FRANK 
 
 REWARD 
 
 BURT- L 
 STAN DISH
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 EDWIN CORLE 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 JEAN CORLE
 
 Both Merry mid Hodge forgot their discomfort, forgot their chilled find l>e- 
 iiiiinlicil condition, and. lifting themselves as high as they could, shouted for 
 aafotance. (See page 254)
 
 FRANK MERRIWELL'S 
 REWARD 
 
 BY 
 
 BURT L. STANDISH 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "Frank Merriwell's School Days," "Frank Merriwell's Chums," 
 " Frank Merriwall's Foes," etc. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER 
 
 604-8 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE
 
 Copyright. '9 
 siKhhl & SMITH 
 
 Prank Mernwell's Reward 
 
 AM rights rcrve<i, Including that of translation Into fortign UnguagM, 
 including the Scandinavian.
 
 FRANK MERRIWELL'S REWARD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 X RUNAWAY AUTOMOBILE. 
 
 "Li, there ! Hook out !" shouted Harry Rattleton. 
 
 "Hi, there! Look out!" echoed Bart Hodge, getting* 
 the words straight which Harry had twisted. 
 
 "Get out of the way, fellows !" warned Jack Diamond. 
 
 "The juice that it's loaded with must be bug juice!" 
 squealed Danny Griswold. "It's crazy drunk !" 
 
 "Tut-tut-tut-turn the cue-crank the other way!" bel- 
 lowed Joe Gamp. 
 
 "This crank," said Bink Stubbs, giving Gamp a twist 
 that spun him round like a top. 
 
 "I've always believed that more than half of these 
 new-fangled inventions are devices of Satan, and now I 
 know it!" grumbled Dismal Jones. 
 
 "You'll be more certain of it than ever if you let it 
 run over you !" Frank Merriwell warned, stepping to 
 the sidewalk, and drawing Dismal's lank body quickly 
 back from the street. 
 
 "Huah! It's worse than a cranky horse I"
 
 6 A Runaway Automobile. 
 
 Bruce Browning reached down, took Danny Griswold 
 by the collar, and placed the little fellow behind him. 
 
 "Unselfishly trying to save your bacon at the expense 
 of my own!" Browning suavely explained, as Danny 
 began to fume. "Do you want that thing to step on 
 you?" 
 
 An electric hansom, which had sailed up the street in 
 an eminently respectable manner, had suddenly and with- 
 out apparent reason begun to act in an altogether dis- 
 reputable way. It had veered round, rushed over the 
 crossing, and made a bee-line for the sidewalk, almost 
 running down a party of Frank Merriwell's friends, who 
 were out for an afternoon stroll on the street in the pleas- 
 ant spring sunshine. 
 
 The motorman, who occupied a grand-stand seat in the 
 rear, seemed to have lost control of the automobile. He 
 was excitedly fumbling with his levers, but without be- 
 ing able to bring the carriage to a stop. 
 
 The street was crowded with people at the time, and 
 when the electric carriage began to cut its eccentric 
 capers there was a rush for places of safety, while the air 
 was filled with excited cries and exclamations. 
 
 Merriwell could see the head of a passenger, a man, 
 through the window of the automobile. 
 
 "She's cue-coming this way again!" shouted Gamp. 
 "Look out, fellows!" 
 
 The front tires struck the curbing with such force
 
 A Runaway Automobile. 7 
 
 that the motorman was pitched from his high seat, land- 
 ing heavily on his head in the gutter. 
 
 Bruce Browning was one of the first to reach him. 
 
 "Give him air !" Bruce commanded, lifting the man in 
 his arms and stepping toward a drug-store on the 
 corner. 
 
 Some of the crowd streamed after Browning, but by 
 far the greater number remained to watch the antics 
 of the automobile. 
 
 The man inside was fumbling at the door and trying 
 to get out. The misguided auto climbed the curbing and 
 tried to butt down the wall of a store building. 
 
 "Give it some climbin'-irons !" yelled a newsboy. 
 
 The automobile, with its front wheels pressed against 
 the wall, began to rear up like a great black bug, deter- 
 mined apparently to scale the perpendicular side of the 
 building and enter through one of the open windows 
 above. As soon as he saw the motorman pitched into 
 the gutter, Merriwell moved toward the carriage. 
 
 "Time to take a hand in this!" was his thought. 
 "There will be more hurt, if I don't !" 
 
 He leaped to the step, but before he could mount 
 to the high seat the auto was butting blindly against 
 the wall. 
 
 "He's goin' ter shut off the juice!" squeaked the 
 newsboy. 
 
 What the trouble had been with the lerers Merry 
 did not know. When he took hold of them, the hansom
 
 8 A Runaway Automobile. 
 
 became manageable and obedient. He shut off the elec- 
 tricity, and the front wheels dropped down from the wall. 
 The next moment he swung to the ground and opened 
 the door. 
 
 To his surprise, the man who emerged from the car- 
 riage was Dunstan Kirk, the leader of the Yale ball- 
 team. 
 
 "Glad to see you !" gasped Kirk. "I couldn't get out, 
 and I was expecting the thing to turn over! I believe 
 I'm not hurt." 
 
 "The motorman is, though ! He has been carried into 
 the drug-store." 
 
 Frank looked toward the drug-store, and saw an 
 ambulance dash up to convey the injured man to the 
 hospital. 
 
 "Glad you're all right!" turning again to the base- 
 ball-captain. "These things are cranky at times. I've 
 had some experience with one." 
 
 A policeman pushed forward to take possession of the 
 automobile until the company could send another mo- 
 torman. 
 
 The ambulance dashed away, and Browning, Diamond, 
 and Rattleton came across the street hurriedly from 
 the apothecary's. Bink and Danny, Gamp and Dismal- 
 other friends of his were already crowding round Mer- 
 riwell. Back of them was a pushing, excited throng. 
 
 "Which way did that carriage go?" Kirk demanded. 
 
 "Which carriage?"
 
 A Runaway Automobile. 9 
 
 "The one that was just ahead of us. I was chasing it 
 in the automobile ?" 
 
 "With a driver in ' a green livery and a bay horse ?" 
 asked the newsboy, who had pushed into the inner circle. 
 
 "Yes. Which way did it go?" 
 
 "Turned de first corner." 
 
 "Let's get a cab!" said Kirk. "Come, I want you to 
 go with me !" 
 
 He caught Merriwell by the arm. A cab had drawn 
 up near the curbing, and toward this they moved, Mer- 
 riwell reserving his questions until later. 
 
 Dunstan hurriedly gave instructions to the driver, 
 and climbed in after Merriwell. 
 
 "Now, what does this mean?" Frank demanded, as 
 the cab started with a lurch. "What sort of a wild- 
 goose chase are you on ?" 
 
 "What made that auto-carriage do that way?" 
 
 "There was something the matter with it, I suppose." 
 
 "It struck me that the motorman may have been in 
 the pay of the fellow I was chasing." 
 
 He lowered his voice, even though the rattling of 
 hoofs and wheels and the noises of the street rendered it 
 wholly improbable that the driver or any one else could 
 hear what was spoken inside. 
 
 "Frankly, Merriwell, the chap I was chasing- looked 
 like Morton Agnew ! I was in Mason & Fettig's, five 
 or six blocks above, when some one came into the other 
 room and passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on the pro-
 
 io A Runaway Automobile. 
 
 prietor. He discovered it while the fellow was going 
 through the door, and gave a call. I ran to the door 
 and saw the rascal not well, you know, but a side glance 
 not much more than a flash and I thought he was 
 Agnew. Of course, I couldn't swear to it. I may have 
 been mistaken. But to satisfy myself, I jumped into that 
 automobile and gave chase. He saw I was pursuing him 
 and he sprang into a cab. I was determined to overhaul 
 the scamp and satisfy myself on that one point. Per- 
 haps I ought not to mention the name, as I am so un- 
 certain, and I shall not mention it to any one else." 
 
 Dunstan Kirk, the athletic and capable captain of the 
 baseball-team, had come to admire and trust Frank Mer- 
 riwell. He had seen enough to know that Frank could 
 be trusted in any way and in any place. 
 
 "What do you think of it?" he asked. 
 
 "That there is no chance now of discovering whether 
 your suspicions were true or false. Unless" hesitatingly 
 "you should cause Agnew's arrest, and have him taken 
 before the man who was cheated. Or you might tell 
 the man your suspicions, and let him act in the matter." 
 
 "I am not certain enough !" said Kirk. "It's too bad he 
 got away ! The motorman couldn't have been in his pay ?" 
 
 "If so, he has received his pay!" said Merry mean- 
 ingly. "He went out of that seat on his head and struck 
 hard. I think the motorman simply found the hansom 
 unmanageable, for some reason. Those carriages take 
 freaks at times."
 
 A Runaway Automobile. II 
 
 "And your opinion about Agnew?" 
 
 "He isn't too good to do such a thing, and I hare 
 had reason to believe lately that he is hard up. He used 
 to hold himself up by his winnings at cards, but he has 
 cheated so outrageously and boldly that the students 
 fight pretty shy of him." 
 
 "We're just wasting our time, I'm afraid!" Kirk 
 grumbled, as the cab rattled on down the street. 
 
 "Hold on !" said Merriwell, looking through the win- 
 dow. "There is your green-liveried driver and your bay 
 horse!" 
 
 Though the cab in question was standing by a curb- 
 ing, Frank saw at a glance that the horse was sweaty and 
 showed other signs of recent fast driving. 
 
 "Empty, and the bird has flown!" he observed, as the 
 cab they were in stopped and they got out. "Whoever 
 he was Agnew, or another man he has had time to 
 escape !" 
 
 The green-liveried driver was questioned, but no in- 
 formation of value was obtained, and when it was seen 
 that there was no chance of settling the question which 
 had moved Dunstan Kirk to the pursuit, Kirk settled 
 with the driver of the cab that had brought them thus 
 far, and he and Merriwell went into the nearest res- 
 taurant. 
 
 "I understand you don't smoke, or I might be tempted 
 to order cigars," he said, as a waiter came forward foi 
 their orders, after they had taken seats at a table in one
 
 12 A Runaway Automobile. 
 
 of the small side rooms. "I wanted to have a talk 
 with you about certain matters. Not about Agnew, but 
 concerning Buck Badger!" 
 
 When the waiter had gone he continued : 
 
 "I am interested in Badger's pitching. The fellow 
 has good pitching ability. But he is erratic. Sometimes 
 he pitches wonderfully. Then the very next time he will 
 fall away down. I am convinced that what he needs as 
 much as anything else is the right kind of encourage- 
 ment." 
 
 "I consider him one of the very best of the new men 
 who have come up with pitching ambitions," said Mer- 
 riwell. "I have noticed the things you say." 
 
 "You were kind enough some time ago to recommend 
 him to my notice," Kirk went on, as if feeling his way. 
 "You would be glad to help him, perhaps." 
 
 "I shall be very glad to help him, if I can, and to 
 serve you in any way, Kirk. But you know he doesn't 
 like me very well. There must be a willingness on both 
 sides, you see just as it takes two to make a quarrel !" 
 
 "I haven't sounded him, but I fancy he would be will- 
 ing. He isn't doing any good lately. You may have 
 noticed that, too?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The waiter brought the things ordered, and went away 
 again. 
 
 "That Crested Foam affair is the cause, I fancy,"
 
 A Runaway Automobile. 1} 
 
 Dunstan Kirk went on, breaking a cracker and helping 
 himself to some cheese. 
 
 Frank Merriwell had thought the same, but he did 
 not wish to say so. 
 
 "He hasn't acted right since then. And by right, I 
 mean natural, you understand ! I suppose it grinds him 
 to know that such a fellow as Barney Lynn could drug 
 and rob him in that way." 
 
 Merriwell flashed Dunstan Kirk a quick look. It was 
 evident that the captain of the Yale baseball-team did 
 not know that Buck Badger was intoxicated when he 
 was lured aboard the excursion steamer, Crested Foam. 
 
 A similar imperfect knowledge of the true condition 
 of affairs at that time had been noticed by Merriwell 
 in the conversation of others. The newspapers in the 
 notices of the burning of the steamer had given attention 
 chiefly to Lynn, merely stating briefly that Badger had 
 been drugged and robbed by the ex-boat-keeper. 
 
 "I shouldn't think it would be a pleasant reflection," 
 'Frank answered. 
 
 "Very humiliating to a man of Badger's character. 
 And it has just taken the heart out of him. Until that 
 time he was one of the most promising of the new 
 pitchers- at Yale. I was expecting good things from him. 
 Now he seems to be nothing but a blighted 'has-been I' " 
 
 Merriwell smiled. 
 
 "And of all the sad words of tongue or pen, 
 The saddest are these : 'It might have been !' "
 
 14 A Runaway Automobile. 
 
 "Just so," assented Kirk. "It's too bad to see a 
 capable fellow go to the bone pile! I don't like it. I 
 talked with him and tried to encourage him, but it had 
 no permanent effect. He braced up for a little while, 
 and then slumped again." 
 
 "At heart, Badger is very proud!" Frank explained. 
 "He wouldn't admit it, perhaps, even to himself. He 
 craves popularity, too, though he affects not to care at 
 all for the opinions of others. It has been his mis- 
 fortune not to be popular. His disposition is against it. 
 This has made him very sore at times, though he has 
 tried to conceal the fact. Now you can see that to a 
 man of his disposition the things that happened on the 
 Crested Foam would be tremendously depressing." 
 
 The captain of the ball-team would have seen even 
 more clearly how depressing they were if he had known 
 all that Merriwell knew. 
 
 "Somehow, he seems to me like a man who is under 
 the impression that he has lost all of his friends," said 
 Kirk. "He needs to be assured that such is not the case 
 that his friends and acquaintances have no desire to cut 
 him. I think if that could be done he would come out 
 of the slough of despond and be worth something. We 
 may need him this summer; or a man who has his pitch- 
 ing ability ought to develop into something worth while." 
 
 Frank saw that Dunstan Kirk was edging toward some 
 kind of a request. 
 
 "If there is anything I can do !" he invited.
 
 A Runaway Automobile. 15 
 
 "Well, as your picked nine is to play Abernathy's 
 nine, of Hartford, on the ball-grounds here next Satur- 
 day, I wondered if you would be willing to let Badger 
 pitch. It is an unheard-of sort of request to make, I 
 know, and it leaves me under the suspicion of wanting 
 to See you beaten by the Hartford fellows. But I hope 
 you know me well enough to understand that such cannot 
 be the case." 
 
 "Sure ! I'd never thought of it, if you hadn't!" 
 
 "I've thought of asking this of you for a day or two. 
 You see, if you, who are not particularly Badger's friend, 
 show such a disposition to recognize and honor his 
 pitching abilities, it ought to brace him up !" 
 
 Merriwell drummed thoughtfully on the table. 
 
 "Perhaps it can be done ! If it will brace him up any 
 and put him on his feet, I shall be glad to show Badger 
 all the consideration I can." 
 
 '**! was almost afraid to mention it," explained Kirk, 
 "for I know that he has not felt just right toward you. 
 But if you will?" 
 
 "I intended to pitch that game myself, for Abernathy's 
 men are not the easiest things on the planet. Of course, 
 if Badger falls down, I should be compelled to go into 
 the box and do my best to save the day. And with a 
 fellow like Badger, that might not work well. It would 
 be just like him to think that I did it to humiliate him 
 and show myself the better pitcher 1 You see the pos- 
 sibility?"
 
 1 6 A Runaway Automobile. 
 
 "Yes, I see it!" 
 
 There were other considerations, which Frank did not 
 desire at the moment to mention. 
 
 "I'll have a talk with 'Badger, and see what I can do!" 
 Kirk went on. "When he was so wildly ambitious, a 
 little while back, a word from me might have settled 
 it; but I suppose I shall have to show him by argument 
 tnat he ought to accept your friendly offer. You au- 
 thorize me to make that as an offer ?" 
 
 "Yes. I'm willing to try to help Badger. He has 
 good stuff in him, and, as you say, it would be too bad 
 for him to get into the dumps and neglect to develop 
 it. I can arrange it, I think, and, if he will pitch for 
 us Saturday, he may. With the clear understanding that 
 I am at liberty without question to take the pitcher's box 
 at any time I see fit !" 
 
 "Of course!" 
 
 The captain's face had brightened. He was not a par- 
 tisan of Buck Badger, nor of any man. He cared only 
 for the recognition and development of the best Yale 
 players and the triumph of the Yale nine. And because 
 he recognized in Frank Merriwell these same unselfish 
 qualities he had come to him with this request. 
 
 "I doubt much if Badger will accept the offer," said 
 Frank. 
 
 "I shall take the offer to him, anyway. I believe it 
 will brighten him to receive it, even if he refuses it, 
 That desire for popularity which you mentioned witt, 1
 
 A Runaway Automobile. .7 
 
 think, make him accept. He may tell himself and all his 
 friends that he doesn't care for your opinion, but he does, 
 just the same! He can't help caring for the opinion of 
 any man who is a gentleman. I shall approach him 
 
 carefully!"
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED. 
 
 "Huah!" grunted Browning, opening his eyes a trifle 
 in surprise, "don't that jar you?" 
 
 "What will Bart say ?" gasped Rattleton. 
 
 "Merriwell doesn't have to take his orders from 
 Hodge!" snapped Diamond. "But, just the same, I 
 think it's a fool sort of agreement !" 
 
 Merriwell was in his room talking to some of his 
 friends of the request of the baseball-captain. 
 
 "Hodge will be cot under the holler!" sputtered Rat- 
 tleton. 
 
 "My dear Rattles, don't worry about Hodge!" Dia- 
 mond begged. 
 
 "If you had only said to that captain, 'Get thee be- 
 hind me, Satan !' " grumbled Dismal Jones. "But, of 
 course, you could not resist such a temptation ! When 
 evil makes itself seem to us good, we're sure to give way. 
 'Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he 
 fall!'" 
 
 Merriwell smiled. He liked to get the opinions of his 
 friends, though usually he acted on his own. 
 
 "So you think it was a temptation instead of an op- 
 portunity ?" 
 
 "What is a temptation?" chirped Bink Stubbs.
 
 How the News Was Received. 19 
 
 "Why, every time you grin at me that way I want 
 to hit you in the mouth," explained Danny. "It's a 
 temptation I can hardly resist!" 
 
 "Crush it!" yelled Bink, feinting with his fists. "If 
 you don't, I'll have to!" 
 
 "Somebody throw those idiots out of the window!" 
 growled Bruce, seeking solace in his pipe. 
 
 "Somebody give me a light for this cigarette first," 
 begged Danny. "If I must fall I want help to alight !" 
 
 "Shouldn't think you'd need it!" Browning declared. 
 "You have a light head. It would hold you up like a 
 balloon !" 
 
 "Of course, if the captain wanted you to take on Bad- 
 ger and you've promised to do it, you'll have to go ahead. 
 I'll band sty you I mean I'll stand by you ! I'll do my 
 best to hold down third, no matter who is pitching 1 ." 
 
 Frank gave Rattleton a grateful look. 
 
 "You're always loyal, Harry!" 
 
 "Oh, I suppose that all of us will have to accept it, 
 and do the best we can," Diamond admitted, "but I don't 
 like it, and that's flat. None of us has fallen in love 
 with Buck Badger!" 
 
 "We'll be bub-bub-bub-beat worse than any old drum !" 
 grunted Gamp. 
 
 "Everlastingly thumped !" wailed Danny. 
 
 "I don't know that I can get up enough interest to 
 do much good on first," grumbled Bruce, who was as 
 little pleased as any one.
 
 20 How the News Was Received. 
 
 "What's the use of going to the trouble of playing 
 when you know at the start that you're to be defeated ?" 
 
 "Look here, Bruce!" said Merriwell firmly. "I don't 
 want to hear you talk that way! We are not going to 
 be beaten. We will wallop Abernathy's men, and don't 
 you worry. We can do it all right !" 
 
 "Isn't that the crack team of Hartford?" demanded 
 Diamond. 
 
 "Yes. Nothing better over there, I think." 
 
 "Then there will be no dead-easy business about it. 
 They're not going to lie down and let us walk over them, 
 just for the purpose of stiffening the spine of that 
 Kansan !" 
 
 Jack Diamond was disgusted with the outlook. 
 
 "Have I said that they are easy?" Merriwell asked. 
 "I only said I felt sure we could defeat them. And we 
 can. Badger is a good pitcher. You know that. And if 
 he loses his nerve, I shall very promptly take his place. 
 There will be no monkeying. You are the fellows that 
 seem to be in the notion of lying down." 
 
 "Oh, we'll play!" grunted Bruce. "We're just airing 
 our little opinions. I expected to see you in the box Sat- 
 urday, and I'm disappointed. I suppose that's all !" 
 
 He gave a tug at his pipe and rolled over lazily on the 
 lounge, as if that settled it. 
 
 "Of course we'll play," agreed Diamond. "But I 
 don't like to go into the game with Badger in the box. 
 I don't like him. The fellow has made himself an in-
 
 How the News Was Received. 21 
 
 sufferable nuisance. I don't agree with you that he is 
 such a wonder. He's a very ordinary fellow, with a rich 
 father and a swelled head. Out West, where he came 
 from, everybody got down on their knees to him, and 
 here at Yale that sort of business don't go. Nobody 
 cares whether his father is a cattleman or a cow-puncher. 
 He wants to be worshiped, and Yale isn't in the wor- 
 shiping business. Consequently, he's sore all the time !" 
 
 Jack forgot that, when he arrived at Yale a few years 
 ago, he expected homage on account of his family and 
 pedigree. 
 
 "And I don't forget that he went aboard the Crested 
 Foam blind drunk, and made an ass of himself gen- 
 erally!" said Bruce, rousing again. 
 
 "That's one reason Merry wants to give him a show !" 
 said Rattleton. "Badger has an idea that everybody who 
 knows about it feels just as you do, and Frank wants 
 to show him that they don't. See?" 
 
 "Oh, we'll play, of course!" Bruce grumbled, rolling 
 back again. 
 
 "Sus-sure!" declared Gamp. "Whatever Mum-Merry 
 says, gug-gug-gug-gug " 
 
 "Are you trying to say goshfry?" Danny mildly asked, 
 wetting the end of an unlighted cigarette. 
 
 "Gug-goes!" sputtered Gamp, giving Danny a kiclc 
 that fairly lifted him from the floor. "You mum-mum- 
 wum-measly runt, I'll kuk-kill you !"
 
