"Pretty bad. The paper costs a lot more to get out. We've enlarged our
staff. Now we need a new press. There's thirty-odd thousand dollars, in
one lump."

"How long can you go on at this rate?"

"Without any more advertising?"

"You certainly aren't gaining, by your present policy."

"Well, I can stick it out through the year. By that time the advertising
will be coming in. It's _got_ to come to the paper that has the
circulation, Dad."

"Hum!" droned the big doctor, dubiously. "Have you reckoned the Pierce
libel suits in?"

"He can't win them."

"Can't he? I don't know. He intends to try. And he feels pretty cocky
about it. E.M. Pierce has something up his sleeve, Boyee."

"That would be a body-blow. But he can't win," repeated Hal. "Why, I saw
the whole thing myself."

"Just the same you ought to have the best libel lawyer you can get from
New York. All the good local men are tied up with Pierce or afraid of
him."

"Can't afford it."

To this point the big man had been leading up. "I've been thinking over
this Pierce matter, Hal, and I've made up my mind. Pierce is getting to
think he's the whole thing around here. He's bullied this town all his
life, just as he's bullied his employees until they hate him like
poison. But now he's gone up against the wrong game. Roast Certina, will
he? The pup! Why, if he'd ever run his factories or his store or his
Consolidated Employees' Organization one hundredth part as decently as
I've run our business, he wouldn't have to stay in nights for fear some
one might sneak a knife into him out of the dark."

This was something less than just to Elias M. Pierce, who, whatever his
other faults, had never been a fearful man.

"Libel, eh?" continued the genius of Certina, quietly but formidably.
"We'll teach him a few things about libel, before he's through. Here's
my proposition, Boyee. You can fight Pierce, but you can't fight all
Worthington. Every enemy you make for the 'Clarion' becomes an ally of
Pierce. Quit all these other campaigns. Stop roasting the business men
and advertisers. Drop your attack on the Mid and Mud: you've got 'em
licked, anyway. Let up on the street railway: I notice you're taking a
fall out of them on their overcrowding. Treat the theaters decently:
they're entitled to a fair chance for their money. Cut out this
Consumers' League foolishness (I'm surprised at Milly Neal--the way
she's lost her head over that). Make friends instead of foes. And