."
+
+"I should say you're not goin' to stay home," said Mr. Provost. "You and
+your mother and Tom are goin' to be my guests. I've got your passes all
+filled out. Swim, ride in the boats, dance, roller skate, see the ball
+games, enjoy any of the 'thrill rides' you want to. Won't cost you a
+cent."
+
+"But I can't accept them," protested Helen. "We'll pay if we come down.
+Besides, we didn't give you all of those bills for nothing."
+
+"Seemed mighty near nothin' compared with the prices all the other
+printers in the county wanted," smiled Mr. Provost. "You've been down
+every week writin' items about the folks who come here and, believe me, I
+appreciate it. These passes are just a little return of the courtesy
+you've shown me this summer."
+
+"When you put it that way, I can scarcely refuse them," laughed Helen.
+
+"As a matter of fact," she added, "I wanted them terribly for we honestly
+couldn't afford to come otherwise."
+
+When Helen returned to the office she told Tom about the passes and he
+agreed that acceptance of them would not place the _Herald_ under
+obligation to the resort owner.
+
+"I always thought old man Provost a pretty good scout," he said, "but I
+hardly expected him to do this. And say, these passes are good for both
+Saturday and Sunday. What a break!"
+
+"If we see everything Saturday we'll be so tired we won't want to go back
+Sunday," Helen said. "Besides, Mother has some pretty strong ideas on
+Sunday celebrations."
+
+The telephone rang and Helen hastened into the editorial office to
+answer.
+
+She talked rapidly for several minutes, jotting down notes on a pad of
+scratch paper. When she had finished, she hurried back into the composing
+room.
+
+"Tom," she cried, "that was Mr. Provost calling."
+
+"Did he cancel the passes?"
+
+"I should say not. He called to say he had just received a telegram from
+the Ace Flying Circus saying it would be at Sandy Point to do stunt
+flying and carry passengers for the Fourth of July celebration."
+
+"Why so excited about that? We've had flying circuses here before."
+
+"Yes, I know, Tom, but 'Speed' Rand is in charge of the Ace outfit this
+year."
+
+"'Speed' Rand!" whistled Tom. "Well, I should say that was different.
+That's news. Why Rand's the man who flew from Tokyo to Seattle all alone.
+Other fellows had done it in teams but Rand is the only one to go solo.
+He's big news in all of the dailies right now. Everyone is wondering what
+daredevil stunt he'll do next."
+
+"He's very good looking and awfully rich," smiled Helen.
+
+"Flies just for fun," added Tom. "With all of the oil land he's got he
+doesn't have to worry about work. Tell you what, I'll write to the
+_Cranston Chronicle_ and see if they'll send us a cut of Rand. It would
+look fine on the front page of this week's issue."
+
+"Oh," exclaimed Helen "I almost forgot the most important part of Mr.
+Provost's call. He wants you to get out 10,000 half page bills on the Ace
+Flying Circus. Here are the notes. He said for you to write the bill and
+run them off as soon as you can."
+
+The order for the bills put Tom behind on his work with the paper and it
+was late Thursday afternoon before Helen started folding that week's
+issue. But they didn't mind being late. The bill order from Sandy Point
+had meant another piece of profitable job work and Mr. Provost had also
+taken a half page in the _Herald_ to advertise the coming of his main
+attraction for the Fourth. Mrs. Blair came down to help with the folding
+and Margaret Stevens, just back from a vacation in the north woods with
+her father, arrived in time to lend a hand.
+
+"Nice trip?" Helen asked as she deftly folded the printed sheets.
+
+"Wonderful," smiled Margaret, "but I'm glad to get back. I missed helping
+you and Tom. Honestly, I get a terrific thrill out of reporting."
+
+"We're glad to have you back," replied Helen, "and I think Mr. Provost
+down at Sandy Point will be glad to give me an extra pass for the Fourth.
+I'll tell him you're our star reporter."
+
+"I'd rather go to Crescent Beach for the Fourth," said Margaret. "It's
+newer and much more ritzy than Sandy Point."
+
+"You'd better stop and look at the front page carefully," warned Tom, who
+had shut off the press just in time to hear Margaret's words.
+
+She stopped folding papers long enough to read the type under the two
+column picture on the front page.
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "'Speed' Rand coming here?"
+
+"None other and none such," laughed Tom. "Guaranteed to be the one and
+only 'Speed' Rand. Step right this way folks for your airplane tickets.
+Five dollars for five minutes. See the beauty of Lake Dubar from the air.
+Don't crowd, please."
+
+"Do you still want me to get a pass?" Helen asked. "It will be honored
+any place at Sandy Point during the celebration and Mr. Provost says we
+can all have rides with the air circus 'Speed' Rand is running."
+
+"I should say I do want a pass," said Margaret. "At least it's some
+advantage to being a newspaper woman besides just the fun of it."
+
+The famous Ace air circus of half a dozen planes roared over Rolfe just
+before sunset Friday night and the whole town turned out to see them and
+try to identify the plane which "Speed" Rand was flying.
+
+The air circus was flying in two sections, three fast, trim little
+biplanes that led the way, followed by three large cabin planes used for
+passenger carrying. Every ship was painted a brilliant scarlet and they
+looked like tongues of flames darting through the sky, the afternoon sun
+glinting on their wings.
+
+The air circus swung over Rolfe in a wide circle and the leading plane
+dropped down out of the sky, its motor roaring so loud the windows in the
+houses rattled in their frames.
+
+"He's going to crash!" cried Margaret.
+
+"Nothing of the kind," shouted Tom, who had read widely of planes and
+pilots and flying maneuvers. "That's just a power dive--fancy flying."
+
+Tom was right. When the scarlet biplane seemed headed for certain
+destruction the pilot pulled its nose up, levelled off, shot over Rolfe
+at dizzying speed and then climbed his craft back toward the fleecy, lazy
+white clouds.
+
+"That's Rand," announced Tom with a certainty that left no room for
+argument. "He's always up to stunts like that."
+
+"It must be awfully dangerous," said Helen as she watched the plane, now
+a mere speck in the sky.
+
+"It is," agreed Tom. "Everything depends on the motor in a dive like
+that. If it started to miss some editor would have to write that
+particular flyer's obituary."
+
+The morning of Saturday, the Fourth, dawned clear and bright. Small boys
+whose idea of fun was to arise at four o'clock and spend the next two
+hours throwing cannon crackers under windows had their usual good time
+and Tom and Helen, unable to sleep, were up at six o'clock. Half an hour
+later Margaret Stevens, also awakened by the almost continuous
+cannonading of firecrackers, came across the street.
+
+"Jim Preston is going to take us down the lake on his seven-thirty trip
+before the special trains and the big crowds start coming in," said Tom.
+
+"But I'd like to see the trains come in," protested Helen.
+
+"If we wait until then," explained Tom, "we'll be caught in the thick of
+the rush for the boats and we may never get to Sandy Point. We'd better
+take the seven-thirty boat."
+
+From the hill on which the Blair home stood they looked down on the shore
+of Lake Dubar with its half dozen boat landings, each with two or three
+motorboats awaiting the arrival of the first special excursion train.
+
+Mrs. Blair called them to breakfast and they were getting up to go inside
+when Margaret's exclamation drew their attention back to the lake.
+
+"Am I seeing things or is that the old _Queen_?" she asked, pointing down
+the lake.
+
+Tom and Helen looked in the direction she pointed. An old, double decked
+boat, smoke rolling from its lofty, twin funnels, was churning its way up
+the lake.
+
+"We may all be seeing things," cried Tom, "but it looks like the _Queen_.
+I thought she had been condemned by the steamboat inspectors as unfit for
+further service."
+
+"The news that 'Speed' Rand is going to be at Sandy Point is bringing
+hundreds more than the railroad expected," said Helen. "I talked with the
+station agent last night and they have four specials scheduled in this
+morning and they usually only have two."
+
+"If they vote the paved roads at the special election next week,"
+commented Tom, "the railroad will lose a lot of summer travel. As it is
+now, folks almost have to come by train for the slightest rain turns the
+roads around here into swamps and they can't run the risk of being
+marooned here for several days."
+
+The _Queen_ puffed sedately toward shore. They heard the clang of bells
+in the engine room and the steady chouf-chouf of the exhaust cease. The
+smoke drifted lazily from the funnels. Bells clanged again and the paddle
+wheel at the stern went into the back motion, churning the water into
+white froth. The forward speed of the _Queen_ was checked and the big
+double-decker nosed into its pier.
+
+"There's old Capt. Billy Tucker sticking his white head out of the pilot
+house," said Tom. "He's probably put a few new planks in the _Queen's_
+rotten old hull and gotten another O. K. from the boat inspectors. But if
+that old tub ever hits anything, the whole bottom will cave in and she'll
+sink in five minutes."