 22 How the News Was Received. 
 
 "Because he's a joker, Danny thinks he is the only card 
 in the pack!" said Dismal. 
 
 "If Merry says we can go into that game next Sat- 
 urday with Badger in the box and earth the wipe I 
 mean wipe the earth with those fellows from Hartford, 
 we can do it!" Rattleton declared emphatically. "You 
 know he wouldn't say such a thing if he wasn't sure 
 of it." 
 
 "There are only two absolutely sure things, death 
 and taxes," said Merriwell soberly. "If I put too much 
 emphasis on my belief, I'll have to withdraw it. I mean 
 to say that I believe we can." 
 
 "And that's about the same as saying that we can !" 
 Rattleton asserted. 
 
 "I'm only doubtful about Bart/' said Dismal, like a 
 prophet of evil. 
 
 "He will never catch for Badger!" Diamond declared. 
 
 "I think he will !" sputtered Rattleton. "He will see it 
 just as we do, after Merry talks with him. Of course, 
 we don't any of us love Badger, but what's the differ- 
 ence?" 
 
 "Let 'er go!" cried Bink, holding up his hands as if 
 they gripped a bat. "Of course, we'll play ball!" 
 
 "Of course!" said Dismal. "We'll pitch Bart out of 
 the camp if he makes a kick. The fellow that balks on 
 that, when he understands it, is 'fit for treason, stratagem, 
 and spoil !' " 
 
 Shortly after, Merriwell met Hodge on the campus,
 
 How the News Was Received. 23 
 
 coming from the fence. He saw at once that Bart was 
 "steaming." 
 
 "Look here, Merriwell," said Hodge, bristling with in- 
 dignation. "It surely can't be true that you're going to 
 put Badger into the pitcher's box next Saturday?" 
 
 Frank took him by the arm and turned with him away 
 from the crowd. 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "I have promised to do that" 
 
 Hodge's face grew black with wrath. 
 
 "You've made a fool of yourself!" he roughly de- 
 clared. "I wouldn't believe it. I said it was a lie, and 
 I threatened to thump the face off of Donald Pike be- 
 cause he told it. Say, Merry, you don't really mean 
 it?" 
 
 Frank had dropped Bart's arm, but they still walked 
 on together. It was easy to see that he did not like 
 Hodge's tone and manner. 
 
 "I must say you are outspoken and far from com- 
 plimentary," he observed. 
 
 "I know I don't talk like this to you often." 
 
 "That's right. If you did, I'm afraid we might not 
 be such good friends." 
 
 "But I must talk straight now, Merry!" 
 
 "I'm willing that you shall drive ahead, but I want 
 you to hold in your temper. Don't let it run away with 
 you." 
 
 "Great Scott! liow can I hold in my temper node* 
 such provocation?"
 
 34 How the News Was Received. 
 
 "Simply by holding it in." 
 
 "But you know how I hate Badger? You know 
 that we're bitter enemies! You know what I think of 
 him !" 
 
 "I think I've heard you express some sentiments along 
 that line." 
 
 "You know that he was drunk when he went aboard 
 that excursion steamer! And he can't pitch!" 
 
 "You are wrong there!" Frank declared positively. 
 "He can pitch." 
 
 "Why, Merry, those Hartford fellows will just put it 
 all over us. I tell you it won't do! You must give it 
 up!" 
 
 "I suppose you know why I promised to let him 
 pitch?" 
 
 "Well, I haven't heard, but I can guess. After you'd 
 saved him from drowning himself, and lie came to realize 
 what everything meant, he came licking round you, pro- 
 fessing gratitude and friendship, and all that sort of 
 stuff. And you " 
 
 "See here, Hodge !" said Frank, with uncommon stern- 
 ness. "I won't stand talk like that, and you ought to 
 know it. I'm your friend, as I've proved many times, 
 but I can't remain your friend if you treat me that way. 
 I'm ready to hear your opinions, but I won't stand abuse 
 from you or any other man !" 
 
 "I told you a good while ago that whenever you and 
 Badger ceased to be enemies you would become friends 1"
 
 How the News Was Received. 25 
 
 Bart declared, somewhat softened. "And now it has 
 come true. You are wanting to befriend and help him 
 now, just as I knew you would. And after all the dirt 
 he has done you! Why, he's put dirt all over you a 
 dozen times 1" 
 
 The memory of it caused Bart to lose his head again. 
 
 "Badger is my enemy! A man who is his friend is 
 no friend of mine! That is flat! I don't think I can 
 make it plainer." 
 
 "You can't; it's plain enough. Badger is not my 
 friend, but I am not his enemy." 
 
 "Don't tell me, Merriwell! You are his friend. You 
 wouldn't ask such a thing, if you weren't. You must 
 know that every one of the fellows will kick. What did 
 you make such a fool promise for?" 
 
 Merriwell's face was flushed. 
 
 "You are making reckless talk, just because you are 
 badly excited, old man ! I am sure you will be sorry a$ 
 soon as you cool off. If I didn't think so, I'd say some 
 things that would be hot enough to take the skin off 
 your face ! Now, listen here ! I have promised Dunstan 
 Kirk to let Badger pitch next Saturday in that game 
 against Hartford. Kirk thinks it will brace Badger up 
 a little, and perhaps it will. I am willing to help Badger. 
 He can pitch. We need good pitchers. Besides, I have 
 given Kirk my promise. I mean to keep it." 
 
 Up to that moment, angry and unreasonable as he 
 was, Bart had half-believed that Merriwell might yet
 
 26 How the News Was Received. 
 
 back out of his position, and refuse to let Buck go into 
 the box. He saw now how mistaken he had been. 
 
 "And you expect me to catch for that scoundrel?" he 
 demanded, shaking with rage. "I tell you, Merriwell, 
 I won't do it! I'll do any reasonable thing you want 
 me to do, but I won't do that! I draw the line there, 
 short and sharp! I won't play in a nine with Buck 
 Badger!" 
 
 "Very well, then, we'll have to get along without 
 you!" 
 
 "Do you mean it, Merry?" Hodge gasped. "Do you 
 mean that you will choose him before me?" 
 
 "Nothing of the kind, and you ought to know it. You 
 would know it, if you were not just blind with anger 
 and prejudice. I am not choosing Badger in preference 
 to any of my friends !" 
 
 "Why aren't you?" 
 
 "Because I am not. There is no choosing of friends 
 in this. I have said Badger shall pitch in that game. 
 That does not make him my friend, and it ought not to 
 drive any of my friends away. I am manager of the 
 picked nine, and I supposed that my friends who had 
 known me so long would be willing that I should have 
 some privileges." 
 
 "But when I declare I won't catch?" 
 
 "You have no right to make any such declaration." 
 
 "Why haven't I ?" 
 
 "Simply because, as my friend, you ought to be will-
 
 How the News Was Received. 27 
 
 ing to aid me in this matter. I shall not put it on any 
 other ground." 
 
 "I'll do anything for you, Merry, but that. I can't 
 do that!" 
 
 "You mean you will not do it!" 
 
 "I won't do it!" 
 
 'Then I shall get another catcher 1" 
 
 "Do you mean it?" 
 
 "I mean it!" 
 
 Hodge seemed stunned for a moment. Then his rage 
 boiled over. 
 
 "All right, Merry !" he flashed. "If you want to favor 
 a scoundrel like Badger instead of me, you can do it. But 
 I will not catch in that game. I refuse to play on any 
 nine with Badger! I " 
 
 "I remember to have heard you say those things be- 
 fore!" said Frank, turning short about. "We will not 
 discuss it any further, Bart. You are a free man. You 
 may do as you please. I shall not argue the matter with 
 you. Badger is going to pitch for me Saturday fore- 
 noon. Good day!" 
 
 Hodge stopped and looked after him, all white and 
 shaky, as Merriwell walked away. 
 
 Then the hot blood rushed in a tide into his dark face, 
 and he, too, turned and walked off, filled with smothered 
 exclamations and raging like a volcano.
 
 PIKE'S LITTLE PLAN. 
 
 Donald Pike was in a nagging mood. He walked up 
 and down the room a few times, finally stopping in front 
 of his chum, Buck Badger. They had been talking about 
 the Saturday ball-game, and both were in bad humor. 
 
 "I don't know what's the matter with you, Badger! 
 I'm disgusted with you!" 
 
 The Westerner shifted his feet nervously, but said 
 nothing. 
 
 "Perhaps you consider it an honor to receive that in- 
 vitation from Merriwell ? I don't ! I am surprised that 
 he sent it." 
 
 Badger shifted his feet again, and shrugged his thick 
 shoulders. His face was flushed and his eyes looked 
 troubled. 
 
 "I am, too!" 
 
 "He had a motive, of course !" 
 
 Badger tossed a leg over the arm of his chair, and 
 looked out of the window. 
 
 "It has been his boast all along that he would have you 
 in his flock by and by! You have always sworn by all 
 that's good and bad that you would never become a 
 friend of his!" 
 
 "I'm not a friend of his 1"
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 29 
 
 Pike laughed sneeringly. 
 
 "What do you call it? If I say a word against Frank 
 Merriwell you want to eat me up. It's come to that! 
 You were ready to fight him any minute, at first; now 
 you're ready to lick the polish off his shoes, just like the 
 rest of those fellows." 
 
 "Nothing of the kind!" Badger hotly declared. 
 
 "Well, you're going to pitch for his picked team Sat- 
 urday!" 
 
 "Kirk asked me to." 
 
 "And Merriwell sent him?" 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "And they have become such friends that they're al- 
 most chums. The fellows are beginning to say that 
 Dunstan Kirk manages the Yale ball-team, and Frank 
 Merriwell manages Dunstan Kirk. They are about right, 
 I guess!" 
 
 "I allow that I'm no nearer being Merriwell's chum 
 than I ever was. We could never be chums. But I'm 
 not going to forget what he did for me on the Crested 
 Foam. He saved my life, then, Pike !" 
 
 "And proposes to wind you round his fingers and Jrag 
 you at his heels to make you pay for it !" 
 
 "So, when he sent me that invitation, and I talked it 
 over with Kirk, I thought I ought to accept it." 
 
 "Don't you know that Hodge will refuse to catch?" 
 
 "Don't talk about him !" Badger hissed.
 
 30 Pike's Little Plan. 
 
 "He has already said that he will not catch for such 
 a scoundrel as you!" 
 
 "Did he say that?" 
 
 "He says you will lose them the game; that it's an 
 outrage to put you into the box, and he won't be a party 
 to it. He says you can't pitch." 
 
 "Can't I? He says that, does he?" 
 
 "He says that if Frank Merriwell takes up with you, 
 he will never speak to him again. Anyhow, what good 
 will it do you to pitch for Merriwell? You'll be no 
 nearer getting a show on the regular nine." 
 
 Badger shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and 
 showed his broad white teeth unpleasantly. Pike was 
 again walking up and down the room. 
 
 "I'd almost be willing to become a member of Merri- 
 well's flock just to spite Bart Hodge. My hands just 
 naturally go up, and I want to fight whenever I see him. 
 That's whatever!" 
 
 "Oh, you two will be as chummy as the Siamese twins 
 in less than a month." 
 
 "Never ! I hate him too badly." 
 
 "That's the way you were talking of Merriwell a 
 month ago. You will come round to it !" 
 
 "Not on your life! Hodge is a different sort of fel- 
 low from Merriwell, I allow." 
 
 "And you are going 1 to accept that invitation ?" 
 
 "I told you, Pike, that I have already accepted it.
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 31 
 
 I'm not Merriwell's friend, and I despise Bart Hodge; 
 but I'm not ungrateful. Whatever other things we learn 
 out West, we learn to pay back favor for favor. I'd be 
 a dirty coyote if I refused to accept that invitation after 
 what Merriwell did for me. That's the way I look at it. 
 I know that I can pitch ball. You know it, too. I can 
 twirl a ball just as good as Frank Merriwell, or any other 
 fellow in Yale, and you know that, too. I reckon I'm 
 able to ride my bronco alone, without Merriwell's help. 
 I am not asking favors none whatever ! I'm simply re- 
 turning a favor already given! You can see through 
 that, can't you? If you can't, you're as chuckle-headed 
 as a prairie-dog !" 
 
 "I can see that you are becoming Frank Merriwell's 
 friend just as fast as you can!" 
 
 "You're riding away off the line, Pike ! I shall never 
 be Merry's friend in the sense you think. But you know 
 that he is the clean white article. He is straight goods. 
 I've found that out. I used to think different, just as you 
 do, but I've found out I was mistaken. He is a square 
 man. And when he sent that invitation I knew there was 
 no underhand business about it whatever. That's the 
 reason I accepted it; that and because it would have 
 made me feel meaner than a Digger Indian if I had re- 
 fused it I'm going to pitch for him Saturday fore- 
 noon, and I'll win that game for him, too. Don't you let 
 that fact escape your memory ! I hope Bart Hodge will 
 refuse to catch. I'm afraid I couldn't resist the tempta-
 
 32 Pike's Little Plan. 
 
 tion to throw the ball square at his head every time, if 
 he was behind the bat. I want him to stay out !" 
 
 "Well, you're a fool!" Pike snapped, striding toward 
 the door. "I never thought you'd do a thing like that. 
 You are no more like the old Badger than a calf is like 
 a mountain-lion. You had some fire in you once, but you 
 have become as soft as a ninny. The whole thing simply 
 makes me sick." 
 
 Badger's face was red and his neck veins were 
 swelling. 
 
 "I'm not used to any such talk whatever, Pike!" he 
 exclaimed, as Pike hurled these sentences back at him 
 from the doorway. "If you say anything like that again 
 I'll kick you down-stairs! I've taken more off of you 
 to-night than I ever thought I could take from any one, 
 and I won't stand it any longer!" 
 
 "Cool off, old man !" Pike sneered. "You're making a 
 chuckle-headed prairie-dog out of yourself, I think. If 
 you should kick me you would kick the best friend you 
 ever had. Good-by. See you later!" 
 
 The Westerner did not even grunt a reply, but sat still 
 in his chair with his hands in his pockets, his eyes glit- 
 tering, his broad teeth showing, his neck veins protuber- 
 ant and his face as red as a boiled lobster, while Pike 
 walked away. 
 
 When Pike came back to the room Badger was gone. 
 Pike entered *rith his own key. He knew that the 
 Westerner would likely be away a number of hours,
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 33 
 
 calling on Winnie Lee. He glanced round the room, 
 then went to the closet in which Badger's clothing 
 hung. 
 
 Pike was crafty in his hate. He did not intend to lose 
 his grip of the Kansan. He realized that he had gone al- 
 most too far. Badger would bear a good deal from him 
 because of what they had been to each other, but to this 
 there were limits. He felt that he had nearly reached the 
 limit. 
 
 "He shall not pitch ball Saturday, if I can help it!" 
 he hissed, as he looked over the things in the closet. "If 
 I can work it, it will make Hodge so hot against him 
 that there will be a fight. And perhaps it will turn Mer- 
 riwell and his precious flock against him, too. It's risky, 
 but it is worth all the risk." 
 
 He took out a suit of Badger's clothes, and laid it in a 
 chair. Then he went to a desk and selected from it some 
 "make-up" preparations which had been there ever since 
 the production of the sophomore play, "A Mountain Ven- 
 detta." Then, after locking the door, he arrayed him- 
 self in Badger's suit, and, standing before the mirror, ap- 
 plied the preparations to his face, forehead, and eye- 
 brows. 
 
 Pike had a good deal of artistic skill in such matters, 
 and in a short time he had darkened his face, blackened 
 his brows and drawn certain lines and colors, that, to- 
 gether with the change produced by the clothing, made
 
 34 Pike's Little Plan. 
 
 him resemble Badger in a remarkable manner. When 
 he put on Badger's hat the alteration seemed complete. 
 
 "Of course, that wouldn't stand close inspection," he 
 muttered. "But there will be no close inspection. I shall 
 look out for that. Now for the voice!" 
 
 He bunched up his shoulders to give them a thick 
 look, cleared his throat, and looking straight at himself 
 in the glass, began to imitate Badger's tones and char- 
 acteristics of speech, speaking so low, however, that there 
 was no danger of being heard by any one who might 
 chance to pass. 
 
 "I allow that I'm a Kansan from away beyond the 
 Kaw, and I reckon I'm a diamond pure without the 
 slightest flaw! Sure! A genuine prairie-dog from the 
 short-grass country couldn't chatter more like a West- 
 erner than that. That would fool Badger himself. 
 That's whatever ! Yes, I reckon. My daddy is a rancher, 
 and I allow that I am great; for my home is on the 
 boundless plains of the wonderful Sunflower State ! If I 
 should practise, I reckon I could become a poet !" 
 
 Satisfied with his make-up and his abilities to imitate 
 Badger's tone and language, Donald Pike returned the 
 unused articles to the drawer, put away the clothing he 
 had removed, and then sneaked down into the campus, 
 carrying under his coat a long, stout cord. Keeping 
 away from the electric lamps and other lights he slipped 
 stealthily on until he reached the entrance which led to 
 the rooms occupied by Merriwell and Hodge.
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 35 
 
 Diamond and Browning came down, talking in low 
 tones of Merry and Bart, and from this talk, Pike, who 
 had withdrawn into the shadows, learned that both 
 Hodge and Frank were out in town somewhere. This 
 suited Pike's plans, and when Diamond and Bruce dis- 
 appeared, he crawled into the shadow of a column and 
 watched the path along which Hodge and Merriwell 
 would come on their return. 
 
 "They'll not come back together, sure, unless all the 
 stories I've heard are lies; for they're not on speaking 
 terms!" he reflected. "The only thing I fear is that 
 Hodge may not care to come to his rooms at all." 
 
 The thought made him uneasy, and caused the vigil 
 which followed to appear torturingly long. 
 
 "Ah ! there he is !" he whispered, at last. 
 
 Slipping across the path, he tied an end of the cord 
 he had brought to a post, then retreated into the shadow 
 and tied the other end about the column. The youth 
 he had seen came on at a brisk walk. Pike was sure it 
 was Hodge. He almost ceased to breathe as the unsus- 
 pecting young fellow approached the cord. He put him- 
 self in position for a hasty spring. 
 
 Crash ! 
 
 The youth tripped over the string, and went down 
 headlong, falling heavily. 
 
 "I reckon I've got you now!" Pike hissed in a low 
 tone, imitating Badger's voice, and at the same time leap- 
 ing toward the prostrate form. Deceived by the dark-
 
 36 Pike's Little Plan. 
 
 ness, Donald Pike had tripped Frank Merriwell, but he 
 did not yet know it. With that imitation of the West- 
 erner's speech, he knocked Merriwell down, as the latter 
 tried to get up. 
 
 Again he struck, as Frank attempted to rise, but Mer- 
 riwell dodged the blow, and, catching Pike by the legs, 
 threw him. Before Pike could realize what had hap- 
 pened, Merriwell was on top, with his fingers at Pike's 
 throat. 
 
 "You scoundrel!" Frank hissed. "I am tempted to 
 give you what you deserve for that !" 
 
 But Pike was not ready to surrender, though he knew 
 now that he had committed a woful blunder. In fact, 
 the knowledge that he was dealing with Frank Merriwell 
 aroused him to a fierce resistance. He felt that it would 
 simply be ruinous to be held and recognized by Merri- 
 well, and he began to fight like a demon to get away. 
 
 He freed his hands, and struck Frank heavily in the 
 face, at the same time kicking with all his might. He 
 tried to thrust his thumbs into Frank's eyes. 
 
 "I'll kill you, if you don't let me go !" he snarled. 
 
 Frank had felt from the first that his assailant could 
 not be Buck Badger; now he recognized the voice of 
 Donald Pike, for Pike, in his fright and desperation, for- 
 got to keep up the disguise. 
 
 Seeing that the only way to deal with Pike was to 
 choke him into semi-insensibility, he caught and crushed 
 down the flailing fists and arms and tightened his grip
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 37 
 
 on Pike's throat. Pike writhed and flounced, kicking 
 and struggling, but all without avail. That viselike grip 
 grew tighter and tighter. The pain seemed unbearable. 
 He gurgled and choked, and his lungs seemed to be 
 bursting. He could not breathe, and his brain began 
 to reel. 
 
 "Give in?" Frank asked. 
 
 "Don't k-k-k-ill me!" Pike gasped, as the grip on his 
 throat relaxed. 
 
 "You deserve it, you scoundrel!" 
 
 Frank took his knee from Pike's breast, removed the 
 choking hand, and flung Pike from him. 
 
 "Now get up !" he commanded. "Get up before I am 
 tempted to kick you across the campus !" 
 
 Pike shuffled and evaded, as his breath came back. 
 
 "I thought you were Badger, and I was just playing 
 a little joke on you!" he whined. 
 
 "Get up!" Frank exclaimed. 
 
 Pike struggled up, and Merriwell jerked him toward 
 the nearest light. He saw the "make-up," and recognized 
 the clothes as some he had seen on the Kansan. 
 
 "What were you up to ?" he demanded, with threaten- 
 ing emphasis. He saw forms moving in the campus, and 
 he did not want to tarry with Pike. 
 
 "Just a little sport!" Pike whined. He was com- 
 pletely crushed. 
 
 "You lie, Donald Pike! You had some object. I can 
 almost guess what it was. You imitated Badger's voice
 
 38 Pike's Little Plan. 
 
 and way of speaking, when you jumped on me. You are 
 wearing Badger's clothing. That make-up is intended 
 to lead any one who sees you into thinking you were 
 Buck Badger. You wanted to make me believe that 
 Badger had assaulted me." 
 
 "Just a joke!" Pike pleaded. "Merriwell, I didn't 
 mean anything, only to have a bit of sport. That is hon- 
 est. I didn't know it was you." 
 
 "Ah! That last sounds as if you meant it. I hardly 
 think you did know who you were tackling. I think I 
 shall take you over to Badger's room, and let him see 
 you just as you are. Come along!" 
 
 Pike was not anxious to be seen by the men who were 
 crossing the campus, so he moved along, with Frank at 
 his side. 
 
 Frank was thinking rapidly, in an effort to understand 
 Pike's motives. 
 
 "I want to know why you leaped on me in that cow- 
 ardly way, and struck me when I was down. You 
 wouldn't have served Badger that way ! And if you 
 wanted to have a little fun with Badger, you would not 
 have disguised yourself and imitated his way of speak- 
 ing. That story don't go with me, Pike !" 
 
