gnal_, and was informed
with dignity by the _Signal_ that the _Signal_ could not be
responsible for the playful antics of its boys in the streets; that, in
short, the Five Towns was a free country. In the latter proposition Mr
Myson did not concur.

After trouble in the persuasion of parents--astonishing how indifferent
the Five Towns' parent was to the loss of blood by his offspring!--a
case reached the police-court. At the hearing the _Signal_ gave a
solicitor a watching brief, and that solicitor expressed the
_Signal's_ horror of carnage. The evidence was excessively
contradictory, and the Stipendiary dismissed the summons with a good
joke. The sole definite result was that the boy whose father had
ostensibly brought the summons, got his ear torn within a quarter of an
hour of leaving the court. Boys will be boys.

Still, the _Daily_ had so little faith in human nature that it
could not believe that the _Signal_ was not secretly encouraging
its boys to be boys. It could not believe that the _Signal_, out of
a sincere desire for fair play and for the highest welfare of the
district, would willingly sacrifice nearly half its circulation and a
portion of its advertisement revenue. And the hurt tone of Mr Myson's
leading articles seemed to indicate that in Mr Myson's opinion his older
rival _ought_ to do everything in its power to ruin itself. The
_Signal_ never spoke of the fight. The _Daily_ gave shocking
details of it every day.

The struggle trailed on through the weeks.

Then Denry had one of his ideas. An advertisement was printed in the
_Daily_ for two hundred able-bodied men to earn two shillings for
working six hours a day. An address different from the address of the
_Daily_ was given. By a ruse Denry procured the insertion of the
advertisement in the _Signal_ also.

"We must expend our capital on getting the paper on to the streets,"
said Denry. "That's evident. We'll have it sold by men. We'll soon see
if the _Signal_ ragamuffins will attack _them_. And we won't
pay 'em by results; we'll pay 'em a fixed wage; that'll fetch 'em. And a
commission on sales into the bargain. Why! I wouldn't mind engaging
_five_ hundred men. Swamp the streets! That's it! Hang expense. And
when we've done the trick, then we can go back to the boys; they'll have
learnt their lesson."

And Mr Myson agreed and was pleased that Denry was living up to his
reputation.

The state of the earthenware trade was supposed that summer