+
+"That's not a very cheerful Fourth of July idea," said Margaret. "Come
+on, let's eat. Your mother called us hours ago."
+
+They had finished breakfast and were leaving the table when Mrs. Blair
+spoke.
+
+"I've decided not to go down to Sandy Point with you," she said. "The
+crowd will be so large I'm afraid I wouldn't enjoy it very much."
+
+"But we've planned on your going, Mother," said Helen.
+
+"I'm sorry to disappoint you," smiled her mother, "but Margaret's mother
+and I will spend the day on the hill here. We'll be able to see the
+aerial circus perform and really we'll enjoy a quiet day here at home
+more than being in the crowd."
+
+"It won't be very quiet if those kids keep on shooting giant crackers,"
+said Tom.
+
+"They'll be going to the celebration in another hour or two and then
+things will quiet down," said Mrs. Blair.
+
+"How about a plane ride if the circus has time to take us?" asked Tom.
+
+Helen saw her mother tremble at Tom's question, but she replied quickly.
+
+"That's up to you, Tom. You know more about planes than I do and if
+you're convinced the flying circus is safe, I have no objection." But
+Helen made a mental reservation that the planes would have to look mighty
+safe before any of them went aloft.
+
+They hurried down the hill to the pier which Jim Preston used. The
+boatman and his helpers had just finished polishing the three speed boats
+Preston owned, the _Argosy_, the _Liberty_ and the _Flyer_, which had
+been raised from the bottom of the lake and partially rebuilt.
+
+"All ready for the big day?" asked the genial boatman.
+
+"We're shy a few hours sleep," grinned Tom. "Those cannon crackers
+started about four o'clock but outside of that we're all pepped up and
+ready to go."
+
+"About three or four years ago," reminded the boatman, "you used to be
+gallivantin' around town with a pocketful of those big, red crackers at
+sun-up. Guess you can't complain a whole lot now."
+
+Tom admitted that he really couldn't complain and they climbed into the
+_Liberty_.
+
+"I'm takin' some last minute supplies down to the hotel at Sandy Point,"
+said the boatman, "so we won't wait for anyone else."
+
+He switched on the starter and the boat quivered as the powerful motor
+took hold. They were backing away from the pier when the pilot of one of
+the other boats shouted for them to stop.
+
+A boy was running down Main Street, waving a yellow envelope in his hand.
+
+Jim Preston nosed the _Liberty_ back to the pier and the boy ran onto the
+dock.
+
+"Telegram for you," he told Helen. "It's a rush message and I just had to
+get it to you."
+
+"Thanks a lot," replied Helen. "Are there any charges?"
+
+"Nope. Message is prepaid."
+
+Helen ripped open the envelope with nervous fingers. Who could be sending
+her a telegram? Was there anything wrong with her father? No, that
+couldn't be it for her mother would have received the message.
+
+She unfolded the single sheet of yellow paper and read the telegraph
+operator's bold scrawl.
+
+"To: Helen Blair, _The Herald_, Rolfe. Understand 'Speed' Rand is at
+Rolfe for two days. Have rumor his next flight will be an attempted
+non-stop refueling flight around the world. See Rand at once and try for
+confirmation of rumor. Telephone as soon as possible. McClintock, The
+AP."
+
+Helen turned to Tom and Margaret.
+
+"I'm to interview 'Speed' Rand for the Associated Press," she exclaimed.
+"Let's go!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+                       _Helen's Exclusive Story_
+
+
+While the _Liberty_ whisked them through the glistening waters of Lake
+Dubar toward Sandy Point, Margaret and Tom plied Helen with questions.
+
+"Do you think Rand will give you an interview?" demanded Tom.
+
+"I've got to get one," said Helen, her face flushed and eyes glowing with
+the excitement of her first big assignment for the Associated Press.
+
+"What will you ask him? How will you act?" Margaret wanted to know.
+
+"Now don't try to get me flustered before I see Rand," laughed Helen. "I
+think I'll just explain that I am the local correspondent for the
+Associated Press, show him the telegram from Mr. McClintock and ask him
+to confirm or deny the story."
+
+"I'll bet Rand's been interviewed by every famous reporter in the
+country," said Tom.
+
+"Which will mean all the more honor and glory for Helen if she can get
+him to tell about his plans," said Margaret.
+
+"I'll do my best," promised Helen and her lips set in a line that
+indicated the Blair fighting spirit was on the job.
+
+They were still more than two miles from Sandy Point when a scarlet-hued
+plane shot into sight and climbed dizzily toward the clouds. It spiralled
+up and up, the roar of its motor audible even above the noise of the
+speedboat's engine.
+
+"There's 'Speed' Rand now!" cried Tom. "No one flies like that but
+'Speed'."
+
+The graceful little plane reached the zenith of its climb, turned over on
+its back and fell away in twisting series of spirals that held the little
+group in the boat breathless.
+
+The plane fluttered toward the lake, seemingly without life or power.
+Just before it appeared about to crash, the propeller fanned the
+sunlight, the nose jerked up, and the little ship skimmed over the waters
+of the lake.
+
+It was coming toward the _Liberty_ at 200 miles an hour. On and on it
+came until the roar of its motor drowned out every other sound. Helen,
+Tom and Margaret threw themselves onto the floor of the boat and Jim
+Preston crouched low behind his steering wheel.
+
+There was a sharp crash and Helen held her breath. She was sure the plane
+had struck the _Liberty_ but the boat moved steadily ahead and she turned
+quickly to look for the plane.
+
+The scarlet sky bird was limping toward the safety of the higher
+altitudes, its under-carriage twisted into a grotesque knot.
+
+"What happened?" cried Tom as he stared aghast at 'Speed' Rand's damaged
+plane. "Did we get hit?"
+
+"Nothing wrong with the _Liberty_," announced Jim Preston. "I don't know
+what happened."
+
+Helen glanced at the speedboat's wake where a heavy wave was being rolled
+up by the powerful propeller.
+
+"I know what happened," she cried. "'Rand' was just trying to give us an
+extra Fourth of July thrill and he forgot about the heavy wave the
+_Liberty_ pulls. He must have banged his landing gear into it."
+
+"You're right, Helen," agreed Tom. "But I can't figure out why he didn't
+nose over and dive to the bottom of the lake."
+
+"I expect that would have happened to any flyer except Rand," said Helen.
+"He's supposed to be a wizard in the air."
+
+"Wonder how this accident will affect the crowd at Sandy Point. Think it
+will keep them from riding with the air circus?" Margaret asked.
+
+"Depends on how widely the story gets out," said Tom. "I'd hate to have
+Old Man Provost's celebration ruined by wild rumors. He's spent a lot of
+money getting ready to give the public a good time."
+
+Helen had been watching the progress of Rand's plane. Instead of heading
+back toward Sandy Point he was crossing the lake to the east side.
+
+"He's not going back to Sandy Point," Helen cried. "Look, he's going to
+land on the east side back in the hills."
+
+"Then he'll leave the plane there and no one at Sandy Point will know
+anything about the accident," exclaimed Tom. "That means we're the only
+ones who know."
+
+Helen was thinking rapidly. Here was just the chance she needed to get
+hold of Rand and ask him about his world trip. She might be able to make
+a trade with him. It was worth a try. She leaned forward and spoke to the
+boatman.
+
+"Will you swing over east, land and pick up the pilot of that plane?" she
+asked Jim Preston.
+
+Tom, divining the motive back of Helen's request, added, "We'll pay for
+the extra time."
+
+The boatman agreed and the nose of the _Liberty_ was soon cleaving a
+white-crested path for the east shore. The scarlet plane had disappeared
+but from the drone of the motor they knew it was somewhere in the hills
+back from the lakeshore.
+
+Jim Preston let the _Liberty_ drift to an easy landing alongside a rocky
+outcropping and Tom, Helen and Margaret hopped out.
+
+"We won't be gone long," they promised.
+
+Back through the sparse timber along the lake shore they hurried and out
+into a long, narrow meadow. The scene that greeted them held them
+spellbound for a moment. Then they raced toward the far end of the
+pasture.
+
+"Speed" Rand had landed the damaged plane in a fence.
+
+Tom was the first to reach the wrecked craft. He expected to find the
+famous flyer half dead in the wreckage. Instead, he was greeted by a
+debonair young fellow who crawled from beneath one wing where he had been
+tossed by the impact when the plane struck the fence.
+
+"My gosh," exclaimed Tom, "aren't you hurt?"
