Demarest’s face was set and a little pale. He was evidently keeping a grip on himself only by a great effort.
“Look at that!” he cried, extending the paper. “Just look at that, will you? If that isn’t a put-up job, I’d like to know what you’d call it.”
Dick snatched the paper from his nervous fingers and bent over the page. As he read the paragraph which the actor had pointed out, his eyes narrowed and a frown appeared on his forehead.
“Friday—Arcadian Theatre,” he murmured swiftly, “first production on any stage—John Tennant’s great drama of college life, ‘Fenwick of Yale’—management Ralph Bryton.”
“Great Scott!” Merriwell exclaimed, looking up swiftly. “They’re trying to get ahead of you! Trying to cut you out by producing a college play with almost exactly the same name! What a dirty trick!”
“Read the rest of it!” Demarest exclaimed angrily.
Unable to contain himself, he took the paper from Dick’s hand.
“Listen: ‘Great football scene. Nothing like it ever shown on the stage.’ My scene, Merriwell, I’ll wager anything! ‘Tremendously strong third act.’ My third act is the climax of the play! ‘The whole play from start to finish is so true to life, and so filled with the atmosphere of a real college town, that the spectator will find it hard to believe he is not watching a concrete segment taken directly from the life in the greatest university in America. The management has been fortunate in securing the services of the following actors and actresses for this important production.’”
Crumpling the paper in a shapeless mass, Demarest tossed it angrily aside.
“I’d be willing to take my oath, Merriwell,” he said bitterly, “that those villains have stolen the very plot of my play; or, if they haven’t, they’ve got something which follows as close on the lines of ‘Jarvis, of Yale,’ as they dared, and still be within the law. They open Friday, you see. I did not intend having my first night until next Monday, until we got the Concert Hall to-day, so they thought they’d get ahead of me. Great Scott, man! If they put their play on first, there wouldn’t be a handful come to my opening. It would be the greatest frost you ever saw.”