by Roy J. Snell
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 almostbefallen the majestic old craft, had set the fire himself but none everknew definitely.
Helen telephoned the story of Captain Billy and the burning of the_Queen_ to the _Associated Press_ at Cranston and found the night editorthere 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 knollon which the Blair home was situated and later they saw the shower offireworks set off at Crescent Beach, far down the lake. It was well aftermidnight when they finally called it a day, one which would long beremembered by Tom and Helen Blair and Margaret Stevens.
The second day of the celebration, Sunday, they rested quietly at homeand planned for the coming week.
With the Monday morning mail came the papers from Cranston, a letter fromMcClintock of the _Associated Press_ and new thrills for Helen.
The Cranston papers blazoned her story of "Speed" Rand's plans to circlethe globe in a nonstop refueling flight on the front page and the bigsurprise was the first line which read: "By Helen Blair, SpecialCorrespondent of the Associated Press, Copyright 1932 (All RightsReserved)."
Helen gazed at the story in frank awe and amazement. She knew it was ahighly important story, but to get a by-line with the Associated Presswas an honor she scarcely had dared dream about.
The letter from McClintock commended her further for her work, promisedthat her monthly check would be a liberal one and added that when shefinished high school he would be glad to consider her for a job with theAssociated Press.
Helen sat down and wrote a long letter to her father, telling in detailthe events of the Fourth and enclosing the Associated Press story and herletter from McClintock. That done, she turned to the task of writing herstories for the _Weekly Herald_. Tom was out soliciting ads, Margaret hadgone down the lake to check up at both summer resorts about possibleaccidents and she had the office to herself that morning.
Which story should Helen write first, "Speed" Rand's world flight, thecelebration at Sandy Point or the story of Captain Billy and the _Queen_?She threaded a sheet of copy paper into her typewriter and soughtinspiration in a blank gaze at the ceiling. Inspiration failed to comefrom that source and she scrawled aimlessly with pencil and paper, hermind mulling over the myriad facts of her stories. Then she startedtyping. Her first story concerned Captain Billy and the _Queen_, forCaptain Billy and his ancient craft were known to every reader of the_Herald_. They were home news. "Speed" Rand and his plans concerned theoutside world.
The events of the night of the Fourth were indelibly printed in Helen'smind 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 whichthe _Herald_ had printed 23 years before when the _Queen_ made her maidentrip on Lake Dubar. Two more pages of copy rolled from her machine.
Helen picked up the typed pages, 12 altogether. She hadn't intended tomake the story that long but it had written itself, it was one of thosestories in which danger and heroism combine to make the human-interestthat all newspaper readers enjoy.
With the story of Captain Billy and the _Queen_ out of the way, Helenwrote a short lead about "Speed" Rand and then clipped the rest of thestory for the _Herald_ from the one she had telephoned the AssociatedPress. Even then it would run more than a column and with a long story onthe general Fourth of July celebration she felt that the _Herald_ wouldindeed give its subscribers their money's worth of news that week.
There was a slight let-down in advertising the week following the Fourthbut they crammed the six home-printed pages of the _Herald_ full of newsand went to press early Thursday, for it was election day and the fate ofthe paved road program was at stake. For the last month Helen had writteneditorials urging the improvement of the roads and they went directlyfrom the office Thursday afternoon to the polling place to remain thereuntil the last ballot had been counted. The vote was heavy and Rolfefavored the good roads 452 to 73.
Doctor Stevens, who announced the vote to the anxious crowd, added, "AndI think we can thank Helen Blair, our young editor of the _Herald_, forshowing us the value of better roads."
There was hearty applause and calls for speech, but Helen refused totalk, hurrying away to telephone the Rolfe vote to the Associated Press.The morning papers announced that the program had carried in the state asa whole and that paving would start at once with Rolfe assured of beingon the scenic highway not later than the next summer.
News from their father in Arizona continued cheering and as their ownbank account increased steadily and circulation mounted, Tom and Helenfelt that they were making a success of their management of the _Herald_.
The remainder of July passed rapidly and the hot blasts of August windsseared the valley of Lake Dubar. The only refreshing thing was the nightbreeze from the lake which cooled the heat-baked town and afforded somerelief. Then came the cooler days of September and the return to school.
Superintendent Fowler arrived a week before the opening of the fall termand 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 bewritten 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 outthe paper was reduced to a minimum. With Margaret willing to helpwhenever needed, they felt sure they could continue the successfuloperation of the _Herald_.
Every spare hour Helen devoted to building up the circulation list and byearly 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 checkedover the circulation records. "Now I'm sure we'll be named one of theofficial county papers. What a surprise that will be for Dad."
"I thought you said we'd have a lot of trouble with Burr Atwell, editorof the _Advocate_ at Auburn," chided Helen as she recalled her brother'sdire statements of what the fiery editor of the Auburn paper would dowhen he found the _Herald_ was trying to take the county printing awayfrom him.