+
+"Sorry," smiled Rand, "but I'll have to disappoint you. I haven't
+anything more than a few bruises."
+
+Helen and Margaret arrived so out of breath they were speechless.
+
+Rand bowed slightly. Then his eyes glowed with recognition.
+
+"Hello," he said. "Aren't you the folks in the speedboat?"
+
+"We sure were," Tom said. "You scared us half to death."
+
+"I scared myself," admitted Rand, his blue eyes reflecting the laughter
+on his lips. "It's been so long since I've been in a speedboat I'd
+forgotten all about the big wake one of those babies pull. I'm just lucky
+not to be at the bottom of the lake."
+
+"You're really 'Speed' Rand, aren't you?" asked Margaret.
+
+He smiled and nodded and Margaret decided she had never seen a more
+likable young man. His hair was brown and curly and his face was bronzed
+by the sun of many continents.
+
+"If you've got your boat around here, suppose you give me a lift back to
+Sandy Point," suggested Rand.
+
+"We'll be glad to," Helen replied. "I don't suppose you'll want it
+broadcast about the accident this morning on the lake and your cracking
+up in a fence over here?"
+
+"What are you driving at? Trying to hi-jack me into paying you to keep
+quiet?" The last words were short and angry and his eyes hardened.
+
+"Nothing like that," explained Tom quickly. "We know that broadcasting
+news of an accident to 'Speed' Rand will hurt Old Man Provost and his
+celebration."
+
+"Then what do you want?" Rand insisted.
+
+"We want to know whether there is anything to the rumor that you're
+considering a non-stop refueling flight around the world," said Helen.
+
+Rand stopped and stared at the young editor of the _Herald_ in open
+amazement.
+
+"Great heavens," he exclaimed. "You sound like a newspaper reporter."
+
+"I am," replied Helen. "I'm the editor of the _Rolfe Herald_ and also
+correspondent for the Associated Press."
+
+"And you want a story from me about my world flight in return for keeping
+quiet about the accident."
+
+"You can call it that," admitted Helen.
+
+They had reached the shore of the lake and Rand did not answer until they
+were in the _Liberty_ and Jim Preston had the craft headed for Sandy
+Point.
+
+"Suppose I deny the rumor," said Rand.
+
+"You've already admitted it," Helen replied.
+
+"I have?" he laughed. "How?"
+
+"Less than five minutes ago you said 'And you want a story about my world
+flight in return for keeping quiet about the accident?' That certainly
+indicates that you are seriously considering such a project."
+
+Rand laughed and shook his head.
+
+"I guess I might as well give in," he chuckled. "I've been questioned in
+every city I've been in and so far I've managed to evade confirming the
+rumor but it looks like you've got me in a corner. If I don't tell you,
+will you still spread the story about the accident?"
+
+"No," replied Helen quickly. "Mr. Provost has too much at stake to risk
+ruining his celebration. It was foolish on your part to take the risk you
+did and we're trusting that there won't be any more such risks taken by
+the air circus while it is here."
+
+"You're right. There won't be," said Rand firmly, "and I've learned a
+lesson myself."
+
+"You're actually planning the world flight?" asked Tom, who wanted to get
+Rand back on the subject of Helen's assignment.
+
+"I can't get away from you," smiled the flyer, "so I might as well give
+you all of the details. Got some copypaper?"
+
+Helen fished a pad of paper and a pencil from a pocket and handed them to
+Rand.
+
+"If you don't mind," he explained, "I'll jot down the principal names of
+the foreign towns where I'll make the refueling contacts. Some of them
+have queer names and it will help you keep them straight."
+
+The flyer drew a rough sketch of the world, outlining the continents of
+the northern hemisphere. He located New York on the map and then drew a
+dotted line extending eastward across the North Atlantic, over Great
+Britain, Germany, Russia, Siberia, a corner of China, out over the
+Kamchatka peninsula, across the Bering Sea, over Alaska and then almost a
+straight line back to New York.
+
+"This is my proposed route," he explained, "covering some 15,000 miles.
+It will take about four days if I have good luck and am not forced down."
+
+"But I thought the distance around the world was 25,000 miles," said
+Margaret.
+
+"That's the circumference at the equator," smiled Rand, "but I'm going to
+make the trip well up in the northern latitudes. In fact, I'll be pretty
+close to the Arctic circle part of the time."
+
+Rand bent over his makeshift map again, marking in the names of the
+cities where he intended to refuel while in flight.
+
+"When will you take off from New York?" Helen asked.
+
+"In about two weeks," replied Rand without looking up from the map.
+
+Helen gasped. This, indeed, was news. Every paper in the land would carry
+it on the front page.
+
+"What kind of a plane do you intend to use?" Tom wanted to know.
+
+"I'm having one built to order," said the flyer. "It's a special
+monoplane the Skycraft Company is testing now at their factory in
+Pennsylvania. I had a telegram yesterday saying the plane would be ready
+the first of next week so when I leave Sandy Point I'll go directly to
+Pennsylvania to get the plane and make the final tests myself. The air
+circus will finish its summer tour alone."
+
+Before they reached the landing at Sandy Point, Rand explained how he
+intended to refuel while in flight, gave Helen the name of his mechanic
+and described details of the plane.
+
+When they touched the landing at Sandy Point a heavyset man dressed in
+brown coveralls jumped into the boat.
+
+"What in heaven's name happened?" he asked Rand excitedly.
+
+"I flew too close to this motor boat," said the flyer, "and damaged my
+landing gear on the wave it was pulling. Instead of coming back here to
+crack up I went across the lake and landed in a meadow. These young
+people followed and brought me back. I banged the ship up considerable
+and in return for keeping them quiet, I gave them the story about my
+world flight. They're newspaper folks."
+
+The heavy man stared at Helen, Tom and Margaret.
+
+"Well, I guess it had to come out some time," he admitted and Rand
+introduced him as Tiny Adams, his manager of the air circus.
+
+"Tiny runs the show when I go gallivanting around on some fool stunt,"
+explained Rand.
+
+Even at that early hour the crowd was gathering at Sandy Point. Motor
+boats were whisking down the lake from Rolfe and the beautiful beach was
+thick with bathers in for a morning dip in the clear waters of the lake.
+
+They hurried off the boat dock and pushed their way through the crowd
+along the lake shore.
+
+"I'm going to the hotel and telephone my story to the Associated Press,"
+said Helen. "And thanks so much, Mr. Rand, for confirming it."
+
+"That's all right," grinned the famous flyer. "I guess you youngsters
+deserve the break. You certainly were after the news and I appreciate
+you're keeping quiet about my accident."
+
+"We'll have to print it in our weekly," warned Tom.
+
+"Oh, that's all right," said Rand. "The celebration will be over long
+before your paper comes out. See you at the field later," he added as he
+hurried away, followed by the manager of the air circus.
+
+Helen stood for a moment looking after the tall flyer as he edged his way
+through the ever-increasing crowd.
+
+"Isn't he handsome?" sighed Margaret.
+
+"What a story," commented Tom.
+
+"Let's get going," said Helen, and she started for the hotel.
+
+They reached the rambling old hotel which overlooked the lake and were
+met at the door by Art Provost, the manager of the resort.
+
+"Glad to see you down so early," he said as he welcomed them.
+
+"We thought we'd get here before the crowd," Tom said, "but from the
+looks of the young mob down at the beach now they must have started
+coming in about sundown last night."
+
+"They did," chuckled Mr. Provost. "Looks like the greatest celebration in
+the history of Lake Dubar. It's the air circus that's drawing them in and
+I hope there are no accidents."
+
+Helen glanced at Tom, warning her brother not to reply.
+
+"I've met 'Speed' Rand," she said, "and I think you'll find him a careful
+flyer. I'm sure he'll insist on every possible precaution."
+
+They went into the lobby of the hotel and Helen entered the telephone
+booth. She started to put in a long distance call for the Associated
+Press, then changed her mind and returned to where Tom and Margaret were
+waiting.
+
+"I'm so nervous I'm afraid I won't be able to talk," she said. "Feel my
+hands."
+
+Tom and Margaret did as Helen directed. They found her hands clammy with
+perspiration.
+
+"I think I'll sit down and write the story and telegraph it," said Helen.
+
+"You'll do nothing of the kind," insisted Tom. "Here, I'll put the call
+through and you just repeat what Rand told you. They'll write the story
+at the Cranston bureau."
+
+Helen nodded in agreement and Tom bolted into the telephone booth, got
+the long distance operator at Rolfe and put in a collect call for the
+Cranston bureau of the Associated Press.
+
+Two minutes later Tom announced that the A.P. was on the line. Helen
+entered the booth and took the receiver. Tom pulled the door shut and
+Helen was closeted with her big story in the tiny room, the mouthpiece
+before her connecting her with the bureau where they were waiting for the
+story.
