ron, came up
to Mr Myson and respectfully asked him to step into the publishing
office. Mr Myson stepped into the publishing office and Denry with him,
and they there beheld a small ragged boy with a bleeding nose and a
bundle of _Dailys_ in his wounded hand.

"Yes," the boy sobbed; "and they said they'd cut my eyes out and plee
[play] marbles wi' 'em, if they cotched me in Crown Square agen," And he
threw down the papers with a final yell.

The two directors learnt that the delicate threat had been uttered by
four _Signal_ boys, who had objected to any fellow-boys offering
any paper other than the _Signal_ for sale in Crown Square or
anywhere else.

Of course, it was absurd.

Still, absurd as it was, it continued. The central publishing offices of
the _Daily_ at Hanbridge, and its branch offices in the
neighbouring towns, were like military hospitals, and the truth appeared
to the directors that while the public was panting to buy copies of the
_Daily_, the sale of the _Daily_ was being prevented by means
of a scandalous conspiracy on the part of _Signal_ boys. For it
must be understood that in the Five Towns people prefer to catch their
newspaper in the street as it flies and cries. The _Signal_ had a
vast army of boys, to whom every year it gave a great _fete_.
Indeed, the _Signal_ possessed nearly all the available boys, and
assuredly all the most pugilistic and strongest boys. Mr Myson had
obtained boys only after persistent inquiry and demand, and such as he
had found were not the fittest, and therefore were unlikely to survive.
You would have supposed that in a district that never ceases to grumble
about bad trade and unemployment, thousands of boys would have been
delighted to buy the _Daily_ at fourpence a dozen and sell it at
sixpence. But it was not so.

On the second day the dearth of boys at the offices of the _Daily_
was painful. There was that magnificent, enterprising newspaper waiting
to be sold, and there was the great enlightened public waiting to buy;
and scarcely any business could be done because the _Signal_ boys
had established a reign of terror over their puny and upstart rivals!

The situation was unthinkable.

Still, unthinkable as it was, it continued. Mr Myson had thought of
everything except this. Naturally it had not occurred to him that an
immense and serious effort for the general weal was going to be blocked
by a gang of tatterdemalions.

He complained with dignity to the _Si