Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover] Denry the Audacious By Arnold Bennett Author of "Clayhanger" NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 31 West Twenty-Third Street THE DEEDS OF DENRY THE AUDACIOUS COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY DENRY THE AUDACIOUS COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY The Knickerbocker Press, New York CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Dance II. The Widow Hullins’s House III. The Pantechnicon IV. Wrecking of a Life V. The Mercantile Marine VI. His Burglary VII. The Rescuer of Dames VIII. Raising a Wigwam IX. The Great Newspaper War X. His Infamy XI. In the Alps XII. The Supreme Honour Denry the Audacious CHAPTER I. THE DANCE II Edward Henry Machin first saw the smoke on the 27th May, 1867, in Brougham Street, Bursley, the most ancient of the Five Towns. Brougham Street runs down from St. Luke’s Square straight into the Shropshire Union Canal, and consists partly of buildings known as "potbanks" (until they come to be sold by auction, when auctioneers describe them as "extensive earthenware manufactories") and partly of cottages whose highest rent is four-and-six a week. In such surroundings was an extraordinary man born. He was the only anxiety of a widowed mother, who gained her livelihood and his by making up "ladies’ own materials" in ladies’ own houses. Mrs. Machin, however, had a specialty apart from her vocation; she could wash flannel with less shrinking than any other woman in the district, and she could wash fine lace without ruining it; thus often she came to sew and remained to wash. A somewhat gloomy woman; thin, with a tongue! But I liked her. She saved a certain amount of time every day by addressing her son as Denry instead of Edward Henry.