“I could hardly help having it, since I was present at your proceedings.”
“You?”
“Personally and by proxy. I am the agent of Mr. Seymour of New York. Mr. Hartsell here, otherwise Mr. Manning, has represented me, and has turned over to me the agreement you signed to-day.”
They whirled about upon Manning, who continued unperturbed in his chair.
“What she says is straight, gentlemen,” he said. “I have only been acting for Miss West.”
A horrible curse fell from the thick, loose lips of Blind Charlie Peck. Blake, his sickly pallor deepening, stared from Manning to Katherine.
“It isn’t so! It can’t be so!” he breathed wildly.
“If you want to see just what I’ve got, here it is,” said Katherine, and she tossed the bundle of proofs upon the desk.
Blake seized the sheets in feverish hands. Blind Charlie stepped to his side, and Mr. Brown slipped forward out of his corner and peered over their shoulders. First they saw the two facsimiles, then their eyes swept in the leading points of Billy Harper’s fiery story. Then a low cry escaped from Blake. He had come upon Billy Harper’s great page-wide headline: