So Myles found a seat on a window-sill and amused himself by watching what was going on around him. He noticed that as each reporter entered the room he walked directly to a slate, that hung on the wall near the door, and read carefully a list of names written on it. He afterward found that this was a list of those for whom mail matter had come addressed to the office. Having received his letters from Mr. Brown, and taken one or more copies of the morning Phonograph from a pile on the janitors desk, each reporter occupied himself as he chose until summoned by Mr. Haxall and given an assignment.
Upon accepting this, his name and the nature of the duty he was about to undertake were entered on the page, for that day, of a large blank-book known as the assignment book. Myles also noticed that nearly every assignment was given in the form of one of the slips clipped from other papers by the city editor. The reporter generally walked slowly away, reading this slip, and studying the problem thus presented to him, as he went. When, some days afterward, Myles had a look at this famous assignment book he found that each of its pages was dated, and that in it clippings, referring to future events, were entered under their respective dates.
The young reporter sat so near the city editors desk that he could catch fragments of the conversation between Mr. Haxall and those whom he was dispatching to all parts of the city, its suburbs, and apparently to remote corners of the country as well He overheard one young man ordered to take a journey that would certainly occupy days and possibly weeks. Myles watched this reporter with curious eyes as, after taking a small hand-bag from his locker, he left the office as carelessly as though his journey was only to be across the Brooklyn Bridge instead of into a wilderness a thousand miles away, as it really was.
Myles envied this reporter, as he also did another who was sent out to the very New Jersey village in which his own home was located. How he did wish he might have that assignment.
At length when the others had been sent away on their respective errands Mr. Haxall called his name, and he stepped forward with a quickly-beating heart to receive his first assignment.
I only wanted to know your city address, Mr. Manning, said the city editor, looking up with a pleasant smile. We find it necessary to know where our reporters live, so that in an emergency they may be reached out of office-hours.
When Myles had given the required address he still remained standing before the desk. Noticing this Mr. Haxall again looked up and said:
Is there any thing else?
Yes, sir, answered Myles, hesitating and becoming very red in the face, like a school-boy before his master, I wanted to say that I havent any dress-suit.
Havent what? asked the city editor, in amazement.
A dress-suit.
Havent a dress-suit? repeated Mr. Haxall, with a perplexed air, and regarding Myles as though he feared for his mental condition. Well, what of it?
Why, I thought the reason you engaged me was because I owned a dress-suit. Mr. Van Cleef told me so.
Oh, laughed the city editor, tilting back in his chair for the fuller enjoyment of his merriment. Thats a good one! And now it seems that you dont own a dress-suit, after all. Well, I am sorry; but never mind, we will try to get along without it, and I will find something for you to do directly that wont require one.
So the confession was made and Myles had not lost his place, after all. He resumed his seat with a light heart and for another hour patiently awaited orders. In the meantime several men came in, wrote out their reports, handed them to the city editor, and were sent off again. Mr. Haxall filed most of these reports on a hook without even glancing over them.
At the end of an hour, when the office was completely deserted by all except the city editor and himself, Myles was again called by name.
Now, thought he, I am surely to get an assignment.
And so he did, though it was by no means such an one as he expected. Handing him a ten-cent piece, the city editor said:
I find that I cant take time to go out for lunch to-day, Mr. Manning, and as the office-boys seem to be absent, will you kindly run out to the nearest restaurant and get me a couple of sandwiches?
It was disappointing and mortifying to be sent on such an errand, and for an instant Myles pride rebelled against it. Then the words under orders, together with Van Cleefs advice, flashed into his mind, and with a cheerful Certainly, sir, he started off.
When he returned and laid the sandwiches, neatly done up in thin white paper, on Mr. Haxalls desk, that gentleman said:
I wish you would just step over to Brooklyn, Mr. Manning, and report to Billings at Police Head-quarters. He has charge of the horse-car strike over there, and telegraphs that he can use another man to advantage.
Is he a police captain, sir? asked Myles, not knowing who Billings might be.
A police captain? Of course not. What put that idea into your head? replied Mr. Haxall, a little sharply. Billings is one of our best reporters, and, as I said, is in charge of this street-car strike.
