“Sounds all right,” said Dan, eagerly. “But just how――――”
“Easy as pulling teeth! We’ll go over to Greenburg, see a printer there, and get him to copy _The Scholiast_ exactly; same heading and type and――and style all through. He can do it all right, I’ll bet. Then the three of us――no, the four of us, for Gerald’s in on it now――will write the stuff. We’ll have a whole bunch of fake advertisements, and a column or so of ‘School Notes,’ and a couple of Joe’s inimitable editorials, and――and the rest of the guff, you know.”
“Say, that’ll be dandy,” cried Dan. Tom nodded approval.
“Only thing is, Alf,” he objected, “it’ll cost a lot of money, I’m afraid. Got any idea how much?”
“No; I’m going to see the printer to-morrow. I’d have gone to-day, but I didn’t have a chance to get away. I don’t believe, though, that it will cost so very much. All we’ll want is about three hundred copies, Tom.”
“Three hundred will cost about as much as three thousand,” replied Tom. “I know, because I’ve had some dealings with printer folks. They’re robbers. It’s the――the composition that costs.”
“Well, I say we do it if we can get the money,” said Dan. “Gee, but it will be fun to write the stuff, won’t it?”
“_The Scholiast_ is sent out Friday at about noon,” said Alf. “We’ll have to get ours out two or three hours earlier. I guess the best way will be to get hold of the fellows who deliver the real paper and have them take ours around for us. In that way no one will suspect that he’s not getting the genuine article.”
“But they’ll find out as soon as they begin to read it, won’t they?” Tom objected.
“Well, maybe; but I don’t care about that. Besides, we’ll write it so foxily that they won’t quite know for sure, don’t you see, until they get their real copies.”
“When shall we do it?” asked Gerald, excitedly.
“Next week. This is Thursday. We’ll see the printer to-morrow and make all the arrangements. Then we’ll have a full week to get it out in.”
“You’ll have to swear him to secrecy, though,” said Dan, “or he will give the snap away.”
“Sure. But that will be all right. I guess the best place to go will be the Greenburg _News_. They probably have more type and stuff than the other shops.”
“Who prints _The Scholiast_?” Tom inquired.