But for the next half hour he was at the telephone again, talking to London and to the Ancient Aristocracy of Britain and to The Howl.
When he rose from the machine it was just eleven. The Howl prints news up to two o'clock. Smart Rag!
Next morning (Friday), when he came downstairs, Professor Higginson received a slight but very unpleasant shock. It was a shock of a kind one does not often receive.
Like all the rest of the world. Professor Higginson read The Howl at breakfast. The Howl is very well edited; it gives you your thrill in a short compass, and every day has some new Portent to present.
That day the Portent was Sleeping Sickness on a Huge Scale in London. Ten millionaires were down with it and a politician was threatened. It wasn't true, and there was a leader on it. But true or false, it was of less consequence to Mr. Higginson than one fairly prominent but short item upon the front page. It was not the chief item on it; the chief item was some rubbish about a man it called "the Kaiser." It was perhaps the second or the third piece of news in importance.