Oh, thank you, sir, answered Myles, as he started off greatly enlightened by this explanation.
He had no difficulty in finding Brooklyn, because he had been there before; but he was obliged to inquire the way to Police Head-quarters. A few years ago he would have had a long walk before reaching it, for not one of the hundreds of horse-cars that usually throng the tracks on Fulton Street was to be seen. Their absence made that part of the city seem strangely silent and deserted; but fortunately the elevated trains were running, and Myles soon reached his destination.
The street in front of Police Head-quarters was blocked by a good-natured throng of strikers, through which Myles had some difficulty in forcing his way. At the door he was met by a policeman, who gruffly said: No admittance, young man, and immediately afterward, when Myles had stated his business, Certainly, walk right in. You will find Mr. Billings in the inspectors room.
Now Myles had formed an impression of Billings, which was that he must be a man much older than himself, and probably larger and stronger, or else why should he be detailed for this especial work? He expected to find him busily engaged in writing, or dispatching other reporters hither and thither, and having the anxious, self-important air of one who occupied a delicate and responsible position.
The real Billings as he there appeared, seated at a table in the inspectors room intent upon a game of dominos with the inspector himself, was about as different from this impression as it is possible to conceive. He was a slightly-built, delicate-looking young man, apparently not any older than Myles, and with a beardless face. He was exquisitely dressed, deliberate in his movements, and so languid of speech that it seemed an effort for him to talk. Myles remembered to have seen him in the Phonograph office that morning and to have wondered what business that dude had there.
However, this was undoubtedly the Billings to whom Mr. Haxall had ordered him to report, and he accordingly did so.
Yes, said Billings, with a gentle drawl, as he looked up from his game and regarded Myles with a pair of the most brilliant and penetrating eyes the latter had ever seen. Just had a dispatch about you from Joe (Mr. Joseph Haxall). New man. Name of Manning. Break you in. Well, Manning, theres a strike. No horse-cars all day. Railroad officials about to send car out on B Avenue line. Leaves stable in fifteen minutes. Probably be some fun. You may go and ride on this car. Have a good time. Take it all in, then come back here.
Myles could have choked the little fellow who coolly sat there telling him to do thus and so. For the second time that day he was strongly tempted to rebel and to maintain his dignity. The idea of that little absurdity, as he mentally styled Billings, issuing commands to him! Then for the second time came the words under orders. Had he not been ordered to obey Billings? To be sure he had, and with an All right he left the building.
As he made his way toward the car-stables he wondered why Billings had not undertaken that ride himself, as he seemed to have nothing else to do except play dominos. The more he thought of it the more he became convinced that it was because Billings was afraid.
CHAPTER V.
THE KIND OF A FELLOW BILLINGS WAS
YES, Billings must be afraid, said Myles, to himself, and I dont know but what I would be, too, if I were such a white-faced little chap as he is. Here Myles threw back his own broad shoulders, held his head a trifle higher than usual, and rejoiced in the stalwart frame that had been such an ornament in the X Varsity boat. I wonder what Mr. Haxall meant, he continued to himself, by speaking of him as one of the best reporters on the Phonograph. If he should see him at this moment I rather think he would call him something else. How little a city editor can really know of his men any way!
While thus thinking Myles was threading the unfamiliar streets of a city as strange to him as though it had been a hundred miles from New York, in search of the car-stables of the B Avenue line.
It took him so long to find them that, when he finally did so, the car on which he was ordered to ride had been gone some ten minutes. There was nothing to do but overtake it if possible, and the young reporter started down the track at the same pace he was accustomed to set for his crew when they were out for a sweater, as they called their training runs.
After running half-a-dozen blocks he began to meet signs of the strike. Here was a broken and overturned market-wagon that had evidently been placed across the track as a barricade, and there a place from which some paving-stones had been torn up. Now he began to be joined by others running in the same direction with himself, and to hear a noise different from the ordinary sounds of the city. As he rounded a corner this noise resolved itself into the shouts, cheers, and yells of an angry mob, and above all rang out sharply an occasional pistol-shot.
