“But what am I to do?” asked Larry.
“You’re going to help us get a beat I hope,” said the city editor.
Larry’s eyes brightened. He saw himself on the road to becoming a reporter.
“You see,” Mr. Emberg went on, “the company in charge of the work is not exactly sure that their plans will succeed. So they have asked a number of newspaper men to go along on the trial trip. But they have been very quiet about it and no other paper than ours—at least I hope so—knows what the real purpose of the trip is. Most of the reporters think it is only a jaunt to see how the work has progressed. There have been a number of such.
“So carefully have the builders laid their plans that they think, once all the reporters are down in the big tube, they cannot get out to say whether the thing is a success or a failure, in time to reach the afternoon papers. As for the morning papers, if the thing is a failure it will be so covered up by the engineers, that the reporters will never know it.
“Now my plan is this! I want you to go along with Mr. Newton. You will be his assistant, for each invitation admits two. If the thing should succeed, which I think it will, we want to know it this afternoon; not to-morrow. And if it does succeed, it will only be known to those down in the tube.
“The only way we could find out in the office would be to have some word from those in the tube or tunnel. The only way we can get word is for someone to come back from the tube. Mr. Newton could not leave, for, if he did, after the wall had been cut through, his absence would be noted, and other reporters would rush out. Then we would not score a beat.
“But if you could go along, note what takes place, and then, when the chance offers, get away unnoticed and come out of the tube to a telephone on the surface, we could get the news ahead of anyone else. Do you think you can do it?”
Larry hesitated. It was a pretty big contract for a small boy, but he resolved to try it.
“I’ll do it!” he said.