“I was just about to break. I was very sick of words. Every sentence was like drawing a rusty chain in one ear and out the other.”
“Of course you know you’ve got the world by the tail on this Russian end—this Liaoyang story,” Noyes observed.
“I’ve written the story. The big part of the copy is here for you.”
“You’re not going to quit now. Are you down and out physically?”
“No.”
“Why, Morning,” Field broke in, “you ought to make ten thousand dollars in the next thirty days. You’ve got a big feature for every magazine in America—and then the book.”
“The chance doesn’t come but once in a life time—and then only to God’s chosen few, who work like hell,” said Noyes, and he sat back to review this particularly finished remark.
“What would you do?” Morning asked.
“I’d start for New York to-night. Field’s story about you—the one we run to-night at the head of Fallows’ story—will start the game. A couple of installments of your big yarn will have appeared in the World-News when you reach New York. If it ends as good as it begins, you’ll have the big town groggy within a week. You’ll receive the magazine editors in your hotel, contract to furnish so much—and talk off same to expert typists. That’s the way things are done. You’ve got the goods. New York serves a man like that. It’s nothing to me, but I know the game—even if I never cornered a Liaoyang story. Fallows said you have done more work for less money than any man in America. He’s one of our owners——”
So Noyes rambled on; Field breaking in with fresh and timely zest. Morning had not looked beyond the main story. He saw separate articles now in every phase. It would work out.... Four days of rest—looking out of the car-window. He would land in New York once and for all—land hard—do it all at once. Then he would rest.... He was seething again.... With this advantage he could break into the markets that would stand aloof from his ordinary product for years. All day his devil had slept, and now was awake for rough play in the dusk. His dreams organized—the big markets—breaking out of the newspapers into the famous publications! He had the stuff. It would be as Noyes said. He would have thought of it for another man.