+
+"Is Mr. McClintock in the office?" she asked.
+
+"He's busy," replied the voice. "I'll take the message."
+
+"Tell Mr. McClintock that Helen Blair is calling about the Rand story,"
+she insisted.
+
+She heard the connection switch and the chief of the Cranston bureau
+snapped a question at her.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Rand give you the usual denial?"
+
+The sharpness of the words nettled Helen.
+
+"No he didn't," she replied. "He gave me the whole story. He'll leave New
+York within the next two weeks on a non-stop refueling flight around the
+world."
+
+"What!" shouted the A.P. chief.
+
+Helen repeated her statement.
+
+"You've got the biggest story in days," gasped McClintock. "Have you got
+plenty of substantiation in case he tries to deny it later."
+
+"Two witnesses," replied Helen, "and a map of his route which he drew and
+signed for me."
+
+"That's enough. Let's go. Give me everything he told you. Spell the names
+of his foreign refueling points slowly. I'll take it directly on a
+typewriter and we'll start the bulletins out on the main news wires."
+
+The first excitement of the story worn off, Helen found herself
+exceedingly calm. In short, clear sentences she related for McClintock
+all of the information "Speed" Rand had given her.
+
+"Send me the map he drew by the first mail," the A.P. correspondent
+instructed. "It will make a great feature story. Thanks a lot, Miss
+Blair. You're a real newspaperwoman."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+                        _The Queen's Last Trip_
+
+
+When Helen left the close confines of the telephone booth after
+completing her call to the Associated Press she suddenly felt very weak
+and tired.
+
+"What's the matter?" Tom asked.
+
+"I feel just a little faint," confessed Helen. "Guess the excitement of
+getting the story and sending it in was a little too much."
+
+"Take my arm," her brother commanded. "We'll go back to the restaurant
+and get a glass of milk and a sandwich and you'll feel all right in a few
+minutes."
+
+The food restored Helen's strength and in less than half an hour she was
+her old self, ready to enjoy the Fourth of July celebration.
+
+Every boat from Rolfe increased the size of the crowd at Sandy Point. The
+speedboats dashed down the lake carrying their capacity of passengers,
+turned and sped back to the town for another load. The _Queen_ sedately
+churned its way through the lake, its double decks jammed with humanity.
+As they stood on the beach Helen wondered if the old lake boat would come
+through the day without a mishap. Almost any small accident could throw
+the passengers into a panic and the capsizing of the _Queen_ might follow
+if they rushed to one side of the flat-bottomed old craft.
+
+The _Queen_ sidled up to the big pier at Sandy Beach and Capt. Billy
+Tucker stuck his white head out of a window in the pilot house and
+watched his passengers rush for the beach.
+
+"He's in his glory on a day like this," Tom said, "but it's probably the
+last year for the _Queen_. The boat inspectors won't dare pass the old
+tub next year no matter how much they like Captain Billy."
+
+"What will he do if they don't license the _Queen_?" asked Margaret.
+
+"Oh, he'll get along all right," said Tom. "Captain Billy has plenty
+salted away. It's just that he loves the lake and the _Queen_."
+
+The planes of the air circus were wheeling overhead and they left the
+beach and started for the air field. The attractions along the midway
+were gathering their share of the crowd and the mechanical band on the
+merry-go-round blared with great gusto. The ferris wheel was swinging
+cars loaded with celebrators into the tree-tops and the whip and other
+thrill rides were crowded.
+
+Beyond the midway was the large pasture which had been turned into a
+landing field. A sturdy wire fence had been thrown across the side toward
+the summer resort and it was necessary to have a pass or ticket to get
+through the gate.
+
+Two small stunt planes were taking off when the members of the _Herald_
+staff arrived and the three large cabin planes were being filled with
+passengers. Two of the planes carried eight passengers apiece while the
+largest, a tri-motor, could accommodate 12. They were sturdy, comfortable
+looking craft and Helen noticed that they appeared to be in the best
+possible condition.
+
+They presented their passes at the gate and were admitted to the field.
+
+"Speed" Rand, hurrying along toward the largest plane, caught sight of
+them.
+
+"Want to ride?" he called.
+
+The answer was unanimous and affirmative.
+
+A minute later they were seated in the 12-passenger plane in comfortable
+wicker chairs. The door was closed, the motors roared, they bumped over
+the pasture and then floated away on magic wings.
+
+The ground dropped away from them; the resort and the lake were
+miniatures bordered by the rich, green lands of the valley and at the far
+end of the lake, Rolfe, a handful of houses, basked.
+
+It was glorious, thrilling, and Helen enjoyed every minute. They swung
+over the lake where the speedboats were cutting white swaths through the
+water. They did not cross to the east side and Helen guessed that the
+pilots were afraid some passenger with unusually keen eyes might detect
+the remains of the plane Rand had damaged that morning.
+
+Then the trip was over. They drifted down to the field, the motor idling
+as they lost altitude. Helen sat absolutely rigid for a few seconds,
+wondering if the plane would land all right. The motors roared again, the
+nose came up and they settled to earth with little more than a bump.
+
+Rand greeted them when they stepped out of the plane.
+
+"Like it?" he inquired.
+
+"You bet," said Tom enthusiastically. "Biggest thrill I ever had."
+
+"How about you?" Rand asked Helen.
+
+"I loved every minute until we started to come down," she smiled. "Then I
+wondered where we were going to stop and how, but everything came out all
+right and I really did enjoy it."
+
+"Get your story in to the A.P.?" asked the flyer.
+
+"Just as soon as I could reach a telephone," Helen replied. "The bureau
+chief appeared pleased."
+
+"He should be," chuckled Rand. "It seems like every place I've gone for
+the last month there's been a reporter waiting to ask me questions about
+my world flight. Honestly, it got so I used to look under the bed at
+night for fear I might talk in my sleep and wake up in the morning to
+find a reporter had been hidden in my room."
+
+Another flyer called Rand and the famous aviator slipped away through the
+crowd. It was the last they were to see of him and they turned and went
+back to the attractions of the midway.
+
+They tried every ride, the merry-go-round and the ferris wheel, roller
+skated, went bathing, listened to the band concert, munched hot dogs at
+irregular intervals and wound up the afternoon almost exhausted and ready
+to start for home. So were some other hundreds of people and they found
+it impossible to get a place in one of the speedboats.
+
+The _Queen_ puffed majestically at her pier and Capt. Billy Tucker pulled
+twice on the whistle cord. Two long, mellow blasts echoed over the lake.
+The _Queen_ would leave for Rolfe in five minutes.
+
+"Looks like we'll have to take the _Queen_ if we want to get home in any
+reasonable time," said Margaret.
+
+Tom looked at the throngs waiting for the boats.
+
+"You're right," he agreed. "We won't be able to get on one of the fast
+boats for at least two hours and I'm getting hungry. I saw mother putting
+some pie away in the ice box last night and there'll be plenty of cold
+milk at home."
+
+"Don't," protested Helen, "I'm so hungry now I'm hollow."
+
+"Then let's take the _Queen_," urged Margaret.
+
+They bought their tickets and hurried onto the main deck of the old lake
+boat.
+
+"It will be cooler on top," said Helen and they went up the broad stairs
+to the upper deck. Perched on this deck was the pilot house where Captain
+Billy ruled.
+
+He saw them and motioned them to join him.
+
+"Have a big celebration?" he asked when they entered the pilot house.
+
+"Finest ever," said Margaret, "but we're ready to call it a day and start
+home."
+
+"Better set down on those benches," said Captain Billy, motioning toward
+the leather-cushioned lockers which lined the walls of the pilot house.
+
+The veteran lake skipper leaned out of the pilot house, watching the
+crowd on the beach. The electric lights flashed on as twilight draped its
+purple mantle over the lake and the whole scene was subdued. The cries
+from the bathers were not as sharp, the music from the midway seemed to
+have lost some of its sharpness and the whole crowd of holiday
+celebrators relaxed with the coming of night.
+
+Captain Billy glanced at his watch.
+
+"Two minutes," he said, half to himself as he reached for the whistle
+cord. Again the mellow whistle of the _Queen_ rang out and belated
+excursionists hastened aboard.
+
+The ticket seller at the pier head sounded his final warning bell, and
+there was the last minute rush across the stubby gang plank. Captain
+Billy signalled the engine room, bells rang in the depths of the boat and
+the easy chouf-chouf of the twin stacks deepened as the engines took up
+their work and the _Queen_ backed slowly away from the pier.
