That’s what Cahier was talking about.

LEADING SCIENTISTS DISCOVER WORLD IS FLAT he typed, in capitals. “The Oakville Research Center today released the news that, contrary to previous belief, the earth is not round. According to Albert Einstein, Jr., ‘A spectro-inductive photograph, taken from a height of three hundred miles, shows that the so-called curvature of the Earth is due wholly to a warp in the ionosphere. It is now absolutely certain that our Earth is as flat as a flapjack . . .’ ”

Tom looked at the paragraph, smiled faintly and dropped it into the wastebasket.

He typed THE WAY WE LOOK AT IT and paused. “As everyone knows, the Messenger, along with school officials, the county court, the Mayor of Caxton, and most Caxton citizens, was opposed to the move toward integration of the races,” he wrote, and felt his heart inside his chest. “We fought the issue from its inception to the final decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, employing every legal means. However, we believe that the government of the United States is a government of law and not of man, and that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter in deciding what is law. Therefore, once the Supreme Court has spoken and until the decision of that Court is changed by an amendment to the Constitution by a vote of the people, we have no choice except to obey the law.

“Last night, the law was broken. A young Northerner named Adam Cramer delivered an inflammatory speech on the steps of the county courthouse, in which he indirectly exhorted the citizens of Caxton to become renegades.

“This speech resulted in an unprovoked attack upon an out-of-county Negro family who happened to be passing through Caxton.

“It was considered by some unthinking officials to be a minor incident. But it was not a minor incident. In just this way—”

“Mr. McDaniel?”

Tom looked up from his typewriter. Standing in the office, smiling pleasantly, was Adam Cramer.

“How are you this morning, sir?”

Tom stared at him, but did not accept the hand. “What do you want?” he asked.

Adam Cramer continued smiling. “Not much,” he said. “I just want to give you a little business.”

“Yes?”

“You do run ads, don’t you?”

“If they meet certain standards.”

Adam Cramer withdrew a folded paper from his breast pocket, read it once, and dropped it on the desk. “I just heard about what happened last night,” he said. “It was a shame.”

“You must be proud.”

Jack Allardyce knocked on the open door. “We’re waiting on the copy,” the old man said.

“You’ll keep on waiting until I finish it,” Tom snapped. “Now don’t bother me.”

The old man left, shocked.

Adam Cramer seated himself in the cane-bottomed chair and crossed his legs. “I’m not sure exactly what you meant by that remark,” he said, “but I can tell you, Mr. McDaniel, I was very upset.”

“Really?”