 Pike was watching for a chance to escape, intending 
 to make a dash for liberty at the first opportunity. 
 
 "You are disguised as Badger. Badger would not as- 
 sault me that way, for Badger is a man ! But you wanted
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 39 
 
 to make some one think he had been assaulted by Badger. 
 That one must be Bart Hodge !" 
 
 Pike started to run, but Frank caught him by the col- 
 lar, and jerked him back. 
 
 "Don't be in a hurry, Pike ! I've seen you through and 
 through for some time, and understand your little game 
 of this evening." 
 
 Donald Pike walked on for a time peaceably enough, 
 but he was only watching for an opportunity to break 
 away. Again he fancied the opportunity had come. But 
 no sooner did he start than Frank tripped him, and he 
 fell sprawling. Before he could get up, Frank's hand 
 was on his collar. 
 
 He made another fierce struggle as soon as he was on 
 his feet, only to discover that he was as helpless as a 
 child in the hands of Frank Merriwell. He had never 
 dreamed that Merriwell was possessed of such strength 
 and skill. 
 
 The shadows were heavier at this point, and Mer- 
 riwell kept a grip on Pike's collar. 
 
 "See here, Pike !" he exclaimed. "If you try anything 
 of that kind again I shall simply knock you down. You 
 are going with me, if I have to tie and drag you. So you 
 might as well come along quietly and save trouble." 
 
 "I shall have you arrested for this!" Pike blustered, 
 now that whining and begging and fighting had failed. 
 
 "Do! I think your friends would enjoy hearing the 
 story of your remarkable masquerade told in court. Go
 
 40 Pike's Little Plan. 
 
 ahead with the proceedings, Donald. Just now you are 
 going with me, regardless of the after consequences." 
 
 Pike caught at a post, but Merriwell jerked him away 
 from it, and then hurried him rapidly on in the direction 
 of Badger's room. Pike was sure Badger was not in, 
 and began to think that he might save himself bruises 
 and rough treatment by apparent acquiescence. 
 
 "I will go with you," he finally panted, "but under 
 protest. And I shall make you sorry for this outrage. 
 You have no right to treat me thus." 
 
 Merriwell did not answer, but kept a hand on Pike's 
 collar while he conducted him up the stairs. To Pike's 
 consternation, Buck Badger was in the room and the 
 door was open. 
 
 Before Pike could quite make up his mind to try again 
 to escape, Merriwell had bundled him through the door- 
 way. 
 
 Badger scrambled up. 
 
 "There is your friend !" said Merriwell, pointing a 
 finger accusingly at Pike, who was too confused and 
 humiliated to speak. "He disguised himself that way, 
 and attacked me awhile ago near my room, thinking I 
 was Bart Hodge. He has found out his mistake. He 
 wanted to make Hodge think that you had done the dirty 
 work, so that you and Hodge would lock horns the first 
 time you met, and there would be trouble as^ain all 
 around the camp. He is a contemptible and cowardly 
 puppy, and I feel that I have soiled my hands by touch-
 
 Pike's Little Plan. 41 
 
 ing him. But I wanted you to see him in that rig, and 
 know him as he is." 
 
 A fierce denial was on the lips of Donald Pike, but he 
 had not the courage to utter it. He saw that something 
 more than denials would be necessary to explain mat- 
 ters. The Westerner was as speechless as Pike, and 
 Merriwell turned away. 
 
 "I reckon we'll have a little explanation of this, Pike !" 
 were the words Merry heard as he reached the head of 
 the stairs. They were spoken in an awesome tone of 
 voice, and came from Badger's lips. 
 
 Then the door closed with a bang, and he knew that 
 the Kansan had barred the way of Pike's escape from the 
 room. The next morning Frank received this note: 
 
 "MR. FRANK MERRIWELL: Pike and I had a settle- 
 ment last night. He tried to lie out of the thing, but I 
 made him confess to the whole truth. Then I kicked 
 him down-stairs. We are not rooming together any 
 more whatever. BUCK BADGER."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT THE HOME OF WINNIE LEE. 
 
 Frank Merriwell seemed the personification of spring 
 as he approached the residence of Fairfax Lee, the next 
 afternoon. Spring is the time when the wine of life 
 flows warm through the veins of Nature. Its face holds 
 the bloom of youth and the smile of hope. Its heart is 
 all aglow with the joy of living. The golden summer is 
 before it; and it has no dead past, for the winter seems 
 to belong to the year that has gone. 
 
 A handsomer specimen of young manhood could not 
 have been found. The flowering spray in his buttonhole 
 seemed part of the jaunty new suit which so became him. 
 He was clean-looking and energetically wholesome. 
 From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he 
 was nattily neat, yet he was as far from being dudish in 
 appearance as it is possible for one to be. He looked to 
 be what he was strong, and lithe-limbed, almost physic- 
 ally perfect, with a handsome, intelligent face, hopeful, 
 courageous heart, and active brain. 
 
 Yet many things had come to trouble him in the past 
 twenty-four hours, even though his bright face showed 
 not a trace of their annoying effect. Chief of these 
 things, of course, was the defection of Bart Hodge.
 
 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 43 
 
 Hodge had gone away stubbornly angry, and Merriwell 
 had not seen him since the moment of parting. 
 
 Every member of the "flock" was hot against Hodge, 
 and had not hesitated to speak plainly. Hodge's rebel- 
 lious spirit had rallied them round Merriwell as one man. 
 Browning and Diamond had even argued that he ought 
 not to be longer recognized as a member of Merriwell's 
 set. The only one who had ventured to stand up for 
 him, aside from Merriwell himself, was Harry Rattleton. 
 Frank had defended him to the last, insisting that allow- 
 ances should be made for the peculiarities of Bart's 
 disposition, and asserting that he would be found all right 
 in the end. 
 
 Frank was thinking of all this as he drew near the 
 home of Winnie Lee. His intention was to call on Inza 
 and have a talk with her about the 'Varsity boat-races at 
 New London in June, for Inza was the "mascot" of the 
 Yale crew that was to meet Harvard at New London. 
 In addition, he expected to inform her and her friends 
 of the arrangements made for the ball-game with Hart- 
 ford on Saturday. 
 
 He looked about him after he had tripped lightly tip 
 the steps and rang the bell. The Lee home was in a 
 fashionable and exclusive part of New Haven, and the 
 spacious grounds were beginning to take on beauty and 
 color under the reviving influences of spring. A foun- 
 tain, shot through with rainbow hues, was spraying a
 
 44 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 
 
 marble sprite, while a rheumatic gardener troweled round 
 the rim of a loamy flower-bed. 
 
 Winnie, who had observed Merriwell's approach, came 
 to the door herself to admit him. 
 
 "Oh, you didn't come to see me?" she asked, when he> 
 inquired for Inza. 
 
 "That would be pleasant enough, but it wouldn't do to 
 make Buck jealous!" 
 
 He laughed in his cheery way. 
 
 "I don't think it would be easy to make him jealous 
 of you now," she answered. "And I'm so glad he is to 
 pitch for you Saturday ! I want to thank you for that, 
 myself. It was just like you to send such an invitation." 1 
 
 Merriwell's eyes dropped under her earnest look. He. 
 dared not tell her just then that the invitation had been 
 procured by Dunstan Kirk. 
 
 "Who told you he is to pitch Saturday?" 
 
 "Why, he told me so this morning himself." 
 
 "And, of course, you have told Elsie and Inza?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, I want to see Inza, and have a talk with her, 
 about the New London races. So I think I will take a car; 
 for Mrs. Moran's." 
 
 Winnie had informed him that both Inza and Elsie 
 had gone on an errand of mercy to the home of the 
 grandmother of Barney Lynn. 
 
 "And you won't come in, even a little while? You 
 prefer their society to mine, I see! I am ashamed of
 
 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 45 
 
 you, Frank Merriwelll You are not as gallant as you 
 used to be." 
 
 Her voice was merry and her heart light. 
 
 "Some other afternoon or evening I shall be glad to 
 come in and talk you to death. Just now I am pressed 
 for time." 
 
 "I ought to have gone down there with them," she 
 confessed. "But it seemed that I couldn't get away. 
 Frank, you don't know what angels of mercy those girls 
 have been! Elsie found out that Mrs. Moran was 
 starving and dying by inches for lack of proper food and 
 medicines, and since then she and Inza have been down 
 there every day, and often two or three times a day." 
 
 "I trust they don't venture after nightfall !" 
 
 Frank was thinking of a fight Jack Ready had while 
 rescuing Elsie from the drunken ruffian, Jim Raskins. 
 
 Then he thanked Winnie for her invitation, said good- 
 by, and hurried away to catch the first car going in the 
 direction which he wished to take. 
 
 "I hope Badger is entirely worthy of her," he thought, 
 his mind on Winnie Lee. "She is a fine girl, and if he 
 gets her he will get a prize. Now, if they don't pass 
 me, coming back in another car! Winnie hasn't the least 
 idea that Buck was intoxicated when he went aboard 
 the Crested Foam, and she shall never know it from 
 me!" 
 
 Neither of the girls heard Merriwell's gentle rap on 
 Mrs. Moran's door, and he pushed into the house with-
 
 46 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 
 
 out further ceremony, feeling sure that they were busy 
 in caring for the old lady or that her condition was such 
 that they could not leave her. Then, looking through the 
 doorway at the right of the corridor, his gaze fell on a 
 pleasant sight. 
 
 The girls were seated by the bed, Elsie holding one of 
 Mrs. Moran's wasted hands in her own warm palms, 
 while Inza was reading to the old woman from a little 
 copy of the New Testament. 
 
 Merriwell stopped for a moment, for his entrance had 
 been unnoticed. Somehow, the pathos of the scene inex- 
 pressibly touched him. 
 
 "They are angels of mercy, just as Winnie said !" was 
 his thought. 
 
 Inza had an excellent reading voice, as pure and liquid 
 as falling water. It was a pleasure to listen to it. Frank 
 had often heard her read, but it seemed to him never with 
 such expression as at that moment. The sunlight, fall- 
 ing through the small west window, illuminated her face, 
 making it almost radiant, and touched with brighter tints 
 Elsie's crown of golden hair. 
 
 "I wish I were a painter !" he thought. "I should like 
 to preserve that scene. If I could have that to hang in 
 my room, it would be like a flash of sunshine to look at. 
 But no painter could do it justice. There are certain 
 things that can't be painted, and this is one of them." 
 
 He noisily shifted his feet to call attention to his pres-
 
 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 47 
 
 ence, and Inza looked up. The color flooded her cheeks, 
 and her dark eyes showed surprise. 
 
 "Why, Frank!" she gasped. "How did you come to 
 be here?" 
 
 Elsie also started up. 
 
 "How did you get in?" she asked. 
 
 "Opened the door and walked in. You were so busy 
 you didn't hear my knock, so I just took the liberty." 
 
 Mrs. Moran stirred, and turning feebly, looked at 
 him, her eyes showing recognition. 
 
 "I am very glad to see you !" she whispered, as he ad- 
 vanced toward the bed, and she stretched out one of the 
 feeble hands. "Sometimes I think that I am not long 
 for this world. I should have died here, I feel sure, if it 
 had not been for these girls. And your other friend, 
 Miss Winnie, has been very good, too! I hope you are 
 quite well, Mr. Merriwell!" 
 
 "Quite well! Don't let me disturb you. Inza was 
 reading to you. Let her go on. I will sit here in this 
 chair." 
 
 So Inza read again, until the old woman was tired; 
 after which the trio left the house, and walked down to 
 the car line, where they took a car for the residence of 
 the Honorable Fairfax Lee. 
 
 "I went to Lee's to see you," Fiank explained, "for I 
 wanted to talk over some details of the trip to New Lon- 
 don and the June races. The mascot of the crew hasn't
 
 48 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 
 
 been down to the boat-house this week. And I wanted 
 to invite both of you, and Winnie, to the ball-game Sat- 
 urday forenoon." 
 
 "I am sorry about Bart!" Inza exclaimed. "But he 
 will come round all right, don't you think?" 
 
 "He may not play in this game, but he will see how 
 foolish he is, and be heartily ashamed of it by and by." 
 
 "Who is to catch for you, then ?" 
 
 "Jack Ready!" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Perhaps you haven't seen Ready catch? He is a 
 good one !" 
 
 "You need a strong battery, Frank !" Elsie asserted. 
 
 "Yes, like you and Hodge," nodded Inza. "I'm afraid 
 Badger and Ready will not be able to work well to- 
 gether. They haven't played together before, I believe?" 
 
 Inza was full of bright, snappy conversation, as they 
 sped homeward in the car with Merriwell. But Elsie 
 was unusually silent. 
 
 "She can't get Mrs. Moran out of her mind," Frank 
 thought. 
 
 He left them at the door, for the hour had grown so 
 late that he felt he could not just then spare the time to 
 go into the house, much as he wanted to do so. Inza and 
 Elsie went up-stairs together. Winnie was out or in 
 another part of the house. 
 
 Inza shrugged her shapely shoulders. 
 
 "What is the matter, Elsie, dear?"
 
 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 49 
 
 Elsie's lips were quivering as she faced round and con- 
 fronted her friend. 
 
 "You ought to know what is the matter, Inza Bur- 
 rage!" she declared. 
 
 "I'm not the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter," 
 said Inza, a bit defiantly. "How should I know ?" 
 
 "You do know !" 
 
 "I should say that you are showing a bit of jealousy, 
 if pressed for an answer." 
 
 "And haven't I a right to be jealous, Inza?" Elsie 
 demanded. 
 
 "Haven't I a right to talk to Frank Merriwell and be 
 nice to him, if I want to?" 
 
 "Of course, Inza, but well you know " 
 
 "It seems to me, Elsie, that you came between Frank 
 and me once ! Isn't it so ? Frank cared for me before he 
 ever did for you. You came between us. I haven't 
 come between you and Frank yet, but if I should do so 
 would it be any worse than what you did?" 
 
 "Oh, I thought that was past!" cried Elsie, flushing 
 and trembling. "You never understood me, Inza!" 
 
 "And do you fancy for a moment that you understand 
 me?" 
 
 "Perhaps not; but I can see I'm not blind!" 
 
 "Oh, yes, jealous people can see things that no one 
 else can," laughed Inza, with a provoking toss of her 
 proud head. 
 
 "Do you want to make me hate you forever, Inza
 
 jo At the Home of Winnie Lee. 
 
 Burrage?" Elsie cried. "You hurt me! You are heart- 
 less !" 
 
 A sudden look of deep pain shone in Inza's face, chan- 
 ging her manner in a twinkling, and she turned away as 
 if trying to conceal it. 
 
 "Of course, nothing ever hurts me !" she said bitterly. 
 "I am steel and iron, and all that! Your heart is ten- 
 der, and such things hurt you!" 
 
 Elsie did not know what to say. She had tried to feel 
 for a time that Inza had ceased to care for Frank, and 
 then had told herself that Inza had no longer any right 
 to care for him. She was beginning to realize that ques- 
 tions of right and wrong cut very little figure in affairs 
 of the heart that, in fact, love obeys no such laws. 
 
 When Inza turned back, her face had lost its trace of 
 pain. 
 
 "Elsie," she said, "we will not quarrel about Frank, 
 for Frank's sake. It would distress him if he knew it. 
 He must never know it. Promise me that you will not 
 say a word to him about it." 
 
 "Of course I won't say anything about it," Elsie 
 agreed. "I should fear to, and I shouldn't want to." 
 
 "Then we'll keep it to ourselves. You have discovered 
 that I haven't ceased to care for Frank Merriwell. Per- 
 haps I never shall. But that is neither here nor there." 
 
 The old wave of jealousy swept across the tortured 
 soul of Elsie Bellwood. 
 
 "Do you mean that you intend to win him if you can,
 
 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 51 
 
 after you have told me that you surrender all claim oa 
 him?" 
 
 "I haven't said anything of the kind. But I claim 
 the right and privilege of talking to him and with him 
 as much as I please. You and he are not engaged, even 
 if he has seemed to prefer you. He may change his 
 mind, just as he did before, but remember that I'm not 
 trying to get him to !" 
 
 "Then you do intend to try to win him ?" 
 
 "My dear, you must recognize the fact that Frank is 
 the one to do the winning. I shall never run after any 
 man." 
 
 Elsie's blue eyes flashed. 
 
 "Do you mean to insinuate that I would?" 
 
 "I thought we weren't going to quarrel !" 
 
 The look of pain came back into the dark, handsome 
 face, and this time Elsie saw it. A feeling of remorse 
 began to tug at her heart. 
 
 "I am not worthy of Frank Merriwell," she said softly. 
 "I know that. But I thought " 
 
 "You thought nothing could hurt me!" 
 
 "No, not that. I thought he was to be mine, and re- 
 cently that hope has been slipping through my fingers. I 
 can't tell you, Inza, how I have felt." 
 
 "I can understand !" said the dark-haired girl. "I have 
 good cause to understand!" 
 
 "I know that really you are more worthy of him, 
 Inza, than I am. I have always thought that, when 1
 
 52 At the Home of Winnie Lee. 
 
 wasn't crazy with the fear that you might win him away 
 from me. But I just can't surrender my claim, slender 
 as you think it!" 
 
 "For Frank's sake," repeated Inza, "we will not quar- 
 rel about him ! As for these other questions " 
 
 Winnie's light step was heard in the hall, and the 
 sentence died unfinished.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 HODGE'S REPENTANCE. 
 
 Bart Hodge absented himself from class and lecture, 
 but later that night, after all the members of the "flock" 
 had departed from Merriwell's room, Bart came in. His 
 face was flushed and feverish. 
 
 "I don't care what the other fellows think, Merry !" he 
 said, dropping into a chair as if he felt that he had no 
 right there. "But I do care what you think ! I went 
 away in a huff, saying 1 to myself that I'd never come 
 back until you sent for me, when I knew that you 
 wouldn't send for me, and that I would come back. And 
 here I am." 
 
 "How could I have sent for you, Bart?" Merry ques- 
 tioned. "I knew you would feel differently when you 
 had time to think it all over, and I told the fellows so." 
 
 "I don't care for their opinions!" Bart snarled. "I'd! 
 never come back for any of them!" 
 
 "They are my friends !" 
 
 "I've been miserable ever since. I have felt like a 
 cur as I've sneaked round town. You needn't try to 
 stop me ! You are the truest friend I ever had, and I've 
 treated you like a dog. I know it, and I'm sorry for it" 
 
 "I am your friend, Bart, because I understand you,
 
 54 Hodge's Repentance. 
 
 and appreciate you. The others would think as much 
 of you as I do, if they understood you as well. We'll not 
 talk any more about this matter, if you're willing, but 
 just turn in for the night and say nothing about it." 
 
 "How can you overlook a thing like that?" Hodge 
 asked. 
 
 "Because I knew all the time that your better nature 
 condemned what you did, and that you would by and by 
 yield to your better nature. The man who meets a 
 powerful temptation and finally masters it is stronger 
 really than one who never is tempted. I forgave you 
 long ago, Bart, and would have told you so if you had 
 come back. I was angry at the time, but I didn't remain 
 angry." 
 
 "I've come back to tell you that I'll catch for you to- 
 morrow Saturday. I swore I'd never catch for Buck 
 Badger, but I will. I'll catch for the Old Boy himself, if 
 you want me to. I'm not ready to agree that he ought 
 to be permitted to pitch, for I hate the very sight of him ; 
 but I have put that by, and will catch for you. It will 
 be catching for you, you see. Merry, and not for him. 
 I ought to have looked at it that way before, but I could 
 not." 
 
 "I have got Jack Ready for catcher!" 
 
 Bart gasped, while his dark face seemed to get redder 
 and hotter. 
 
 "Why, he can't catch!"
 
 Hodge's Repentance. 55 
 
 "Much better than you think. He is a pretty fair 
 catcher." 
 
 "And if he falls down?" 
 
 "I'll put some one else in. I have two or three in 
 mind, and have spoken to two of them." 
 
 Hodge seemed stunned. 
 
 "I'm willing to catch!" he said. 
 
 "You may, Bart, if I see that Ready can't do the work. 
 If the game seems about to be lost I'll go into the 
 pitcher's box and you behind the bat, and we'll pull the 
 nine out of the hole! Eh?" 
 
 Hodge's eyes brightened strangely. 
 
 "We can do it, Merry! I'll be as steady as a clock. 
 Only I'm sorry things went the way they did and that 
 I showed how mean I can be. I only proved what my 
 enemies say of me. It's too late now, but I'm ready to 
 do what I can to make it right." 
 
 Merriwell came over and put a hand on Bart's 
 shoulder. 
 
 "I understand you, Bart, and few do. I know that 
 your friendship for me is true blue, and that your heart 
 is where it should be, even if your head runs away with 
 you. Now we'll get to bed. To-morrow we play ball, 
 and I want to be in condition." 
 
 But Bart Hodge was not in condition to play ball, nor 
 in condition for anything the next day. When morning 
 came he had a high fever, and the doctor whom Mer- 
 riwell summoned looked grave.
 
 56 Hodge's Repentance. 
 
 "He has lost sleep and been exposing himself and 
 caught cold," he said. "It looks like a case of pneumonia, 
 Better send him to the hospital." 
 
 "Will he be better off at the hospital than here, if there 
 is some one here to take care of him ?" 
 
 "No, I don't know that he will. And I was going to 
 say that it is really too bad to move him in his condition." 
 
 "Then he will stay right here. I'll get the best nurse to 
 be had, and look after him all I can myself !" 
 
 And Hodge, under the best of care, remained in his 
 room, while Merriwell's nine, with Jack Ready as catcher 
 and Badger as pitcher, went out to meet the team from 
 Hartford that forenoon. 
 
 A big crowd of rooters had come over from Hartford 
 to whoop things up for Abernathy's men. They \vere 
 enthusiastic fellows, and they made a great deal of noise. 
 Some of them were betting men, and they flourished 
 their money with as much confidence as if the game were 
 already won and they were certain of raking in their 
 winnings. 
 
 But Yale had turned out a big crowd, too, for Mer- 
 riwell was immensely popular, and, of course, the Yale 
 and New Haven crowd would naturally be the larger 
 on the home grounds. 
 
 "We'll have a warm time this forenoon!" Frank ob- 
 served to Jack Ready. 
 
 "Torrid as the equator!" Ready answered.
 
 Hopge's Repentance. 57 
 
 "How is your nerve, old man?" 
 
