"Sure, always glad to help a struggling young reporter," he answered, hoping that he had not seen Cynthia with him.

Flanagan looked peaked and troubled and his voice was shaking as he repeated his story to Al.

"I got this phone call the other day warning me to lay off of Harris or I'd be wearing cement shoes and dumped in the lake. I know this guy Harris can play rough, but I don't think he's so stupid as to have me wiped out, especially when he knows that my story will be printed, as is, if anything happens to me." His words came out sure enough, but it was obvious that he was just trying to convince himself and was looking for some reassurance.

"What do you think," he continued. "You've been in this game. Were you ever threatened?"

"Well, I never was very big on exposes, Joe, but it would seem to me that you're getting too close to Harris for comfort if he would threaten you like that."

"That's what I thought and I don't want to give up on this story. It will be the biggest break of my life if things go right and I can follow it through."

"I'm not trying to scare you, Joe," Al said, "but Harris owns a lot of this town, both inside and outside the law and there is no question that you're playing with fire, but from a newspaper standpoint, I think it would be a shame to quit. Have anything new on the case?" He hoped that he didn't sound too inquisitive or too anxious to get information, but Joe seemed eager to talk so he thought he'd take his best shot.

"There have been a few new developments actually. It seems that Frankie Mahoney, a young punk around town has been pretty tight with Harris, supplying him with girls, dope, the whole shot, and if we can get him first I think we'll have a better chance at Harris." Al listened intently, hoping that Joe would go into more detail so that he could be of more help to Cynthia.