No use! exclaimed the other. Why, of course there is. You are under orders, you know, and must at least report for duty, whether you are wanted or not. The only thing is that you will have to tell Mr. Haxall.
Yes, I suppose I must, answered Myles, soberly, as he began to dress, and then he will probably tell me that a dress-suit, and not Myles Manning, was what he engaged, and that without it he has no use for its late owner. I suppose I can stand it, though, as well as another, but it will be a disappointment.
Of course it will if it comes, replied Van Cleef, cheerfully; but I do not believe it will. At any rate there is no use making matters worse by worrying in advance; so lets brace up and go out for breakfast. Im as hungry as a boot-black. By the way, I spoke to my landlady this morning and find that she has a vacant hall-bedroom that you can have for three dollars a week if you want it. Its small, but its clean and airy, and this is a most respectable neighborhood. Above all, it is cheap, which is the main thing with me, and also, I take it, with you just at present.
Of course it is, answered Myles, and I shall be only too glad to be in the same house with you. You are almost the only friend I own now; at any rate, you are the most valuable one.
As he spoke Myles found himself wondering if this valued friend could be the same class dig with whom he had been barely on speaking terms only the morning before.
At a small but tidy restaurant near by, they obtained an excellent breakfast of coffee, rolls, and boiled eggs, for twenty-five cents apiece. Van Cleef apologized for this unusual extravagance, saying that he generally breakfasted on coffee and rolls alone for fifteen cents, but that this was an occasion.
In the restaurant they found copies of the morning papers, and Myles, paying no attention to those that he had been in the habit of reading, eagerly seized the Phonograph. Yes, there it was; a half-column account of the scene they had witnessed the night before in the Tenth Avenue tenement-house. How interesting it was! How well expressed, and what a pathetic picture it presented of that room and its occupants! As Myles finished reading the story he turned to his companion with honest admiration.
You are a regular out-and-out genius, Van! he exclaimed. If I could write a story like that and get it printed Id be too proud to speak to common folks, and Id expect to have my salary raised to the top notch at once.
Well, I fancy youd have to take it out in expecting, then, laughed the other. That may be a fair sort of a story, and I wont say that it isnt, but at the same time I doubt if any one besides yourself gives it a second thought. You wouldnt if youd been in the office a week or two and studied the other fellows work. Why, the very brightest men in the city are on the Phonograph, as you will soon discover. As for a raise of salary well, you will have to write many and many a story better than this little screed of mine before that happy event takes place.
Then mine will continue to be fifteen per week for the rest of my natural life, or, rather, for as long as they will let me hang on down there, Im afraid, sighed Myles.
Not a bit of it, my dear fellow. A year from now you will be way up, probably on space, and looking back with infinite pity upon yourself as a salary man at fifteen dollars a week. There is just one bit of advice, though, that, if you will let me, I should like ever so much to give you as a starter. It is, never refuse an assignment. No matter how hard or distasteful or insignificant the job promises to be, take it without a word and go through with it to the best of your ability without a murmur. Also, never hesitate to take hold of any piece of work offered you for fear you may not be capable of performing it. A reporter must be capable of any thing and must have the fullest confidence in himself. If the city editor says some fine morning, Mr. Manning, the Phonograph wishes to locate the North Pole; will you be kind enough to go and discover it? you must answer, Certainly, sir, and set off at once. Such an undertaking might prove expensive; but that is the city editors lookout, not yours. You are under orders exactly as though you were in the army, and your responsibility ends with obeying them to the letter. Now I must be off to recitation and you must be getting downtown. So good-bye, and good-luck to you. I shall probably see you again at the office this evening.
All the way downtown the wheels of the elevated train seemed to rattle out, Under orders, under orders, and Myles could think of nothing else.
How many people are under orders! he said to himself as he reflected that most of the best work of the world was accomplished by those who obeyed orders. Thus thinking he finally decided that he was proud of being under orders, and that if he could make a name in no other way he would at least gain a reputation for strict obedience to them. In reaching this conclusion he took a most important forward step, for in learning to obey orders one also learns how to give them.
Myles reached the office a few minutes before eleven oclock, and, walking boldly past the boys who guarded its entrance, bowing to, and receiving a pleasant good-morning from, Mr. Brown as he did so, he entered the city-room, as that portion of the editorial offices devoted to the use of reporters and news editors is called.
The great room was as clean, neat, and fresh as the office-boys, who had been at work upon it for the past hour, could make it. Every desk and chair was in its place, and not a scrap of paper littered the newly swept floor. In the corner farthest from the entrance, beside a large open window that overlooked the busy scene of Park Row, City Hall Park, and Broadway beyond it, sat the city editor before a handsome flat-topped desk. Other single desks occupied favorable positions beside other windows, but their chairs were vacant at this early hour. Down the middle of the floor ran two parallel rows of double desks, each containing a locked drawer and each supplied with pens, ink, writing-and blotting-paper. These were for the reporters. At one side was a long reading-shelf, beneath which hung files of all the city papers. At the back of the room was a row of lockers like those in a gymnasium, in which were, kept overcoats, hats, umbrellas, and other such articles belonging to the occupants of the office.
A dozen or more bright-looking, well-dressed young men sat or stood about the room chatting, reading the morning papers, or holding short consultations with the city editor. While talking with them he hardly looked up from the paper that he was glancing over with practised eyes, and occasionally clipping a paragraph from with a pair of long, slim shears. He took these papers from a pile lying on his desk that contained a copy of every morning daily published in New York, Brooklyn, or Jersey City. The little slips that he cut from them were laid by themselves at one end of his desk.
It was a pleasant room. Its very air was inspiring, and Myles wished he were sure of being permanently established as one of its occupants. But the thought of the confession he had to make, and of its probable results, weighed heavily on his mind. He was impatient to have it over with and to know the worst at once.
Walking straight up to the city editors desk he said:
Good-morning, Mr. Haxall. I
Ah, good-morning, Mr. Manning. Glad to see you so promptly on hand. If you will find a seat Ill have time to talk with you in a few minutes.
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.