+
+Two men who had tarried at the midway too long ran down the pier and
+yelled at Captain Billy. The skipper picked up his megaphone.
+
+"Sorry, too late," he shouted. "We'll be back in two hours."
+
+"Gosh-dinged idiots," he grumbled to himself. "Here I wait as long as I
+can and then they expect me to put back in shore. Not me, by Joe, when
+I've got to make connections with one of them excursion trains."
+
+"Have lots of business today?" asked Tom.
+
+"Biggest day in the twenty odd years I've had the _Queen_ on the lake,"
+he chuckled. "The old girl is about on her last legs but this season
+looks like the best of all. If the paved road goes through they'll all
+come in cars and the railroad and the _Queen_ will be out of luck."
+
+"But you're not objecting to the paved road, are you?" asked Helen.
+
+"Course not," he replied. "It's progress and you can't stop it."
+
+The _Queen_, ablaze with lights, churned steadily up the lake and the
+electrics along the beach at Sandy Point faded into a string of dots.
+Speed boats, showing their red and green riding lights, raced past in
+smothers of foam but the _Queen_ rocked only slightly as they passed and
+continued steadily on her way.
+
+The band on the after part of the top deck played slower, softer melodies
+and the whole scene was one of calm and quiet, a fitting end for a great
+celebration.
+
+Of all the people on the _Queen_, only Captain Billy in the pilot house
+and the crew in the black depths of the engine room were alive to the
+dangers of the night. They knew how anything unusual and startling might
+cause a panic which would capsize the _Queen_ or how careless navigation
+on the part of Captain Billy might shove the _Queen_ onto one of the
+jagged ledges of rock which were hazards to navigation in certain parts
+of the lake. But the _Queen_ passed safely through the rock-strewn
+sections of the lake and Captain Billy relaxed as the lights of Rolfe
+came into view.
+
+The _Queen_ was less than half a mile from her pier when the unexpected
+happened. A speed boat, without lights, loomed out of the night.
+
+Screams echoed from the lower deck. Before Captain Billy could twirl his
+wheel and shift the blunt nose of the _Queen_, the speed boat knifed into
+the bow of the old steamer.
+
+There was the crash of splintering wood, and muffled cries from the men
+and women in the smaller boat.
+
+Captain Billy knew the danger even before the boats met. The crash of the
+collision was still in their ears when he called to Tom.
+
+"Take the wheel," he cried, "and keep the _Queen_ headed for the beach.
+Don't change the course."
+
+Then he leaned over the speaking tube to the engine room.
+
+"Captain Billy speaking," he shouted. "A speed boat just hit us. Full
+speed ahead until we ground on the sandy beach."
+
+They could feel the _Queen_ trembling as the crowd on the lower deck
+rushed forward toward the scene of the accident.
+
+"The fools, the fools," muttered Captain Billy as he ran from the pilot
+house.
+
+The leader of the band ran forward.
+
+"Get back and play," ordered the captain. "Play anything loud."
+
+A deck hand, racing up from below, met Captain Billy at the head of the
+stairs.
+
+"They knocked a hole clear through us," he gasped. "We're taking water
+fast."
+
+"Shut up," snapped the captain. "Stay here and don't let anyone off the
+upper deck."
+
+The young people in the pilot house saw Captain Billy rush down the
+stairs and they looked at one another in open amazement.
+
+"He's every inch a skipper," said Tom as he clung to the wheel of the
+_Queen_.
+
+"I hope he pulls us through," said Margaret, staring at the lights of
+Rolfe. A minute ago they had seemed so close; now they were so far away,
+the longest half mile any of them would ever know.
+
+"He'll get us there if it is humanly possible," Helen said hopefully.
+
+The crowd on the upper deck milled excitedly but the deck hand forced
+them back from the stairway and the steady playing of the band and
+continued forward movement of the _Queen_ seemed to allay their worst
+fears.
+
+Sparks rolled from the twin funnels as the engines labored to the utmost
+but Tom, his hands on the sensitive wheel, knew that the speed was
+decreasing. The _Queen_ was harder to handle, the bow was settling lower
+in the water but less than a quarter of a mile remained. He reached up
+and pulled the whistle cord. Three short, sharp blasts shattered the
+night. Three more and then three more. It was the signal for help but he
+wondered how many would be in Rolfe to answer the call.
+
+"How deep is the water from here in?" asked Helen.
+
+"About twenty feet," replied her brother. "Better slip on those life
+preservers and get ready to jump. We're taking water fast."
+
+"There are several hundred in the lockers here," said Helen. "I'm going
+to pass them out to the people on deck."
+
+"It will only alarm them," said Tom.
+
+"But they've got to have a chance if we go under," replied Helen and with
+Margaret to help her, she hurled scores of life preservers out of the
+pilot house onto the deck.
+
+The passengers had lost their first panic. They knew the _Queen_ was
+making a valiant fight to reach shore but the tenseness, the grimness of
+the crew told them it was going to be close. In the emergency they used
+their heads and put on the life preservers as fast as Helen and Margaret
+could pull them from the lockers.
+
+The lights of Rolfe were agonizingly close. Less than six hundred feet
+separated them from the safety of the sandy shore. On the upper deck the
+passengers were quiet, ready for the crisis.
+
+Tom leaned close to the speaking tube. The chief engineer was talking.
+
+"What's he saying?" Helen demanded.
+
+"Water's in the engine room," replied her brother. "The fires under the
+boiler will be out in another minute or two. Then blewy!"
+
+"Isn't there enough steam to make shore?" asked Margaret desperately, for
+after her experience on the lake earlier in the summer she had a very
+real fear of Dubar at night.
+
+"All we can do is hope," replied Tom. "They'll keep the engines turning
+over as long as there is any steam left."
+
+The warning from the whistle was bringing people from town and they were
+gathering under the electrics along the beach. Helen wondered if they
+knew that death was riding on the bow of the _Queen_, that tragedy was
+waiting to swoop down on the old boat and its load of excursionists.
+
+The _Queen_ staggered, wabbled dangerously, and the wheel jerked out of
+Tom's hands. He grabbed the spokes and held the bow steady as the _Queen_
+stumbled ahead. They could see the faces of the people on the beach now,
+saw the look of horror that spread over them as they saw the stove-in bow
+of the _Queen_. There were only two hundred feet to go but they were
+still in deep water.
+
+The voice from the speaking tube rolled into the pilot house.
+
+"Steam's gone!"
+
+On the echo of the words the steady beat of the engines slowed and it was
+only by clinging to the wheel with all of his strength that Tom held the
+_Queen_ in to shore.
+
+The bow was almost even with the water now. They seemed to be plowing
+their way into the depths of the lake. Then the bow lifted and grated on
+the sand. The momentum carried the _Queen_ forward, shivering and
+protesting at every foot it was driven into the beach.
+
+There was a wild scramble on the main deck, cries of relief and happiness
+as passengers by the score jumped into the knee deep water and ran for
+shore. The men, women and children on the upper deck hurried down the
+stairs while through it all the band kept up its steady blare, the crash
+of brass on brass and the constant thump, thump of the bass drum.
+
+The danger past, Tom stepped back from the wheel. His arms felt as though
+they had been almost pulled from their sockets, so great had been the
+strain of holding the _Queen_ on its course.
+
+Helen and Margaret stripped off their life preservers and went down to
+the main deck with Tom. There they found Captain Billy and the crew of
+the _Queen_ gathered at the bow of the boat. A great hole had been torn
+in the old steamer's hull by the speed boat and Tom marveled that they
+had been able to make shore.
+
+"Why didn't we sink out in the lake?" he asked Captain Billy.
+
+"Guess we might have," smiled the captain, "but we managed to hold the
+speed boat in the hole it had made until we were most to shore. Otherwise
+we'd have filled and gone down inside a couple of minutes after they hit
+us."
+
+A decidedly sheepish young man broke through the group and faced Captain
+Billy.
+
+"I'm the owner of the boat that hit you," he explained. "We were going to
+see how close we could come and one of the girls in the boat tickled me
+and I swung the wheel the wrong way."
+
+"You almost swung about four hundred people into the lake," Captain Billy
+reminded him tartly.
+
+"I'm terribly sorry," replied the owner of the speed boat, "and I'm
+decidedly grateful to you for fishing us out of it after we hit you. I'm
+Maxfield Hooker of Cranston and I'll be glad to pay for all of the damage
+to your boat."
+
+"We'll talk about that later," said Captain Billy. "I've got to see that
+those excursionists all make their trains."
+
+"Did you get that?" said Tom as he nudged Helen. "Maxfield Hooker of
+Cranston, son of the multi-millionaire soap manufacturer. Captain Billy
+can have a new _Queen_ if he wants one."