 Ready dropped a finger to his pulse and seemed to be 
 counting. 
 
 "Steady as a clock, Merry !" 
 
 "Keep it that way. There is Badger coming over for 
 a talk with you. We'll begin as soon as we get a little 
 warming up." 
 
 He looked at his watch and began to talk with Brown- 
 ing, while Ready and Badger drew aside to confer. 
 Merriwell could see that Badger was a bit nervous when 
 the game was called. There was a flush in his face and 
 a glitter in his eyes that told of excitement, but this 
 seemed to disappear as he took the clean new Spalding 
 ball in his hands and entered the box. 
 
 In the grand stand Frank saw Inza, Elsie, and Win- 
 nie, and he lifted his hat to them again, though he had 
 enjoyed a long talk with them not many minutes be- 
 fore. Winnie was smilingly happy. She waved her 
 handkerchief to Badger, and the Kansan's white teeth 
 showed in a grim smile of determination. 
 
 "If only you and Bodge were the hattery I mean if 
 only you and Hodge were the battery!" Rattleton 
 groaned in Frank's ear. 
 
 "Don't worry, Rattles! Just do your duty on third!" 
 Merry answered. "We are all right!" 
 
 Thus encouraged, Harry went away happy and con- 
 fident. Browning was on first, with Diamond on second.
 
 58 Hodge's Repentance. 
 
 Danny Griswold was short-stop; while Dismal had th 
 right field, Bink Stubbs center, and Joe Gamp the left. 
 The game opened with Merriwell's men in the field. 
 
 The Westerner surveyed the ground and his surround- 
 ings carefully. Then planted his toe on the rubber plate 
 and shot in a "twister." It curved inward as it neared 
 the batter, and cut the heart of the plate. The batter 
 had been fooled and did not swing at it. 
 
 "One strike!" called the umpire. 
 
 The batter, who was looking out for an out curve 
 next, swung at it, and fanned the air. The Yale men, 
 and especially the sophomores, began to shout. 
 
 Badger thought it time to change to an out curve, 
 and sent one in hot as a Mauser bullet. But the bat- 
 ter was looking for out curves. He reached for it. 
 Crack ! away it sailed into the right field. 
 
 "Go, long legs!" was screamed at Dismal Jones, who 
 sprinted for it with all his might. 
 
 The next man of the Hartfords at the bat was the 
 pitcher, Pink Wilson, a fellow almost as tall and lank 
 as Dismal Jones, with a hatchet face and a corkscrew 1 
 nose. His admirers said he got that twisted nose from 
 watching his own curves in delivering. He came up con- 
 fident, thinking he understood the tricks of the Kansam 
 pretty well, and that he would be easy. But almost be- 
 fore he knew it the umpire called "one strike." 
 
 "That ball must have passed this side of the plat*,"
 
 Hodge's Repentance. 59 
 
 he declared. "It was an in, and I had to jump to get 
 out of the way." 
 
 "Don't jump at shadows!" shouted a Yale sophomore. 
 "That ball was all right." 
 
 The umpire promptly informed Wilson that he was 
 talking too much with his mouth. 
 
 "I'll get him the next time!" thought the lank pitcher 
 of the Hartfords. "He fooled me that time, but he 
 can't do it again !" 
 
 But Badger did it again. Again the sophomores be- 
 gan to yell. Jack Ready tossed the ball back. 
 
 Badger began to look and to feel confident, a thing 
 that Merriwell, who was closely watching him, did not 
 like. This time the Westerner, after almost bending 
 himself double, gave his arm an eccentric movement and 
 shot in another curve. Wilson struck at it desperately, 
 and fanned out. 
 
 "He can't keep it up!" yelled a Hartford man, who 
 had been wildly hunting for bets a short time before, 
 and who felt the need of whistling to keep his courage 
 up. 
 
 Barrows, the center-fielder, came to the bat next. He 
 went after the very first one, and got it. Crack ! and 
 away the ball flew again into the right field, while the 
 Hartford lads opened up with great vigor. 
 
 It was a hit, for everybody saw that Dismal, even 
 though he was doing his best, could not possibly get &
 
 6o Hodge's Repentance. 
 
 Barrows raced to first, while Tillinghast, the base-runner, 
 took second, without trouble, but stumbled and fell, so 
 that it was impossible for him to make another bag on 
 the hit 
 
 Badger next tried his highest speed, and the batter 
 fanned, but Ready dropped and fumbled the ball, being 
 unable to hold it, and came very near letting both runners 
 advance, although he did get the sphere down to third 
 in time to drive them back. 
 
 Watching closely, Frank had discovered that some- 
 thing about Badger's delivery bothered Ready. Badger 
 himself saw this, and he tried a change of pace, but 
 the batter caught it on the handle of his "wagon-tongue," 
 and drove out a "scratch hit" that filled the bases. 
 
 Oleson, a Swede, almost as large as Browning, came 
 up to the plate. 
 
 "And there were giants in those days," droned Jones, 
 from his position in the field. 
 
 "How's that for the giant?" cried Oleson, as he slashed 
 yet another down into Dismal's territory, bringing in the 
 first score and causing the Hartford rooters to "open 
 up." 
 
 Jones made a beautiful throw home, which sent Bar- 
 rows scrambling back to third, which he reached barely 
 in time to save himself, for Ready had lined it down 
 to that bag in short order. 
 
 Frank was beginning to wonder if all the Hartford
 
 Hodge's Repentance 61 
 
 men were right-field hitters, or was, there something in 
 Badger's pitching that caused them to put the balls into 
 that field? Unable to keep still, he walked down toward 
 first, and Browning found an opportunity to say : 
 
 "We ought to have Hodge behind the bat. Badger 
 can't use his speed, for Ready can't hold him. Are you 
 going to let those fellows lose this game in the first 
 inning, Merriwell ? If you do, I'll kick myself for a week 
 for being chump enough to get out here and swear for 
 nothing." 
 
 "It's a handicap not to have Hodge," admitted Frank. 
 
 Browning felt like saying it was a handicap not to have 
 Frank in the box, but, fancying he had said enough in 
 that line, he kept still. Badger's face took on a hard 
 look. He motioned for Ready to come down and ad- 
 vanced to meet him. A few words passed between them, 
 while the Hartford "fans" guyed them. 
 
 This little talk seemed to bear good fruit, for the 
 (Westerner fooled the next batter with two drops, getting 
 two strikes called. Then he tried "coaxers" till three 
 balls were called on him, and again, with every runner 
 taking all the "lead" he dared, the excitement was at a 
 high pitch. 
 
 Frank feared for the result. 
 
 "Oh, for Hodge!" he thought. "I see now that ouf 
 handicap means disaster unless the wind changes." 
 
 Ready was crouching under the bat, nervous, but de-
 
 62 Hodge's Repentance. 
 
 termined. Badger took his time, but put terrible speed 
 into the next ball, which he sent over the inner corner 
 of the plate. The batter struck at it, but missed clean. 
 
 Plunk! the ball struck in Ready's hand. Thud! it 
 dropped to the ground. But the bases were filled, and 
 the batter was out, for all that Jack had not held the ball. 
 He recovered it so that there was no possibility for the 
 man on third to get home. 
 
 Now two men were out, but the bags were filled, and a 
 long, safe hit meant more scores for the visitors. Fleet- 
 wood, the Hartford third-baseman, took his turn at the 
 stick. He was a good waiter, and he found just what 
 he wanted, sending it safe over the short-stop, so that 
 two more scores came in. 
 
 Badger was pale round the mouth when the next 
 hitter stepped up to the plate. He did not spare Ready. 
 Jack missed the first two balls, being unable to hold 
 them, although he did not let them get past him. Both 
 were strikes, and again Badger tried to "work" the bat- 
 ter, though he did not slacken his speed. Frank was 
 anxious, for he expected to see the freshman catcher let 
 one of those hot ones pass him. Nothing of the kind 
 happened, and, after trying two balls, Buck used a sharp 
 rise and struck the man out. 
 
 The college men on the bleachers rose up and howled, 
 but Frank Merriwell was gloomy at heart, though his 
 lips smiled.
 
 Hodge's Repentance. 63 
 
 ''Badger is doing well," he told himself; "but Ready 
 cannot hold him. I'm afraid the handicap is too great. 
 Oh, for Bart Hodge just now!" 
 
 The first half of the first inning was over, but Hart- 
 ford had made three runs.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 READY STEADY. 
 
 Merriwell saw that Ready could not catch for Buck 
 Badger. There was such an utter absence of anything 
 like team-work that there seemed to be little hope that 
 the game could be won by Merriwell's nine if the battery 
 was not changed. Badger could pitch like a wonder at 
 times, but he rattled Ready, who, as a rule, and in re- 
 gard to other matters, was as steady as a clock. Ready 
 simply could not do himself justice with Badger in the 
 box. He felt it as well as Merriwell, but he doggedly 
 continued, determined at all events to do his best. Ready 
 was a fellow of infinite pluck, and usually a fellow of 
 infinite confidence. He would have had confidence now, 
 but there was not a thing to build his confidence on. 
 
 Merriwell's nine scored four times before it was forced 
 again into the field. Frank sent Badger into the box 
 again, after talking with him awhile. 
 
 "You rattle Ready, some way!" Frank told him. 
 "Throw those in curves more, and work in your dropped 
 balls when you can. They get your out curves." 
 
 Then, before playing again, he had a few words with 
 Ready. 
 
 The first man at the bat got a hit, while the next
 
 Ready Steady. 65 
 
 man took first on balls. The next man at the bat knocked 
 a fly into the hands of Danny Griswold, who was play- 
 ing short-stop, and the base-runners came back to their 
 places. 
 
 Then the men on bases tried to make a double steal, 
 which was partially successful. The fellow on second 
 reached third, but the runner behind him was cut off 
 at second by a throw from Ready. Jack should have 
 thrown to third, but he did not. He threw low to second, 
 and Diamond got it on the bound, touching the runner 
 as that individual was making a desperate slide. 
 
 Two men were out, and Frank hoped that Badger 
 would keep the visitors from scoring. Buck might have 
 done so, but somehow he "crossed signals" with Jack, 
 the result being a passed ball that let in a score. 
 
 "I'm hot stuff," chirped Ready, as he found Frank 
 back at the bench of the home team. "When I don't fail, 
 I succeed." 
 
 "I see you do," answered Frank dryly. "You suc- 
 ceeded in letting in that run." 
 
 "Our wires got crossed. Badge gave me an in when 
 I was looking for an out. If you'll put in a pitcher who 
 can throw a curve, I'll surprise you." 
 
 "Does Badger rattle you?" 
 
 "Refuse me ! I think I rattle him." 
 
 There was no time for further talk, and the game went 
 on. Buck was nervous, and Frank pitied him, for he
 
 66 Ready Steady. 
 
 could see that the Westerner might do well with a good 
 catcher behind the bat. Just then Merry did not know 
 of a man to put in Ready's place, for he could see that 
 the Westerner's great speed and queer delivery might be 
 too much for any green catcher who was not used to 
 him. 
 
 "Yes," muttered Frank, "the loss of Hodge is the 
 handicap that will cause us to lose the game if we lose 
 it." 
 
 The next man got first on balls, and then the follow- 
 ing batter lifted a high foul. Ready got under it, and 
 the Hartfords were retired at last. 
 
 "We're done up, Merry," said Rattleton, as the men 
 came in. 
 
 "Not yet, old man," declared Frank cheerfully. "1 
 think I'll go behind the bat myself next inning." 
 
 "Don't do it!" exclaimed Harry. "I know you can 
 play any old position, Merry, but your place is in the box. 
 With you there, every man on the team will play like a 
 streak. Won't you go in ?" 
 
 "Badger " 
 
 "Can see that he is bound to lose the game if this 
 keeps on. He's got sense. He won't want to make 
 such a bad record for himself." 
 
 "Ready will not be able to judge the double-shoot. I 
 can't use that." ,
 
 Ready Steady. 67 
 
 "You won't have to. You can win this game with- 
 out it." 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "I do! Try it." 
 
 Frank was in doubt, and he permitted Badger to pitch 
 one more inning. The Westerner worked hard, but it 
 was plain he had lost confidence, and he was not at his 
 best. Great beads of perspiration stood out on his face. 
 Two men scored, despite him, and the visitors had the 
 lead again. 
 
 "I believe I'll try it in the box," Frank mentally de- 
 cided. "Perhaps I may hold Ready steady. It looks like 
 the only show to win out." 
 
 When Merriwell finally went into the box, seeing that 
 it must be done, Badger retired with as good grace as 
 he could, though his dark face was flushed. 
 
 "There would be no trouble if it wasn't for Jaclc 
 Ready!" he asserted. "I can pitch all right, but the 
 pitcher isn't the whole battery!" 
 
 "Your delivery bothers him," Merriwell explained. "I 
 believe that you two together are capable of good work, 
 but it will take a lot more practise, and just now we 
 haven't time for practise. You can pitch, Badger, and 
 your best is excellent; but you are irregular. But you'll 
 come round all right. I was talking with Dunstan Kirlc 
 about you awhile ago, and he agrees with me. He has 
 been closely watching you all through the game."
 
 68 Ready Steady. 
 
 "I know it," Badger growled. "I've known it only 
 too well! It has helped to make my pitching wild at 
 times. If he had stayed away, I think I could have done 
 all right all the time. But you'll find that Ready will 
 worry you. He'd worry anybody. The fellow simpl, 
 can't catch." 
 
 "But he can!" Merriwell insisted. "We'll win this 
 
 4 
 
 game yet!" 
 
 The change that came over Jack Ready's work shortly 
 after Merriwell went into the pitcher's box was little 
 short of marvelous. Frank seemed to know how to 
 favor Ready's weak points. And this kept Ready's head 
 steady for other work, so that he made not another wild 
 throw to bases. 
 
 Merriwell's nine began to feel their courage rise. It 
 put life into them just to see Frank in the box. Stolen 
 bases on the part of the Hartfords stopped. The swift- 
 ness with which Merriwell struck out three batters made 
 the spectators gasp. 
 
 From that on Ready was steady, and he and Frank 
 worked together like a battery team of long experience. 
 Frank Merriwell won, in spite of his handicap ! And so 
 the Yale rooters, and especially Merriwell's friends and 
 admirers, who were a host in themselves, were roaring 
 wild as they returned from the ball-ground. Merriwell 
 joined Inza and Elsie, while Badger took a car with 
 {Winnie. 
 
 "I knew that everything was all right, as soon as
 
 Ready Steady. 69 
 
 you went into the box !" Inza declared. "But up to that 
 minute I was nervous. I was wanting 1 to shake you all 
 the time for not taking Badger's place sooner." 
 
 "I felt sorry for Badger," said Elsie. "And I felt 
 
 sorry for Winnie. She got as red as a beet when Badger 
 
 left the box, but I know she didn't blame you, Frank. 
 
 , She saw just how it was, and she knew you ought to have 
 
 gone in sooner, but of course she felt it." 
 
 "I was afraid Ready might begin to doubt his own 
 abilities though probably there is not any danger that 
 he will ever do that! He was just what I expected of 
 him, though, when I pitched. And if Badger and Bart 
 were friends and could, or would, work together, they 
 would make a good battery." 
 
 "You will have to coach Badger some," Inza sug- 
 gested. 
 
 "Yes. The captain of the ball-team wants me to. He 
 thinks there is good stuff in both of them, if it can only 
 be properly developed." 
 
 The three got out at a transfer station, and waited 
 for another car. 
 
 "Dere she comes!" yelled an excited youngster. 
 
 The "she" he referred to was not the expected car, 
 but the head of a circus procession, which was parading 
 the principal streets as an advertisement of the perform- 
 ances to be given in the big tents in the suburbs that af- 
 ternoon and night
 
 70 Ready Steady. 
 
 Merriwell and the girls looked in the direction in- 
 dicated. The crowd at the corner seemed to become 
 thicker. People began to swarm out of the doorways 
 and stream out into the middle of the street. 
 
 "And this is scholarly New Haven!" exclaimed Inza. 
 "Wild over a circus parade !" 
 
 "We're not in the scholarly part of New Haven!" 
 laughed Frank. "I confess that I like to see a circus 
 parade myself!" 
 
 Inza showed evidences that she liked the same thing, 
 for she craned her handsome neck and stood on tiptoe 
 to catch the first glimpse. The nodding plumes on the 
 heads of the horses drawing the gilded band-wagon came 
 into view, and at the same moment the band began to 
 crash forth its resonant music. Children danced and 
 capered, heads were popped out of second-story windows, 
 and the pushing crowd grew denser. 
 
 The band-wagon came slowly down the street in the 
 bright spring sunshine, followed by the performers, 
 mounted on well-groomed horses, some of which were 
 beautifully mottled. There were other horses, many of 
 them a few drawing chariots, driven by Amazons. 
 Then came the funny clown, in his little cart, with his 
 jokes and grimaces for the children. 
 
 There was another band-wagon, as gorgeous as the 
 first, at the head of the procession of wild-beast cages. 
 Its music was more deafening than that of the other.
 
 Ready Steady. 71 
 
 The street-cars seemed to have stopped running, owing 
 to the packed crowds, and Frank and his girl friends 
 remained on the corner curiously watching the scene. 
 
 Suddenly a fractious horse jerked away from the man 
 who had been standing at its head holding it, and 
 whirling short about, half-overturned the wagon to which 
 it was hitched and raced wildly down the street. Peo- 
 ple scattered in every direction, several being knocked 
 down in the stampeding rush. 
 
 The horse climbed to the sidewalk, with wheels bump- 
 ing the curbing, trying to get out of the way of some 
 men who were seeking to stop it. Almost before they 
 were aware of it, horse and wagon seemed fairly on top 
 of Merriwell and the girls. Elsie gave a startled cry, 
 and dashed across the street, where the people were fall- 
 ing back out of the way, with women pulling nervously 
 and excitedly at their children. 
 
 A child fell headlong, and the horse seemed about to 
 stamp it, when Frank, with a quick leap, picked it up 
 from under the very feet of the runaway, and dropped it 
 safely at its mother's side. Then a tremendous roar 
 ascended. Turning, Frank saw that Inza and Elsie had 
 disappeared. He did not at first know the cause of the 
 roar. 
 
 The horse, veering again and wheeling sharply, had 
 hurled the wagon against a cage in which was confined 
 a full-grown tiger. This was an open cage that is, 
 the screening, wooden, outer shell had been removed,
 
 72 Ready Steady. 
 
 showing the big beast of the jungle, with its keeper in 
 circus costume, seated in the center of the cage on a 
 low stool. 
 
 Against the door of this cage the bounding wagon 
 had struck heavily so heavily that the lock was torn 
 away or broken, and the cage door pulled open. The 
 roar that went up was a roar of alarm and fright. And 
 it increased in intensity when the striped beast, with 
 nervously flicking tail, leaped past its keeper and into 
 the street, where it crouched, not knowing what to do 
 with its newly found freedom. 
 
 The street was in the wildest tumult The horses 
 Drawing the cage had been brought to a stop by the 
 driver. But another horse, frightened by the din and 
 the runaway, broke loose just at that time, and came 
 tearing along, with flaming eyes and distended nostrils, 
 like a Malay running amuck. 
 
 Frank sprang toward the head of this horse, for 
 the peril to the stampeding people seemed great. But 
 the animal veered and passed by, dragging Merry a few 
 yards by the shafts and hurling him to the ground. 
 
 The sight he beheld as he scrambled up was enough 
 to stop the beating of his heart. Inza and Elsie had tried 
 to again cross the street. Inza had been knocked down 
 by the horse, and lay unconscious, while Elsie had been 
 swept on in the crowd. More than that, the keeper of 
 the tiger, who had courageously leaped after the terrible 
 beast with his spearlike iron goad, hoping to be able to
 
 Ready Steady. 73 
 
 prod and cow it into subjection, had been knocked flat 
 also by the horse, his iron goad flying out of his hand 
 and into the street. 
 
 Though Frank was some distance away, he started 
 toward the tiger, which had crouched and seemed about 
 to spring on Inza. But before he could take a step, he 
 saw Elsie run from the crowd toward Inza and the 
 tiger. Her face was very white, but it was filled with 
 the look of high courage which inspired her. She re- 
 alized the peril of any attempt she could make to save 
 Inza, and she boldly took the risk. 
 
 A hundred voices were screaming at the big brute, 
 iwhich crouched with undulating tail and open jaws; but 
 not another person seemed to be moving toward Elsie 
 to render her assistance, with the exception of Frank 
 Merriwell. 
 
 He saw the girl pick up the <ron goad. Then Elsie 
 Bellwood leaped between the tiger and Inza. As she 
 did so she lifted the goad. The tiger turned its atten- 
 tion from Inza to Elsie, and the latter struck at it, as 
 if the goad were a spear. 
 
 Frank Merriwell heard the click of a revolver at his 
 side. He saw a man shakily lifting it. 
 
 "Permit me!" he gasped, and plucked it from the 
 man's hand. 
 
 The revolver went up, flashing for a moment in the 
 sunshine. A quick, sharp report rang out The bullet, 
 sent with true and steady aim, by the hand of Frank
 
 74 Ready Steady. 
 
 Merriwell, ploughed through the tiger's brain, and the 
 beast flattened out convulsively, and began to kick and 
 writhe in its death agonies. 
 
 Hearing the report and seeing the animal fall, Elsie's 
 uplifted hand fell, she swayed like a wind-blown vine, 
 and dropped heavily down across the form of Inza 
 jBurrage.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FRIENDS. 
 
 The crack of the revolver and the fall of the tiger 
 seemed to break the spell that had held and made cowards 
 of the throng. A dozen men leaped toward the girls. 
 But Merriwell reached them first. He lifted Elsie, who 
 had merely fallen in a faint, as he saw; and, passing 
 her to a student whom he recognized, he bent anxiously 
 over Inza. 
 
 There was a bruise and a fleck of blood on the upper 
 part of her face. 
 
 "Inza!" he said, lifting her tenderly and seeking to 
 arouse her. "Are you much hurt, Inza?" 
 
 The words and tone seemed to call her back from the 
 land of death. She moaned feebly, and tried to put up 
 a hand. Half-lifting her in his arms, he looked around. 
 
 "Is there a surgeon here!" he called. 
 
