“Listen!” replied the other, impressively, “and I’ll tell you what my game is. It may work, and it may fall flat; a whole lot depends on circumstances, but there’s no harm trying it out.”
“Of course not; go on and tell me.”
“In watching Dock when he didn’t know it, we’ve learned considerable about his habits,” continued Tom. “For one thing every single night he walks home along the river road here after delivering a package or two at certain houses. It seems to be a part of the programme. Well, some fine night we’ll lie in wait for him about this spot; and on the road will be that duplicate of the paper which we believe he stole.”
At that Carl became quite excited.
“Oh! now I see what your game it!” he cried; “and let me tell you I think it’s as clever a trick as could be thought of. He’ll pick up the paper, thinking it may be something worth while; and when he sees that it is the very receipt he thinks he has got safely hidden away somewhere, Dock will be so rattled that the first thing he does will be to hurry to find out whether it’s been taken or not.”
“That’s the idea, Carl; and of course we’ll follow him, so as to jump in the very minute he gets out the real document to compare them.”
“Fine! fine, Tom! You are certainly the crackerjack when it comes to laying a trap to trip a scamp up. Why, he’ll fall into that pit head over heels; and I do hope we can snatch the paper away from him before he has a chance to tear it up.”
“We’ll look out for that all right, you can depend on it,” came the reassuring remark from the other scout. “When will you get busy on that copy, Carl?”
“To-night, after the kids are in bed,” Carl hastened to reply; “I wouldn’t care to have them see what I was doing, though in this case I firmly believe it’s all right.”