+
+"My guess is that he won't want one," said Helen. "After all, the _Queen_
+has had a long and useful career and she certainly proved herself in the
+emergency tonight."
+
+Captain Billy made sure that all of the excursionists were safely off the
+boat and that done, he came back to where Tom, Helen and Margaret were
+standing.
+
+"I've a great deal to be thankful for," he told them. "It was only
+through the nerve and calmness of the crew and such as you three that the
+_Queen_ pulled through. Tom, I'm eternally grateful to you for sticking
+in the pilot house and to you girls for having the presence of mind to
+pass out the life preservers."
+
+Before they could reply Captain Billy turned and hastened up to the pilot
+house. Tom started to follow but Helen stopped him.
+
+"Don't go," she said. "He wants to say good-bye to the _Queen_."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+                           _Success Attends_
+
+
+Later that night the _Queen_ caught fire and burned to the water's edge.
+Some said that Captain Billy, saddened by the tragedy which had almost
+befallen the majestic old craft, had set the fire himself but none ever
+knew definitely.
+
+Helen telephoned the story of Captain Billy and the burning of the
+_Queen_ to the _Associated Press_ at Cranston and found the night editor
+there anxious for the story.
+
+"Great human interest stuff," he said as he hung up.
+
+The Blairs and Stevens watched the burning of the _Queen_ from the knoll
+on which the Blair home was situated and later they saw the shower of
+fireworks set off at Crescent Beach, far down the lake. It was well after
+midnight when they finally called it a day, one which would long be
+remembered by Tom and Helen Blair and Margaret Stevens.
+
+The second day of the celebration, Sunday, they rested quietly at home
+and planned for the coming week.
+
+With the Monday morning mail came the papers from Cranston, a letter from
+McClintock of the _Associated Press_ and new thrills for Helen.
+
+The Cranston papers blazoned her story of "Speed" Rand's plans to circle
+the globe in a nonstop refueling flight on the front page and the big
+surprise was the first line which read: "By Helen Blair, Special
+Correspondent of the Associated Press, Copyright 1932 (All Rights
+Reserved)."
+
+Helen gazed at the story in frank awe and amazement. She knew it was a
+highly important story, but to get a by-line with the Associated Press
+was an honor she scarcely had dared dream about.
+
+The letter from McClintock commended her further for her work, promised
+that her monthly check would be a liberal one and added that when she
+finished high school he would be glad to consider her for a job with the
+Associated Press.
+
+Helen sat down and wrote a long letter to her father, telling in detail
+the events of the Fourth and enclosing the Associated Press story and her
+letter from McClintock. That done, she turned to the task of writing her
+stories for the _Weekly Herald_. Tom was out soliciting ads, Margaret had
+gone down the lake to check up at both summer resorts about possible
+accidents and she had the office to herself that morning.
+
+Which story should Helen write first, "Speed" Rand's world flight, the
+celebration at Sandy Point or the story of Captain Billy and the _Queen_?
+She threaded a sheet of copy paper into her typewriter and sought
+inspiration in a blank gaze at the ceiling. Inspiration failed to come
+from that source and she scrawled aimlessly with pencil and paper, her
+mind mulling over the myriad facts of her stories. Then she started
+typing. Her first story concerned Captain Billy and the _Queen_, for
+Captain Billy and his ancient craft were known to every reader of the
+_Herald_. They were home news. "Speed" Rand and his plans concerned the
+outside world.
+
+The events of the night of the Fourth were indelibly printed in Helen's
+mind and the copy rolled from her typewriter, two, four, six, ten pages.
+She stopped long enough to delve into the files and find the story which
+the _Herald_ had printed 23 years before when the _Queen_ made her maiden
+trip on Lake Dubar. Two more pages of copy rolled from her machine.
+
+Helen picked up the typed pages, 12 altogether. She hadn't intended to
+make the story that long but it had written itself, it was one of those
+stories in which danger and heroism combine to make the human-interest
+that all newspaper readers enjoy.
+
+With the story of Captain Billy and the _Queen_ out of the way, Helen
+wrote a short lead about "Speed" Rand and then clipped the rest of the
+story for the _Herald_ from the one she had telephoned the Associated
+Press. Even then it would run more than a column and with a long story on
+the general Fourth of July celebration she felt that the _Herald_ would
+indeed give its subscribers their money's worth of news that week.
+
+There was a slight let-down in advertising the week following the Fourth
+but they crammed the six home-printed pages of the _Herald_ full of news
+and went to press early Thursday, for it was election day and the fate of
+the paved road program was at stake. For the last month Helen had written
+editorials urging the improvement of the roads and they went directly
+from the office Thursday afternoon to the polling place to remain there
+until the last ballot had been counted. The vote was heavy and Rolfe
+favored the good roads 452 to 73.
+
+Doctor Stevens, who announced the vote to the anxious crowd, added, "And
+I think we can thank Helen Blair, our young editor of the _Herald_, for
+showing us the value of better roads."
+
+There was hearty applause and calls for speech, but Helen refused to
+talk, hurrying away to telephone the Rolfe vote to the Associated Press.
+The morning papers announced that the program had carried in the state as
+a whole and that paving would start at once with Rolfe assured of being
+on the scenic highway not later than the next summer.
+
+News from their father in Arizona continued cheering and as their own
+bank account increased steadily and circulation mounted, Tom and Helen
+felt that they were making a success of their management of the _Herald_.
+
+The remainder of July passed rapidly and the hot blasts of August winds
+seared the valley of Lake Dubar. The only refreshing thing was the night
+breeze from the lake which cooled the heat-baked town and afforded some
+relief. Then came the cooler days of September and the return to school.
+
+Superintendent Fowler arrived a week before the opening of the fall term
+and Tom and Helen arranged to attend part time, yet carry full work.
+Helen also worked out plans for a school page, news of every grade to be
+written by some student especially designated as a reporter for the
+"_School Herald_."
+
+Tom and Helen had so systematized their work that the task of getting out
+the paper was reduced to a minimum. With Margaret willing to help
+whenever needed, they felt sure they could continue the successful
+operation of the _Herald_.
+
+Every spare hour Helen devoted to building up the circulation list and by
+early October they had added 400 new subscribers, which gave the _Herald_
+a total of 1,272 in the county and every one paid up.
+
+"Gosh, I never thought we could get that many," said Tom as he checked
+over the circulation records. "Now I'm sure we'll be named one of the
+official county papers. What a surprise that will be for Dad."
+
+"I thought you said we'd have a lot of trouble with Burr Atwell, editor
+of the _Advocate_ at Auburn," chided Helen as she recalled her brother's
+dire statements of what the fiery editor of the Auburn paper would do
+when he found the _Herald_ was trying to take the county printing away
+from him.
+
+"We've just been lucky so far," replied Tom. "Atwell will wake up one of
+these days and then we'll have plenty of trouble. He won't fight fair."
+
+"Let's not borrow trouble until it arrives," Helen smiled.
+
+Organization of the high school classes and election of officers followed
+the opening of school and Helen found herself president of the juniors
+while Tom was named secretary and treasurer of the seniors.
+
+"I'm mighty proud of both of you," said Mrs. Blair when they told her the
+news that night at dinner. "It is no more than you deserve but I hope it
+won't be too much of a burden added to your work on the paper."
+
+"It won't take much time," Tom assured her, "and since Marg Stevens is
+vice president of the juniors Helen can turn a lot of the work over to
+her."
+
+They were still at the dinner table when a heavy knock at the front door
+startled them. Tom answered the summons and they heard him talking with
+someone with an exceedingly harsh voice. When Tom returned he was
+accompanied by a stranger.
+
+"Mother," he said, "this is Mr. Atwell, editor of the _Auburn Advocate_."
+
+Mrs. Blair acknowledged the introduction and Tom introduced the visiting
+editor to Helen. Mr. Atwell sat down heavily in a chair Tom offered.
+
+"I suppose you know why I'm here?" he asked.
+
+"I'm afraid not," replied Mrs. Blair.
+
+"It's about the _Herald_ and the circulation tactics of these young
+whipper-snappers of yours. I hear they're trying to take the county
+printing away from me and become one of the official papers of the
+county."
+
+"Who informed you of that?" asked Helen, who had taken an instant dislike
+to the pudgy visitor whose flabby cheeks were covered with a heavy
+stubble of whiskers.
+
+"Folks have been talking," he replied.
+
+"When you want information like that you'd better come to those
+concerned," retorted the energetic young editor of the _Herald_.
+
+"That's just what I'm a-doing," he replied. "Are you?"
+
+"Are we what?" interposed Tom.
+
+"Are you trying to be a county paper?" snorted Atwell.
