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McGaffey." "I suppose," said Patsy, with indignation, "he intended to go, all the while, and only waited for his Saturday pay." Miss Briggs nodded. She was at the telegraph instrument. "What shall we do?" asked Louise. "Can anyone else work the press?" "I'll find out," said Patsy, marching into the workroom. Neither Fitz nor Larry would undertake to run the press.
Finally, at exactly two o'clock, the forms were locked, placed upon the bed of the press, and McGaffey, a sour-faced individual whose chief recommendation was his ability as a pressman, began to make ready for the "run."
Fitzgerald, the job printer, examined the machinery carefully and again McGaffey screwed nuts and regulated the press. Then he turned on the power; the big cylinder revolved; the white paper reeled out like a long ribbon and with a rattle and thump the first copy of the Millville Daily Tribune was deposited, cut and folded, upon the table placed to receive it.
Merrick caught his nieces in his arms, by turn, and gave each one an ecstatic hug and kiss. Suddenly the press stopped. "What's wrong, McGaffey?" demanded Patsy, anxiously. "Nothing, miss. Edition off, that's all." "What! the entire four hundred are printed?" "Four twenty-five. I run a few extrys."
There was a hitch somewhere; McGaffey muttered naughty words under his breath and plied wrenches and screwdrivers in a way that brought a thrill of anxiety, approaching fear, to every heart. The press started half a dozen times, only to be shut down abruptly before it had printed a single impression. McGaffey counseled with Larry, who shook his head.
McGaffey, knowing he was about to decamp, had not kept the press very clean; but Thursday Smith put in the afternoon and evening removing grease, polishing and rubbing, until the huge machine shone resplendent. The girls went home at dinner time, but they sent Arthur to the office at midnight to see if the new pressman was proving capable.
By Wednesday night the equipment was fully installed and the workmen departed, leaving only Jim McGaffey, an experienced pressman, and Lawrence Doane familiarly called Larry who was to attend to the electrotyping and "make-up." The press was of the best modern construction, and folded, cut and counted the papers automatically, with a capacity for printing three thousand copies an hour.
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