Inside Story

Take one man with a talent for trouble. Add the orange flash of gunfire and hunted footsteps echoing in the night. That's it. Inside story, taken from the files of John Steel, Adventure of. This is John Steel. And this is the meeting place for those of you who like to give your nerves a little exercise. You know you meet all kinds of people in this world. Some are

nice easygoing folk to whom nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. Then there are people who have an affinity for excitement. No matter where they go or what they do, things are always going on around them. Jim Hennigan was that kind. I first met Jim when I was on the police force and he was a reporter for one of the big city papers. And sure enough,

every big case it came along, he was right smack in the middle of it. But suppose we let him tell you about one particular case, one that he was a lot closer to than I was.

The first day I joined the paper I was called into the old man's office. All the guys out in the city room said he was tough, said he had ink in his veins instead of blood.

He was tough, all right, and shrewd and calculating and knowing too. But he told me some things that day I've never forgotten. He said, Hannigan, I don't want any milk-sops on my paper and I don't want any fancy dance either.

He said, I want circulation and you don't get circulation by writing great literature or by having a heart. Smell out the story, write it in one syllable words and if anyone gets hurt by it, that's their look out, not yours.