What is
Newspaper Row? Three or four men of honor, three or four
dreamers, three or four schoolboys, three or four fools,
and three or four scamps. And the public, Molyneux,--
which is to say you and I,--accept the trumpet blast
of one of these heralds precisely as we do that of
another. Practically," said he, pensively, "when we were
detached to serve with the 33d Corps in Mobile Bay, I
found I liked the talk of those light-infantry men who
had been in every scrimmage of the war, quite as much as
I did that of the bandmen who played the trumpets on
parade. But this is neither here nor there. I thought
of coming round to see your father, but I knew I should
bother him. What can I do, my boy?"
Then Tom told him, rather doubtfully, that he had
reason to fear that Mr. Greenhithe was at the bottom of
the whole scandal. He said he wished he did not think
that Mr. Greenhithe had himself stolen the papers. "If
I am wrong, I want to know it," said he; "if I am right,
I want to know it. I do not want to be doing any man
injustice. But I do not want to keep old Eben Ricketts
down at the department hunting for a file of papers which
Greenhithe has hidden in his trunk or put into the fire."
"No!--no!--no, indeed," said "old Benbow," musing.
"No!--No!--No!--"
Then after a pause, "Tom," said he, "come round here
in an hour.
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