endation."

After half an hour of facts and figures, the doctor dismissed his
visitors. He was satisfied that this was not an impossible scheme, and
he even went so far as to accept a portion of the financial burden. This
argued well for the newspaper, for the doctor was a shrewd man.

Ebenezer Brown firmly believed in vested interests when those interests
were his own. Until he was actually faced by "The Mercury," he had
regarded opposition to "The Observer" as impossible. When confronted by
the strong staff of Denis Quirk's paper, he at first began to whine over
the treachery of opposition; then he straightened his back to fight.

Gifford, the sub-editor, had hailed the resignation of Cairns as
promotion to himself; and so it might have proved, but Ebenezer Brown
was far too shrewd to oppose Gifford to Cairns.

"We must find a new editor," he remarked to the former when the rumour
of opposition reached him.

Gifford, with a half promise of the editorial chair in his mind, smiled
blandly.

"You will not forget----," he began.

"I forget everything," snapped Ebenezer Brown, "when I have to fight. I
am going to Melbourne to find a strong editor. After this opposition is
crushed I intend to sack him and place you in charge," he added more
gently, for he liked Gifford, if he really cared for any man.

But the fight was not to end so simply and speedily as the old man
imagined. "The Mercury" dawned on Grey Town, strong, cynical, and up to
date. There were initial troubles with the Cable News Agency, but Cairns
managed to adjust these, against the determined opposition of Ebenezer
Brown. Then came splendid days for the advertising public, when both
newspapers brought down their scale of charges to the very lowest price.
Keen, too, was the demand for copy when Desmond O'Connor and his junior
reporter found themselves opposed to men almost as keen as they. Grey
Town fairly throbbed with excitement, and daily searched the rival
papers to discover which one had outwitted the other. In the office of
"The Mercury" Denis Quirk and Cairns sat together planning new features
to place their paper in advance of its rival. Their first success was
the nobbling of "The Observer's" senior reporter. For this Tim O'Neil
was responsible.

Tim was errand boy, printer's devil, and messenger for "The Mercury,"
and he firmly believed that the newspaper's success was due to his
exertions. All the ingenuity of which he was capable, the boy