"Thank you, Mr. Black," said she. "I hope Mr. Murdoch will soon be well."
He stumped away, and it seemed to her as if her dignity barely lasted until she and Jack found themselves in Mr. Murdoch's garden, on their way home. It broke completely down as they were going between the sweet-corn and the tomatoes, and there they both stopped and laughed heartily.
"But, Molly," Jack exclaimed, when he recovered his breath, "we'll have to print the liveliest kind of an Eagle, or the Inquirer will get ahead of us. I'm going out, after supper, all over town, to pick up news. If I can only find some boys I know here, they could tell me a lot of good items. The boys know more of what's going on than anybody."
"I'd like to go with you," said Mary. "Stir around and find out all you can."
"I know what to do," said Jack, with energy, and if he had really undertaken to do all he proceeded to tell her, it would have kept him out all night.
CHAPTER VIII.
CAUGHT FOR A BURGLAR.
Supper was ready when Jack and Mary went into the house, and Mrs. Murdoch was eager that they should eat at once. She seemed very placidly to take it for granted that things were going properly in the Eagle office. Her husband had been ill before, and the paper had somehow lived along, and she was not the kind of woman to fret about it.
"He's been worrying," she said to Mary, "principally about town news. He's afraid the Inquirer 'll get ahead of you. It might be good to see him."