"We've just been lucky so far," replied Tom. "Atwell will wake up one ofthese 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 followedthe opening of school and Helen found herself president of the juniorswhile Tom was named secretary and treasurer of the seniors.
"I'm mighty proud of both of you," said Mrs. Blair when they told her thenews that night at dinner. "It is no more than you deserve but I hope itwon'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 isvice president of the juniors Helen can turn a lot of the work over toher."
They were still at the dinner table when a heavy knock at the front doorstartled them. Tom answered the summons and they heard him talking withsomeone with an exceedingly harsh voice. When Tom returned he wasaccompanied by a stranger.
"Mother," he said, "this is Mr. Atwell, editor of the _Auburn Advocate_."
Mrs. Blair acknowledged the introduction and Tom introduced the visitingeditor 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 youngwhipper-snappers of yours. I hear they're trying to take the countyprinting away from me and become one of the official papers of thecounty."
"Who informed you of that?" asked Helen, who had taken an instant disliketo the pudgy visitor whose flabby cheeks were covered with
a heavystubble of whiskers.
"Folks have been talking," he replied.
"When you want information like that you'd better come to thoseconcerned," 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 anofficial weekly and the people here want one."
"You're trying to rob me of my bread and butter for your own selfishends," stormed the visitor.
"We're not trying to rob anybody," replied Tom. "Get this straight. We'veas much if not more right to be a county weekly than you have. All wehave to say is be sure your records are correct when the supervisors meetin December. Now get out of here!"
Atwell rose slowly, his heavy features suffused with anger and his handsshaking.
"I serve notice on you," he stormed, "that you'll never win out." Hestomped 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 dimtheir hopes or retard their efforts. Circulation mounted steadily untilby mid-November it had reached an even 1,400.
Tom continued his weekly trips to Gladbrook to get the county farm newsand to solicit advertising. From one of these trips he returned jubilant.
"I've been talking with the supervisors," he said, "and they're all infavor of naming the _Herald_ the third official paper instead of the_Advocate_. One of them suggested that we get an auditor from Cranston togo over our circulation list and officially audit it and then have himwith 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 ofgetting the county work. Also, I'm going to take our subscription recordsand list over to the bank and keep them there until we need them everyThursday."
"Why, what's the matter, Tom?"
"I heard some talk in the courthouse that Atwell had been boasting he'dget even with us and I'm not going to take any chances with the records."
With characteristic determination Tom made the transfer that afternoonand it was only mid-evening of the same day when the fire siren soundedits alarm.
All of the Blairs hurried outside where, from the front porch of theirhome, 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 theoffice. Helen and her mother followed as quickly as possible.
Main street rapidly filled with excited townspeople and they caught theodor of burning wood as they neared the _Herald_ building. MargaretStevens ran up to them.
"It doesn't look bad," she tried to reassure them, "and the firemen haveit under control."
Helen was so weak from the shock of the fire that she clung to Margaretand her mother for support. Her head reeled as picture thoughts racedthrough her mind. The threats of Burr Atwell, all of their months of hardwork, the expense of the fire, their father's need for money, Tom'sprecautions in moving the circulation list.
Then it was over. The firemen dragged their line of hose from thechemical tank back to the street and they crowded into the smoke-filledrooms. The fire had started near the back door but thanks to the nightwatchman had been detected before it had gained headway. The week'ssupply of print paper was ruined and the two rooms blackened by smoke andsplattered with the chemical used to check the flames, but the press andLinotype were undamaged.
Tom wanted to stay and clean up the office but Mrs. Blair insisted thatthey all return home, herself instructing the night watchman to hireseveral town laborers to work the rest of the night cleaning up theoffice.
"That fire was deliberately set," raged Tom as they walked home. "Thefire chief saved the greasy rags he found in the corner of the composingroom where it started. Ten more minutes without discovery and we wouldn'thave had a newspaper."
"Who could have done such a thing?" protested his mother.
"Burr Atwell," declared Tom. "The editorial office had been ransacked forthe 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'sissue that will scare him. We'll say the fire chief is investigating andmay ask for state secret service men to help him run down the fire bugwho started it. That ought to give Atwell a queer feeling."
They telephoned for another supply of print paper for the week's issueand the next morning were back at the office. The men who had workedthrough the night had done a good job of cleaning and there was littleevidence of fire other than the charred casings of the back door andsmudgy condition of the walls and ceiling.
Thanksgiving was brightened by word from their father that he would beable to return home in the spring but despite that it was a sad day inthe Blair home for there was none to fill his chair at the head of thetable.
"Christmas," thought Helen, "is going to be terribly lonesome for motherwith Dad so far away," and the more she thought about it the moredetermined she became. Without saying anything to Tom or her mother, shemade several guarded inquiries at the station and elicited the desiredinformation.
