“Perhaps,” admitted Helen, “but he can’t tell us what to do.”
“In that,” smiled her mother, “you take after your father.”
They refused to let the warning from the editor of the Auburn paper dim their hopes or retard their efforts. Circulation mounted steadily until by mid-November it had reached an even 1,400.
Tom continued his weekly trips to Gladbrook to get the county farm news and to solicit advertising. From one of these trips he returned jubilant.
“I’ve been talking with the supervisors,” he said, “and they’re all in favor of naming the Herald the third official paper instead of the Advocate. One of them suggested that we get an auditor from Cranston to go over our circulation list and officially audit it and then have him with us when we appear before the board.”
“But wouldn’t that cost a lot of money?”
“Probably $50 but having an audited list will practically insure us of getting the county work. Also, I’m going to take our subscription records and list over to the bank and keep them there until we need them every Thursday.”
“Why, what’s the matter, Tom?”
“I heard some talk in the courthouse that Atwell had been boasting he’d get even with us and I’m not going to take any chances with the records.”
With characteristic determination Tom made the transfer that afternoon and it was only mid-evening of the same day when the fire siren sounded its alarm.