Suddenly Jackson, who had gone to the ’phone to call up someone near the scene, cried out:
“It’s a bad one, all right!”
“Who are you talking with?” asked Mr. Emberg.
“I’ve got a party on the wire who lives about a block away. He says all the windows in the neighborhood are broken.”
“I don’t care for the windows!” broke in Mr. Emberg. “What do they amount to? Is anyone killed? Find that out, if you can, and tell what happened.”
Jackson listened to what the man at the other end of the wire was saying. Then he called out:
“Some men were cleaning out a tank that had been emptied of gas! Some gas leaked in, and the thing went up! He says he saw a number of bodies thrown away up into the air, and the report is that seven men are killed.”
Before Jackson had ceased speaking Mr. Emberg was writing out a bulletin to be posted outside the office, giving a mere statement of the accident, and announcing that details would be found in the next issue of the Leader.
An instant later the telephone rang again.
“Answer that, Anderson!” the city editor exclaimed. “That’s probably Newton on the wire. Write fast, tell him to talk fast, and make short sentences. We only have a few minutes for the second edition.”