“You could work that trick, Bully, if you’d undertake it, donchuknow; and you could pay off some of those grudges. Hire a couple of fellows, you know the kind, to take Merriwell down to the Pavilion; hand them a bottle of liquor, and tell them they’ll be well paid for forcing him to drink it. When he’s good and soused let Gunn know about it and see him in that fix. Eh, Carson?”
Carson’s eyes began to shine.
“I’d as soon do it myself as not,” he boasted. “S’pose he claimed afterward that I made him drink it, would anybody believe him?”
The Duke smiled indulgently.
“You’re rather in the heavyweight class, I admit; but could you do it alone? Merriwell is some scrapper. If you try it, you’d better have some competent help handy. The best plan is to send others to do it, and keep out of sight yourself.”
But nothing seemed to materialize. The Duke had as many plans as he had fingers; but always there was something, usually a question of the risk, which kept them from full acceptance.
“I guess there isn’t any one here with nerve enough to go up against Merriwell,” he said. “I’ll have to undertake something myself.”
“Oh, you foxy gran’pa!” Kess was thinking. “You know dot you ar-re delling der veller under here mit me all der t’ings vot he could do. Unt I haf now got to cabture him, pefore he can. Vhen idt cames, idt vill be anodder tog fighdt, I pet you!”