“Well, if you had, you'd know he was a sick man.”
“Sick!” I exclaimed. “How do you know?”
“It's my business to know things,” said Judd Jason, and added to Tallant, “that your reporters don't find out.”
“What's the matter with him?” Tallant demanded. A slight exultation in his tone did not escape me.
“You've got me there,” said Jason, “but I have it pretty straight. Any one of your reporters will tell you that he looks sick.”....
The Era took Mr. Jason's advice and began to publish those portions of Krebs's speeches that were seemingly detrimental to his own cause. Other conservative newspapers followed suit....
Both Tallant and I were surprised to hear these sentiments out of the mouth of Mr. Jason.
“You don't think that crowd's going to win, do you?” asked the owner of the Era, a trifle uneasily.
“Win!” exclaimed the boss contemptuously. “They'll blow up, and you'll never hear of 'em. I'm not saying we won't need a little—powder,” he added—which was one of the matters we had come to talk about. He gave us likewise a very accurate idea of the state of the campaign, mentioning certain things that ought to be done. “You ought to print some of Krebs's speeches, Judah, like what he said about me. They're talking it all around that you're afraid to.”
“Print things like his proposal to make you mayor!”