“Great!”
“Gee! What a circus that will be!”
“Bring on your bills, pard, and we’ll get ’em up or perish in the attempt.”
The assent was perfectly unanimous. Every one seemed to think it a great lark, and was eager for the fun to commence. But there was still two hours before the bills would be ready, so Dick took the opportunity of giving the boys a more comprehensive sketch of what Demarest was up against, and the troubles he had had to get a hearing for the play.
The fellows were all much interested, and then and there they resolved themselves into an informal committee of six to spread the news throughout the university, and collect as large an audience as possible for Thursday night.
About eleven o’clock they all sallied forth in high spirits, and made at once for the printing establishment. Here they found that the presses were all running full blast, and the bills close to completion. The foreman assured Dick that the last one would be run off in about half an hour, so the latter dispatched Buckhart to see if he couldn’t find some sort of a vehicle in which they could transport the paper. That was the one point on which he had slipped up. He had expected that they would be able to carry the bills, but a sight of the volume already printed showed him at once that this was impossible.
While Buckhart was gone, Merriwell and Demarest paid all the men off, and thanked them heartily for the help they had given, besides presenting each of them with two tickets for the show.
Precisely at half-past eleven the last bill was run off, the great presses stopped, and the printers grabbed up coats and hats, and hurried out of the place. The foreman remained a few minutes to show Dick which were the large bills to be posted up, and which the smaller posters to attach to the colored lithographs for the store windows, which they proposed distributing the moment the shops opened in the morning. They were really counting more on these than the announcements on the boards, for they felt pretty certain that the latter would not remain uncovered long, once Lawford got started with his work for the trust in the morning. They would be up long enough, however, to attract considerable attention, and Dick had a little scheme by which he hoped to circumvent Lawford if the latter did cover them.
Presently Brad appeared, with the announcement that he had a cab below, and all hands turned to to carry the bills downstairs. In the street outside they found a rather dilapidated specimen of four-wheeler, which the Texan had picked up at the station, into which they piled the paper until there was room for nothing else.
The driver seemed to take it as some college prank, and, assured of his money, which he had obtained in advance, looked upon them with a tolerant eye.