 Elsie came back to consciousness with a shiver, and 
 heard him call. Her face had been very white, but it 
 became pale as death. The sight of Inza's bruised face 
 and limp form upheld by Merriwell seemed to blur her 
 brain again. She caught at the arm of the student who 
 was holding her, and by a great effort kept her senses. 
 
 "Is she dead, Frank?" she whispered.
 
 76 Friends. 
 
 "No!" he answered. "I don't know how much she 
 may be hurt, though." 
 
 The tiger had ceased to struggle, the crowds were 
 writhing, a babel of sound that was confused and con- 
 fusing filled the air. The circus procession had come 
 to a halt, with the exception of the forward band, which 
 was blaring away far down the street. 
 
 A doctor came out of the crowd. Other doctors 
 proffered their services, for Inza was not the only one 
 who had been knocked over by the rush of the horses. 
 The injured tiger-keeper was picked up and bundled into 
 an ambulance. 
 
 "Right across here!" said the doctor who had an- 
 swered Merriwell's call. Then he led the way into an 
 apothecary's. 
 
 "Nothing serious !" he announced, a minute later, when 
 he had made his examination. "The young lady will be 
 all right in a day or two." 
 
 He spoke of Inza, and both Merry and Elsie sent up 
 fervent sighs of relief. 
 
 Coming softly into the room which Elsie Bellwood oc- 
 cupied, Inza Burrage saw Elsie in tears. 
 
 "What is it, dear?" Inza asked, going up and putting 
 her arms about Elsie's neck. 
 
 Except for a telltale bit of courtplaster, Inza showed
 
 Friends. 77 
 
 no sign of the dangerous and exciting experiences 
 through which she had that day passed. 
 
 "Don't! don't!" Elsie pleaded, with a little shiver. 
 "If you knew what was in my heart you wouldn't speak 
 to me, Inza Burrage !" 
 
 "Why, dear? Why wouldn't I speak to you you 
 who have proved yourself the most heroic and courageous 
 girl in all New Haven ?" 
 
 "It wasn't courage half so much as it was fright. 
 And if you knew the thoughts I had!" 
 
 Inza kissed her. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 Elsie turned on her a horrified face. 
 
 "Inza, when I saw you knocked down by that horse, 
 the awful wish came into my heart that you might be 
 killed. And even when I saw the tiger about to leap 
 on you, I couldn't drive that thought away. I have been 
 hating you in a way that I never thought I could hate 
 anybody! You see, I began to fear that you were 
 trying to come between me and Frank ; and if you 
 had been killed there would have been an end 
 of that!" 
 
 "But you rushed between me and the tiger. And you 
 fought the beast with that goad. You, a girl, standing 
 between me and such a terror as that! Frank has told 
 me all about it about how brave you were! It was 
 beautiful !" 
 
 "When I felt how wicked my thoughts was, there came
 
 78 Friends. 
 
 an awful revulsion of feeling; and then I rushed into 
 the street, not caring if I was killed, if I could only 
 save you. I felt that the sacrifice of my life, even, if it 
 were necessary, was demanded to pay for those dreadful 
 thoughts. I knew the danger, Inza, but that hideous 
 thought made me brave." 
 
 "You are naturally brave, Elsie ! I feel that I owe my 
 life to you." 
 
 "And I wished you dead!" said Elsie self-reproach- 
 fully. "I can never forget it. Wished you dead when 
 you were knocked down and when the tiger threatened 
 you. Inza, it was something awful !" 
 
 "It was because you love Frank!" 
 
 "And you love Frank! You have confesed as much." 
 
 "Perhaps I do. I hardly know myself. But you 
 have shown to-day that you are much more worthy of 
 him than I am. Don't worry about any of those troubles 
 any more." 
 
 She straightened up, with the look of a renouncing 
 queen, while her dark eyes shone like stars. 
 
 "Elsie, I will go away from here if it is necessary. 
 I will not disturb you and Frank." 
 
 "I take back all I said the other day !" Elsie quivered. 
 "I retract every word. They were selfish, jealous, hate- 
 ful words. They led me to murderous thoughts for 
 those thoughts about you to-day were really murderous. 
 3fou shall not go away ! Not unless I go away, too !" 
 
 "Then we can be friends, dear!" said Inza, laying a
 
 Friends. 79 
 
 hand softly on the golden head. "That is what we will 
 try to be, if you will, in spite of everything." 
 
 "Yes," Elsie assented, "though I am not worthy to be 
 your friend." 
 
 "Then we will be friends, dear!" 
 
 "We are friends!" Elsie exclaimed impulsively, draw- 
 ing the hand down and kissing it.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE GUN CLUB. 
 
 "Baw Jawve, it would be sport if a fellah could draw 
 on a grouse on a Scotch moor, don't you 'now ! It would 
 be something great to knock such a bird into the heather. 
 There really isn't any shooting in this country to be com- 
 pared to that, don't you 'now !" 
 
 Willis Paulding drawled this in his affected style, and 
 then swung the handsome English Greener hammerless 
 to his shoulder and squinted down the barrels as if he 
 fancied he heard the whirring of a moor cock's wings and 
 felt the thrill of the sportsman tingling through his veins. 
 
 "What's the matter with partridge and woodcock 
 shooting in New England? Or quail shooting in the 
 West and South? Or duck shooting on the Southwest 
 coast? Or prairie-chicken and grouse shooting in the 
 far West and Rocky Mountains?" demanded Merriwell, 
 who had arrived on the grounds of the gun club with 
 Bart Hodge and was taking his gun out of its case. 
 
 Paulding flushed. 
 
 "If you had ever shot grouse across the big pond, you 
 'now, you wouldn't ask such a question, Merriwell !" 
 
 "I have shot grouse on the other side of the big pond, 
 and it is fine sport, true enough. But there is just as 
 fine shooting to be had in America. You make me tired.
 
 The Gun Club. 8 1 
 
 You want to act like an Englishman, Paulding, but it is 
 an insult to the English, for your imitation is really dis- 
 graceful. A true Englishman is very much a man !" 
 
 "And Paulding is a mere thing !" snapped Hodge. 
 
 "He isn't worth noticing, don't you 'now!" sneered 
 Paulding, moving away with the members of the Chick- 
 ering set. "He is always slinging insulting things at 
 me. It's mere jealousy, don't you 'now, that makes 
 him act so. Baw Jawve, if I was as jealous as Merri- 
 well, I'd go drown myself!" 
 
 "He is always slinging insults at us in the same way !" 
 OIlie Lord breathlessly declared, looking as fierce as he 
 could and lifting himself on his tiptoes to increase his 
 fighting height. 
 
 "I wouldn't let the thing worry me," purred Rupert 
 Chickering. "Merriwell is so spoiled by flattery that he 
 is hardly responsible for what he says. I never like to 
 hold harsh feeling against any one." 
 
 "I'd like to pull the wetch'eth nothe!" lisped Lew 
 Veazie, looking quite as fierce as OIlie Lord. "It would 
 therve him wight if I thould walk up to him thome 
 day and thimply pull hith nothe !" 
 
 "But he might pull yours !" Julian Ives warned. "That 
 wouldn't be pleasant, you know." 
 
 Julian Ives, in the perfumed sanctity of Chickering's 
 rooms, often looked lovingly at himself and his won- 
 derful bang in the long mirror and dreamed the heroic 
 things he would like to do and the revenges he would
 
 82 The Gun Club. 
 
 like to carry out, but his actual courage had been at a 
 very low ebb ever since his humiliating experience as a 
 member of the Eskemo dog-team driven by the cowboy, 
 Bill Higgins. He was likely to remember that a long 
 while. 
 
 "They're not worth talking about none of Merri- 
 well's crowd!" snarled Gene Skekling, as if anxious to 
 change the drift of the unpleasant conversation, for 
 he had been given cause to fear and hate Merriwell and 
 his friends quite as much as any other individual who 
 claimed the companionship and friendship of the immacu- 
 late Rupert. "Let me see your gun, Willis !" 
 
 He took the Greener, snapped it open to see if it was 
 loaded, then winked at Chickering. 
 
 The members of the Yale Gun Club were rapidly 
 coming on the ground, together with a number of noted 
 New Haven shots and others interested in trap shooting. 
 Browning and Rattleton appeared, and Diamond, Dismal, 
 and several others of Merry's set were seen approaching. 
 
 "I thought Bart Hodge was sick?" said Tilton Hull. 
 "But I see he is out again." 
 
 "When I heard he wath thick I hoped he would never 
 get well. He ith a howwid cwecher! Whenever I go 
 near him he thnapth at me like a bulldog." 
 
 "As if you were a bulldog?" queried Skelding, who at 
 times seemed to delight in teasing certain members of 
 this delectable set. 
 
 "The idea!" exclaimed Ollie Lord indignantly, putting
 
 The Gun Club. 83 
 
 a hand caressingly on Veazie's shoulder. "A bulldog! 
 If Yeazie is anything, he : s like the cunning little dog 
 I had once. It was the darlingest little poodle! and I 
 simply loved it!" 
 
 "Just fawncy!" sniffed Willis Paulding. 
 
 But Lew Veazie seemed pleased. He put up a hand 
 to touch the caressing arm. 
 
 "You're another, Ollie!" he beamed. "I always did 
 like poodles!" 
 
 "A pair of poodles !" said Skelding, and again winked 
 meaningly at Rupert, who snatched the cap from the 
 head of Julian Ives and flung it into the air. Skelding 
 took a snap-shot at it as it fell. 
 
 "If that cap is damaged," said Ives, smoothing his 
 precious bang which the brisk breeze began to flirt about, 
 "I'll make you fellows pay for it. That's flat!" 
 
 But Julian's alarm was premature. Not a shot had 
 touched it. 
 
 The members of the Chickering set continued the de- 
 lightful sport of snatching hats and caps from each 
 other's heads and shooting at them with Paulding's fine 
 English gun ; but the only damage done was by the falls 
 the articles received, for not a shot touched any of 
 them. 
 
 "Of course, fellahs, a moor cock doesn't fly that way," 
 Willis drawlingly explained, in extenuation of the poor 
 shooting. "He doesn't go right up and down, you 'now.
 
 84 The Gun Club. 
 
 He has wings, don't you 'now, and flies straight away, 
 like a shot. I could hit a grouse without any trouble, 
 but this kind of shooting! The best shot in England 
 would be bothered with it." 
 
 "We'll have a try at the clay pigeons and blackbirds 
 soon," Chickering comfortingly promised. 
 
 "But, gwathious, I've twied them, and they're harder 
 to hit than thethe are ! I could do better if I could only 
 keep my eyeth open, but the minute I begin to pull the 
 twigger my eyeth go shut, and I can't help it." 
 
 They had turned round and were retracing their way 
 toward Merriwell and his friends without noticing it. 
 Suddenly Lew Veazie jumped straight up into the air, 
 clapped a hand smartly against one of his legs, and began 
 to dance a hornpipe. At almost the same moment a shot 
 was fired by some one. 
 
 "Thay, fellowth, I'm thyot!" he gasped, turning 
 deathly pale. "Honeth, thith ithn't a joke! I'm thyot! 
 Ow ! It burnth like fire !" 
 
 "Where?" Ollie anxiously asked, staring at the dancing 
 youth, and looking quickly about to make sure that no 
 loaded gun was pointed in his direction. The others 
 looked about, too. 
 
 "This reckless shooting ought to be forbidden !" de- 
 clared Skelding, regardless of the fact that the shooting 
 he and his friends had been doing was of the most reck- 
 less character. Veazie dropped down on the ground, and 
 began to pull up one leg of his trousers.
 
 The Gun Club. 85 
 
 "It stwuck me wight here!" he gasped. "I think it 
 must have gone thwough my leg. I can feel the blood 
 twickling down." 
 
 Ollie went down on his knees and began to help him, 
 and together they soon had the injured spot revealed to 
 their anxious eyes. They beheld a reddish place, with 
 a center like a pin jab, but not a drop of blood. 
 
 "It was a spent shot!" said Rupert wisely. "It came 
 from a distance. But it was a very reckless thing to 
 do to fire at all in this direction." 
 
 "Let me take a look at it!" said Julian Ives, crowd- 
 ing forward and stooping to inspect it. As he did so, he 
 straightened up with a little screech, and clapped a hand 
 to his hips. 
 
 "Wow!" he howled, dancing round as Veazie had 
 done. "I'm shot, too ! Fellows, this is awful ! I believe 
 I'm killed ! Who is doing this ?" 
 
 "Thuch weckleth thyoothing I never thaw!" groaned 
 Veazie, though he was much relieved to discover that 
 he had not received a deadly hurt. "Thomebody mutht 
 be awwested for thith. I thouldn't be thurpwithed if it 
 ith one of Merriwell's fwiendth !" 
 
 "Wow!" howled Julian, falling to the ground, and 
 writhing about in his agony. "I'm dead! I never had 
 anything hurt me so! Wow-ow-ow!" 
 
 Ollie Lord clapped a hand to his head and executed a 
 quickstep. He pulled off his cap and rubbed furiously,
 
 86 The Gun Club. 
 
 expecting to feel the blood come away on his fingers, 
 for he also fancied he had been shot. 
 
 "Goodness!" he gasped. "Whoever is shooting this 
 way ought to be jailed. We will all be killed in five 
 minutes. That tore a hole in my scalp, sure!" 
 
 Rupert Chickering, who was beginning to look grave 
 and anxious, next jumped up into the air, forgetting his 
 dignity; while Willis Paulding sat down with a sud- 
 denness that jarred the ground, and began to declaim in 
 a quick, nervous way and without the slightest imitation 
 of an English accent. 
 
 Then Lew Veazie, who had been rubbing his injured 
 leg and looking surprisedly and dubiously about, leaped 
 to his feet with another howl and went dancing off from 
 his friends. 
 
 "Felloth, it ith hornets !" he shrieked, beginning to 
 fight and slap with his cap and his hands. "Ow ! wow ! 
 They're thtinging me to death ! Help me, thomebody !" 
 
 "Hornets!" shrieked Ollie Lord, leaping up and fol- 
 lowing his chum. "Fellows, the air is full of them !" 
 
 Tilton Hull began to dig fiercely at his high collar. 
 
 "There is one down my neck !" he screeched. 
 
 He recklessly tore the collar away and began to dig 
 with his nails in a wild search for the thing that had 
 stung him, and which he fancied he felt boring its way 
 still farther down his back. Julian Ives took his hand 
 from his hip and slapped it against his breast, where a
 
 The Gun Club. 87 
 
 red-hot lance seemed to have been driven with torturing 
 suddenness. Then he began to tear away his beautiful 
 necktie and to recklessly rumple his gorgeous shirt front 
 
 "This is awful !" he exclaimed. "Where are the things 
 coming from? The air is full of them! Wow! An- 
 other struck me in the arm !" 
 
 Lew Veazie was rolling over and over. Their out- 
 cries attracted the attention of Merriwell and his friends, 
 and also the attention of a number of others who had 
 come upon the grounds. 
 
 "What are those idiots up to?" grumbled Hodge, who 
 had no patience with the antics of the Chickering set 
 "They've been making fools of themselves ever since 
 they came out here. Awhile ago, they were recklessly 
 burning powder and hurling shot all round. Now they 
 act as if they were crazy." 
 
 "Must be playing some sort of game of circus!" 
 guessed Browning. "They're tumbling about like acro- 
 batsor fools!" 
 
 "And howling like wild Indians!" said Danny. "1 
 think they are playing a Wild West." 
 
 "They ought to have Bill Higgins here, then, to 
 make the show complete," Merriwell remarked, with a 
 smile. "But seriously, I don't believe they're playing 
 anything. Those yells sound real." 
 
 "Help !' howled Willis Paulding, forgetting his drawl, 
 "We're being stung to death !"
 
 88 The Gun Club. 
 
 Willis was down on the ground, soiling his beautiful 
 trousers and digging furiously at his head. 
 
 "Hornets !" shrieked Ollie Lord, kicking about not far 
 from Paulding. 
 
 "Wow!" screeched Lew Veazie, bobbing up and down 
 like a cork in water when a fish is nibbling at the bait. 
 
 "Take 'em off!" begged Julian Ives, neglecting his 
 lovely bang and scratching with great energy at the 
 places where he had been stung. 
 
 "We're in a nest of hornets, or bees, or something!" 
 exclaimed Rupert Chickering, becoming decidedly bellig- 
 erent in his efforts to rid himself of the stinging 
 creatures. 
 
 "Are you going to stand there and see us killed?" 
 Skelding demanded. "I tell you, we are being stung !" 
 
 "Glad to know it !" declared Bart. "You need it. It's 
 hopeless, though, to expect that the hornets will sting 
 any sense into your crowd." 
 
 Merriwell started toward the screeching, dancing, 
 
 jigging, fighting youths, quickening his steps into a run, 
 
 
 and his friends followed at his heels. As he did so he 
 
 heard the loud and discordant jangle of a cowbell furi- 
 ously shaken. 
 
 A man, a woman, and a boy had come in sight, ap- 
 pearing from behind the seats allotted to spectators. 
 Evidently they had emerged but a minute before from 
 a strip of timber that cut off the view of a farmhouse 
 that was on the right of the gun club grounds and some
 
 The Gun Club. 89 
 
 distance away. They were running as fast as they could, 
 and were shouting something as the/ came on. The boy, 
 a lanky chap of fourteen or fifteen, was vigorously sha- 
 king the bell. The man carried a large pail, and the 
 woman swung a roll of dirty cloth. 
 
 "Hold on! hold on!" the man howled. "Jest handle 
 'em gently, can't ye?" 
 
 The Chickering set, as well as Merriwell's friends, 
 heard him. 
 
 "Oh, yes! we'll handle 'em gently!" snarled Skelding, 
 slapping at one of the stinging things and crushing it 
 with his hand. He saw then that it was a bee. He 
 jerked his hand avay and stuck his fingers into his 
 mouth. Then jumped up and began again to hop around. 
 
 "It run its stinger In*o my finger an inch !" he growled. 
 
 "Hold on ! hold on !" the old man was howling. 
 
 "I'm holding on !' cried Rupert, smashing away at a 
 handful of bees which seemed to be settling down on him 
 all at once. 
 
 "You're killing 'em !" screeched the old woman. 
 
 "Yes, we're killing 'em!" Skelding answered, flailing 
 away as if he had gone crazy. "I'd like to kill a million 
 in a minute! I can't kill them fast enough! I'd like 
 to welt 'em with a club and smash a regiment at a 
 blow!" 
 
 Lew Veazie threw himself on the ground, drew his 
 hat down over his head, and began to kick and shriek. 
 
 "You're jest a tantalizin' 'em!" panted the farmer.
 
 go The Gun Club. 
 
 Merriwell stopped and laughed. The whole thing was 
 too ridiculously funny for him to do otherwise. 
 
 "They're swarmin'!" shouted the boy, rattling away 
 with the bell as if his life depended on it. 
 
 "Yes, I see they are !" howled Julian Ives. "They're 
 swarming all over me!" 
 
 "Don't hurt 'em !" the farmer begged. He was only a 
 few feet away, and panting on, almost breathless. 
 
 "Don't kill 'em!" whined the old woman. "They're 
 my bees !" 
 
 Her words reached Lew Veazie. For a moment the 
 kicking legs were stilled, though the hat was not with- 
 drawn. 
 
 "Take 'em away then, pleathe!" he begged, from un- 
 der the hat. "I don't want to hurt your beethe, but 
 they're hurting me ! Take 'em away, pleathe !" 
 
 The boy stopped his jangling bell. 
 
 "They are honey bees!" he said. Then added, as if 
 he feared this might not be clear to the intellects of 
 city-bred youths: "They make honey!" 
 
 "I'll tantalize them!" Skelding fiercely exclaimed, 
 striking at the bees that were hovering round his head. 
 "I'll treat 'em gently ! Oh, yes ! I'll pick them off very 
 tenderly and put them in your lap, old lady! I don't 
 think ! Keep your old bees at home !" 
 
 "But they're swarming!" the old farmer exclaimed. 
 "They're going out to hunt a new hive. ' We've been fol- 
 lerin' 'em,"
 
 The Gun Club. 91 
 
 Then Lew Veazie began to bellow again, more fran- 
 tically than ever. A large crowd was gathering, men 
 hurrying from all directions, Merriwell and his friends 
 had arrived on the scene. 
 
 "Ow-wow!" Veazie shrieked. "They're worthe than 
 ever!" 
 
 For a few seconds he had not been troubled except 
 by the stings previously given, which pained intensely. 
 Merriwell looked down and saw a big bunch of bees 
 gathering along the top of V&fczie's collar at the back. 
 
 "They're killing me!" Veazie screeched, rubbing a 
 hand into this mass and leaping to his feet. 
 
 But the pile grew. The bee* seemed to drop by scores 
 right out of the air upon him, He started to run. The 
 old woman began to shriek, and thft boy commenced 
 again to jangle the bell. 
 
 "You've got the queen!" howled the old man. "Jest 
 keep still a minute! You have got the queen!" 
 
 "Is this a card-game?" drawled Browning. 
 
 "Lew Veazie is the little joker this time!" droned 
 Dismal. 
 
 "That's because he is so sweet !" declared Bink. "Don't 
 you know the boy said these are honey bees? They're 
 going to carry Veazie away and turn him into honey 
 and the honey comb." 
 
 "If you talk that way I'll have to swear off on honey!" 
 exclaimed Browning, with a wry face. 
 
 "Hold on! Jest hold on!" the farmer was begging.
 
 92 The Gun Club. 
 
 Veazie started to run, and the farmer reached out a 
 hand for the purpose of detaining him. 
 
 "They ain't stingin' you!" he insisted. "Jest keep 
 your hands down and keep still an' they won't do a 
 thing to you!" 
 
 "Oh, they won't do a thing to him !" howled Danny. 
 
 Veazie dropped flat to the ground. 
 
 "Jest hold on!" begged the farmer. "Jest hold on! 
 They're lightin' round the queen !" 
 
 Then he dipped his big hand into the pail and began 
 to ladle out the water and drench the bees with it, while 
 the old woman flailed with the roll of cloth to keep them 
 away from her, and the farmer's boy, dancing up and 
 down in his excitement, jangled the bell like an alarm 
 clock. 
 
 "Jest hold on!" the farmer urged, as Veazie showed 
 signs of rolling over. "I'll git my fingers on that there 
 queen in a minute, and then I'll have 'em. I wouldn't 
 lost this swarm fer five dollars. Jest hold on a minute !" 
 
