“You know why it’s losing--temporarily,” replied its owner, keeping his temper. “It’s losing because it steps on too many folks’ toes. From now on we don’t need but half as much Guardian in our business. That’s all.” “I see. This is our punishment, this half-space allowance.” “You can call it that if you like.” “Then, just to make it even, I’ll throw out the other half.” “Wha-at?” gasped the thunderstruck merchant. “You understand me, Ahrens. You’re out--every line of you.” Ahrens became suddenly timorous. “Wh-wh-why?” he stammered. “Because I don’t take punishment lying down. Not from you, Ahrens. You’re going to find out whether you can do business without The Guardian, losing proposition or not!” He left the worried store-keeper and continued his rounds. Nearly everywhere he found the same prospect; appropriations cut from a third to a half, but mostly a third. Something definite was back of it. Of that he felt sure. But what it was he could not discover. Enlightenment was waiting for him at his office, through the medium of Galpin. That usually self-contained person looked haggard. “Verrall has been here since you left, Boss.” “What did he want? His job back?” “No. He’s got another.” “Good riddance. What is it?” “Boss, the cat’s out of the bag. I don’t know how they ever kept her in so long. Her name is The Fair Dealer; morning paper with Amalgamated Wire Franchise; scheduled to start next month. And she ain’t a cat. She’s a skunk.” “Who’s back of it?” “Can’t you tell from the sniveling, canting, hypocritical name? ‘Smiling Mart’ Embree--damn his soul.” “So that’s it,” said Jeremy slowly. “That explains Ahrens’s attitude. Of course they can get along with less space. And Ellison’s. Wants to try out the new, and save money on the old. We might have known! Embree has to have a paper here for his senatorial campaign. If he gets us, on the side, so much the better.” “But does he get us?” “It does n’t look pretty, Andy. I can’t pretend I like the scenery. There is n’t room for three papers in Fenchester. Somebody’s going to get bumped.” “Maybe it’ll be The Fair Dealer.” “All the Germans and the anti-war crowd will get in back of it. I should n’t be surprised if Montrose Clark and his gang were financing it--to kill us off. If we can pull through this next year--But there’s that print-paper contract pinching us. Any details about the new paper?” “Verrall claims it’ll start with twenty-five thousand circulation all over the State. He was in here this morning to see me about--well, about something else; and to give us the news of the new paper. I told him we’d print it when released; would n’t give him the satisfaction of thinking we were afraid to.” “Right! If we’ve got to die we’ll die game.”