Signal in the Dark

"Maybe you hit a wrong letter on the typewriter," the editor said less severely. "That's why one always should read over a story after it's written."

"But I did that too," Penny said, and then bit her lip, because she realized she was arguing about the matter.

"We'll look at the carbons," decided Mr. DeWitt.

They had been taken from the spindles by copy boys, but the editor ordered the entire day's work returned to his desk. Pawing through the sheets, he came to the one Penny had written. Swiftly he compared it with the original copy.

"You're right!" he exclaimed in amazement. "The carbons show you wrote the name John Borman, not Gorman."

"I knew I did!"

"But the copy that was turned into the basket said John Gorman. Didn't you change it on the first sheet?"

"Indeed I didn't, Mr. DeWitt."

Scowling