"Five letters? Is it in English?" smiled the Cardinal.
"It is in every good English dictionary. I think the dictionary is the only place in which I can find it nowadays."
"Oh no, my son." And the Cardinal shook his head in kindly dissent.
"Reverend sir, I said anybody with brains could guess it."
"It was not an ingenuous question, Mr. Rutgers."
"It was a coupon that entitled anybody who held it to answer the question and get ten thousand dollars. It was part of a ticket for which the holder paid twenty-five cents to feed a starving fellow-being. But what I wish you to do is to assure the reporters that it was a legitimate question. The word is _Anima_."
"New York's condition, your Eminence," corrected H. R., politely. "I said the synonym, _soul_, would answer. Nobody won the ten thousand dollars. New York will cudgel its brains because it did not win the ten thousand dollars. In searching for the missing word it may find something more precious--the missing _soul_."
"Your way is not our way, but perhaps--" The Cardinal was silent, his kindly eyes meditatively bent on H. R.
"The reporters, your Eminence--" began H. R., apologetically.
"Ah yes!" And the white-haired prelate accompanied H. R. to the room where the reporters were waiting.
"I have heard Mr. Rutgers's question. The word of five letters beginning with an 'A' I think answers it, from his point of view, which is not unreasonable. I cannot say that the inability to guess proves the non-possession of brains--"
"The Cardinal knew at once," put in H. R.
"But that nobody should have guessed is astonishing."
"They were not all Christians," explained H. R.
"A word of five letters beginning with 'A,'" said H. R.
"It is our secret now. New York is very rich. When it discovers that one word--or its synonym of four letters--it will be infinitely richer in every way."
The reporters brightened up. They saw columns and columns of guesses. But the Cardinal looked thoughtful. Then he said to H. R.:
The Cardinal bowed his head gravely and H. R. and the newspaper men left.
"Are you a Catholic?" the _World_ man asked.
"All roads lead to Rome," interrupted Lubin, with a sneer.
"Excepting one, Lubin," said H. R., pleasantly. "Keep on going, my boy. It's nice and warm there."