Napier would only answer;
"My lips are sealed. I can say no more. But I compliment the
Comet in discovering what all the eastern papers have missed--that a
stupendous thing is projected and that I have the honor, with my
friend, Mr. Hope, to attempt it."
Then followed an elaborate rewritten version of what had been
telegraphed from Chicago concerning Ned. After this was a detailed
account of the car, not omitting little Mary Hope's bouquet of faded
roses, which in Bob's story became "a wealth of cut blossoms, the
tribute of Mr. Napier's scientific friends."
What Bob wrote was in type by twelve o'clock. Three hundred words
of it were telegraphed to the Chicago evening newspapers. Sharp at
six o'clock that evening the Chicago correspondent of the New York
World sent advice to his paper that he had a story on the mystery of
what Ned Napier was about to do for the government. Word came back
at once to send on the story.
At ten o'clock the telegraph editor of the World in New York took
the account just received to the managing editor of the paper.
There was a minute's consultation, a nod of the head, and at twelve
o'clock that night Bob Russell was awakened to respond to a
telephone call.
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