He went to the editor's door, and knocked violently. There was no response, and he knocked again--more violently. Then the door opened suddenly, and Cairns confronted him in a white fury.
"Now, what the dickens, sir," cried the editor, "brings your big battering ram of a fist in contact with my door? Nature provides earthquakes in these parts without your assistance, you noisy devil!"
"Who are you shouting at?" answered Quirk, in an equal fury. "Can't a man tap gently----."
"Tap gently! What sort of a disturbance happens when you knock loudly? What do you want with me?"
"Nothing now. I came to speak to a man, and I find a grizzly bear. Can't a man who has come from the other side of creation call on a local celebrity but he must have his nose snapped off? Good-day to you, sir!"
Cairns' sense of the humorous saved the situation. Recovering quickly from his irritation, he burst into a roar of laughter. This, for the moment, only added to the other man's indignation.
"No, I was laughing at myself. I apologise to you; but you came at a moment when I was hopelessly busy," replied Cairns.
Quirk's face relaxed into a grim smile. He regarded the thin, humorous face of the editor attentively. Satisfied with his survey, he said:
"Well, I won't bother you just now. I know what it is to be in a tearing hurry. I ran a newspaper myself in the States; you have to be here, there, and everywhere to do that. Can't trust to anyone but yourself, can you?"
"Not a living soul. But I will give you five minutes if you slip inside."
Quirk entered the editor's office, and the door closed. In half an hour's time it opened again, and the two men came out together.
"Five minutes!" laughed Quirk as he shook Cairns' hand at the door.
"You are such a fascinating man that the minutes have slipped away unnoticed. You will be at my room to-night?"
"Of course I will. Hard at it, young man?" he asked, with a friendly nod to Desmond.
"A twopenny-ha'penny report of a twopenny-ha'penny meeting," replied Desmond, contemptuously.
"Make it spicy; touch it up with a little humour. That's the way to make journalism attractive. Cover a commonplace incident with the mantle of merriment, and make the world laugh. Lord, how we love a good honest laugh!"