"I guess Mr. Quinn knows best," she admitted with a sigh. "I won't breathe a word about it to anyone."
Whit walked with her to the bus stop. Worry showed in every plane of his face, but overshadowing the worry was a rugged look of determination. "Greg is my best friend," he said. "I'm not going to let anyone quit looking until they find him!"
Barbara had anticipated some trouble in keeping her promise to remain silent. The eagle-eyed reporters and cameramen with whom she worked had the ability to practically "smell" a scoop. As it turned out, though, the staff members were too much concerned with an internal crisis to pay any attention to her.
"Mr. MacFarland is on the warpath," Melinda confided in a whisper. "The Herald devoted almost half its front page to a statistical report on their circulation growth as opposed to our decline."
"How bad is it?" Barbara asked.
"It's not bad; it's second-degree murder! And to make things worse, we've lost one of our biggest advertisers to them. If this keeps up, the Courier will be the laughingstock of the newspaper industry!"
Almost afraid to look at it after their gloomy buildup, Barbara picked up a copy of the Herald. The disparity between the two newspapers' popularity was even wider than she had thought. Unless drastic and immediate steps were taken to halt the swing of Courier subscribers to the Herald, it appeared that the Courier would soon cease to be a competitor at all.
"I hope the boss has some bright ideas," she murmured apprehensively.
"He'd better, or he will be getting the axe along with the rest of us," Melinda predicted. "Did you see the notice? General meeting for all editorial staff members at eleven."
Bruce MacFarland had formulated several plans to revive reader interest, Barbara learned. Among these were wider sports coverage, three additions to the comic-strip page, the inauguration of an "inquiring reporter" column, and a variety of contests. Most of these moves were to be expected, but the summons which Barbara received ordering her to report to the Managing Editor's office following the meeting came as a total surprise.
"I'm taking you off Society," Mr. MacFarland announced. "For part of the day, at least. You're going to do the Inquiring Reporter column."
Barbara could not have been more astonished if he had proclaimed that she was slated to be the first girl on the moon.
"Th-that's grand! Thank you," she stammered, realizing that the words were inadequate, but too stunned to think of a more suitable reply.
"Surprised?" he asked with the grimace he used for a smile. "I'm giving you a crack at the job for two reasons. Miss Foster won't be needing a full-time assistant during the slack vacation season-and there's nobody else I can spare to take it on."
In a more businesslike tone, Barbara asked, "What does an 'inquiring reporter' inquire about?"
He shoved a sheet of paper headed "Question of the Day" across the desk. "These. One a day. You pick out a street corner and ask a dozen people the same question. If their answers don't have enough variety, you ask a dozen more. I'll assign a photographer to go along with you."
Still unable to believe her good fortune, Barbara took the list of questions and ran to tell Melinda of her part-time promotion. Later that afternoon, her telephone jingled and Don George said, "Inquiring Reporter? This is the Inquiring Cameraman."
Barbara laughed. "Ready and willing. Meet you downstairs."
The first question of the day was a controversial one, regarding a proposed bond issue in the coming city elections. Barbara, scribbling frantically while Don snapped his pictures, recorded twelve different replies from the first dozen people she queried. There was no need to go on to a second dozen.
"Do you know what one of the contests is going to be?" Don asked as they trudged back to the Courier building. " 'The Mystery Pedestrian.' I'm supposed to make myself practically invisible and aim the camera at a mob of people in the street. Next day when the paper comes out one of the heads in the photo is circled. Cries the Courier, 'Who is the Mystery Pedestrian?' If he shows up at the advertising booth by two o'clock, he's given five dollars."
"What if he doesn't?"
"Then we've found another poor, misguided soul who doesn't read the Courier. His five bucks is added to the next day's winnings."
"I should think the chance of winning a prize would stimulate circulation," Barbara said hopefully.
She transcribed her notes in record time and managed to have the copy in final form by five o'clock. Taking her seat on the bus, she remembered guiltily that she had not thought of Greg Maiden for almost three hours.
Would they-could they have found him?
Barbara crossed her fingers. "Maybe he'll be there when I get home," she told herself.
But when Barbara walked in the door one look at Regina's face told her that no such miracle had occurred. One of Mr. Quinn's assistants reported with almost monotonous regularity; however, the FBI had so far failed to come up with a single lead.
"Nobody can simply vanish into thin air," Whit exclaimed that evening. "With all their technical know-how and trained agents, they've got to turn up a trace of Greg sooner or later."
How much "later" would be too late? Barbara wondered, and then could have kicked herself for letting such pessimistic notions wander into her head. Of course the FBI would find Greg-and soon!
"Regina is being awfully brave about everything," she said admiringly. "If Greg were my fiance, I'd probably be paddling around in my own tears, but she keeps insisting that he will show up before the seventeenth."
"She isn't postponing the wedding plans?" Whit asked, surprised. "Oh, no. She-she has so much faith in him, it's positively heartbreaking. I've never known anyone with such courage." Barbara was close to tears. "Oh, Whit, I'm so afraid! For Greg, and for Regina, too. If something dreadful has happened to him-"
"Stop it!" he said sharply. "Haven't you ever heard of positive thinking?"
Ashamed of her outburst, Barbara nevertheless guessed that Whit was also finding it hard to keep from dwelling on the bleakness of the situation.
"You're right," she declared. "Anything Regina can do, we should at least be able to imitate. She has her faith in Greg-I'm placing my trust in Thomas J. Quinn!"
But however capable, the Federal agent was no magician. Day by day, hopes of Greg's rescue and the recovery of the blueprints waned still further. Although the others struggled with grim determination to remain optimistic, by Thursday Regina was the only one whose faith remained unshaken.
"I just know everything is going to be all right, Mother," she said quietly, when urged to announce a postponement of the wedding.
Regina could not keep the worry from showing in her eyes, though, and for the first time Barbara understood her friend's refusal to alter a single plan. To do so would be to admit that their worst fears might be true.
More than ever Barbara was grateful to Mr. MacFarland for assigning her to the Inquiring Reporter beat. The heavy work load he had placed on her was exhausting but-never dull, and by far the greatest blessing of her involved and varied duties was that she had very little time to brood over the fate of Greg Maiden.
Much to his chagrin, Whit had been forbidden by Mr. Quinn to take any active part in the search for Greg. The Federal man had pointed out that the kidnappers would surely recognize him at once, while his own men worked under the cloak of anonymity.
"He said the spy had probably been watching the boat for days," Whit grumbled to Barbara on Thursday evening. Mr. and Mrs. Prescott had taken Regina out for a drive, and the two had the living room to themselves.
Barbara was sympathetic, but practical. "I'm sure Mr. Quinn is right, Whit. If you were to start pounding on doors, the spy might be stampeded into taking some drastic action."