This latter point Hildreth knew to be important. Jack Summers was a reckless person of whom most men in Thebes were inclined to be somewhat in awe. He had lived in the place when the only law there was the will of the boldest, enforced with a pistol, and he had not yet reconciled himself to milder methods.
"I want you to score Jack Summers in the Enterprise, Edgar." It was Hildreth's habit to go straight to the marrow of his undertakings. "I want you to drive him out of town, or compel him to shut up his den. He is ruining all the boys, and giving the town a bad name."
"But will Podauger let me?" asked Braine.
"Podauger" was the sobriquet by which old Janus Leftwitch—"Editor and Proprietor of the Thebes Daily Enterprise"—had come to be known, by reason of the ponderous unreadableness of his disquisitions.
"Podauger be—blessed! (I never swear, Braine.) I own Podauger. I can shut up his office to-day if I want to, and assign him a room in the poorhouse. He will print what I tell him to, and Mose Harbell will keep quiet too, when I tell him not to call Jack Summers 'our genial fellow citizen' again. The only question is, will you write the articles?"
"I will, on one condition."
"I didn't think you would be afraid."
"I'm not."
"What is the condition then?"
"That I am to be let alone. I won't begin a thing of that kind, and have it hushed up. It must go clear through if I undertake it."