Again Cad laughed and said:
"Yes, I was at hand."
"You were the messenger boy?"
"I was."
"Girl, don't call Girard a wonder. You are the wonder of the age; but go on."
"I carried his message, and the sweet-faced girl who has been giving you the beautiful tale concerning her enchanted brother is the party to whom I carried the message. They met, and under a changed disguise I overheard a part of their scheme. I saw her when she accosted you, and I knew that from you I would learn enough to connect the whole plan; I have."
"And what is their plan?"
"That girl's purpose is to win your absolute confidence. She has a party who will represent her brother, and by degrees and methods of her own, aided by her confederates, they will run down our side of it, and then at the last moment every one of us will be separately lured and done up. And they will make their plans so there will be no help for us, or rather there would be no help for us did they catch us unawares. But that they will never do; we will catch them in their own netting."
"Oh, Cad, how much I owe to you! and now what shall I do?"
"Meet her, and I will wager that there will be some of her gang hovering around. We can play a very ingenious trick and open up their scheme."