SKAGGS'S THEORY
together for some time, and the editor seemed hard to convince.
"It would be a big thing for the paper," he said, "if it only panned out; but it is such a rattle-brained, harum-scarum thing. No one under the sun would have thought of it but you, Skaggs."
"Oh, it's bound to pan out. I see the thing as clear as day. There's no getting around it."
"Yes, it looks plausible, but so does all fiction. You're taking a chance. You're losing time. If it fails———"
"But if it succeeds?"
"Well, go and bring back a story. If you don't, look out. It's against my better judgment anyway. Remember I told you that."
Skaggs shot out of the office, and within an hour and a half had boarded a fast train for the South.
It is almost a question whether Skaggs had a theory or whether he had told himself a pretty story and, as usual, believed
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