CHAPTER XVIII.
CAUGHT IN THE TRAP.
The messenger-boy was found and instructed. He set off to find Boltwood, accompanied and directed by Carker. Within the closed hack, behind the drawn curtains, Ready and Bingham waited.
“Oh, luddy me!” chuckled Jack. “How surprised our poetical friend will be!”
“What if he does not take the bait?” muttered Bingham.
“He will, my gentle fairy, he will.”
“Why are you so confident?”
“He is a writer of alleged poetry, and so he’s an easy mark. See if I’m not right. And he thinks all the girls are liable to lose their senses over him. This, however, my sylphlike friend, is going to seem a great conquest to him. He will rush to the arms of Lotta. Oh, yum, yum!”
“If Carker does his part——”
“Cark will find a way, Bing, old baby. He’ll be ready to give Boltwood a gentle push at the right moment, mark my word. Cark is an odd fish, but he’s great at carrying out instructions. Get him to going, and nothing but the Grim Reaper can stop him.”