s clever enough to
think of putting a label on the bottle and to have the beds prepared, I
ought to have been clever enough to keep mustard out of the house." It
would be wrong to mince the unpleasant fact that the sham poisoning
which he had arranged to the end that he and his mother should pass the
night in the house had finished in a manner much too realistic for
Denry's pleasure. Mustard and water, particularly when mixed by Mrs
Machin, is mustard and water. She had that consolation.

CHAPTER IX

THE GREAT NEWSPAPER WAR

I

When Denry and his mother had been established a year and a month in the
new house at Bleakridge, Denry received a visit one evening which
perhaps flattered him more than anything had ever flattered him. The
visitor was Mr Myson. Now Mr Myson was the founder, proprietor and
editor of the _Five Towns Weekly_, a new organ of public opinion
which had been in existence about a year; and Denry thought that Mr
Myson had popped in to see him in pursuit of an advertisement of the
Thrift Club, and at first he was not at all flattered.

But Mr Myson was not hunting for advertisements, and Denry soon saw him
to be the kind of man who would be likely to depute that work to others.
Of middle height, well and quietly dressed, with a sober, assured
deportment, he spoke in a voice and accent that were not of the Five
Towns; they were superior to the Five Towns. And in fact Mr Myson
originated in Manchester and had seen London. He was not provincial, and
he beheld the Five Towns as part of the provinces; which no native of
the Five Towns ever succeeds in doing. Nevertheless, his manner to Denry
was the summit of easy and yet deferential politeness.

He asked permission "to put something before" Denry. And when, rather
taken aback by such smooth phrases, Denry had graciously accorded the
permission, he gave a brief history of the _Five Towns Weekly_,
showing how its circulation had grown, and definitely stating that at
that moment it was yielding a profit. Then he said:

"Now my scheme is to turn it into a daily."

"Very good notion," said Denry, instinctively.

"I'm glad you think so," said Mr Myson. "Because I've come here in the
hope of getting your assistance. I'm a stranger to the district, and I
want the co-operation of some one who isn't. So I've come to you. I need
money, of course, though I have myself what most people would consider
sufficient capital. But what I need more than money is-