The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-10-12

cathay had gone into the prelimi- naries."
 consider that the prelimina- r;es are all over with Blocker said. standing with his feet wide apart. his black smoky eyes star ing steadily into the gray eyes of the big man who hulked above him. "Get down to brass tacks. What's what?"
 Fisher sighed
 1T am prepared to advise my client" he said, ito withdraw any libel suits and give you a com plete release in return for your assurance that a retraction will be published by the newspaper"
 Bleeker's voice was crisp, his manner truculent. "We'll publish this sort of a retraction," he said, land no other. We'll publish a statement to the effect that The Blade has discovered the man who gave the name of Cathay at police headquarters was an inn poster. A pickpocket who had stolen Cathays wallet, and chose to masquerade under Cathay's name. We will publish it promi- nently, not as retraction, but as an additional development that has been uncovered through the diligence of our newspaper re- porters. That's our final answer. You can take it or leave it."
 I'll take it," Fisher said.
 Dan Blocker pushed past him toward the door.
 Wait a minute" Fisher told him. "You'll want some sort of a receipt. Some kind of a release in full of all claims for damage"
 Dan Blocker, with his hand on the door knob, stared at Charles Fisher and shook his head slowly from side to side.
 we don't want anything from Frank B. Cathay," he said. We're going ahead and publish that retraction in just the manner that I outlined to you.. Any time Cathay thinks he can make money out of suing our newspaper, we'll show him where he can't. That goes for him and for his lawyers. Do you get that?"
 Fisher drowned. "I had you brought here,' he said with dig nity, "so that we might arrange an amicable settlement"
 'All right. We've arranged 1t, haven't we?" Blocker said.
 "It hasn't been very amicable so far" Fisher remarked.
 Its as amicable as it's going to be-" Blocker told him and slammed the door behind him as he stepped into the corridor.
 It was the following afternoon. Dan Blocker, at his desk. drowned irritably at Ethel West.
 What was your last report from Charles Morden?" he asked.
 Ethel West picked up a short hand notebook from before her. You talked with him personally day before yesterday, didn't you?"
 "Yes. What did you hear from him yesterday?"
 He telephoned about one o'clock. It was right after lunch. He said that he had a live lead, but in order to get 1t he had to cultivate a girl. He said that he thought it wasn't wise to mention names over the telephone, but that he'd come in to the office some time this morning or late yesterday afternoon"
 Yesterday afternoon" said Blocker meditatively, what was I doing .. oh yes. that confer ence with Mrs Cathay, and Ca- thay's lawyer"
 You disposed of the case?" she asked.
 Frightened to death," he told her. ''The woman was speeches. with fright. She rushed to the lawyer and got him to call the whole thing off. They tried to save their faces by making a bluff about it.
 Did you make them crawl?" she asked.
 Certainly not" he told her. "I just wanted to make certain that they understood what our posi- tion was.''
 Do you suppose that was be- cause of something Morden un- | covered?"
 You can't tell. It wasn't some thing that affected Cathay so | much as it was something that af- | facted hjS vyifo