CHAPTER V
SCOOPING THE “SCORCHER”
The start which Larry gave when he heard the voice of the prima donna over the telephone was noticed by the city editor.
“What is it?” asked Mr. Emberg, slipping to Larry’s side, just as the young reporter was telling Madame Androletti over the wire that he would call on her at once.
“It’s the stolen boy case!” he answered, when he had hung up the receiver. “He can’t have come back, and she can’t have had any trace of him, for she was half crying when she told me to come up. I’m going to get the story. It’s ripe now, and it’s a good one. There’s something big back of it all.”
“That’s the way to talk, Larry. Get right after it! Can you get a ‘scoop’ out of it?”
“I’m going to try hard. None of the other papers are on to it yet.”
“Look out that the Scorcher doesn’t spring some fake sensation on you. This is just their kind of a yarn. Beat ’em if you can.”
“I will,” and with that Larry hurried out to catch the elevator. Mr. Emberg stepped out into the corridor with him.
“There are some queer points to this story, Larry,” he said. “I can’t understand why Madame Androletti shouldn’t have raised an alarm at once when she found her son missing.”
“It does seem odd,” agreed the young reporter. “And yet she explains that by saying that the case was so peculiar that if she went out and made a big fuss, and called in the police, the kidnappers might do her, or her son, some harm. It’s just like when some one does something mean to you, and you pretend not to know it for a while, laying low, and holding back, so as to get a better chance to get even with ’em.”