"Give out the whole thing, and quarantine the district."
"The Mayor will remove him the instant he opens his mouth, and kill any quarantine. Merritt will be discredited in all the papers—unless the 'Clarion' backs him. Will it?"
Ellis dropped his head in his hand. "I don't know," he said finally.
"Not running an honest paper this week?" sneered the physician lightly. "By the way, where's Young Hopeful?"
"See here, Dr. Elliot," said Ellis. "You're a good old scout. If you hadn't poked me in the stomach I believe I'd tell you something."
"Try it," encouraged the other.
"All right. Here it is. They've put it up to Hal Surtaine pretty stiff, this gang of perfectly honorable business men, leading citizens, pillars of the church, porch-climbers, and pickpockets who run the city. I guess you know who I mean."
Dr. Elliot permitted himself a reserved grin.
"All right. They've got him in a clove hitch. At least it looks so. And one of the conditions for letting up on him is that he suppresses all news of the epidemic. Then they'll have the 'Clarion' right where they've got every other local paper."
"Nice town, Worthington," observed Dr. Elliot, with easy but apparently irrelevant affability.