SETTING THE MAN TRAP
Hugh jumped up from his chair and clapped a cap on his head.
"It's now about four o'clock of a Friday afternoon," he remarked,
"and if we could only run across Jim Pettigrew, and he got interested
in our story, why it might not be too late to get the little write-up
arranged before they went to press tonight."
Thad was all animation.
"Fine! Let's rush around to the _Courier_ office and see Jim!" he
hastened to say. "I've an idea he's a sort of Jack-of-all-trades
there, writing up news, setting type in an emergency, and even helping
turn off the limited edition of about five hundred copies of the
paper that are run every week. So, as Friday night is the climax to
their week's work, we're likely to find Jim there with his coat off,
and on the job."
They soon arrived at the small building on a side street where the
local paper had its offices, and, indeed, every other thing connected
with it, for that matter.
"There's Jim sitting in the editor's chair," observed Thad, looking
through a dusty window.
"Must be Mr. Adoiphus Hanks, who owns and edits the _Courier_, is
out of town just at present. Say, that would just suit us to a
fraction, wouldn't it, Hugh?"
"It might make things easier for us," admitted the other; and then
they burst in on the important if diminutive Jim, who received them
with all the airs of a metropolitan editor.
"Glad to see you, boys," he told them; "just take seats, will you,
and excuse me for three minutes. I'm winding up the main editorial
for this week's issue. Hanks is out of town, and has left me in full
charge; but then that happens frequently nowadays; and, say, some
foolish people have gone so far as to say they can tell when he's
absent because, well, the paper shows it; but I tell them they are
only saying that to flatter me. Three minutes, boys, and I'll be at
your service."
Whatever it was Jim was doing on the typewriter, he continued to
pound laboriously away for about that length of time. Then finishing
he drew the sheet out, glanced over it, made some corrections, smiled
as though highly pleased, and called out to a boy who was working
a hand press to come and take it to the lone compositor, standing
at his case in a distant corner of the den.
"That'll make folks sit up and take notice I kind of think," said
Jim, swelling out his chest with an air of great importance. "Don't
ask me what it is all about, for I want it to be a surprise to the
community. Read it in tomorrow's issue of the _Weekly Courier_.
Now, what can I do for you, Thad, old scout? Anything connected
with the Scranton High baseball team you want written up for next
week? I'm always ready to favor the boys, because I used to play
ball myself away back."
Hugh would have liked to laugh, but he refrained, not wishing to
offend Jim, who was evidently suffering from an overweening sense
of his own importance, since he had graduated into a temporary occupancy
of the editorial chair. Jim was considerably short of twenty at that,
so it could not have been more than a year or two since he used to
play ball, and train with the other boys of Scranton High.
Thad got busy, and began to tell how they had first ran across the
strange hobo in his camp, cooking a meal. He continued the story with
a description of how the long wandering Brother Lu had been so warmly
welcomed by Matilda and her sick husband, and thereupon deliberately
settled down to enjoying himself at their expense.
Thad was a pretty good hand at narrating a yarn, and he worked the
interest up by degrees until he had Jim's eyes as round as saucers,
while he hung upon every word that was spoken. Hugh only broke in
once in a while to add a few sentences to something his chum said.
Finally the climax was reached when Thad explained the scheme he
and Hugh had concocted between them, and how much they would appreciate
the assistance of Jim in this dilemma.
The temporary editor pursed up his lips and looked serious. He was
thinking, and gradually a grin began to creep across his thin little
face.
"Why, I guess it could be worked out, fellows," he finally remarked,
greatly to the satisfaction of the eager Thad. "Course I can do the
writeup part as easy as falling off a fence, because it comes natural
for me to be able to put any old thing down on paper and hash it up
in a most interesting way. I'll have a story that will make folks
sit up and take notice all right."
"I hope, though, Jim," said Thad, "you won't overdo the thing, because
you see we haven't a peg to hang it on, since we don't know what sort
of a crime the man might have done away down there in Texas to make
Marshal Hastings come so far after him. You'll draw it a bit mild,
won't you, Jim? Just strong enough to strike terror to the heart of
that rascal, Brother Lu?"
"That's all right, Thad, you leave it to me," asserted Jim, with a
confidence born of experience, as well as reliance on his powers
of description and invention. "Yes, I can do the thing to the king's
taste. Why, in such a case it's my habit to make myself actually
believe in my work. Right now I can actually see the ferocious and
not-to-be-denied Marshal Hastings. I could even describe how he
looks so that you recognize the picture. And say, I'll give such
broad hints, without actually saying it's Brother Lu he wants, that
the poor old wretch will bump himself getting out of town on the
first freight that pulls in here. It's a scream of a joke; and
I'm obliged to you boys for putting me up to it. I need all sorts
of practice, you understand, to fit myself for a prominent post
down in New York City, where I expect to land a job as a star
reporter on one of the big dailies."
Of course Thad and Hugh were pleased with matters so far as they had
gone.
