. Well, of course you also know Jim he's graduated
into a regular cub reporter, as he's so fond of calling it, because
that word _cub_ is used so often in the movies, when they show up
a big newspaper office in New York or Chicago, and the latest greenhorn
on the staff is given an assignment that allows him to make the
greatest news scoop ever heard of. Jim, to tell the truth, works
on our local weekly here, the _Scranton Courier_. He rakes the
entire country for news, writes things up that have never occurred,
so as to fill space, and draw his weekly pay, attends weddings,
funerals, and all sorts of events, not forgetting baseball games
and such things.

"Well, Jim is still a good friend of mine, although he now feels
himself so mighty important that even the mayor sends for him to
communicate something he wants to appear in the next issue of the
paper. The idea that flashed into my brain, you must know, Hugh, is
to tell Jim of our great trouble with this pesky hobo, and enlist his
aid in scaring Brother Lu off."

"Suppose now, in the issue of the _Courier_ that is due tomorrow
morning there appeared an interesting write-up about a certain Marshal
Hastings who was visiting Scranton, having come all the way from Texas
to find and take back a certain party who was badly wanted there for
some serious offense; the story could give little hints that would
point to Brother Lu as the man, without actually saying so. Hugh,
tell me, what do you think of that for a scheme; and might it do the
work, would you say?"

CHAPTER IX

SETTING THE MAN TRAP

Hugh jumped up from his chair and clapped a cap on his head.

"It's now about four o'clock of a Friday afternoon," he remarked,
"and if we could only run across Jim Pettigrew, and he got interested
in our story, why it might not be too late to get the little write-up
arranged before they went to press tonight."

Thad was all animation.

"Fine! Let's rush around to the _Courier_ office and see Jim!" he
hastened to say. "I've an idea he's a sort of Jack-of-all-trades
there, writing up news, setting type in an emergency, and even helping
turn off the limited edition of about five hundred copies of the
paper that are run every week. So, as Friday night is the climax to
their week's work, we're likely to find Jim there with his coat off,
and on the job."

They soon arrived at the small building on a side street where the
local paper had its offices, and, indeed,