In a moment they were around him, and they were the Dot and the Mike and the Terry whose faces had been so familiar so long ago.
"I must've—he—I must've been reading this final—look, Dot, my God look—"
She saw the Page One streamer.
"Then he was—he was trying, here, he was trying, Doug.... That was why. When I arrived, I had a pistol in my hand...."
The headline read BLAIR BILL GOES TO HOUSE TOMORROW. And in the three-column drop beneath it: Unanimous Passage Seen—Senate Reported Favorable—President Says He'll Sign Immediately—Draft Of 13's Would Begin Nov. 15—Soviet Terms Measure 'Fantastic.'
"Doug—"
"He's begun it all right. How, I don't know, unless—And beneath the centerfold he read CLERGY LAUDS BLAIR BILL AT PARLEY HERE.
"Had them falling for it, had 'em mainlined all the way!" Doug said.
And then he was going swiftly toward the den, almost at a run.
He pulled a battered chair up to the big desk, lifted his telephone from its cradle almost in a single motion.