"The Morning Mail," began the Colonel, but was interrupted by Wilkinson:
"Phew! And who owns the Morning Mail?"
Morehead smiled.
"Check and countercheck," he grinned. "Ougheltree and his gang have just bought it." Turning to Leslie, he explained that Ougheltree was the President of the Twentieth Century National Bank. "The National Banks have formed in line to fight the Trust Companies," he told her, "because the Trust Companies, having bigger powers, attract more people. And they've opened fire on your father, first, and his string of Trust Companies." And now once more he turned to Wilkinson, and laying his hand on the other's shoulder, he said: "Do you know what I was thinking just this morning? I think you ought to buy a daily paper. I do, indeed! This is a crisis——"
"But I already own a paper," objected Wilkinson.
"I mean a good one. My idea would be to buy—well, say the Daily Reporter. It's a crackerjack sheet that's just begun to go down hill. It can be bought cheap, too."
Leslie tightened her grasp on her father's arm.
"Let me buy it for you, father, that is, if there's money enough left to buy it with."
Morehead's attention was directed afresh toward Leslie.
"Let me go on, Miss Leslie," he continued. "There were other reasons why haste was inadvisable. The Morning Mail, owned by this gang of national bankers, is trying to poison public opinion against your father. If we had instantly snapped a bail bond of three-quarters of a million dollars on the files, the Mail would have charged Peter V. Wilkinson with being a rich man still, having the money of the masses in his coat-tail pocket. It was wise and necessary, too, for me to forestall this. I gave to every newspaper in the city the pedigree of the stocks and bonds that you put up, showing that they were the individual property of your mother, and had come down to you direct. The result is that the Morning Mail had not a word to say. We've got to be mighty careful," he concluded, "about public opinion. For there's a trial waiting for us out there in the future."