ed round a corner. The yelling of imprisoned
cheese-fed boys grew louder.

V

In the meantime at the _Signal_ office (which was not three hundred
yards away, but on the other side of Crown Square) apprehension had
deepened into anxiety as the minutes passed and the Snape Circus
procession persisted in not appearing on the horizon of the Oldcastle
Road. The _Signal_ would have telephoned to Snape's, but for the
fact that a circus is never on the telephone. It then telephoned to its
Oldcastle agent, who, after a long delay, was able to reply that the
cavalcade had left Oldcastle at the appointed hour, with every sign of
health and energy. Then the _Signal_ sent forth scouts all down the
Oldcastle Road to put spurs into the procession, and the scouts
returned, having seen nothing. Pessimists glanced at the possibility of
the whole procession having fallen into the canal at Cauldon Bridge. The
paper was printed, the train-parcels for Knype, Longshaw, Bursley, and
Turnhill were despatched; the boys were waiting; the fingers of the
clock in the publishing department were simply flying. It had been
arranged that the bulk of the Hanbridge edition, and in particular the
first copies of it, should be sold by boys from the gilt chariots
themselves. The publisher hesitated for an awful moment, and then
decided that he could wait no more, and that the boys must sell the
papers in the usual way from the pavements and gutters. There was no
knowing what the _Daily_ might not be doing.

And then _Signal_ boys in dozens rushed forth paper-laden, but they
were disappointed boys; they had thought to ride in gilt chariots, not
to paddle in mud. And almost the first thing they saw in Crown Square
was the car of Jupiter in its glory, flying all the _Signal_
colours; and other cars behind. They did not rush now; they sprang, as
from a catapult; and alighted like flies on the vehicles. Men insisted
on taking their papers from them and paying for them on the spot. The
boys were startled; they were entirely puzzled; but they had not the
habit of refusing money. And off went the procession to the music of its
own band down the road to Knype, and perhaps a hundred boys on board,
cheering. The men in charge then performed a curious act: they tore down
all the _Signal_ flagging, and replaced it with the emblem of the
_Daily_.

So that all the great and enlightened public wandering home in crowds
from the football match at Knype, had the specta