“I—I don’t remember anything about it,” said Peter. “I sent up my own copy; that’s all I’m supposed to do.”
“No, it is not,” said the city editor. “You are supposed to do what we are all doing here, work for the interests of the paper, no matter in what way. Larry did wrong if he let anyone else take any copy that was intrusted to him. Never do it again, Larry. When you get copy put it in the tube yourself. Then you will be sure it goes upstairs.”
“But he asked me for it,” said the new boy, feeling quite badly over the matter.
“No matter if he did.”
“I didn’t do it. He’s just tryin’ to get out of it,” spoke Peter.
“We’ll soon see who’s to blame,” came from the city editor. “You boys come with me.”
Secure in the sense that he was right, Larry followed. As for Peter he would a good deal rather not have gone, only he dared not disobey. Up to the composing room Mr. Emberg led the two boys. There he asked the boy whose duty it was to take copy from the tubes whether he had received any on yellow paper, for it was on sheets of that hue that the missing story was written.
“No yellow copy came up this afternoon,” said the tube boy. “The last batch I took out was a story about the new monument, and that was all.”
“That’s the copy you took, Peter, about the same time I sent the story about Alderman Murphy up,” said Mr. Emberg.
“I don’t know nothin’ about no yellow copy,” said Peter sullenly.