Mightier than the Sword

wn the steps of the entrance at the side, three at a time, land on the pavement as if he were preparing to leap the roadway, with the sheer impetus of the flight of steps behind him, and had suddenly

ry towards Chancery Lane, as th

c of daylight to be negotiated, and then, he turned the corner of Chancery Lane—and there you would have seen the last of him. He would have vanished from your life, a stumpy little man,

, the recklessness of other days; it impels, instinctively, the cry of "Stop, thief," for no man runs unless he is hunted by a powerful motive. Therefore it may b

he had been eating oysters, bisque soup, turbot, pheasant, asparagus out of season and pêche Melba at the Savoy Hotel with eighteenpence in his pocket—and the odd pence had gone to the waiter and the cloakroom man. So that by the time he had

odded affably and said:

one of the afternoon papers, who finished[13] work in the evening but never went home before the last tube; then there was Harlem, the librarian of The Day, an amazing man who spoke all the European languages, and some of the Asiatic ones after his fifth glass of beer; the fourth was a friend of Harlem, a moody young ma

ling through the tunnel. They all rushed desperately down the short flight of steps that led to the platform, as the train came in with a rattle of doors opening and slamming, and scrambled for seats, while th

al in his dash for the last train. He did it four nights out of the week, as a matter of course. He was fifty years old, though he pretended he was ten yea

sked Harlem, f

on—they're going to start the Thames Steamboats again. He wasn't at home, and he wasn't in his office, but I found him at six o'clock in the Constitutional. Got ba

our assignments overnight—'Dear Mr Pride, kindly do a quarter of a column of the enclosed me

a nice, bright paper—oh, by the way, do you know Cannock," he jerked his head to the man at his side. "He's The Sentinel's latest acquisiti

ed at the

acquisition," Cannock said. "As a mat

You'll get a job on The Day if you ask for one.

young men, knocking at the door of Fleet Street, there was always an open pathway. Think of the papers there were left to work for—the evenings and the dailies, and even when they were exhausted, perhaps a job on a weekly paper, or the editorship of one of the scores of penny a

d?" ask

d Cannock, with

ght. You can free-la

dog's life anyhow, and I've only had two months

asting sympathy on you. Why did you

the other, reaching away into the far distance. Thousands of barrels under a vaulted roof. And in the foreground were little figures of men in white aprons with red jersey caps

lions!" Pride said. "What on ea

1

inking of yesterday. I wondered how on

call it. I'm used to it," he said defiantly, looking at Harlem, "I like it.... I couldn't do anything else. I'm not fit for anything else. It has its lazy moments, too, and its moments of excitement and thrills. No, my son, you go back to the brewery, there's more money in it for you and all the glory you want with your name

ewspaper," Cannock said. "My guv'nor got me the

find you're expected to take your turn with the rest. Then you grouse, because you're not meant for it. You've got appointments to keep at dinner-time, and you must get your meals regularly. Or you[17] want to write fine stuff and be great star descriptive men at once, or go to Persia and Timbuctoo, and live on flam an

as smiling, and seeme

and died worth three hundred pounds, and that's more than I am. I'm one of the products of the last generation, and all I want is

. "You know well enough you're what we call a thoroughly reli

what may happen. The only thing is to join the Newspaper Press Fund and t

lowed down before Marble Arch. "It's a rotten game,

coat lapel is bristling with pins. He had been with news all day; he had written some of it; he had read the same things in the different editions of the newspapers; he had left the street when they were printing more news; and the first thing he would do on waking up in the morning would be to reach out for a copy of

d up again for all the nights in the week.... He looked round the carriage at the faces of those who were travelling with him. Five boisterous young people were making themselves a noisy nuisance at one end of the carriage. Opposite him, in the seat lately occupied by Harlem, a working man was staring ahead of him with an empty wide stare as if, in a moment of absent-mindedness, his actu

is head still bobbling and his eyes half lost below the drooping eyelids. He steadied himself against the wall—and his hand sprea

f his boots went to the fireplace. Here on a trivet he found a cup of cocoa, and his slippers warming before the fire. There were three slices of thin bread and butter on the table. He never went to bed without his bread and butter. During his meal he saw a copy of The Day on a chair,

late, dear

o'c

she murmured. "Did

" he

ir

u the truth. Tell you about it in the morning. Ferrol