I finally got off in front of the nearest theater and went up to the door; it was silent and dark. I thought of asking the drugman who occupied a corner of the building, but that seemed a silly thing to be doing at this hour and I let it go. I thought of telephoning to the rival paper, the _Republic_, when I reached the office, but when I got there I had first to report to Mitchell, who was just leaving, and then, irritated and indifferent, I put it off for the moment. Perhaps Hartung would know.
“Do you know what time the first edition goes to press here, Hugh?” I asked him at a quarter after twelve.
“Twelve-thirty, I think. The telegraph man can tell you.”
“Do you know whether the dramatic stuff I sent up this afternoon gets in that?”
“Sure—at least I think it does. You’d better ask the foreman of the composing-room about it, though.”
I went upstairs. Instead of calling up the _Republic_ at once, or any of the managers of the theaters, or knocking out the notices entirely, I inquired how matters stood with the first edition. I was not sure that there was any reason for worrying about the shows not arriving, but something kept telling me to make sure.
At last I found that the first edition had been closed, with the notices in it, and went to the telephone to call up the _Republic_. Then the dramatic editor of that paper had gone and I could not find the address of a single manager. I tried to reach one of the theaters, but there was no response. The clock registered twelve-thirty by then, and I weakly concluded that things must be all right or that if they weren’t I couldn’t help it. I then went home and to bed and slept poorly, troubled by the thought that something might be wrong and wishing now that I had not been so lackadaisical about it all. Why couldn’t I attend to things at the proper time instead of dawdling about in this fashion? I sighed and tried to sleep.
The next morning I arose and went through the two morning papers without losing any time. To my horror and distress, there in the _Republic_ was an announcement on the first page to the effect that owing to various wash-outs in several States none of the three shows had arrived the night before. And in my own paper, to my great pain was a full account of the performances and the agreeable reception accorded them!