“Doesn’t it seem to you, boys, that it would be rather a mean trick to play on anyone, especially on a schoolfellow?” Will asked.
“Certainly it seems mean,” Charles replied, “but it is only for fun, and Marmaduke would enjoy it at the time, and soon get over his anger when we explained everything. Of course, we will be and careful not to do anything too wicked.”
“Well, it is bad to stir up such a boys anger,” Will persisted.
“Let me improve on your plot,” Steve ventured to say. “Let us suppose that a beautiful French young lady was stolen by an enemy of her father’s and brought over to America, and imprisoned in ‘Nobody’s House.’ Let her write a wild appeal for help, which we will drop in Marmaduke’s path.”
“That’s going a little too far,” Charley said decidedly. “I shouldn’t like to meddle in such a desperate game as that.”
“Wouldn’t a French captive be apt to write a letter in her own language?” Will asked, as though he were overseeing that scheme.
“That would be the fun of it,” Stephen answered. “A letter in genuine French would draw a less romantic boy than Marmaduke.”
“Very true,” said George. “But could you write such a letter?”
“Of course not—Mr. Meadows himself couldn’t, perhaps. Ten to one, Marmaduke would think he could do it perfectly.”