Precisely at half-past eleven the last bill was run off, the great presses stopped, and the printers grabbed up coats and hats, and hurried out of the place. The foreman remained a few minutes to show Dick which were the large bills to be posted up, and which the smaller posters to attach to the colored lithographs for the store windows, which they proposed distributing the moment the shops opened in the morning. They were really counting more on these than the announcements on the boards, for they felt pretty certain that the latter would not remain uncovered long, once Lawford got started with his work for the trust in the morning. They would be up long enough, however, to attract considerable attention, and Dick had a little scheme by which he hoped to circumvent Lawford if the latter did cover them. Presently Brad appeared, with the announcement that he had a cab below, and all hands turned to to carry the bills downstairs. In the street outside they found a rather dilapidated specimen of four-wheeler, which the Texan had picked up at the station, into which they piled the paper until there was room for nothing else. The driver seemed to take it as some college prank, and, assured of his money, which he had obtained in advance, looked upon them with a tolerant eye. At the billposter’s, they found Brown on the alert, and the paste and brushes ready for them. His eyes bulged a little when he saw the cab full of paper, but he asked no questions. He rather hoped that the night’s work would hit his boss hard, for Lawford was a hard man to work for, and was cordially hated by the fellows under him. Several buckets of the paste, the brushes, and two ladders were wedged into the cab somehow, and then the fun commenced. Merriwell’s plan of campaign was masterly. He avoided carefully the central part of the town, in which the cops were apt to be more or less wide awake, and proceeded at once to the outskirts, where they could work undisturbed. Quietly and swiftly, board after board was covered with the flaring announcements. Many of them were slapped on crooked, and several times they got the different sections misplaced, so that the bottom part came first, but Demarest was rather pleased at that than otherwise. He thought it would attract more attention than if they had been put on with the customary skill and regularity. The fellows were having the time of their lives. Before long they were smeared with paste from head to foot, but that did not matter. They slathered the bills on as if their lives depended on their speed, and the little spice of risk—for the cops were pretty sure to question such proceedings if they got onto the game—only added to the enjoyment.