The elder nodded between two spirals of smoke which gave him the appearance of an important godling delivering oracles through incense. “That was a dam’ bad story you wrote of the Sippiac killings.”
“I didn’t write it.”
“Didn’t uh? You were there.”
“My story went to the office cat.”
“What was the stuff they printed? Amalgamated Wire Association?”
“No. Machine-made rewrite in the office.”
“It wasn’t dishonest. The Ledger’s too clever for that. It was unhonest. You can’t be both neutral and fair on cold-blooded murder.”
“You weren’t precisely neutral in The Courier.”
Edmonds chuckled. “I did rather put it over on the paper. But that was easy. Simply a matter of lining up the facts in logical sequence.”
“Horace Vanney says you’re an anarchist.”