Page:Lynch Williams--The stolen story and other newspaper stories.djvu/156

 pencil and said to the big man, in a brave voice, "What I should like to know sir, is, will Holliday have the support of the administration if he is nominated? Will he?" That was what they all wanted to know. But it came out so naïvely, as if the idea had just occurred to him (and so it had), that some of them burst out laughing. The secretary laughed a little, too, and, turning kindly toward the boy, who had dropped his eyes, said, with a queer, ironical smile, in an amused tone, "He would have the heartiest support the administration could give." Then turned and smiled around at the rest of the room as much as to say, "You know what I mean by that;" and the others thought they did know what he meant by that and smiled at his ironical evasion, and smiled, too, at the ignorance of the cub. But they were too hot upon the scent of news to delay the interview long and were soon busy asking other questions.

Meanwhile, the cub reporter, wondering why they laughed, sucked in his lower lip and wrote: "He would have the heartiest support the administration could give," but