“So am I,” added Grace, with a smile.

“I’d do it all over again for the sake of getting such a good story—­and—­er—­of course, finding you and helping your daughter,” Larry finished.  “Now to telephone this in.”

Mr. Emberg could hardly believe the news that Larry fairly shouted over the wire.

“Found him, you say!  Good for you, Larry.  It’ll be a great beat!  Wait a minute!  I’ll let Harvey take the story.  Talk fast.  Give us enough for the first edition, and then, for the second, get the whole story from Mr. Potter.  This is a corker!”

What a scene there was in the Leader office then!  Mr. Newton grabbed up paper and pencil and rushed to the telephone booth to which Larry’s wire had been switched so that the story could be taken with fewer interruptions.  Page after page of notes did Mr. Newton scribble down, as Larry dictated the dramatic finding of the missing millionaire during the automobile chase.

“That’ll do, Larry!” cried Mr. Newton, when he had the first half of the story.  “I’ll get one of the other boys to take the rest while I grind this out on the machine.”

So the young reporter dictated the remainder of the account to another person in the Leader office, while Mr. Newton was pounding away on the typewriter at his section.

Thus it went on in relays.  The first part of the story was in type before Larry had finished his end of it.  Then, as there was no more time to get anything further in for the first edition, Larry went back to where he had left Mr. Potter, Grace and Fritsch in the automobile.  Mr. Potter gave the young reporter some additional particulars.

He explained that he had learned, while in Europe, of a mix-up in New York politics that involved his company, which was building the new subway line.  Sullivan, Kilburn and Reilly were factors in the game, and the control of the assembly district would go to whoever could bring about the opening of the new subway route through it.

Mr. Potter repeated, more at detail, how there was likely to be a big law-suit over the matter, which would tie up operations for a year, and which would force down the price of the stock so that many small investors would lose all they owned.

“I had promised Sullivan to do as he wanted, in case he supported Reilly,” Mr. Potter went on.  “Later I found I could not do as I had agreed without getting tangled up in the legal conflict.  They wanted to serve certain papers on me, and get me into the jurisdiction of the law courts, so I decided, in order to protect those who were unable to protect themselves, to disappear.  I was aware that a wrong construction might be placed on it, that it would subject me to much criticism, that it would be hard and that it would cause distress to my family and friends.  But there was no other way in which I could aid the helpless, so I decided to do it.”