 "Veazie's queen!" some one sang out from the heart 
 of the surging, talking, sensation-loving throng. "I al- 
 ways knew you were attractive, Veazie, but I didn't know 
 females rushed at you in that warm way. Yes, jest hold 
 on a little, Veazie. We don't have a circus like this 
 every day, and we want to get the worth of our money." 
 
 Ollie Lord, Chickering, Hull, Skelding, and the others 
 seemed to have been almost deserted by the bees, that 
 were now swarming down upon the hapless Ksper, drawn
 
 The Gun Club. 93 
 
 there by the fact that the queen had found lodgment 
 somewhere on Veazie's neck. 
 
 Under the influence of the farmer's commands, Veazie 
 ceased to kick and strike, and lay like a gasping fish 
 while the man deluged him with water. 
 
 "Thay, I'm dwoning!" he gasped at last. "Thith ith 
 worthe than being thtung!" 
 
 But, in truth, the deluge of cold water took away 
 something of the fiery pain of the stings. 
 
 "Just hold on!" cried the farmer again. 
 
 Then he thrust a thumb and finger down into the 
 writhing wet mass of bees, drew out the queen, which 
 by its size and shape he readily distinguished from the 
 others, and began to rake the bees into the new, empty 
 pail. 
 
 When he had the most of them in, the old woman 
 threw the cloth over them. The farmer was now down 
 on his knees, and the bees that were still on Veazie he 
 began to pick off and pop into the pail as if they were 
 grains of gold. 
 
 "I've got 'em!" he triumphantly declared. "This is 
 my fu'st swarm this spring. I thought the blamed things 
 was goin' to git away, but I've got 'em. Giner'ly they 
 light on a tree when they're swarmin', or on somethin* 
 green !" 
 
 "That's why they struck Veazie!" some one shouted 
 from the crowd.
 
 94 The Gun Club. 
 
 "Can I get up?" Veazie gasped. "I'm wetter than 
 the thea!" 
 
 "Yes, young man, an' I'm 'bliged to ye. The rest of 
 'em will find their way to the queen, I guess. When 
 these bees makes honey, if you'll come over I'll give 
 you a hunk."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SHOOTING. 
 
 Lew Veazie was a sorry sight when he got up from 
 the ground. The water had converted the soil into mud, 
 which plastered him now from head to foot. And here 
 and there on his face and hands were red spots made by 
 the bee stings. 
 
 Gene Skelding was flailing at some bees that did not 
 seem to have discovered that the queen was captured 
 and their rightful domicile was the farmer's pail. There 
 were other bees also at liberty, and one of them, angered 
 no doubt by the turn of events, popped a stinger into 
 the cuticle of Bink Stubbs. 
 
 "Scatt !" shrieked Bink. "Get away from here, or I'll 
 murder you!" 
 
 Browning moved back, for a bee seemed to be making 
 a desperate effort to single him out as a victim. Then 
 he stuck his pipe into his mouth, quickly fished out some 
 tobacco, and crammed the bowl full, and lighted it. 
 
 "Smoke 'em off!" he said. "That's a good way to 
 fight bees." 
 
 "And tobacco smoke keeps away other female crit- 
 ters !" laughed Danny, trying rather vainly to imitate the 
 peculiar quality in the farmer's speech. "That's the rea-
 
 96 Shooting. 
 
 son you have never been popular with the fair. Now 
 there is Veazie " 
 
 "What about cigarettes?" drawled Browning, making 
 a fog round his head. "Don't let the kettle call the pot 
 Blackie! The most disgusting thing ever created is a 
 smoker of cigarettes !" 
 
 "Yah !" growled Danny, taking out a cigarette. "Lend 
 me a match, old man." 
 
 And Browning lent him a match. Bink was rubbing 
 earnestly at the stung spot. 
 
 "I'll never see honey again without thinking of this." 
 
 "Which honey do you mean ?" asked Danny. "I heard 
 you calling a chambermaid Honey the other evening. 
 You must have thought her sweet!" 
 
 "And I heard one of them calling you a fool the 
 other evening. She must have thought you an idiot." 
 
 "Thomebody get me a cab!" begged Veazie, rubbing 
 his stings and ruefully regarding himself. "Thay, fel- 
 lowth, thith ith awful ! I'm a thight ! Get a cab, thome- 
 body, and take me home. I'm thick!" 
 
 "No cab here," said Skelding, who was also anxious to 
 get away from the joking and guying crowd. "But I 
 see a carriage over there. Yes, two of them." 
 
 "Get a cawiage anything!" moaned Veazie. "Take 
 me to the hothpital, take me to a laundwy, take me to a 
 bath anywhere, quick !" 
 
 The exodus of Veazie and his friends was followed 
 by the return of Merriwell and his comrades to the traps.
 
 Shooting. 97 
 
 Hodge had not been long out of a sick-bed, and looked 
 thin and weak. He walked with Merriwell. The other 
 members of the flock had forgiven him for the rancorous 
 and sulky spirit which had made him refuse to catch in 
 the ball-game against Hartford, in which Buck Badger 
 had pitched, but they had not forgotten it. They were 
 courteous, but they were not cordial, and Hodge felt it. 
 
 Buck Badger came upon the ground, but without a 
 gun. He was alone, too, and he kept away from Mer- 
 riwell's crowd. He had not learned to like Merriwell's 
 friends, any of them, and he detested Hodge. 
 
 Having taken his gun from its case, Merriwell put 
 it together, and opened a box of loaded shells, which he 
 placed on the ground. The gun was a beautiful twelve- 
 gage hammerless, of late design and American manu- 
 facture, bored for trap shooting. Hodge's gun was so 
 nearly like it that they could scarcely be told apart. 
 
 Morton Agnew and Donald Pike came on the grounds 
 before the shooting began. Merriwell observed that 
 Badger affected not to notice them, but the Westerner 
 was plainly annoyed. 
 
 "Perhaps you would like to shoot!" said Merriwell, 
 going over to Badger with his gun. "I can let you have 
 the use of my gun. Hodge has one just like it, and 
 all our other fellows have good guns. So, if you'd like 
 to shoot! It's all right, and as good as they make 
 them." 
 
 The Kansan was plainly pleased.
 
 98 Shooting. 
 
 "And I can let you have shells." 
 
 "I'll take the gun, Merriwell," he said, balancing it in 
 his hands and locking 1 it over. "But I can't let you fur- 
 nish shells, when I can buy all I want right here on the 
 grounds. And there is no reason why you can't shoot 
 with it, too." 
 
 "None at all, old man, only I thought likely you 
 wouldn't want to mix in with our crowd. I can shoot 
 Bart's gun." 
 
 Badger flushed and his face darkened. He was on the 
 point of saying something bitter against Hodge. 
 
 "I didn't intend to shoot when I came out," he said, 
 choking down the angry utterance, "or I should have 
 brought a gun. In fact, I didn't start for this place at 
 all. But I'm here now, and I reckon my fingers would 
 never get done itching if I couldn't get to pull a trigger. 
 I used to shoot some on the ranch, you know, and I 
 hope I haven't lost anything whatever of the knack. If 
 I should beat your score now?" 
 
 "You're welcome to." 
 
 "Of course I'm more used to a revolver and rifle than 
 to a shotgun, but I allow I know a kink or two about 
 trap shooting, just the same." 
 
 The rattle and click of guns being put together, the 
 snapping of locks, and the chatter, made pleasant music 
 for gun lovers, as Frank returned to his friends. 
 
 "You didn't let him have your gun?" growled Hodge. 
 
 "'Yes; I will shoot with yours."
 
 Shooting. 99 
 
 "You're welcome to, of course; but I shouldn't have 
 done it." 
 
 "Here goes to kill the first bird !" cried Danny, ambling 
 out with a repeating shotgun in his hands. 
 
 "If you don't hit it first time, you can just sheep on 
 kooting I mean keep on shooting!" jollied Rattleton. 
 
 "I wish there was a bee round here to sting him!" 
 sighed Bink, as Danny faced the trap. "I'm so sore from 
 laughing- that I know I can't hit anything." 
 
 "You couldn't hit anything, anyway !" said Bruce, put- 
 ting some shells into his gun. 
 
 "I can hit you!" Bink growled, lunging at him. 
 
 "I meant anything small !" said Bruce, brushing aside 
 Bink's blow as if it had been a fly. "Shoo! Don't 
 bother me, or I may get one of these shells stuck." 
 
 A trap was sprung, and Danny blazed away. 
 
 "Missed!" said Dismal. 
 
 "And Danny is our crack shot!" moaned Bink. "The 
 papers will say to-night that our shooting was like a lot 
 of schoolgirls." 
 
 "How?" asked Merriwell. 
 
 "All misses! Yah! Watch me smash one of those 
 blackbirds into dust" 
 
 Bink went forward with much seeming confidence 
 and missed, too. 
 
 "Of course I didn't want to take away all the courage 
 of you fellows by hitting the first bird," he blandly ex- 
 plained. "But I could have done it"
 
 loo Shooting. 
 
 The conditions for shooting were fair, for the wind 
 was not so strong as it had been earlier in the day. Sev- 
 eral shots were made, together with a number of hits. 
 Then Buck Badger's name was called, and he went up to 
 the line with Merriwell's gun. One of the boys who was 
 manipulating the traps sprung the middle one, and the 
 bird shot swiftly off to the right. It was a rather diffi- 
 cult target, but Badger knocked the clay bird into dust. 
 
 "A good shot !" some one called from the crowd. 
 
 "It was a good shot!" Merriwell commented. 
 
 Dismal Jones followed Badger, and knocked down the 
 straightaway bird which was sprung from the right-hand 
 trap. 
 
 "Now the earth will fall !" squeaked Bink, for Brown- 
 ing's name was called, and Bruce got up lazily from the 
 ground and walked slowly into position. Bruce disliked 
 a light gun, and carried a heavy ten-gage, notwith- 
 standing the fact that trap-shooting rules required the 
 users of such guns to shoot from a longer distance. 
 He believed that the heavier weight and heavier load 
 more than offset this. 
 
 Danny stuck his fingers into his ears as Bruce stood 
 ready to fire the "cannon." Then there was a thunderous 
 report, as the clay bird flew through the air, and was 
 knocked to pieces by the impact of the shot. 
 
 "Was it an earthquake?" asked Bink, falling back on 
 the ground. "He'll be wanting to shoot a Krupp gun 
 next!"
 
 Shooting. 101 
 
 "Watch me this time !" said Danny, as he stepped into 
 position. "It's easier for me to do difficult things. If 
 those traps would only throw out a dozen birds at once, 
 I'd show you some nice work !" 
 
 "Yes, you might get one out of the whole flock," said 
 Diamond. "If it was a very dense flock, you might get 
 two." 
 
 Ten rounds had been fired, and two birds were to be 
 thrown now at the same time at unknown angles. 
 
 "Ready?" asked the boy. 
 
 "Pull !" commanded Danny, throwing up his gun. 
 
 The birds flew, but Danny did not shoot. 
 
 "I thought one was going to jump out of the right- 
 hand trap," he grinned, "and it didn't." 
 
 "Give him another chance," said Dismal. "He oughtn't 
 to be forgiven for anything, but we'll forgive him." 
 
 "Spit on your hands !" some one yelled. 
 
 Danny put down his gun, very deliberately spat on 
 his hands, then took up his gun again. 
 
 "Pull!" he commanded. 
 
 Two birds flew one from the right-hand trap and 
 one from the middle trap. Bang! bang! Danny fired 
 at both, but the birds sailed on and descended in the 
 grass. 
 
 "These shells aren't any good!" he asserted, looking 1 
 wonderingly into the powder-stained barrels of the gun. 
 "Or else this gun isn't choked right for trap shooting. 
 I held on both of those birds."
 
 102 Shooting. 
 
 "You mean you aren't choked right for trap shoot- 
 ing," said Bink, as Danny came back. 
 
 "I'll choke you!" Danny cried, hurling himself on 
 Stubbs and gripping him by the throat. 
 
 "Stop it!" commanded Bruce, as they struggled on 
 the grass. "If you don't, we'll fire you out of the crowd." 
 
 Jack Diamond did the best shooting this time, cleanly 
 killing both birds. Merriwell and others struck both 
 birds, but Diamond made the cleanest kill. Danny 
 ambled out again with his repeater, and this time brought 
 down a bird. 
 
 "Talk about easy things!" he spouted, thrusting out 
 his chest as he pranced back. 
 
 "That's right!" howled Bink. "You're the easiest 
 thing on the planet. That bird was broken and all ready 
 to fall to pieces when it left the trap. I paid the boy 
 to fix it for you." 
 
 "You're another!" Danny declared. "I hit that bird 
 fair and square. See if you can do better." 
 
 "I'm going to hit both!" Bink declared, and for a 
 wonder he did. 
 
 "Take me home to mommer !" squealed Danny. 
 
 "Talk about shooting!" exclaimed Bink, sticking his 
 hat on the back of his head. "What's the matter with 
 that, eh?" 
 
 "Oh, you're a wonder!" exclaimed Danny. "Acci- 
 dents are bound to happen sometimes, you know." ^ ,
 
 Shooting. 103 
 
 Browning made clean misses, and Diamond got only 
 one bird. The shooting of most of the others was not 
 of the best. 
 
 "I suppose there isn't any way to clip the wings of 
 those things?" grumbled Dismal, who had missed. 
 "They get up and get away so fast that I can't pull on 
 them half the time. I could hit my bird if I could find 
 it. But when I point my gun at it and pull the trigger, 
 it isn't there." 
 
 "Pull ahead of it," Merriwell advised. 
 
 "Yes, you must use ahead work," said Bink. "If you 
 have a head, that is what it's for. That's the way I did, 
 and you saw the result. I can get 'em every time now." 
 
 As the shooting continued, it was seen that Badger 
 was doing good work, though nothing at all phenomenal. 
 He stepped into position with an air of confidence, fired 
 quickly, and then stepped back. But he kept away from 
 Merriwell's crowd, mingling with others from Yale whom 
 he knew. 
 
 Hodge's score and the Westerner's were nearly alike. 
 Hodge saw it and squirmed. Then Merriwell, who had 
 made only one miss, scored two "goose eggs," and 
 Badger climbed up to him. 
 
 "I don't like that," Bart grumbled. "You're not do- 
 ing your best, Merry. Badger may beat you." 
 
 Merriwell was cleaning out and cooling his gun 
 Bart's gun which both were using, and which had
 
 IO4 Shooting, 
 
 grown hot and foul from rapid firing. The first round 
 of twenty shots was nearing its close. Only four more 
 shots were to be fired in it, at two pairs of birds. Badger 
 had to his credit thirteen hits and three misses, and 
 Merriwell the same. 
 
 "If you should miss one of the four and Badger 
 should hit them all you would be beaten!" Bart urged 
 uneasily. "And I don't want you to be beaten by him. 
 I'm afraid you are going to tie. I want you to beat him. 
 I can't stand it to have him crowing round." 
 
 Merriwell smiled placidly. 
 
 "Don't steam so, Hodge. It just heats you up, and 
 makes you unhappy. If Buck Badger should beat me, 
 I don't see that it would make a great difference. I 
 haven't been shooting for a record this afternoon." 
 
 "All right," said Hodge. "However good your in- 
 tentions may be, that fellow will never give you honest 
 credit for them." 
 
 The shooting had recommenced, and Hodge walked 
 back to the crowd, plainly disgruntled. 
 
 Merriwell clutched a handful of shells and went over 
 to Badger. 
 
 "Try these, Buck!" he said. "They're a good deal 
 better than those you've been using. I had them loaded 
 very carefully under my own supervision for this kind 
 of work, and you'll find them very fine. They're just 
 suited to that gun, too. You have really been shooting 
 at a disadvantage to-day."
 
 Shooting. 
 
 A smile came to the dark face of the Westerner a 
 stern, determined sort of smile. 
 
 "Better not give them to me, perhaps, Merry. I'm 
 going to beat you if I can. We're tied now. If you 
 miss, I shall get you. Better not give me any ad- 
 vantages." 
 
 "You can't beat me !" said Frank, looking straight into 
 the eyes of the Kansan. 
 
 "Do you mean that you haven't been trying to shoot? 
 I've been watching you, and I allow you have been doing 
 your level best." 
 
 "You haven't watched closely, then. I threw away 
 two shots awhile ago. I could hardly miss them when 
 I tried. But I'm not anxious to beat any one to-day. I 
 didn't come out here to make a record." 
 
 Badger flushed. 
 
 "All right. Throw away another shot and I'll beat 
 you." 
 
 "I'll not throw away another, and you can't beat me, 
 though you may tie me." 
 
 He was smiling and good-humored, and the Kansan 
 tried to be. 
 
 Badger took the next two straight, and Merriwell did 
 the same. 
 
 "I'm afraid he is going to tie you !" grumbled Hodge. 
 
 "What's the score?" asked Rattleton, roused to the 
 fact that Badger and Merriwell were now really shoot- 
 ing against each other.
 
 lo6 Shooting. 
 
 "Toodness, a guy I mean, goodness, a tie ! Don't let 
 him beat you, anyway, Merry!" 
 
 "That comes from being too good-natured," growled 
 Hodge. "He wouldn't be anywhere near you, if you'd 
 tried." 
 
 Twice again both brought down their birds. Only a 
 pair was left now to each. Every member of the gun 
 club present, together with those who, like Badger, were 
 being permitted to shoot through the favor of members, 
 and all the spectators, as well, knew now that Badger 
 and Merriwell had finally pitted themselves against each 
 other in a friendly shooting contest, with the chances 
 in favor of a tie. 
 
 Hodge was hardly able to breathe, and Harry Rat- 
 tleton was fidgeting uneasily. The spectators craned 
 their necks as Badger, whose trial came first, walked 
 into position with an air of easy confidence, that dark, 
 determined smile disfiguring his face. 
 
 "I'm afraid your chances are gone, Merriwell !" droned 
 Dismal Jones. " 'We never miss the water till the well 
 runs dry.' " 
 
 "Keep still," grunted Browning, "or you'll make me 
 nervous !" 
 
 "I wish somebody would make Badger nervous!" 
 wailed Bink. 
 
 "Sing out that a queen bee is coming for him!" urged 
 Danny, in an undertone.
 
 Shooting. 107 
 
 "Keep still!" said Merriwell. 
 
 Badger balanced his gun, called "Pull!" and threw it 
 into position as the birds sprang from the trap. 
 
 A deafening explosion followed. The gun was torn 
 to pieces and Badger was hurled backward to the ground.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 BADGER'S CHALLENGE. 
 
 Merriwell and others sprang toward him to offer their 
 aid. Frank could hardly believe what he had seen and 
 heard. He feared Badger was seriously or fatally in- 
 jured, but was relieved before he reached the Kansan to 
 see the latter rise unsteadily to his feet. 
 
 Badger looked dazedly about, then down at his numbed 
 left hand and arm. They felt dead, and he could hardly 
 lift them. But he saw they were not mangled. 
 
 "I hope you are not hurt!" Frank exclaimed. 
 
 The blood rushed in a great wave into the Westerner's 
 dark face, and he gave Frank a strange look. 
 
 "Your gun has gone to pieces!" he said gruffly. 
 
 "But I hope you are not hurt. There are other guns. 
 I don't understand how it happened." 
 
 There was a suspicious light in Badger's eyes. 
 
 "I'll not be able to beat you," he said. "I don't know 
 that I can shoot again, and it's a wonder, I reckon, that 
 my arm wasn't torn off." 
 
 He turned toward the exploded gun. The stock was 
 uninjured and the lock mechanism, but the muzzle end 
 of the right barrel was split open and a section blown 
 out of it. 
 
 "You didn't get mud or anything of that kind in the
 
 Badger's Challenge. 109 
 
 muzzle?" Merriwell questioned, anxiously examining the 
 ruined weapon. "That will sometimes make a gun ex- 
 plode." 
 
 "None whatever!" Badger grumbled, nursing his 
 numbed hand and arm, while a crowd gathered round 
 him and Merriwell, asking excited and eager questions. 
 "Do you think I'm fool enough to do a thing like that?" 
 
 Frank plucked at Rattleton's arm. 
 
 "Take charge of that box of shells," he said, in an un- 
 dertone. "Don't let any one touch them. The box from 
 which I took the shells for Badger ! I'm afraid the shells 
 in it have been tampered with." 
 
 "Agnew !" Rattleton gasped. "He's somewhere on the 
 grounds, you know, and he was right up here awhile 
 ago!" 
 
 "I don't know. It may be. We can tell better later. 
 Just now, take charge of that box. No more shells must 
 be used out of it, nor out of any others of mine." 
 
 "All right!" Rattleton promised, and moved quickly 
 away. 
 
 'How is your hand and arm?" Merriwell asked, again 
 addressing Badger. 
 
 "Well, I allow it's good enough to do some more 
 shooting!" Badger snarled, giving Hodge a suspicious 
 glance. "You didn't beat me ! I missed that bird ; but 
 the gun blew up was the reason. I'll shoot you those 
 two, yet; but I'd rather try you ten birds straight ten
 
 1 10 Badger's Challenge. 
 
 double rises, just the kind we were shooting at. I reckon 
 we'd better settle this thing square!" 
 
 There was something very unpleasant in his tone 
 and manner. Hodge saw the glance, heard the words, 
 and could hardly resist the temptation to walk up and 
 knock him down. 
 
 "The scoundrel!" he hissed to Browning. "What is 
 he driving at? Does he mean that Merry hasn't given 
 him a fair deal, or that he had the gun explode in some 
 way to keep from being tied by him, or beaten ? Perhaps 
 he is hinting crooked work against me ! If he does, I'll 
 punch his head, sure. Frank is a fool to stand such 
 stuff." 
 
 Merriwell showed a slight trace of annoyance. He 
 took Badger by the arm and they walked aside together. 
 A dozen men were examining the gun, and a score more 
 were craning their necks to get a look at it, while all 
 sorts of excited conjectures and comments filled the air. 
 
 "See here, Badger," said Merriwell, somewhat sternly. 
 "You think Hodge may be responsible for that accident. 
 He isn't no more than I am! You either had mud in 
 the gun " 
 
 "Or something was the matter with the shells!" 
 
 "Exactly. That is what I was going to say, if you 
 had let me finish the sentence. No more shells will 
 be used out of that box. They may have been tampered 
 iwith, but not by Hodge. I know Hodge ! He wouldn't 
 do such a thing." 