The days before the annual meeting of the supervisors passed rapidly. Theground whitened under the first snow of the year and the auditor for whomTom had arranged in Cranston arrived to audit their circulation listofficially. For a week before his arrival Tom and Helen concentratedevery effort on their circulation with the result that when the audit wascompleted 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 attendthe meeting Tom and Helen worked most of Wednesday night getting thefinal pages of the _Herald_ on the press, assembling and folding thepapers. It was three o'clock in the morning when they reached home andtheir 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 withtheir records and the auditor in the back seat, they started forGladbrook. It was well after ten o'clock when they reached the courthouseand they went directly to the supervisors' rooms where a clerk asked themto wait.
Half an hour later they were called and Helen went into the board roomwith mixed emotions throbbing through her mind. What would be the answerto their months of work? Would they get the county work which meant somuch or would Burr Atwell succeed in defeating them?
Her arms ached from the heavy task of folding the papers the night beforeand she was so nervous she was on the verge of tears. If they won theywould be able to buy a folder for the press and she wouldn't have to foldany more papers. That thought alone gave her new courage and she smiledbravely at Tom as he stepped forward and told the supervisors why hebelieved the _Herald_ should be the third county paper.
Then Mr. Adams, the auditor, presented his sworn statement of thecirculation of the _Herald_ and in conclusion, he added:
"I have never seen a sounder or better circulation than these youngpeople have built up. They have made no special offers nor have theyreduced rates. People who take the _Herald_ do so because it is one ofthe best weekly papers I have ever seen."
The chairman of the board of supervisors looked expectantly around theroom.
"The Gladbrook papers, the _News_ and the _Times_, have made theirapplication and the _Herald_ has just b
een heard," he explained. "Iexpected Mr. Atwell of the _Auburn Advocate_ would be here."
The board waited for fifteen minutes. Then there was a whisperedconference between members and the chairman stood up.
"The selection of official papers has been made," he announced. "_TheGladbrook News_, the _Gladbrook Times_ and the _Rolfe Herald_ will beknown as the official papers for the ensuing year. The meeting isadjourned until afternoon."
The editors of the Gladbrook papers offered Tom and Helen theircongratulations 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 oncirculation."
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'tappear."
"I have a hunch he was afraid we had connected him with the fire," saidTom. "Now let's phone mother and then send a wire to Dad."
That afternoon Tom completed the arrangements to publish the officialproceedings of the county supervisors and increased the amount of jobprinting he was to get from the courthouse. He also hired a middle-agedprinter 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 printingsafely tucked away we can afford it. Also, I bought a second-hand folderfrom the _Times_ here. It only cost me $50 and you'll never have to foldpapers again."
"Oh, I'm so happy," exclaimed Helen, "for I did hate to fold them. Therewere so many along toward the end."
On the way home that afternoon they made further plans and checked up ontheir funds in the bank.
"We've got a little over $900 right now," said Tom, "and that's deductingall 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 otherat the holidays before."
Something in Helen's voice caught Tom's attention and he glanced at hersharply.
"Say, what the dickens are you driving at?" he asked.
"Give me a check for $200 and I'll show you," replied Helen. "It willmean the happiest Christmas we've ever had."
"I'll do it and no questions asked until you're ready to tell me," agreedTom and when they reached Rolfe he went to the office and signed a checkfor $200 payable to Helen Blair.
The following Thursday fell on the 22nd of December and there was so muchadvertising they had to run two sections of the _Herald_. The printerthey had hired in Gladbrook was slow but thorough and they got the paperto press on time. With the folder installed, Helen was spared the arduousduties of folding all of the papers and she devoted her time to runningthe mailing machine.
"Spent that $200 yet?" asked Tom as they walked home through the briskDecember 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 inthe living room."
Mrs. Blair looked up quickly.
"That's thoughtful of you," she said, "but I hope you didn't spend toomuch 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 envelopetied 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 withmany perforations and much printing. The other was a small black booksimilar 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! Andhere's a book of traveler's checks and Pullman reservations. I'm to leavetomorrow."
Tom gave Helen a hearty hug.
"So that's where the $200 went," he whispered. "Are you sure it'senough?"
"Plenty," she replied.
Mrs. Blair sat down in her favorite chair, the ticket and check book inher hands, her eyes dim with tears.
"But I can't go away and leave you two here alone during holidays," shesaid.
"Oh yes you can, Mother," said Tom. "We'll be happy just knowing that youand Dad are together and you can tell him all about us and then, when youcome back, you can tell us all about him."
"You must go, Mother," insisted Helen. "I've let Dad in on the surpriseand we can't disappoint him now."
Doctor Stevens drove them to the junction where Mrs. Blair was to boardthe 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 ofPullmans up to the bleak platform. It paused for only a minute and thegoodbyes were hasty.
The limited whirled away into the storm and Tom and Helen, standing aloneon the platform, watched it disappear in the snow. It would be a quietChristmas for them but they were supremely happy knowing that theirfather was on the road to health and that they had made a success of the_Herald_.
THE END
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Transcriber's note:
--Obvious typographical errors were corrected without changing nonstandard spellings that might have been dialectical.
