Page:Tongues of Flame (1924).pdf/324

 Within five minutes a copy was pasted in the window and another was being transcribed by brush into huge sheets that could be read at fifty feet, while a third was being rapidly set in half-inch type—a size that would make the story all but fill the first page of the second extra of the Blade for that day.

Before the larger sheets could be pasted in the window, a group had gathered about the typewritten one; before its duplicate was past the typesetters, the sidewalk in front of the Blade office was blocked with people who had gathered to stare with straining eyes; and within ten minutes after the second extra was in the hands of newsboys hawking hoarsely, the street itself was blocked; not even police lines could have been established.

Messengers, automobiles, telephone wires hurried the news about. Housewives listened at the receiver sickly, or stared wide-eyed over back fences at the white faces of neighbor women who purveyed the story to them. These telephone conversations and over-the-back-fence group-discussions were alike exclamatory—fragmentary.

"Mr. Boland? Such a good man?" tone of utter incredulity.

"Well, if he's that kind of a man"

"I never could see why people were so crazy about that man"

"Of course, he'll have to pay it back."

"Why, he was little better than a robber."

"But can he pay it back?"

"He's rich."

"He's got millions."

"He's a beggar."