With the thought came a warm glow of loyalty to his fellow workers; to the men who, knowing more than he knew, had yet accepted his ideals so eagerly and stood to them so loyally; to the spirit that had flashed to meet his own at that first “Talk-It-Over” breakfast, and had never since flagged; to Ellis, the harsh, dogged, uncouth evangel, preaching his strange mission of honor; to Wayne, patient, silent, laborious, dependable; to young Denton, a “gentleman unafraid,” facing the threats of E.M.  Pierce; even to portly Shearson, struggling against such dismal odds for his poor little principle of journalism—­to make the paper pay.  How could he, their leader, recant his doctrine before these men?

Yet—­and the qualifying thought dashed cold upon his enthusiasm—­what did the alternative imply for them?  The almost certain loss of their places.  To be thrown into the street, a whole officeful of them, seeking jobs which didn’t exist, on the collapse of the “Clarion.”  Could he do that to them?  Did he not, at least, owe them a living?  Some had come to the “Clarion” from other papers, even from other cities, attracted by its enterprise, by its “ginger,” by the rumor of a fresh and higher standard in journalism.  What of them?  For himself he had only reputation, ethical standard, the intangible matter of existence to consider.  For them it might be hunger and want.  Here, indeed, was a conflicting ideal.

His mind reverted to the things he had been able to get done, in the few months of his editorial tenure; the success of some of his campaigns, the educational effect of them even where they had failed of their definite object, as had the fight for the Consumers’ League.  One article had put the chief gambler of the city on the defensive to an extent which seriously crippled his business.  Another had killed forever the vilest den in town, a saloon back-room where vicious women gathered in young boys and taught them to snuff cocaine, and had led to an anti-cocaine ordinance, which the saloon element, who instinctively resented any species of “reform” as a threat against business, opposed.  Whereupon, Hal, in an editorial on the prohibition movement, had tartly pointed out that where the saloons were openly vaunting themselves disdainful of public decency, the public was in immediate process of wiping out the saloons.  Which citation of fact caused a cold chill to permeate the spines of the liquor interests, and led the large, sleek leader of that clan to make a surpassingly polite and friendly call upon Hal, who, rather to his surprise, found that he liked the man very much.  They had parted, indeed, on hearty terms and the understanding that there would be no further objection to the “coke-law” from the saloon keepers.  There wasn’t.  The liquor men kept faith.

Though aiming at independence in politics, the “Clarion” had been drawn into a number of local political fights, and more than once had gone wrong in advocating an apparently useful measure only to find itself serving some hidden politician’s selfish ends.  These same politicians, Hal came in time to learn, were not all bad, even the worst of them.  The toughest and crookedest of the grafting aldermen felt a genuine interest and pride in his vice-sodden ward, and when the “Clarion” had helped to abate a notorious nuisance there, dropped in to see the editor.