Page:Lynch Williams--The stolen story and other newspaper stories.djvu/37

 that he knew all about the ways of newspapers had growled out, "I have nothing to say," but he looked up again when he heard Woods's gentle, well-modulated voice saying, "Certainly. I think I appreciate your position in the matter exactly. Of course you cannot talk about the company's private affairs. But this is all I wanted to know—that is if it is not unprofessional in you to tell me—is it so that"—and in a few minutes Billy bowed himself out of the private office with a half-column of interview and the good-will of the interviewed, and was looking for the next lawyer.

This time he saw that he must employ the friendly slangy manner which a few years ago would have made him despise himself, but he was used to it now. The third man he bullied outright. "Don't try to be so mysterious," he sneered. "It doesn't impress me at all. I'm merely asking you a civil question, and if you don't care to answer it all you have to do is to say so, and I'll go away. But you know as well as I do that this thing is bound to come out, that it's something which concerns the public