You will be able, in a stirring leading article, to express the horror you undoubtedly feel at the falsification of the figures, and your stern delight in doing so will probably not be mitigated by the fact that no other paper in London will have the news, while the matter will be so important that next day all your beloved contemporaries will be compelled to allude to it in some shape or other." "I see," said the editor, his eyes glistening as the magnitude of the idea began to appeal more strongly to his imagination.

"Who makes this statement, and how are we to know that it is absolutely correct ?" "Well, there is a point on which I wish to inform you before going any further.

The statement is not to be absolutely correct; two or three errors have been purposely put in, the object being to throw investigators off the track if they try to discover who gave the news to the Press; for the man who will sell me this document is a clerk in the office of the Board of Public Construction.

So, you see, you are getting the facts from the inside." "Is he so accustomed to falsifying accounts that he cannot get over the habit even when preparing an article for the truthful Press ?" "He wants to save his own situation, and quite rightly too, so he has put a number of errors in the figures of the department over which he has direct control.

He has a reputation for such accuracy that he imagines the Board will never think he did it, if the figures pertaining to his department are wrong even in the slightest degree." "Quite so.