 
 Badger's Challenge. ill 
 
 "I reckon that he is none too good for that, if he 
 had a chance !" 
 
 "Hodge is my friend." 
 
 "I don't care if he is your friend a dozen times over. 
 That might have killed me, or crippled me for life !" 
 
 "If those shells were tampered with, it was done for 
 my benefit, Badger, and not for yours. Hodge wouldn't 
 put in shells that would endanger me. I gave you those 
 shells out of my own box." 
 
 "And Hodge was talking to you, and knew what you 
 meant to do. He could have juggled a fixed-up shell on 
 you." 
 
 "We won't talk about it!" said Merriwell, turning 
 away. 
 
 "I've a right to think what I please," Badger grumbled, 
 following him. "He thinks you can beat me shooting. 
 He was afraid I would. I can beat you, and I'd like to 
 do it, to spite Bart Hodge." 
 
 "I don't think you are in any condition to do more 
 shooting." 
 
 "Oh, I'm all right!" Badger rather snappishly de- 
 clared, his heart hot against Hodge. "Don't let any- 
 thing of that kind worry you, Merriwell I want to shoot 
 at ten double rises against you ten double rises at un- 
 known angles. You've declared that you haven't tried to 
 shoot. I dare you to give me this trial. The numbness 
 is going out of my arm, and it will soon be all right. 
 And I warn you not to throw away any shots 1"
 
 H2 Badger's Challenge. 
 
 They were near the excited crowd. 
 
 "All right, Buckrum !" Merriwell answered. "I'll try 
 you, if you're so anxious!" 
 
 "We'll buy shells here. And that gun " 
 
 "Perhaps you think there was something the matter 
 with the gun?" 
 
 "Oh, I'll buy you another gun!" growled Badger. 
 
 Frank flushed. 
 
 "The impudence of the fellow!" grunted Browning, 
 who overheard the remark. Hodge, who was standing 
 near Browning, heard it, too. 
 
 "I wish you'd hit him, Merry!" he panted. 
 
 "No doubt you'd like to do that," said Badger. "But 
 I'd advise you not to try." 
 
 "Mr. Badger and I are going to shoot at ten double 
 birds," said Frank, pretending not to notice these things. 
 "I will use your gun, Bart." 
 
 "And Badger may use mine," said a sophomore, who 
 was one of Badger's friends, and had been one of Mer- 
 riwell's enemies. "But for goodness sake, don't use any 
 more dynamite shells!" 
 
 Merriwell saw that Morton Agnew had come up and 
 was looking earnestly at Badger and at the ruined gun. 
 
 "I wonder that Badger doesn't remember that you 
 slipped a 'fixed' cartridge into a gun for him once," was 
 Frank's thought. "You are at the bottom of this, and 
 you villainy has 1 gone far enough. When I come to 
 strike >ou I shall strike hard !"
 
 Badger's Challenge. 113 
 
 The shattered gun still furnished attraction for many, 
 and Agnew pushed forward to get a close look at it, and 
 to ask questions. Rattleton came up to Merriwell with 
 the box of loaded shells. 
 
 "They are not all just alike, Merry !" he declared. "I 
 have been looking them over. See !" 
 
 He took up three of the shells and exhibited them to 
 Frank. A casual glance would show no difference be- 
 tween them and the other shells in the box. But a 
 close inspection showed that the brass did not go up 
 quite so high on the paper. 
 
 "I am sure that all the shells in the box were just 
 alike/' said Merry. "Those were slipped in there. Keep 
 them safe." 
 
 "But what if they blow me up?" Rattleton gasped. 
 "I'm afraid of the things. Some of the fellows are say- 
 ing there was dynamite in the shell that tore up the 
 gun!" 
 
 "There is no danger, I think. Take care of them, 
 and see that the other boxes are not tampered with. 
 Watch Morton Agnew." 
 
 "Let your bife I'll watch him! And he has been 
 watching me! I caught him at it awhile ago!" 
 
 "I think Agnew fixed up some shells to kill or maim 
 me," said Frank. "No doubt he would give a great deal 
 to get the unused ones away. Look out for him." 
 
 Then Merriwell went back to the crowd, where Badger
 
 H4 Badger's Challenge. 
 
 was exhibiting his benumbed arm and hand, and eae- 
 plaining how it felt to have a gun burst in one's fingers. 
 
 "Are you ready?" he asked. "I am." 
 
 "Yes," Frank answered. 
 
 It was strange how the fellows on the shooting-grounds 
 ranged themselves into two companies the supporters 
 of Merriwell in one knot and the supporters of the Kan- 
 san in the other. It was as if an invisible hand had gone 
 through the crowd and separated Merriwell's friends 
 from his foes. About Badger gathered Walter Gordan, 
 Bertrand Defarge, Morton Agnew, Gil Cowles, Mat Mul- 
 len, Lib Benson, Newt Billings, Chan Webb, and more of 
 the same sort, a number of them now Merriwell's pre- 
 tended friends, but all at heart his enemies. While about 
 Merriwell swarmed his friends tried and true, with 
 Hodge, Browning, Diamond, Rattleton, Gamp, Bink, and 
 Dismal close to his person. 
 
 "Don't monkey with him," urged Bart, as Merriwell 
 sent Danny and Bink away for some shells and began to 
 wipe out Bart's gun in readiness for the shooting-contest. 
 "Don't throw away any shots. Show those cads what 
 you can do. A lot of them are beginning to think that 
 Badger is really a better man than you are. If he defeats 
 you " 
 
 "He'll never defeat Merriwell!" asserted Rattleton. 
 "Come off the dump !" 
 
 "Of course he can't !" added Diamond. 
 
 "There are no dead-sure things," droned Dismal. "I've
 
 Badger's Challenge. 115 
 
 been enticed into squandering good dollars on several 
 dead-sure things. I've got more sense and less dollars." 
 
 "Wait and see !" sputtered Rattleton. 
 
 "Who is to shoot first?" Badger asked, walking toward 
 Merriwell's crowd. 
 
 Badger had noticed the character of the fellows who 
 had gathered round him, and he was nettled. On the 
 outskirts he even saw the face of Donald Pike once his 
 friend, now hated by him as a foe. 
 
 "Suit yourself," Merriwell answered. 
 
 "We'll flip a coin," said Badger. 
 
 One of the sophomores drew out a half-dollar and 
 twirled it in the air. 
 
 "I'll take heads!" said Merry. 
 
 But the head of the coin fell downward, and Badger, 
 taking the gun given him, walked out to the line and 
 faced the traps. 
 
 "We will have no signaling," he said, turning round 
 and facing Merriwell's crowd. "As we step up here, let 
 the traps be sprung, and we'll shoot at the birds, whether 
 ready or not." 
 
 He was supremely confident in his own abilities. 
 
 "All right. Any way to suit you. Go ahead !" 
 
 Before Badger could turn back, he heard the sound 
 made by the traps springing. Two birds shot out, one 
 toward the right and the other straight away. 
 
 Bang! bang! Badger wheeled and fired quickly, and
 
 n6 Badger's Challenge. 
 
 made a clean kill of both birds. There was a skirmisB 
 fire of clapping hands in the circle of his admirers. 
 
 "Fine work!" Merriwell admitted, as he stepped into 
 place with Bart's gun. 
 
 He stood with his gun down until the birds were 
 hurled from the traps, then, with a couple of quick snap- 
 shots, smashed them to pieces. 
 
 "Whoop-e-ee-ee !" squealed Danny Griswold, turning a 
 handspring. "This soft snap can shoot a little!" 
 
 Again the Westerner made a clean kill of two birds. 
 Frank followed him and did the same. 
 
 Five times more the Kansan did this, and Merriwell 
 duplicated the performance. The antagonistic crowds 
 ceased to whoop and shout their exclamations of pleasure. 
 The thing was becoming interesting. It began to seem 
 that Badger and Merriwell would again tie. Then Bad- 
 ger, becoming overconfident, missed a bird. He stepped 
 back, with a look of chagrin on his face. 
 
 Frank stepped forward, pitched up his gun as the birds 
 were thrown and missed one ! Merriwell missed with 
 the left barrel of his gun, and Badger had missed with the 
 left barrel. 
 
 "Now you're monkeying !" Hodge grumbled, as Merri- 
 well retired into the circle of his friends. "Don't do it, 
 Merry! What did you do that for? You could have 
 made the whole string straight, without a single goose- 
 egg!" 
 
 Badger's dark, heavy face was flushed as he advanced
 
 Badger's Challenge. 117 
 
 again into position. He felt, like Hodge, that Merriwell 
 had purposely missed that second bird, and it annoyed 
 and angered him. This was the worst possible thing that 
 could have happened to him, for when he fired he again 
 missed a bird. 
 
 "Don't imitate him again !" Hodge implored. 
 
 And Merriwell did not. He made a clean kill of both 
 birds. 
 
 "Only two more birds apiece, and Merry one ahead!" 
 squealed Bink, vainly tiptoeing to see as well as those 
 who were taller. 
 
 "You want to see Merry do him up?" said Bruce. 
 "You little runt, I'll take pity on you!" 
 
 "Me, too !" squeaked Danny. 
 
 With little apparent exertion of strength, Browning 
 hoisted the little fellows to his shoulders, thus elevating 
 them above the heads of others, where they sat in great 
 glee, squealing and laughing, Danny on the young giant's 
 right shoulder and Bink on his left, as Badger walked out 
 to shoot at his last two birds. 
 
 Again the Westerner killed his birds. 
 
 "Now, if Merry misses one, it will be another tie!'* 
 grunted Bart. 
 
 "Stop hawking through your tat I mean Oh, I 
 
 don't know what I mean! But just keep still!" Rattle- 
 ton almost breathlessly begged. "Merry is all right !" 
 
 And Rattleton's confidence was justified. Merry fired, 
 with the same result
 
 Ii8 Badger's Challenge. 
 
 "Pulverized 'em !" howled Bink. 
 
 "Smashed 'em into bug-dust !" squealed Danny. 
 
 "Bub-bub-beat Badger again !" sputtered Gamp. 
 
 A cheer of gratification went up from the circle of 
 Frank's friends. Merriwell motioned to Rattleton to 
 bring him some shells. 
 
 "Bring me Danny's gun, too!" he called; and Harry 
 ran out to him with a box of shells that he knew were 
 reliable and with Griswold's repeating shotgun. 
 
 "All three traps at once !" said Merriwell to the trap 
 manipulators. 
 
 Three birds flew at the same moment of time. 
 
 Bang! bang! bang! 
 
 Badger in his best shooting at two birds had never 
 made cleaner kills. The clay birds seemed to vanish in 
 puffs of dust at the crack of the gun. Merriwell put 
 down Danny's repeater, and took up Bart's gun. 
 
 "Three birds again !" he commanded, as he dropped in 
 the two shells and closed the breech with a click. 
 
 Almost before the words were out of his mouth, the 
 birds were thrown. 
 
 Bang! bang! bang! 
 
 He killed the left and center birds with the two loads 
 in the gun ; then reloaded and killed the third bird before 
 it could touch the ground ! 
 
 Badger's face grew redder. There was a wild clap- 
 ping of hands, joined in by many who were in Badger's 
 crowd.
 
 Badger's Challenge. 119 
 
 "Whoop-ee-e-ee !" squealed Danny, wildly waving his 
 cap. "Who says we can't shoot?" 
 
 They had been shooting at a rise of twenty-five yards. 
 Merriwell stepped back five yards, thus increasing the dis- 
 tance to thirty. He loaded his gun and held an extra 
 shell in his left hand. Then he turned his back on the 
 traps. 
 
 "Pull when you want to?" he called. 
 
 The manipulators of the traps seemed to desire to test 
 him. There was an exasperating delay and some ques- 
 tions; then the traps were sprung with startling sud- 
 denness. 
 
 Merriwell's quick ear was alert. He wheeled as if on 
 a pivot, killed the left bird and the right one. Then 
 dropped in another shell with a slowness that set Bart 
 Hodge wild, and killed the third bird, which had gone 
 off at a difficult tangent, at a distance of at least sixty 
 yards ! 
 
 "Come on !" grated Defarge, almost beside himself with 
 anger and disappointment. "The devil can't beat him! 
 Let's get out of here !" 
 
 "Right!" said Pike, also turning wrathfully away. 
 Badger seemed turned to a statue. 
 
 Then again the unexpected happened. A sophomore, 
 who was known to be an intimate friend of Morton Ag- 
 new, by seeming accident fired off a gun with which he 
 had been monkeying. Agnew, who had, unnoticed, 
 wormed his way into Merriwell's crowd dming the ex-
 
 I2O Badger's Challenge. 
 
 citement of the shooting-contest, fell to the ground with 
 a cry, as if shot, knocking Harry Rattleton over as he 
 did so. 
 
 The shells which Harry had been so carefully guard- 
 ing were scattered on the ground, and seemed likely to 
 be stepped on and lost in the excitement that followed. 
 
 Agnew flounced and threshed about, crying out that 
 he was shot. He was anxiously lifted up, and on his face 
 was seen a drop of blood, which had come from a cut 
 recently made. 
 
 "One shot went in right there!" he cried. "I think 
 there are others ! Get me into a carriage quick !" 
 
 A half-dozen young fellows ran for the nearest car- 
 riage, toward which Agnew was conducted as rapidly as 
 possible. Harry Rattleton seemed dazed, and began to 
 look about on the ground as the crowd thinned out there. 
 'Merriwell hurried to him. 
 
 "What's the matter ?" he anxiously asked. 
 
 "The shells were knocked out of my hands!" gasped 
 Rattleton. "And not half of them seem to be here !" 
 
 Merriwell's look became anxious. He stooped down 
 with Harry and began to gather up the shells. 
 
 "A shrewd trick, but it didn't work !" he exclaimed, 
 holding up a cartridge. "Here is one of those that were 
 fixed for me, anyway. And now I know that Agnew did 
 it, and that he intended to kill me !" 
 
 The other shells which Agnew had prepared were gone, 
 having been gathered up in the midst of the tumult and
 
 Badger's Challenge. 121 
 
 excitement and cleverly slipped by Agnew into his 
 pockets. 
 
 "Who fired that shot?" Merriwell asked. 
 
 "I don't know !" 
 
 Others were gathering round. 
 
 "He tried to kill me, Harry, and I shall strike back. 
 And when I strike I shall strike in a way to make the 
 stroke felt!" 

 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FRANK PREVENTS TROUBLE. 
 
 Badger's belief that Hodge had juggled the shell which 
 exploded in the gun was not very strong when he left 
 the grounds of the gun club, but his hatred of Hodge was 
 not in any degree lessened thereby. Only by a supreme 
 exercise of will-power had he been able to keep himself 
 from rushing upon Bart when the latter made his bitter 
 comments to Merry. 
 
 i "Merriwell is all right, but Hodge isn't even a piece of 
 a man!" he growled, as he made his way home, his 
 thoughts in a chaotic state. "I shall have to punch his 
 head for him. Merry wouldn't have beat me shooting if 
 I had taken my own gun along! I reckon I was a fool 
 for going into the thing. Hodge isn't any too good to 
 slip that shell in on Merry ! And if he didn't do it, who 
 did? And I'd like to know what was in it? That's 
 whatever !" 
 
 i Bart's feelings against the Westerner were quite as bit- 
 ter. He almost hated the ground on which Badger's 
 shadow fell. It seemed unlikely that Frank could ever 
 reconcile these two antagonistic characters. 
 
 Bart was sore also about the way Frank's friends were 
 treating him. Nor was the feeling lessened by his own 
 inner conviction that he had dealt rather shabbily with
 
 Frank Prevents Trouble. 123 
 
 one who had been as true a friend to him as Merry had 
 been, and that the other members of the "flock" had 
 good grounds for looking on him with disfavor. 
 
 "I shall never crawl on my knees for the friendship 
 and good-will of any of them !" was his thought, as he 
 turned a corner on his way to the lighted campus, on the 
 evening of the second day after the shooting. "And as 
 for Badger " 
 
 He ran violently against a man and was hurled back- 
 ward. The man was Badger. 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" the Westerner de- 
 manded, for he, also, had been almost knocked from his 
 feet, and he, too, had been feeding his hot anger with in- 
 flammatory thoughts against Bart. "You did that on pur- 
 pose !" 
 
 Hodge lunged at the Kansan's face. But the blow did 
 not fall. The fist was knocked down, and a strong grasp 
 on his shoulder turned him half-round. 
 
 "Stop this !" came sternly from Frank Merriwell, who 
 was also on his way to the campus. 
 
 "Let me get at him!" Bart panted, trying to wrench 
 away. "He ran into me and tried to knock me down 
 just now. I can't stand it! I won't stand it!" 
 
 "Oh, let him come on!" the Westerner grated. "I've 
 been aching for a crack at him for a month ! I'll polish 
 him off in short order, if you will just let him come on ! 
 He thinks because he knocked me out once that he can 
 do it again!"
 
 124 Frank Prevents Trouble. 
 
 "If you fellows are determined to fight, I'll arrange 
 for you to get at each other some time, but you are not 
 going to fight here, and that is flat!" 
 
 "Oh, well, let it go !" said Bart, with intense bitterness 
 and disgust "I'll not trouble him here. But if we ever 
 do come up against each other, I'll hammer the life out 
 of him!" 
 
 "I don't doubt you'd kill me if you could !" the Kansan 
 sneered. "I rather think you tried it the other day." 
 
 "What do you mean ?" Bart demanded, again bristling. 
 "Do you mean; the shell that blew up the gun ?" 
 
 "It's strange you can guess so easy!" Badger insinu- 
 ated. 
 
 "See here, Baftger," said Frank, who had stepped be- 
 tween the belligerents. "You insult me when you inti- 
 mate that Bart knew anything about that shell. That 
 shell was slipped into my box by Morton Agnew. I have 
 discovered enough already to convince me of that. 1 
 saw him do something to-day, too, which puts a big 
 club into my hand !" 
 
 Badger's face changed, but he would not admit that 
 he might be wrong in laying the dastardly deed at the 
 door of Bart Hodge. 
 
 "When you've got the proof, I'll look at it," he doubt- 
 ingly remarked, turning about. 
 
 "Oh, don't talk to him 1" Hodge growled. "I wouldn't 
 waste words on him."
 
 Frank Prevents Trouble. 125 
 
 "I'll hammer your face for this some day!" Badger 
 panted, turning back. 
 
 "It's right here, ready for the hammering whenever you 
 get ready to try it!" Hodge snapped, and then moved 
 away with Merriwell. Seeing that they were heading 
 toward the eampus, the Westerner went now in a differ- 
 ent direction. 
 
 "I don't know why I should let Merriwell come in and 
 interfere in that way," he grumbled. "I allow that it 
 really was none of his affair. But I permitted him to 
 order me to stand back, and I stood back. Of course, 
 I'm under obligations to him, and all that, and he said 
 good words to Winnie for me when I seemed to need 
 them but, hang it all ! he isn't my boss ! Who made him 
 my master ? It's all right for him to lead Hodge around 
 by the nose that way, but " 
 
 "Hello !" came in an inquiring voice, and Badger, look- 
 ing up, saw Morton Agnew. The Westerner's face took 
 on an unpleasant look, and he did not answer the hail. 
 
 "Don't be surly !" said Agnew, coming boldly on. 
 
 "What do you want?" snapped the Kansan. 
 
 Then the thought came to him that it would be a good 
 idea to treat Agnew with some consideration, for thereby 
 it -might be possible to get the inside facts about the shell 
 that ripped the gun open and came so near mangling his 
 arm. 
 
 "What do you want?" he asked again, toning down 
 his gruffness.
 
 126 Frank Prevents Trouble. 
 
 "I know we're not friends," said Agnew, with the 
 suavity of a confidence man, "but that is no reason why 
 we should always remain foes. I saw you here, and you 
 looked lonesome. I'm a rather lonesome bird myself to- 
 night, so I whistled to you." 
 
 "I allow you've the most gall of any man I ever saw !" 
 was Badger's thought. 
 
 Aloud, he said : 
 
 "We'll go down this way, then. Did I look lonesome? 
 Well, I wasn't feeling any lonesome, I can tell you none 
 whatever !" 
 
 "Perhaps you object to my company?" drawing back. 
 
 Badger knew that this was a piece of acting, and he 
 wanted to crack Agnew on the jaw for it. But he held 
 himself in check. Really Badger seemed to be gaining 
 some self-control a thing that was entirely foreign to 
 him when he first knew Merriwell. He was enabled to 
 hold himself in by the intense desire he felt to discover 
 if Agnew slipped the "fixed" shell into the box. That 
 was an important point just then. 
 
 "Come along!" the Westerner grunted. "You said 
 that you were lonesome, if I am not. I'm not so hoggish 
 as to want to run away from a man who thinks he can 
 get good out of my company." 
 
 "I like to hear you talk that way," said Agnew, linking 
 his arm in the Kansan's. 
 
 The touch made Badger's flesh creep, but he held this 
 feeling in check, too.
 
 Frank Prevents Trouble. 127 
 
 *Here's a saloon !" said Agnew, after they had walked 
 a considerable distance without saying anything of mo- 
 ment. "Let's go in. We can talk in there. I never 
 like to chatter much on the street." 
 
 Looking up, Badger saw that they were in front of a 
 well-known resort, which he had entered more than once, 
 but of which he had recently fought shy. Winnie's face 
 rose reproachfully before him as he stopped and looked 
 at the entrance. It almost drove him back. 
 
 "We can talk better inside," Agnew urged. 
 
 The Westerner glanced hesitatingly up and down the 
 street. 
 
 "All right," he agreed, again feeling a fierce desire to 
 get at whatever knowledge Agnew possessed about the 
 exploding shell. 
 
 The proprietor nodded familiarly toward him as he 
 walked in. 
 
 "Glad to see you. Nice evening !" 
 
 Badger, who was not good at acting what he did not 
 feel, mumbled a reply. 
 
 "Have something?" suggested Morton, moving up to 
 the bar. 
 
 Badger pushed Agnew's arm away and turned toward 
 a side room. 
 
 "No ! I don't need a drink to talk." 
 
 "It greases a fellow's tongue," said Morton, with one 
 of his persuasive smiles. "You won't have anything?" 
 as a waiter appeared.
 
 128 Frank Prevents Trouble, 
 
 "Not to-night." 
 
 "Some whisky," said Agnew, and the waiter went 
 away, returning shortly with a bottle and some glasses. 
 
