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ERRY HINTON woke with a start as the telephone at his bedside rang long and noisily, and the first words that he addressed to the offending instrument bore not the slightest resemblance to a morning prayer. Having spent a very strenuous night in first witnessing and afterward reporting a big East End fire, he felt a very natural irritation at this interruption of his well-earnt slumbers. Jerking off the receiver, he recognized the voice of McBlair, news editor of the well-known daily paper on whose behalf his labors had been expended.

"I've rung up to report the approaching end of the world," announced that worthy.

Terry yawned audibly. "In that case I wish you'd chosen a more convenient time. Is this some obscure joke that you're trying to crack?"

"Heaven forbid!" was McBlair's pious denial. "No, laddie, I'm quite serious. When the advertisement manager opened his morning mail he found among it a long notice sent for insertion at the usual rates. This was to the effect that if the inhabitants of the earth did not consent to accept certain drastic changes which the writer thought desirable, their globe was going to be rendered uninhabitable."

"Hoax," interjected Terry impatiently.

"There were twenty five-pound