Herbert smiled at this vigorous presentation of the case, and said:
“Well, Mr. Blakeley, if it is a piece of newspaper work that comes within my ability, I feel reasonably sure of coming out successful.”
“Well,” said the other, in his short, snappy tones, “here is a letter. It’s a small clue as a starting point. Read it over, and then come back to me.”
Herbert went to his desk and read the letter as directed. It was from a poor woman who had been induced to send $2 of her hard earned money to a concern which promised to teach her how to paint on china within two weeks, and after that time to furnish her with steady employment which would pay her anywhere from $10 to $20 a week, according to her speed and ability. She said in her letter that she had sent the money, and in return received a flimsy circular which gave some crude and utterly impracticable directions of how to paint. The thing was worthless to her and her $2 wasted.
When Herbert had finished reading this, he returned to Blakeley and said:
“Have you any further directions?”
“No,” was the reply, “you will have to work on your own resources from now on. I suppose that eventually the postal authorities will hear of this swindle and refuse to permit this sort of thing to go through the mails; but in the meantime we know about it and we want to get the credit of stopping it at once. You take the address of this woman and go ahead and see what you can make of it.”
Herbert called upon the woman that afternoon, and in less than an hour had obtained a very good story from her, backed up by a sworn statement of her experience with the concern. At the same time he learned the names and addresses of ten other persons who had been swindled in a similar manner. Altogether four days were consumed in visiting and interviewing these persons. Some of them who had natural ability, had learned to paint on china in spite of the bungling directions sent out by the concern; but when they wrote to the company and asked for the employment that was to pay them from $10 to $20 a week their letters were ignored. Altogether the young reporter had what might be called a first class story. When he had all of his facts in good shape he went to the city editor again, and said:
“Mr. Blakeley, I want you to give me authority to employ a private detective. I have everything in perfect condition at present, and all I need is the climax, which I hope to bring about at noon to-morrow. In other words, it is necessary to arrest someone connected with this concern. If we do this, I will have plenty of witnesses, and we can have the scoundrel held for court.”
“Capital! Capital!” shouted Blakeley. “I will give you the authority to employ a detective at once. How do you propose going about it?”