As Larry left the headquarters he met Peter Manton going in.

“Making up another fake interview with Sullivan?” asked Peter, with a sneer.  “You’ve made a nice mess of it!”

“I didn’t make any worse one than you did with that wreck story,” retorted Larry, who could not forego this thrust at his old enemy.

“I’ll get even with you yet,” exclaimed the rival reporter, as he scowled at Larry, and entered Sullivan’s private room.

“I wonder what Sullivan will do about it?” thought Larry, as he went back to the office.

CHAPTER XI

A MISSING MILLIONAIRE

Contrary to Larry’s expectations Mr. Emberg was not at all impressed by Sullivan’s threats.

“I’ve heard talk like that before,” the city editor said.  “The Leader will try to worry along without the aid of Mr. Jack Sullivan.  As for you, Larry, don’t give it another thought.  If he ever bothers you, or any of his ward-heelers try to make the least trouble for you, let me know.  I guess we have some influence in this city.  Well, I’ll look for wholesale denials of your interview from now on.  Sullivan showed his hand too quickly it seems.  We must try for Potter now.  Queer how he hangs back when we’ve got part of the story.”

“Haven’t any of the boys been able to find him?” asked Larry.

“Harvey can’t get near him, and when he can’t no one can.  There’s something queer about it.  At the house they will give out no information, except to say that Mr. Potter can’t be seen.  At his office the clerks either say that he is engaged or has not come in yet.  I’m beginning to think he’s keeping out of the way on purpose.”

Mr. Emberg’s surmise about the other papers publishing denials of the Sullivan interview was correct.  Those journals which were on the same political platform as that of the man whose enmity Larry had incurred proved, to their own satisfaction at least, that Sullivan could not support Reilly.  As for the Leader, which was independent in politics, that paper did not worry over the accusations of “faking” made against it.  Mr. Emberg knew he was right, and he was planning for a big disclosure when some of his reporters could find Hamden Potter.

For a time the Sullivan matter was dropped, and Larry found his time busily occupied in a varied lot of assignments.

One day the young reporter was sent to one of the hotels to interview a youthful millionaire, who had come to the city from a distant town in a big touring car, accompanied by a number of friends.

“Hump!  Seems to me I’m assigned to all the millionaire cases,” mused Larry.

The young millionaire was named Dick Hamilton, and he was none other than the youth who has figured in another series of mine, called the “Dick Hamilton Series,” starting with “Dick Hamilton’s Fortune.”  Dick had come to New York for the purpose of making an investment and had had an encounter with a sharper, who had tried to sell him some worthless stocks.