enormous escapade which Denry invented
and conducted. The moral damage to the _Signal_ was held to
approach the disastrous. And now not the possibility but the probability
of law-suits was incessantly discussed.

On the Monday both papers were bought with anxiety. Everybody was
frothing to know what the respective editors would say.

But in neither sheet was there a single word as to the affair. Both had
determined to be discreet; both were afraid. The _Signal_ feared
lest it might not, if the pinch came, be able to prove its innocence of
the crime of luring boys into confinement by means of toasted cheese and
hot jam. The _Signal_ had also to consider its seriously damaged
dignity; for such wounds silence is the best dressing. The _Daily_
was comprehensively afraid. It had practically driven its gilded
chariots through the entire Decalogue. Moreover, it had won easily in
the grand altercation. It was exquisitely conscious of glory.

Denry went away to Blackpool, doubtless to grow his beard.

The proof of the _Daily's_ moral and material victory was that soon
afterwards there were four applicants, men of substance, for shares in
the _Daily_ company. And this, by the way, was the end of the tale.
For these applicants, who secured options on a majority of the shares,
were emissaries of the _Signal_. Armed with the options, the
_Signal_ made terms with its rival, and then by mutual agreement
killed it. The price of its death was no trifle, but it was less than a
year's profits of the _Signal_. Denry considered that he had been
"done." But in the depths of his heart he was glad that he had been
done. He had had too disconcerting a glimpse of the rigours and perils
of journalism to wish to continue it. He had scored supremely and, for
him, to score was life itself. His reputation as a card was far, far
higher than ever. Had he so desired, he could have been elected to the
House of Commons on the strength of his procession and _fete_.

Mr Myson, somewhat scandalised by the exuberance of his partner,
returned to Manchester.

And the _Signal_, subsequently often referred to as "The Old Lady,"
resumed its monopolistic sway over the opinions of a quarter of a
million of people, and has never since been attacked.

CHAPTER X

HIS INFAMY

I

When Denry at a single stroke "wherreted" his mother and proved his
adventurous spirit by becoming the possessor of one of the first
motor-cars ever owned in Bursley, his ins