A week later he wrote again.

At the end of the month, he went over to San Francisco and personally called upon the editor.

But he did not meet that exalted personage, thanks to a Cerberus of an office boy, of tender years and red hair, who guarded the portals.

At the end of the fifth week the manuscript came back to him, by mail, without comment.
There was no rejection slip, no explanation, nothing.

In the same way his other articles were tied up with the other leading San Francisco papers.