+
+"Yes," replied Helen, "we are. This section of the county doesn't have an
+official weekly and the people here want one."
+
+"You're trying to rob me of my bread and butter for your own selfish
+ends," stormed the visitor.
+
+"We're not trying to rob anybody," replied Tom. "Get this straight. We've
+as much if not more right to be a county weekly than you have. All we
+have to say is be sure your records are correct when the supervisors meet
+in December. Now get out of here!"
+
+Atwell rose slowly, his heavy features suffused with anger and his hands
+shaking.
+
+"I serve notice on you," he stormed, "that you'll never win out." He
+stomped from the room, slamming the front door as he went.
+
+Mrs. Blair looked at Tom and Helen.
+
+"Don't you think you were a little short with him?" she asked.
+
+"Perhaps," admitted Helen, "but he can't tell us what to do."
+
+"In that," smiled her mother, "you take after your father."
+
+They refused to let the warning from the editor of the Auburn paper dim
+their hopes or retard their efforts. Circulation mounted steadily until
+by mid-November it had reached an even 1,400.
+
+Tom continued his weekly trips to Gladbrook to get the county farm news
+and to solicit advertising. From one of these trips he returned jubilant.
+
+"I've been talking with the supervisors," he said, "and they're all in
+favor of naming the _Herald_ the third official paper instead of the
+_Advocate_. One of them suggested that we get an auditor from Cranston to
+go over our circulation list and officially audit it and then have him
+with us when we appear before the board."
+
+"But wouldn't that cost a lot of money?"
+
+"Probably $50 but having an audited list will practically insure us of
+getting the county work. Also, I'm going to take our subscription records
+and list over to the bank and keep them there until we need them every
+Thursday."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Tom?"
+
+"I heard some talk in the courthouse that Atwell had been boasting he'd
+get even with us and I'm not going to take any chances with the records."
+
+With characteristic determination Tom made the transfer that afternoon
+and it was only mid-evening of the same day when the fire siren sounded
+its alarm.
+
+All of the Blairs hurried outside where, from the front porch of their
+home, they could look down main street.
+
+"The truck is stopping in front of the _Herald_ office!" gasped Helen.
+
+Without a word Tom plunged down the hill, running full speed for the
+office. Helen and her mother followed as quickly as possible.
+
+Main street rapidly filled with excited townspeople and they caught the
+odor of burning wood as they neared the _Herald_ building. Margaret
+Stevens ran up to them.
+
+"It doesn't look bad," she tried to reassure them, "and the firemen have
+it under control."
+
+Helen was so weak from the shock of the fire that she clung to Margaret
+and her mother for support. Her head reeled as picture thoughts raced
+through her mind. The threats of Burr Atwell, all of their months of hard
+work, the expense of the fire, their father's need for money, Tom's
+precautions in moving the circulation list.
+
+Then it was over. The firemen dragged their line of hose from the
+chemical tank back to the street and they crowded into the smoke-filled
+rooms. The fire had started near the back door but thanks to the night
+watchman had been detected before it had gained headway. The week's
+supply of print paper was ruined and the two rooms blackened by smoke and
+splattered with the chemical used to check the flames, but the press and
+Linotype were undamaged.
+
+Tom wanted to stay and clean up the office but Mrs. Blair insisted that
+they all return home, herself instructing the night watchman to hire
+several town laborers to work the rest of the night cleaning up the
+office.
+
+"That fire was deliberately set," raged Tom as they walked home. "The
+fire chief saved the greasy rags he found in the corner of the composing
+room where it started. Ten more minutes without discovery and we wouldn't
+have had a newspaper."
+
+"Who could have done such a thing?" protested his mother.
+
+"Burr Atwell," declared Tom. "The editorial office had been ransacked for
+the circulation records. It's a good thing I moved them this afternoon."
+
+"Can we prove Atwell had a hand in this?"
+
+"I don't suppose so," admitted Tom, "but we'll run a story in this week's
+issue that will scare him. We'll say the fire chief is investigating and
+may ask for state secret service men to help him run down the fire bug
+who started it. That ought to give Atwell a queer feeling."
+
+They telephoned for another supply of print paper for the week's issue
+and the next morning were back at the office. The men who had worked
+through the night had done a good job of cleaning and there was little
+evidence of fire other than the charred casings of the back door and
+smudgy condition of the walls and ceiling.
+
+Thanksgiving was brightened by word from their father that he would be
+able to return home in the spring but despite that it was a sad day in
+the Blair home for there was none to fill his chair at the head of the
+table.
+
+"Christmas," thought Helen, "is going to be terribly lonesome for mother
+with Dad so far away," and the more she thought about it the more
+determined she became. Without saying anything to Tom or her mother, she
+made several guarded inquiries at the station and elicited the desired
+information.
+
+The days before the annual meeting of the supervisors passed rapidly. The
+ground whitened under the first snow of the year and the auditor for whom
+Tom had arranged in Cranston arrived to audit their circulation list
+officially. For a week before his arrival Tom and Helen concentrated
+every effort on their circulation with the result that when the audit was
+completed the _Herald_ could boast of 1,411 paid up subscriptions.
+
+"You've done a remarkably fine piece of work," Curtis Adams, the auditor,
+told Helen, "and I'm sure you young folks deserve the county work."
+
+The supervisors met on Thursday, December 15th, and in order to attend
+the meeting Tom and Helen worked most of Wednesday night getting the
+final pages of the _Herald_ on the press, assembling and folding the
+papers. It was three o'clock in the morning when they reached home and
+their mother, who had been sleeping on a davenport awaiting their return,
+prepared a hot lunch and then sent them to bed.
+
+At nine o'clock Tom teased their venerable flivver into motion and with
+their records and the auditor in the back seat, they started for
+Gladbrook. It was well after ten o'clock when they reached the courthouse
+and they went directly to the supervisors' rooms where a clerk asked them
+to wait.
+
+Half an hour later they were called and Helen went into the board room
+with mixed emotions throbbing through her mind. What would be the answer
+to their months of work? Would they get the county work which meant so
+much or would Burr Atwell succeed in defeating them?
+
+Her arms ached from the heavy task of folding the papers the night before
+and she was so nervous she was on the verge of tears. If they won they
+would be able to buy a folder for the press and she wouldn't have to fold
+any more papers. That thought alone gave her new courage and she smiled
+bravely at Tom as he stepped forward and told the supervisors why he
+believed the _Herald_ should be the third county paper.
+
+Then Mr. Adams, the auditor, presented his sworn statement of the
+circulation of the _Herald_ and in conclusion, he added:
+
+"I have never seen a sounder or better circulation than these young
+people have built up. They have made no special offers nor have they
+reduced rates. People who take the _Herald_ do so because it is one of
+the best weekly papers I have ever seen."
+
+The chairman of the board of supervisors looked expectantly around the
+room.
+
+"The Gladbrook papers, the _News_ and the _Times_, have made their
+application and the _Herald_ has just been heard," he explained. "I
+expected Mr. Atwell of the _Auburn Advocate_ would be here."
+
+The board waited for fifteen minutes. Then there was a whispered
+conference between members and the chairman stood up.
+
+"The selection of official papers has been made," he announced. "_The
+Gladbrook News_, the _Gladbrook Times_ and the _Rolfe Herald_ will be
+known as the official papers for the ensuing year. The meeting is
+adjourned until afternoon."
+
+The editors of the Gladbrook papers offered Tom and Helen their
+congratulations and expressed willingness to cooperate in every way.
+
+When they were alone Tom looked at Helen through eyes that were dim.
+
+"We won," he said huskily, "and it's all due to your hard work on
+circulation."
+
+Helen's eyes were just as misty as she smiled back.
+
+"No," she replied, "it was your hunch in putting the records in the bank.
+We'd have been ruined if you hadn't. I'm wondering why Mr. Atwell didn't
+appear."
+
+"I have a hunch he was afraid we had connected him with the fire," said
+Tom. "Now let's phone mother and then send a wire to Dad."
+
+That afternoon Tom completed the arrangements to publish the official
+proceedings of the county supervisors and increased the amount of job
+printing he was to get from the courthouse. He also hired a middle-aged
+printer who agreed to come to Rolfe and work for $18 a week.
+
+"But isn't that a little extravagant?" asked Helen.
+
+"We must have help now," explained Tom, "and with the county printing
+safely tucked away we can afford it. Also, I bought a second-hand folder
+from the _Times_ here. It only cost me $50 and you'll never have to fold
+papers again."
+
+"Oh, I'm so happy," exclaimed Helen, "for I did hate to fold them. There
+were so many along toward the end."
+
+On the way home that afternoon they made further plans and checked up on
+their funds in the bank.
