“One side there! Get out the way! Do you want to block up the whole entrance? I’m in a hurry!”
“I beg your pardon,” began Larry Dexter, “I didn’t mean to——”
He had no time to finish the sentence, for the man who had thus rudely spoken brushed against Larry, almost hurling him from his feet, and now fairly ran down the steps leading to the subway station.
“Say, if I’d have known he was going to act that way about it, I’d never have started to ask his pardon,” murmured the young reporter, as he rubbed his shoulder, which had hit against the side wall with considerable force.
“He sure was in a hurry, Mr. Dexter,” observed the newsboy, who had a small stand at the subway entrance. “Any one would think there was only one train downtown this morning, and if he missed that he couldn’t get another.”
“That’s right, Jim,” agreed Larry, as he tossed a coin to the boy of whom, every morning, he purchased several papers, that he might look them over on his trip downtown. For Larry was fast becoming known as the “star” reporter on the New York Leader, an afternoon journal. And, as he had to begin his duties in the morning, he always liked to see what the news of the day was likely to be, by scanning some rival sheets.
“Some folks want more than their share, anyhow,” went on the newsboy. “I see lots of ’em here. Say, but that was a big fire last night, Mr. Dexter. It ain’t out yet.”
“So I see,” remarked the young reporter, for he and Jim had grown to be quite friendly during the year or more that Larry had been buying papers at this stand. “I expect we’ll have to get a story on it ourselves. There may be some new ends to cover. Well, I guess I’ve given that fellow who was in a hurry plenty of time to get a train ahead of me. I don’t want to meet him again,” and with that, nodding a friendly good-bye to the newsboy, Larry started down the subway steps.
He was wondering what sort of an assignment might be given him to “cover,” or work on, that day, as he bought his ticket and dropped it into the chopper’s box. As he strolled out on the platform, built under the sidewalk, and along which the subway express would soon rumble, Larry looked up and down the long stretch of underground pavement.
“Guess I missed the express,” he mused. “It was that fellow’s fault, too.”