Page:Lynch Williams--The stolen story and other newspaper stories.djvu/294

 himself to the first one of his friends he could find. He was very quiet and serious now, and had a good, clean look about the eyes. "I believe I am a new man," he said, gravely. "Now I want to get to work."

The friend looked thoughtful, for, being a newspaper man, he was skeptical of many things, including gold cures, but he knew it was useless to advise, so he tried to help Woods get something to do.

But it was no longer easy to get even Billy Woods a job, notwithstanding his clean-shaven, grave face, backed up by a new suit of dark clothes and white linen. It had become the general belief along the Row that he could not be depended upon to keep sober till the paper went to press.

First they tried the big papers, but most of the city editors refused to even see Woods; one or two because they had been reporters with him in the old days, and it was easier to refuse Billy Woods if they did not see him, even though they were hardened city editors; but most of them because