"Of course its fault is that it is n’t sufficiently interested in the great public questions of the district. And it can’t be. Because it can’t take a definite side. It must try to please all parties. At any rate it must offend none. That is the great evil of a journalistic monopoly.... Two hundred and fifty thousand people—why! there is an ample public for two first-class papers! Look at Nottingham! Look at Bristol! Look at Leeds! Look at Sheffield! ... And _their_ newspapers." And Denry endeavoured to look at these great cities! Truly the Five Towns was just about as big. The dizzy journalistic intoxication seized him. He did not give Mr. Myson an answer at once, but he gave himself an answer at once. He would go into the immense adventure. He was very friendly with the _Signal_ people—certainly; but business was business, and the highest welfare of the Five Towns was the highest welfare of the Five Towns. Soon afterwards all the hoardings of the district spoke with one blue voice, and said that the _Five Towns Weekly_ was to be transformed into the _Five Towns Daily_, with four editions beginning each day at noon, and that the new organ would be conducted on the lines of a first-class evening paper. The inner ring of knowing ones knew that a company entitled "The Five Towns Newspapers, Limited," had been formed, with a capital of ten thousand pounds, and that Mr. Myson held three thousand pounds’ worth of shares, and the great Denry Machin one thousand five hundred, and that the remainder were to be sold and allotted as occasion demanded. The inner ring said that nothing would ever be able to stand up against the _Signal_. On the other hand, it admitted that Denry, the most prodigious card ever born into the Five Towns, had never been floored by anything or anybody. The inner ring anticipated the future with glee. Denry and Mr. Myson anticipated the future with righteous confidence. As for the _Signal_, it went on its august way, calmly blind to sensational hoardings. II