Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/15



ISS RUTH HERRICK, of the "New York Searchlight," had been summoned into the presence of the managing editor. It was without special alacrity that she obeyed the call. Even as she dropped her pen and rose from her desk in the City Room, she seemed to hear the slow drawl of the great man's voice, uttering the words which so often greeted her appearance in his office,—

"Ah, Miss Herrick, I have a big story for you—a very big story."

Usually she felt herself responding to this with a pleasant thrill of expectancy. There was keen satisfaction to her in the working up of a "big story"; she enjoyed the