The Stolen Story
more than a little, and something the citizens of New York ought to know. What's more, I am going to tell them. It's all a matter of whether you want me to get your client's side of it or not."
And the little, bald-headed lawyer scowled and said, "There's nothing in it, at all. Sit down. It's simply this way," and told Billy what he already knew but now had authority for, which made it good news. It was not good news before. It would be poor stuff if published as "it is said," or " there is reason for thinking," etc. And if printed as a fact without quotation marks it would invite a libel suit.
It was a quarter before three at the Lawyers' Club when the president lighted a black cigar and signed a check for it. Billy Woods, waiting for him by the elevator, had the satisfaction of seeing the man that had lunched with him step across the reception-room to the library, and the further satisfaction of noting by the clock that the president would not have to hurry to the meeting. Little things of this sort often mean a column or two.
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