The street was filled with hundreds of excited men and boys, whose number was constantly increasing. They were all crowding toward some object of common interest which, when he got close enough to make it out, Myles saw was the very car in which he had been ordered to ride. It was occupied by a dozen or so of policemen, and was slowly urging its way forward with frequent halts, while another squad of policemen cleared a passage for it through the crowd. Every now and then a paving-stone crashed through a window or splintered the woodwork of the car. A throng of reckless men surged alongside of it, trying in every way they could think of to impede its progress. The company had declared this car should go through. The strikers declared it should not. They tried to lift it from the rails, to overturn it, to drag the driver from his platform, to kill the horses, or in some other way to stop that car.
By a steady use of their long, powerful night-clubs, the police who guarded the car had thus far kept the mob at bay, and prevented them from accomplishing their purpose.
Through this angry throng Myles now began to make his way, for he had been sent to ride with those policemen, and he was determined to do so if it were a possible thing. At first he had comparatively little trouble; but as he approached the thick of the crowd he was obliged to push so roughly, and make such decided efforts to get ahead, as to draw attention upon himself. At first he was only shoved, and his way was purposely blocked. Then the looks of those about him began to grow black and threatening. A hoarse voice shouted the ominous word, spotter. The cry was taken up and repeated by a hundred throats. Then Myles received a savage blow from behind. The crowd had recognized that he was not of them, and blindly argued that he must therefore be against them. The situation was a critical one, and Myles realized it.
He was now hemmed in so closely on all sides that to retreat would be impossible even had he thought of such a thing, but he did not. His one idea was still to get to the car, and under a shower of blows, that he warded to the best of his ability, or bore unflinchingly, he struggled forward. All of his strength, pluck, and skill, however, could not save him, and within two minutes he was borne to the ground by the sheer force of numbers, while some of his enemies fell on top of him.
At that moment there came a quick measured tramp of feet, a backward movement of the mob, and the crash of tough locust clubs. The police were charging to the rescue of the brave young fellow. He struggled to his feet bruised, breathless, hatless, with clothing torn and covered with dust, but with unbroken bones and undaunted spirit.
Who are you? and what do you mean by making such a row? demanded the roundsman who led the charging party, as he laid his hand heavily on Myles shoulder.
A reporter from the Phonograph, who was ordered to ride on that car, and means to if he can fight his way to it, was the answer.
I might have known it, said the officer, with a resigned air. You reporters do beat the world for getting us cops into trouble. The idea of a chap like you undertaking to fight that whole crowd! Nobody but a crank or a reporter would think of such a thing. Its a good thing to carry out orders when you can, but its a better to use common-sense and not attempt to undertake impossibilities.
I was only trying to find out whether it was an impossibility or not, laughed Myles.
While they thus talked the officer led his party of police back to the car. It had stopped while its defenders charged the mob, and now it again started ahead. Hardly had it got into motion when, with a wild yell, the mob came charging back upon it, and with a tremendous crash the car was lifted from the track and hurled upon its side. It was a full minute before Myles succeeded in clearing himself from the wreck and again scrambling to his feet. As he was rubbing the dirt from his eyes, and thinking what a particularly lively occupation this business of reporting was, he heard a familiar voice call out:
I say, new man I dont remember your name why dont you come up here? You can get an elegant view of the scrimmage.
Myles could hardly believe it, but nevertheless it was really Billings, as beautifully neat and clean as ever, perched up on the side of the overturned car, calmly surveying the scene of tumult, and apparently unconscious of the missiles and occasional pistol-shots that flew past him.
Myles clambered up to a position beside his temporary chief, exclaiming as he did so:
How on earth do you happen to be here just now! and why do you choose such an exposed place?
Oh, I just came down here with the inspector to see the fun, as we heard the situation was becoming interesting. I chose this place because Im a reporter and I can see better what to report from up here than I could down there in the crowd.
But you are in great danger of getting hit up here.
Oh, no, they wouldnt hit me. See how scared they are if I only just look at them.
Billings had an open note-book in his hand, and Myles saw with amazement that whenever he fixed his eyes upon any particular person or group in the crowd, and pretended to be taking notes in his book, these persons immediately turned their backs or slunk away.