"I'm afraid it's right, Boss," said the associate editor, after hearing Hal's report.
"But how can it be? I saw the whole thing."
"E.M. Pierce is rich. The nurse is poor. That is, she has been poor. Lately I've had a man keeping tabs on her. Since leaving the hospital, she's moved into an expensive flat, and has splurged out into good clothes. Whence the wherewithal?"
"Bribery!"
"Without a doubt."
"Then Pierce has got us."
"It looks so," admitted Ellis sorrowfully.
"But we can't give in," groaned Hal. "It means the end of the 'Clarion.' What is there to do?"
"Play for time," advised the other. "Go back there with a stiff upper lip and tell 'em you won't be bulldozed or hurried. Then we'll have a council."
"Suppose they demand an answer."