of their sleep. Thievery of enjoyment of their leisure; thievery of their mental and physical health, and of their children's health and welfare. All these things---basic rights under our Constitution---are being shamelessly stolen, without recompense or recognition, by the operators of Lincoln Airport."
The interviewer opened his mouth to smile, showing two rows of faultless teeth. "Counselor, those are fighting words."
"That's because my clients and I are in a fighting mood."
"Is that mood because of anything which has happened here tonight?"
"Yes, sir, We have seen demonstrated the callous indifference of this airport's management to my clients' problems."
"Just what are your plans?"
"In the courts---if necessary the highest court---we shall now seek closure of specific runways, even the entire airport during nighttime hours. In Europe, where they're more civilized about these things, Paris airport, for example, has a curfew. Failing that, we shall demand proper compensation for cruelly wronged homeowners."
"I assume that what you're doing at this moment means you're also seeking public support."
"Yes, sir."
"Do you believe the public will support you?"
"If they don't, I invite them to spend twenty-four hours living in Meadowood---providing their eardrums and sanity will stand it."
"Surely, Counselor, airports have official programs of noise abatement."
"A sham, sir! A fake! A public lie! The general manager of this airport confessed to me tonight that even the paltry, so-called noise abatement measures are not being observed."
And so on.
Afterward, Elliott Freemantle wondered if he should have qualified the statement about noise abatement procedures---as Bakersfeld had done---by referring to exceptional conditions of tonight's storm. But semi-truth or not, the way he had said it was stronger, and Freemantle doubted if it would be challenged. Anyway, he had given good performances---in the second interview as well as the first. Also during both filmings, the cameras panned several times over the intent, expressive faces of the assembled Meadowood residents. Elliott Freemantle hoped that when they saw themselves on their home screens tomorrow, they would remember who had been responsible for all the attention they were receiving.
The number of Meadowooders who had followed him to the airport---as if he were their personal Pied Piper---astonished him. Attendance at the meeting in the Sunday school hall at Meadowood had been roughly six hundred. In view of the bad night and lateness of the hour, he had thought they would be doing well if half that number made the farther trek to the airport; but not only did most of the original crowd come; some must have telephoned friends and neighbors who had joined them. He had even had requests for more copies of the printed forms retaining himself as legal counsel, which he was happy to pass out. Some revised mental arithmetic convinced him that his first hope of a fee from Meadowood totaling twenty-five thousand doUars might well be exceeded.
After the TV interviews, the Tribune reporter, Tomlinson---who had been taking notes during the filming---inquired, "What comes next, Mr. Freemantle? Do you intend to stage some kind of demonstration here?"
Freemantle shook his head. "Unfortunately the management of this airport does not believe in free speech, and we have been denied the elementary privilege of a public meeting. However"---he indicated the assembled Meadowooders---"I do intend to report to these ladies and gentlemen."
"Isn't that the same thing as a public meeting?"
"No, it is not."
Just the same, Elliott Freemantle conceded to himself, it would be a fine distinction, especially since he had every intention of turning what followed into a public demonstration if he could. His objective was to get started with an aggressive speech, which the airport police would dutifully order him to stop. Freemantle had no intention of resisting, or of getting arrested. Merely being halted by the police---if possible in full oratorical flow---would establish him as a Meadowood martyr and, incidentally, create one more color story for tomorrow's papers. (The morning papers, he imagined, had already closed with the earlier reports about himself and Meadowood; editors of the afternoon editions would be grateful for a new lead.)
Even more important, Meadowood homeowners would be further convinced that they had hired a strong counsel and leader, well worth his fee---the first installment checks for which, Lawyer Freemantle hoped, would start flooding in right after tomorrow.
"We're all set to go," Floyd Zanetta, chairman of the earlier Meadowood meeting, reported.
While Freemantle and the Tribune newsman had been speaking, several of the Meadowood men had hastily assembled the portable p.a. system, brought from the Sunday school hall. One of the men now handed Freemantle a hand microphone. Using it, he began to address