It was not often that the Washington correspondent of the New York Daily News visited the home office of that newspaper, particularly when Congress was in session. Therefore Ben Stephens, the managing editor, looked up from his desk in astonishment one afternoon when that young man stepped into his office.
“I’ve got a line on something so important,” the latter explained, “that I was afraid to trust it to the wires. I might have sent it in by mail, of course, but I thought it would be more satisfactory to run into town and talk it over with you. I think you’ll agree that it’s one of the hottest tips that ever came out of Washington.”
“A scandal?” eagerly exclaimed Stephens. “Haven’t caught a United States senator with the goods, have you?”
The correspondent smiled. “Not exactly. It’s a scandal, all right, and a whopping big one, but a little farther from home than that. You remember that chap Felix, President of Baracoa, who skipped with the national treasury a couple of years ago?”
The managing editor nodded. “What about him? Have they caught the rascal?”
The Washington correspondent lowered his voice. “According to the tip I’ve got, he never went away,” he announced. “It was all a frame-up on the part of his political enemies, headed by Portiforo. They’ve got him locked up in a dungeon of El Torro fortress, where he’s been ever since the night he’s supposed to have beaten it.”
Stephens smiled skeptically. “What kind of tobacco do you smoke?” he sneered.
“It isn’t a pipe dream,” the other said earnestly. “At least, I’m pretty well satisfied that the tip is straight goods. It comes from a most authoritative source.” He dropped his voice even lower. “I got it from Attorney General Cooper.”
The managing editor’s face lighted up. “From Cooper himself?”
The correspondent hesitated. “Well, I didn’t exactly hear it from his own lips, but it came from him, all right. The fact is I got the tip from one of the servants of the attorney general’s household—his butler. But the fellow is absolutely to be relied on. I have had him on my pay roll for the last six months, and he’s never given me a wrong steer yet. You remember that scoop last winter about the wife of that European ambassador losing twenty-five thousand at bridge? Well, that tip came from him. That chap is a regular bear for news. There is mighty little going on at the capital that he doesn’t hear about.”