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How do we know people want an honest paper or would know one if they saw it?" "My God, son! Don't talk like that," implored the veteran. "That's the one heresy for which men in our game are eternally damned and deserve it." "All right. I know it. I don't mean it, Pop. I'm not adopting Marrineal's creed. Not just yet." "By the way, Marrineal was asking for you this morning." "Was he?
"But what was his gun? And why need he threaten Ban?" "Why, you see, Mrs. Eyre, about that time things were coming to an issue between Ban and Marrineal. Ban was having a hard fight for the independence of his editorial page. His strongest hold on Marrineal was Marrineal's fear of losing him. There were plenty of opportunities open to a Banneker.
"What's your diagnosis of Marrineal, then?" "A priest of Baal." "With The Patriot in the part of Baal?" "Not precisely The Patriot. Publicity, rather, of which The Patriot is merely the instrument. Marrineal's theory of publicity is interesting. It may even be true. Substantially it is this: All civilized Americans fear and love print; that is to say, Publicity, for which read Baal.
He spoke crudely, for the apparition of the girl was quite touching in its youth, and delight, and candor of expression, whereas he had read into Marrineal's long, handsome, and blandly mature face a touch of the satyr. He resented the association. "No; it isn't," replied Cressey promptly. "If it is, he's in the wrong pew. Miss Raleigh is straight as they make 'em, from all I hear."
"I'm going to tell you exactly what occurred," said Banneker quietly, and outlined the episode of the editorial, suppressing, however, Marrineal's covert threat as to Io and The Searchlight. "And I haven't resigned. So you see what manner of man I am," he concluded defiantly. "You mean a coward? I don't think it." "I wish I were sure!" burst out Banneker. "Ah?
By the way, did I tell you that I'd found an acquaintance from the desert where Banneker hails from?" "No." Marrineal's tone subtly indicated that he should have been told at once. That sort of thing was, indeed, the basis on which Ives drew a considerable stipend from his patron's private purse, as "personal representative of Mr. Marrineal" for purposes unspecified. "A railroad man.
Now he took up a blue pencil and with a gesture, significant and not without dramatic effect, struck it down through the reckoning. "No, Mr. Marrineal. It isn't good enough. I hold to the old status. When our contract is out " "Just a moment, Mr. Banneker. Isn't there a French proverb, something about no man being as indispensable as he thinks?" Marrineal's voice was never more suave and friendly.
Well, when Marrineal got Ban where he couldn't resign, Ban's hold was gone. That was Marrineal's gun." "Why couldn't he resign?" asked Io, white-lipped. "If he quit The Patriot he could no longer hold Bussey, and The Searchlight could print what it chose. You see?" "I see," said Io, very low. "Oh, why couldn't I have seen before!" "How could you, if Ban told you nothing?" reasoned Edmonds.
Forebodings had laid hold on his mind. Enderby had been back for five days, and had taken no part whatever in the current political activity. Conflicting rumors were in the air. The anti-Marrineal group was obviously in a state of confusion and doubt: Marrineal's friends were excited, uncertain, expectant. For three days Banneker had had no letter from Io.
How should he act in the crisis thus forced, at Marrineal's slow pleasure? Take Edmonds's Gordian recourse; resign? But he was on the verge of debt. His investments had gone badly; he prided himself on the thought that it was partly through his own immovable uprightness. Now, this threat to his badly needed percentages!
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