Then came the announcement of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Signal, and of the processional fete by which the Signal was at once to give itself a splendid spectacular advertisement and to reward and enhearten its boys.  The Signal meant to liven up the streets of the Five Towns on that great day by means of a display of all the gilt chariots of Snape’s Circus in the main thoroughfare.  Many of the boys would be in the gilt chariots.  Copies of the anniversary number of the Signal would be sold from the gilt chariots.  The idea was excellent, and it showed that after all the Signal was getting just a little more afraid of its young rival than it had pretended to be.

For, strange to say, after a trying period of hesitation, the Five Towns Daily was slightly on the upward curve—­thanks to Denry.  Denry did not mean to be beaten by the puzzle which the Daily offered to his intelligence.  There the Daily was, full of news, and with quite an encouraging show of advertisements, printed on real paper with real ink—­and yet it would not “go.”  Notoriously the Signal earned a net profit of at the very least five thousand a year, whereas the Daily earned a net loss of at the very least sixty pounds a week—­and of that sixty quite a third was Denry’s money.  He could not explain it.  Mr Myson tried to rouse the public by passionately stirring up extremely urgent matters—­such as the smoke nuisance, the increase of the rates, the park question, German competition, technical education for apprentices; but the public obstinately would not be roused concerning its highest welfare to the point of insisting on a regular supply of the Daily.  If a mere five thousand souls had positively demanded daily a copy of the Daily and not slept till boys or agents had responded to their wish, the troubles of the Daily would soon have vanished.  But this ridiculous public did not seem to care which paper was put into its hand in exchange for its halfpenny, so long as the sporting news was put there.  It simply was indifferent.  It failed to see the importance to such an immense district of having two flourishing and mutually-opposing daily organs.  The fundamental boy difficulty remained ever present.

And it was the boy difficulty that Denry perseveringly and ingeniously attacked, until at length the Daily did indeed possess some sort of a brigade of its own, and the bullying and slaughter in the streets (so amusing to the inhabitants) grew a little less one-sided.

A week or more before the Signal’s anniversary day, Denry heard that the Signal was secretly afraid lest the Daily’s brigade might accomplish the marring of its gorgeous procession, and that the Signal was ready to do anything to smash the Daily’s brigade.  He laughed; he said he did not mind.  About that time hostilities were rather acute; blood was warming,