In the cable office Stubbs grabbed a blank and wrote, in code:
"Armistice signed this a.m. at eleven o'clock at Hirson. Stubbs."
The message he handed to the clerk with instructions to rush it.
"That'll be enough," said Stubbs. "They'll know at the office what to do with it. They'll probably write columns at that end describing the scenes at Hirson between Marshal Foch and the German delegates. There'll be pictures and everything. Now I'll go and learn a few of the details."
He encountered Jennings of The World as he moved toward the door.
"Look here, Stubbs," said Jennings, "why all this rush. You're not going to leave the rest of us out in the cold, are you?"
Stubbs smiled.
"I'm not working for you fellows," he replied. "The New York Gazette is paying me my weekly stipend, but I don't mind saying I've landed a big piece of news."
Jennings attempted to minimize the matter.
"Oh, I guess it's not so terribly big," he said.