"I'm in with you, boys," continued Jim, as they arose to leave the
_Courier_ office, "to the limit; but there's one favor I want to
ask of you in return."
"Name it, Jim!" cried Thad, grasping the cold hand of the reporter,
for just at that moment he felt as though willing to do almost anything
in return for this real kindness on the part of his old-time associate.
"Listen, then," said the other, briskly, for he at least had a rapid
mind, and was in many other ways well qualified for the position
which he meant to assume in the world of newspaperdom, besides,
an abundance of nerve, or as Thad liked to call it, "cheek,"---"I
don't believe Mrs. Hosmer ever sees our sterling paper, because
the name isn't on our mailing list, or the carrier's either. But
tomorrow morning I'll have Jenkins, our boy here, go around particularly
to Matilda's cottage and leave a paper, telling her we are sending
out a large number of free complimentary copies, hoping to induce
more people to subscribe. Get that, boys?"
"Yes, and it sounds good to me, Jim; you know how to work the mill,
all right," said the judicious Thad, well aware of the power flattery
possesses to grease the wheels of human machinery.
"Well, the three of us will be in hiding close by, just as Thad
was today when his mother and those other good ladies paid their
unprofitable visit to the Hosmer home. If we're lucky we may see
Brother Lu come dashing out of the place, and strike a blue streak
for the railroad, distant half a mile or so. Should that happen,
we can make up our minds it's all serene, and that Scranton, as
well as his poor sister, will have seen the last of him. But you
must promise to come around here and wait for me, as I may have a
little business on my hands. Holding down all the positions on even
a local sheet is no easy job, you must know; and I'm the PooBah of
this joint right now."
Willingly Thad gave the desired promise. He would have done anything
else which the autocrat of the enterprise chose to demand just then,
since they looked upon Jim as their main reliance. Fortunately the
other did not see fit to bind them to any further promises, and when
they had left the newspaper office, it was with a sense of elation
such as comes after a successful venture.
Thad was fairly bubbling over with delight.
"Why, Hugh, I think we ought to shake hands, with ourselves over
getting up such a smart little scheme as that," he broke out with,
as they walked along the main street of Scranton, meeting many persons
whom they knew, and most of them ready with a cheery nod or a word of
recognition, for both lads were well liked by the best people of the
community, and particularly those who knew boy nature best, so that
they could appreciate what manly fellows the chums were.
"You're a sanguine sort of chap, Thad," laughed Hugh. "Right now
you believe we've as good as got Brother Lu on the run for the tall
timber. Don't be too sure, or you may be disappointed. There's many
a slip, remember, between cup and lip. But Jim took to the game like
a terrier does to a rat, didn't he?"
"It was right in Jim's favorite line of business," explained the
other. "He fairly dotes on writing up imaginary things, and making
them seem real. He says it's his long suit, whatever he means by
that. I only hope he doesn't make it seem too ridiculous, and so
overdo the matter."
Hugh seemed to have pretty fair confidence in Jim's judgment.
"He's a clever chap," he remarked, "and will know just where to
draw the line. I could that already he had drawn upon his imagination
to supply him with something in place of facts. It'll be a thrilling
bit of reading, and ought to give our pet aversion a cold shiver
when he gets its import. Having Marshal Hastings come away up here
after him will upset all Brother Lu's plans for a soft berth during
the remainder of his fast-ebbing life; and he may suddenly determine
that it's better to run away and live to eat another day, than to
try and stick it out here, and be landed in a Texas jail."
"It'll seem an awful long time till tomorrow comes," sighed the
impatient Thad. "We told him we'd be around by nine in the morning,
didn't we? Well, let's call it eight-and-a-half, then. He may
be able to get off earlier than he expects, and that would cut Brother
Lu out of another meal at the expense of Matilda, whose supplies must
be running low by now, I should judge, and her money ditto in the
bargain."
"Have it your own way, Thad, and drop in for me," said Hugh. "In the
midst of all this fuss and feathers over that miserable hobo, we
mustn't forget we promised to be on hand in the afternoon to play
on the team against Mechanicsville; for you know there has been a
switch, and the programme changed. That team is considered a
strong aggregation from the mills over there, and, we may get our
fingers burned unless we are careful. After knocking Belleville
down last Saturday, it would look bad for Scranton to be snowed
under by an outside nine without any reputation, as they have hardly
played together this season so far."
"Oh! I haven't forgotten my promise to Mr. Saunders and you, Hugh,"
protested the reliable backstop of the high-school team "I'm too fond
of baseball to neglect any chance for playing. But we'll try and put
this other affair over in the A.M., and that'll leave us free to
play ball after lunch. I wonder how far away our friend, Brother
Lu, will be this time tomorrow?"
"Perhaps many miles," suggested Hugh, "and then again he may be taking
things as easy as ever over there at Sister Matilda's cottage. It's
going to be a toss-up whether our game works as we hope, or falls
flat to the ground."