“I didn’t get all of the plugs cleaned,” said Tim, “so I’m having the boys at the field finish the job.”
“What’s on Carson’s mind?” asked Ralph, jerking a thumb toward the managing editor’s door.
“He’s just contracted to sponsor the appearance here of Ace McDowell and the High Flyers. They’ll be in Saturday and put on their stunts Sunday afternoon.”
“Which means plenty of work for us,” commented Ralph.
“It will mean plenty of work but it will have everyone talking about the News being alive and wide awake and that’s what we want. The Advance is slipping every day and some morning this fall I wouldn’t be surprised if we wake up and find that our rival paper has folded up and, like the Arabs, silently stolen away.”
“That won’t hurt my feelings a bit,” said Ralph. “The fellows on the Advance have made it mighty tough for us these last few months. They lie, cheat and steal to get their stories and I’ve run into some actual bribery.”
“So have I, but it won’t win for them in the long run. I’m glad we’re working for a paper and an editor that’s clean from top to bottom.”
Returning to his desk, Tim rummaged through the drawers until he found an aviation magazine which contained an illustrated sketch of Ace McDowell and his flying circus. McDowell was short and swarthy with eyes that were a little too close together to suit Tim. But the News reporter knew that the head of the flying circus was a real flyer and would put on a good show. There was no sense in building up a prejudice just from a picture.
Tim rolled a sheet of copy paper into his typewriter and after a moment’s thought on the wording of his opening sentence, started hammering out the story announcing the coming of the flying circus. By the use of plenty of adjectives he contrived to write a full column and, after reading over the story and correcting one or two minor errors, he laid it on the copy desk.
Dan Watkins, veteran head of the desk, looked up from beneath his green eye-shade.