+
+"We've got a little over $900 right now," said Tom, "and that's deducting
+all of my extravagances of an auditor and buying the second-hand folder.
+Our bills are all paid and we're having a record December in advertising.
+I'd say we were sitting pretty."
+
+"I was thinking about Christmas," said Helen.
+
+"It's going to be mighty lonesome without Dad," admitted Tom.
+
+"Mother will miss him especially. They've never been away from each other
+at the holidays before."
+
+Something in Helen's voice caught Tom's attention and he glanced at her
+sharply.
+
+"Say, what the dickens are you driving at?" he asked.
+
+"Give me a check for $200 and I'll show you," replied Helen. "It will
+mean the happiest Christmas we've ever had."
+
+"I'll do it and no questions asked until you're ready to tell me," agreed
+Tom and when they reached Rolfe he went to the office and signed a check
+for $200 payable to Helen Blair.
+
+The following Thursday fell on the 22nd of December and there was so much
+advertising they had to run two sections of the _Herald_. The printer
+they had hired in Gladbrook was slow but thorough and they got the paper
+to press on time. With the folder installed, Helen was spared the arduous
+duties of folding all of the papers and she devoted her time to running
+the mailing machine.
+
+"Spent that $200 yet?" asked Tom as they walked home through the brisk
+December evening, snow crunching underfoot.
+
+"All gone," smiled Helen, "and the big surprise is here in my pocket.
+Wait until we get home and I tell mother about it."
+
+"Guess I'll have to," grinned Tom.
+
+They found their mother in the kitchen busy with the evening meal.
+
+"Mother, we've got a Christmas surprise for you," said Helen. "Come in
+the living room."
+
+Mrs. Blair looked up quickly.
+
+"That's thoughtful of you," she said, "but I hope you didn't spend too
+much money."
+
+Wiping her hands on her apron, she preceded them into the living room.
+
+"Where is it?" she asked.
+
+"Over there on the library table," replied Helen, pointing to an envelope
+tied with a band of red ribbon with a sprig of holly on top.
+
+Mrs. Blair picked up the envelope, untied the ribbon and looked inside.
+She pulled out two objects. One was a long, green strip of paper with
+many perforations and much printing. The other was a small black book
+similar to a check book.
+
+She held the long slip with hands that trembled as she read it.
+
+"It's a round trip ticket to Rubio, Arizona!" she gasped, "Oh, Helen!
+Tom! How kind of you. Father and I will have Christmas together! And
+here's a book of traveler's checks and Pullman reservations. I'm to leave
+tomorrow."
+
+Tom gave Helen a hearty hug.
+
+"So that's where the $200 went," he whispered. "Are you sure it's
+enough?"
+
+"Plenty," she replied.
+
+Mrs. Blair sat down in her favorite chair, the ticket and check book in
+her hands, her eyes dim with tears.
+
+"But I can't go away and leave you two here alone during holidays," she
+said.
+
+"Oh yes you can, Mother," said Tom. "We'll be happy just knowing that you
+and Dad are together and you can tell him all about us and then, when you
+come back, you can tell us all about him."
+
+"You must go, Mother," insisted Helen. "I've let Dad in on the surprise
+and we can't disappoint him now."
+
+Doctor Stevens drove them to the junction where Mrs. Blair was to board
+the Southwestern limited. Snow was falling steadily, one of those dry,
+sifting snows that presage a white Christmas in the middle west.
+
+The limited poked its dark nose through the storm and drew its string of
+Pullmans up to the bleak platform. It paused for only a minute and the
+goodbyes were hasty.
+
+The limited whirled away into the storm and Tom and Helen, standing alone
+on the platform, watched it disappear in the snow. It would be a quiet
+Christmas for them but they were supremely happy knowing that their
+father was on the road to health and that they had made a success of the
+_Herald_.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOKS for GIRLS
+
+
+                     THE MERRIWEATHER GIRLS SERIES
+                           BY LIZETTE EDHOLM
+
+The Merriweather girls, Bet, Shirley, Joy and Kit are four fun-loving
+chums, who think up something exciting to do every minute. The romantic
+old Merriweather Manor is where their most thrilling adventures occur.
+The author has given us four exceptional titles in this series--absorbing
+mysteries and their solutions, school life, horseback riding, tennis and
+adventures during their school vacations.
+
+  The Merriweather Girls and the Mystery of the Queen's Fan
+  The Merriweather Girls on Campers Trail
+  The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure
+  The Merriweather Girls at Good Old Rock Hill
+
+
+                         CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES
+                          BY MARGARET PENROSE
+
+These stories take in the activities of several bright girls who become
+interested in all present day adventures.
+
+  Campfire Girls of Roselawn
+  Campfire Girls on Program
+  Campfire Girls on Station Island
+  Campfire Girls at Forest Lodge
+
+
+                           EVERYGIRL'S SERIES
+
+Grouped in the Everygirl's Series are five volumes selected for
+excellence. Shirley Watkins, Caroline E. Jacobs, Ruthe Wheeler and
+Blanche Elizabeth Wade contribute stories that are both fascinatingly
+real and touched with romance. Every girl who dips into one of these
+stories will find herself enthralled to the end.
+
+  The S.W.F. Club                                     Caroline E. Jacobs
+  Jane Lends a Hand                                      Shirley Watkins
+  Nancy of Paradise College                              Shirley Watkins
+  Georgina Finds Herself                                 Shirley Watkins
+  Helen in the Editors Chair                               Ruthe Wheeler
+
+
+                          PEGGY STEWART SERIES
+                       _By_ GABRIELLE E. JACKSON
+
+  Peggy Stewart at Home
+  Peggy Stewart at School
+
+Peggy, Polly, Rosalie, Marjorie, Natalie, Isabel, Stella and Juno--girls
+all of high spirits make this Peggy Stewart series one of entrancing
+interest. Their friendship, formed in a fashionable eastern school, they
+spend happy years crowded with gay social affairs. The background for
+these delightful stories is furnished by Annapolis with its naval academy
+and an aristocratic southern estate.
+
+
+                        THE PEGGY STEWART SERIES
+                       _By_ GABRIELLE E. JACKSON
+
+Against the colorful background of Annapolis and a picturesque southern
+estate, Gabrielle E. Jackson paints the human and lovely story of a human
+and lovely girl. Real girls will revel in this wholesome tale and its
+enchanting telling.
+
+  Peggy Stewart at Home
+  Peggy Stewart at School
+
+
+                         The Motor Girls Series
+                         _By_ MARGARET PENROSE
+
+A dashing, fun-loving girl is Cora Kimball and she is surrounded in her
+gypsy-like adventures with a group of young people that fairly sparkle.
+Girls who follow their adventurous steps will find a continuing delight
+in their doings. In the series will be found some absorbing mysteries
+that will keep the reader guessing so that the element of suspense is
+added to make the perusal thoroughly enjoyable.
+
+  The Motor Girls
+  On Tour
+  At Lookout Beach
+  Through New England
+  On Cedar Lake
+  On the Coast
+  On Crystal Bay
+  On Waters Blue
+  At Camp Surprise
+  In the Mountains
+
+
+                      Helen In the Editor's Chair
+                         _By_ RUTHE S. WHEELER
+
+"Helen in the Editor's Chair" strikes a new note in stories for girls.
+Its heroine, Helen Blair, is typical of the strong, self-reliant girl of
+today. When her father suffers a breakdown and is forced to go to a drier
+climate to recuperate, Helen and her brother take charge of their
+father's paper, the _Rolfe Herald_. They are faced with the problem of
+keeping the paper running profitably and the adventures they encounter in
+their year on the _Herald_ will keep you tingling with excitement from
+the first page to the last.
+
+
+                           RED STAR CLASSICS
+
+  Heidi                                                 By Johanna Spyri
+  Treasure Island                              By Robert Louis Stevenson
+  Hans Brinker                                       By Mary Mapes Dodge
+  Gulliver's Travels                                   By Jonathan Swift
+  Alice in Wonderland                                    By Lewis Carrol
+  Pinocchio                                             By Carlo Collodi
+  The Story of a Bad Boy                        By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+  Kidnapped                                    By Robert Louis Stevenson
+  Stories from King Arthur                                        Retold
+  The Little Lame Prince                                  By Miss Mulock
+
+Boys and girls the world over worship these "Classics" of all times, and
+          no youth is complete without their imagination-stirring
+          influence. They are the time-tested favorites loved by
+          generations of young people.
+
+
+The Goldsmith Publishing Co.
+CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+--Obvious typographical errors were corrected without changing
+  nonstandard spellings that might have been dialectical.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42015 ***