 "Some cards !" said Agnew, and the waiter brought two 
 unopened packs. 
 
 The Westerner's brow grew black. He fancied he saw 
 through Agnew's little game. He believed that Agnew, 
 who was a card-sharp, hoped to get him to talking, then 
 to drinking, and finally into a game, and fleece him out 
 of what money he had. Agnew's funds were low, and he 
 was probably ready for any expedient. 
 
 "We can talk better over a game," Agnew urged, deftly 
 opening a pack. 
 
 The Kansan pushed back. His blood was boiling. He 
 could hold in no longer. 
 
 "I allow you're a big fool, Agnew, if you think you 
 can do me up in that way !" he hotly declared. "I've been 
 told that you tried to kill me the other day. Do you 
 want to rob me, because you failed in that?" 
 
 Agnew grew white. 
 
 "What are you talking about?" he gasped. "Tried to 
 kill you? What nonsense is that? I don't know what 
 you mean." 
 
 However, there was a certain tell-tale shrinking in his 
 manner which Badger could not fail to notice. It con- 
 vinced the Westerner that Merriwell was on the right 
 track, and his anger burned into deep rage.
 
 Frank Prevents Trouble. 129 
 
 "I can see from your manner that you did. Agnew, 
 you've got the heart of a wolf ! That's whatever !" 
 
 Agnew was truly playing a game, but it was not a 
 card-game. He had learned to hate Badger. To strike 
 the Westerner pleased him now almost as well as a stroke 
 against Merriwell. He dropped the cards and pushed 
 back, as if he feared the Kansan would leap at his throat. 
 
 " Wh-what do you mean ?" he demanded. 
 
 "On the gun-club grounds!" said Badger, rising from 
 the table. "You slipped some dynamite shells into Mer- 
 riwell's box, and I got one of them. It came near tearing 
 my hand and arm to pieces, and it might have killed me. 
 No thanks to you that it didn't. Your intentions were 
 good enough." 
 
 Agnew began to bluster, but in a low tone. 
 
 "I'm not used to being accused of such things. How 
 do you know there was anything the matter with the 
 shell ? Are you hunting for trouble ?" 
 
 "That was the trick of an Apache, Agnew!" 
 
 "Don't let the proprietor hear you," Agnew begged, 
 and his voice was again as smooth as silk. "What is 
 the use of rowing? I say that I did nothing of the 
 kind, and you're a fool for thinking so. Whoever hinted 
 that to you lied." 
 
 "I allow you might as well say that I lied !" 
 
 Agnew pushed toward the wall and put his hands into 
 his pockets. Badger, thinking he meant to draw a 
 weapon, gave him no further time, but leaped on him
 
 I3O Frank Prevents Trouble. 
 
 across the table with the rush of a cyclone. Agnew went 
 down under that rush, but he clutched the Westerner, and 
 began to struggle, at the same time sending up a sharp 
 call for help. In a moment the proprietor and the bar- 
 tender were on the scene. 
 
 "None of this !" cried the proprietor, grabbing Bad- 
 ger by the shoulders, and, with the bartender's assistance, 
 bod'ily dragging him off the threshing, writhing form of 
 Agnew. Morton did not seem in any hurry to be re- 
 leased N or rescued, however, and hung to Badger's coat 
 and vest with the tenacity of the under dog that fails to 
 appreciate the fact that it is overmatched. 
 
 "No fighting in here!" panted the proprietor. "This 
 ain't no boxing-club ! See ! I'm glad to have gents come 
 in and make themselves to home, but I can't allow any 
 fighting !" 
 
 Agnew slid toward the door, seeming anxious to escape. 
 The next moment he was out in the barroom, and then 
 he vanished into the street. 
 
 "I'll pay for the damages," said Badger, choking down 
 his wrath. "He went to draw a gun on me, and I jumped 
 on him, that's all. A man is a fool to let another get the 
 drop on him, and I allow I don't intend to. You bet I 
 don't. I'll see him again, and when I do I reckon we'll 
 have a settlement."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AGNEW'S TRICK. 
 
 When the Westerner saw Agnew again they were in 
 one of the college lecture-rooms and an examination was 
 in progress. Of course, they did not speak to each other. 
 Badger believed that Agnew had kept away from him 
 since their warlike encounter of the night before. The 
 fact that Agnew was also a sophomore had long been a 
 disturbing thought to the Westerner. Badger had class 
 pride. He sometimes declared that he was a sophomore 
 of the sophomores, but there were a number of sopho- 
 mores with whom he could not and would not mix. 
 
 His seat was now close to the one occupied by Agnew, 
 though somewhat in front of it, and he had the un- 
 pleasant feeling that a hole was being bored through the 
 back of his head by Agnew's eyes. When the conductor 
 of the examination looked down that way Badger could 
 not tell whether the professor's gaze was fixed on him or 
 on Agnew. Professor Barton had fiercely penetrating 
 eyes, anyway, and the peculiar manner in which he looked 
 at students in the classroom had always been especially 
 irritating to the Kansan. 
 
 Printed questions were used, and Badger found some 
 f them pretty hard. 
 
 "I wish Barton wouldn't look me through and
 
 132 Agnew's Trick. 
 
 through !" he muttered, noticing again and again that the 
 professor's eyes were fixed on him. "It makes me feel 
 like a cat under the paw of a mouse, or a calf watched 
 by a coyote. I allow there are things pleasanter than 
 Barton's eyes." 
 
 But Barton continued to look down that way. 
 
 "Is he watching me, or is he watching Agnew?" 
 'Badger grumbled, as he dug away at the work cut out 
 for him. "Hanged if I can tell. Perhaps it's just a way 
 he has. Maybe every poor devil in the room is feeling 
 just as I do. Whoever got up these questions must have 
 lain awake of nights trying to see how hard he could 
 make them. I reckon the chances are about two to one 
 that I'll flunk." 
 
 In an interval when Barton's attention was turned in 
 another direction, Morton Agnew crumpled a piece of 
 paper, and, with a deft toss, which he made sure was 
 not seen by any one, he threw it beneath Badger's desk. 
 Badger did not know it was there, but the keen eyes of 
 Barton saw it as soon as they were again turned in that 
 direction. 
 
 Now, Barton was really not watching Buck Badger, 
 but he was watching Morton Agnew. Slips of the 
 printed questions had been stolen by some member of the 
 sophomore class the day previous, and Agnew was sus- 
 pected of the theft. That was why the keen eyes of the 
 professor were so constantly turned toward that part of 
 the room. He hoped to discover some evidence of Ag-
 
 Agnew's Trick. 133 
 
 new's guilt, if, indeed, Agnew was guilty, as was be- 
 lieved. 
 
 When his eyes fell on the piece of paper which Morton 
 had tossed so cleverly beneath Badger's desk, he knew in 
 an instant that it had not been there a moment before. 
 The natural conclusion was, therefore, that the Kansan 
 had dropped it. 
 
 Its discovery was very suggestive. He began to watch 
 Badger as well as Agnew. In a little while Badger saw; 
 the paper also, and stooped to pick it up. 
 
 "I will take that piece of p.^per!" came in the calm, 
 even voice of the professor, as the Westerner's fingers: 
 closed on the crumpled slip. 
 
 Badger, who had intended to open it, wondering what 
 it contained, and vaguely thinking it might be a note 
 which some member of the class had tried to get to him, 
 flushed in a manner to arouse the professor's suspicions. 
 He was almost tempted to tear it open and possess him- 
 self of its contents, but Barton was moving toward him, 
 with his eyes glued on the paper. 
 
 "I will take that piece of paper," the professor re- 
 peated, and Badger reluctantly gave it to him. 
 
 Agnew looked down at his work to veil the look of 
 triumph that had come into his face. Badger anxiously 
 watched Barton as he opened the slip and glanced it 
 over. 
 
 "That is your handwriting, I believe?" in an ominous 
 voice.
 
 134 Agnew's Trick. 
 
 He held it for Badger to read, and, to the Kansan's in- 
 tense astonishment, he saw that the paper was scribbled 
 over with answers to the questions used in the examina- 
 tion, and that the handwriting seemed to be his own. He 
 was so bewildered he could not say a word. Answers 
 were there to only a part of the questions, however. 
 
 There was a strange look on Barton's bearded face. 
 He had seen Badger fishing in his right vest pocket for 
 a stub of a pencil awhile before. He thought, as he re- 
 membered this, that it was the left pocket of the vest. 
 
 "What is in that left pocket of your vest?" he asked, 
 in a voice that fairly made Badger jump. 
 
 Barton believed the slip he held in his fingers had 
 come from that left pocket, and he thought it possible 
 more like it might be concealed there. 
 
 "Not a thing!" said the Westerner, the angry flush in 
 his face extending to the roots of his dark hair, for he 
 was not accustomed to being spoken to in that suspicious 
 tone, and it enraged him. 
 
 "Will you see if there is not?" Barton asked, striving 
 to maintain his calm, though his suspicions were grow- 
 ing. Badger confidently thrust in his fingers and drew 
 out a slip of paper like the others, which was also scrib- 
 bled over with answers to questions ! 
 
 He could not have regarded it with more surprise and 
 bewilderment if it had been a snake. Barton took it from 
 his shaking fingers, and saw that the handwriting seemed 
 to be the same.
 
 Agnew's Trick. 135 
 
 This exciting dialogue was beginning to attract atten- 
 tion, and many eyes were turned in that direction, which 
 made the Kansan get even redder in the face. Badger 
 thrust a hand into one of the upper pockets of his vest 
 and drew out another paper of the same kind. 
 
 "What does this mean ?" he growled. 
 
 He dived frantically into other pockets. He knew that 
 his position was one hard to explain away, but, with a 
 sort of recklessness, he was determined to know if there 
 were more papers of that kind anywhere about him. 
 He could not imagine how they came there, and the rather 
 wild idea occurred to him that he might have scribbled 
 them over that way in his sleep, for the coming examina- 
 tion had disturbed him and made his nights a bit rest- 
 less. 
 
 There were no other incriminating slips. 
 
 "I should like to know what it means myself," said 
 Barton. 
 
 He looked sternly at Agnew, but the latter had now 
 obtained control of his countenance, and met the pro- 
 fessor's suspicious look with an air of innocent confidence. 
 Agnew felt safe. The paper he had crumpled and 
 thrown under Badger's desk was the only one he had 
 secreted about him. So he knew that even if a search 
 was forced, nothing of an incriminating character could 
 be discovered on him. 
 
 "I think T have put you in a mighty tight box, Mr. 
 Buck Badger !" was his gloating thought.
 
 136 Agnew's Trick. 
 
 And again that look of triumph returned with such 
 force that he could hide it only by lowering his eyes, and 
 did not raise them throughout the rest of the hour. 
 
 That evening, while Morton Agnew was amusing h ; m- 
 self with a game of solitaire, and chuckling with glee 
 over the clever manner in which he had put Buck 
 Badger in a "box," a rap sounded on the door of his 
 room that made him jump. 
 
 "Come in !" he said. 
 
 And Frank Merriwell walked in ! 
 
 Agnew half-rose out of his chair. 
 
 "Sit down !" Merriwell urged, closing the door behin3 
 him. 
 
 Then he turned the key in the lock and dropped the key 
 into his pocket. 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" starting to his feet in 
 an agitated way. 
 
 "Sit down !" Frank again commanded, in a smooth, 
 quiet tone, which, however, sounded very ominous. Ag- 
 new looked toward the closed window, and then dropped 
 limply into the chair. 
 
 "It's two stories down, and a hard pavement below that 
 window. I'd advise you, Agnew, not to pitch yourself 
 out of that on your head. It would probably give the 
 undertaker a job." 
 
 Agnew pushed the cards about, without knowing what 
 he did, and stared at Merriwell, his face white and his
 
 Agnew's Trick. 137 
 
 eyes anxious. He was afraid of Merriwell. Of all the 
 men at Yale, Merriwell was the one he most feared. And 
 his heart told him that there was something serious back 
 of this unexpected call. 
 
 "I'm glad to find you in," said Frank, "for I want to 
 have a talk with you. I will take this chair, with your 
 leave. You won't mind if I come to the point at once ?" 
 
 "I don't know what you're driving at, and I think you 
 must be drunk or luny to come into a fellow's room and 
 lock him in! If you have an idea that there is any- 
 thing funny about this, I'm pleased to tell you that there 
 isn't." 
 
 "I was afraid you might be so uncivil as to desert me. 
 I shall not try to take anything away with me but a bit 
 of your writing. You're a good penman, Agnew, and I 
 shall want a sample, after we've had a friendly chat." 
 
 The cold sweat came out on Agnew's brow. 
 
 "I don't intend to beat about the bush at all. It is 
 not needed. You know what I think of you, for I've 
 given you abundant opportunity. Twice within my 
 knowledge you have tried to murder me once when you 
 slipped a ball cartridge into Badger's musket in 'A 
 Mountain Vendetta,' hoping and believing that I would 
 be killed, and again on the grounds of the gun club, when 
 you slipped some prepared shells into my box, thinking 
 I would get hold of one of them, and that I would be 
 killed by the explosion of my gun !"
 
 138 Agnew's Trick. 
 
 Agnew's face grew as white as writing-paper. He 
 opened his lips to reply, but Frank went on : 
 
 "Of course, you are ready to deny these things. But 
 I have some proofs. You thought you could get all the 
 'fixed' shells when you knocked Rattleton over in the 
 crowd, pretending you were shot. But one of them you 
 failed to get. I have had its contents analyzed by one 
 of the professors of chemistry, and he says that in place 
 of powder, the shell contained a sort of gun-cotton, and 
 that he does not see why the gun was not torn into 
 splinters." 
 
 "This " 
 
 "Just keep still, Agnew, until I am through ! I have 
 found the dealer of whom you purchased those shells, and 
 I have found the dealer of whom you procured that gun- 
 cotton !" 
 
 Again Agnew opened his mouth to protest. He had 
 stopped pushing the cards about. 
 
 "Once you tried to ruin my right arm by injecting into 
 it a preparation that would produce atrophy of the mus- 
 cles. I can produce evidence of that, too !" 
 
 "It's a lie!" Agnew finally gasped. "There is not a 
 word of truth in these accusations !" 
 
 "I hare been accumulating evidence against you for 
 some time. You have struck at me and at my friends 
 time and again. It is my time to strike now, and I shall 
 strike hard." 
 
 The dangerous smile which friends and enemies alike
 
 Agnew's Trick. 139 
 
 had come to know so well rested on Merriwell's face. 
 Agnew had seen it there before, and the sight of it made 
 him shiver. 
 
 "Badger used that shell or one of the shells, and 
 only chance saved him from being killed or maimed for 
 life. Not satisfied with that, you struck at him to-day 
 again." 
 
 "You're crazy, Merriwell ! There is not a word of 
 truth in any of these things. You have fancied them 
 all, and, because you do not like me, you are determined 
 to ruin me." 
 
 "You have ruined yourself, Agnew. I have given you. 
 chance after chance to reform and change about. You 
 get worse. You are a disgrace to humanity, to say noth- 
 ing of Yale College. You struck at Badger to-day, as 
 I said. 
 
 "I know all about it. Professor Barton fancies that 
 he caught Badger cribbing in to-day's examination. The 
 matter has already gone to the faculty. Badger will go 
 out of Yale as sure as the sun rises if things are per- 
 mitted to go on. I propose to see that they do not go 
 on. No scoundrel like you, Agnew, shall treat a friend of 
 mine in that way." 
 
 "So he has become your friend, has he ?" 
 
 "No man shall treat one of my foes in that way, if I 
 can help it!" 
 
 Agnew attempted a skeptical sneer, but it was a failure. 
 He jvas shaking like a chilled and nervous dog.
 
 140 Agnew's Trick. 
 
 "I have had a talk with Badger. He couldn't under- 
 stand how the papers got into his pockets. But I knew 
 as soon as he told me of your encounter in that saloon 
 last night, for I had seen the slips purporting to be in 
 his handwriting, and I knew they were forged, and I was 
 sure you were the forger !" , 
 
 "Quite a Sherlock Holmes!" said Agnew. "This is a 
 very interesting little romance. The only trouble is that, 
 like most romances, there isn't a word of truth in it." 
 
 "You are the man who stole the printed question slips. 
 You wanted them for your own use, so that you might 
 not fail in this examination. When you knew what they 
 were, and had prepared answers, you planned to use them 
 to throw Badger down, hoping that if the theft of the 
 slips were discovered the blow would fall on Badger." 
 
 "You're away off, Merriwell !" 
 
 But Frank went remorselessly on : 
 
 "Last night, in the saloon, during that fight, which was 
 of your own seeking, you contrived to put those forged 
 answers, in imitation of Badger's handwriting, into his 
 pockets, where Professor Barton found them to-day. You 
 are a forger, Agnew, and you have lately been passing 
 counterfeit money !" 
 
 "Not a word of truth in any of this !" Agnew shakily 
 declared. 
 
 "Some of these things I might find difficulty in proving, 
 
 though I am as sure of them as that you are sitting there. 
 
 i But of other things I have the proof. Now, I am going
 
 Agnew's Trick. 141 
 
 to give you your choice : Write at my dictation a con- 
 fession that will clear Badger of the charge of stealing 
 the question slips and using those answers, or I shall 
 take steps at once which will land you in the peniten- 
 tiary!" 
 
 Agnew grew sick and blind. 
 
 "I can't do what you say!" he begged. "My God, 
 Merriwell, even if the things were true which I deny 
 I couldn't do it ! It would disgrace me forever !" 
 
 "The faculty and professors are not anxious to bring" 
 odium on the good name of Yale. Your confession, I am 
 sure, will not be made public. You ought to have 
 thought of the disgrace when you were doing those 
 dastardly, cowardly things! It is too late now." 
 
 "But I can't !" Agnew wailed. He had ceased to deny 
 his guilt. 
 
 "All right !" said Frank, his lips tightening firmly. "I 
 shall clear Badger without this. I wanted to give you 
 a last chance. I, too, am anxious that the good name of 
 Yale shall not be smirched by publishing to the world the 
 downfall and disgrace of a Yale student. But I shall not 
 withhold my hand longer." 
 
 He pushed back his chair, and the look on his face 
 was so terrible that it robbed the trembling wretch of 
 his fictitioiis courage. 
 
 "Wait !" begged Agnew. "If I do what you say, you'll 
 give me time to get out of town ?" 
 
 "I shall not move against you at all. I shall simply
 
 142 Agnew's Trick. 
 
 turn the confession over to the faculty, and so clear 
 Badger." 
 
 Again Agnew hesitated. 
 
 "Here are paper and ink on your table !" 
 
 The sweat was standing in drops on the brow of the 
 card-sharp. 
 
 "I'll do it simply because I must!" he doggedly de- 
 clared. "It is an outrage. I do not admit any of these 
 other charges, but I did put those things in Badger's 
 pockets, and I took the questions to help me out in the 
 examination. Those are the only things I am willing to 
 confess." 
 
 "They are all I ask you to confess." 
 
 With trembling fingers, Agnew drew pen and paper 
 toward him. And then, at Merriwell's dictation, he wrote 
 a complete confession of the wrong he had done Badger. 
 
 "That is all right!" Merry admitted, when he had 
 looked it over. 
 
 He arose from the chair, folded the paper, and put 
 it in a pocket. 
 
 "Get out of New Haven as quick as you can. I shall 
 give this to the faculty in the morning. Good-by !" 
 
 He unlocked the door, with his face turned toward 
 Agnew, let himself into the hall, and was gone. 
 
 Forbearance and mercy had ceased to be a virtue, and 
 'Frank Merriwell's hand was lifted to strike and crush 
 * dastardly foe.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 COWARDICE OF THE CHICKERING SET. 
 
 Merriwell encountered Hodge in the campus, informed 
 him of what he had done, and together they started 
 down-town. By and by they took a street-car, and, get- 
 ting out at a familiar corner, found themselves in front 
 of a group of Merriwell's friends. 
 
 "Excuse me if I walk on!" said Bart. 
 
 "No, you are going with me !" 
 
 "My room is preferred to my company with those fel- 
 lows!" 
 
 They had not yet been seen by Merry's friends, who 
 were grouped on the sidewalk about Jack Ready, who was 
 talking and gesticulating in his inimitable way. 
 
 "Now don't get sulky, Bart!" Frank commanded. 
 "Those fellows are my friends." 
 
 "They don't like me. I've seen it, Merry. When I 
 think of some things they have said, it makes me hot 
 even against you." 
 
 "Do you want to turn me against you, Bart? That is 
 a good way to do it." 
 
 "I don't care ! I shall never snivel round those fel- 
 lows!" Bart snarled. "I'm your friend, Merry! That's 
 enough, isn't it?" 
 
 "You take a poor way to show your friendship, Hodge 1
 
 144 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 
 
 You vex me sometimes. Now, look here! The 'flock' 
 can be together but a little while longer. The last of 
 June is approaching fast, and that brings commencement., 
 Diamond, Rattleton, Browning, Gamp, Dismal, Danny, 
 Bink, and a lot more will leave Yale forever in June." 
 
 The reflection touched Bart's fiery heart. 
 
 "All right," he said. "Go ahead!" and walked after 
 Merriwell. 
 
 Willis Paulding, the Anglomaniac, passed them, going 
 in the direction of the large hotel across the way. 
 
 "Mud on the bloon I mean blood on the moon !" ex- 
 claimed Rattleton, as Bart and Merry came up. 
 
 "What's up ?" Frank asked. 
 
 "Paulding and the Chickering set are up there!" said 
 Danny, pointing to some upper windows of the hotel. 
 "Thev are having a big feed to-night." 
 
 "Drinking tea and smoking cigarettes," explained 
 Bruce. 
 
 "I've invited every fellow here to attend that banquet 
 with me," Ready jovially declared. "But not a soul will 
 accept the invitation. They fancy their heads aren't hard 
 enough for that kind of drinking!" 
 
 "Bub-bub-better get an invitation yourself fuf -first!" 
 Gamp stuttered. 
 
 "Oh, I circulate everywhere, like first-class currency. 
 Want to go up and take a peep with me, Merriwell ? I'd 
 give a V any time to hear one of those fellows respond
 
 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 145 
 
 to a toast! Come along. What d'ye say? I'll be the 
 pilot." 
 
 But Merriwell was no more in the mood for such an 
 escapade than the other members of the "flock." There- 
 upon, Ready skipped across the street himself and dis- 
 appeared within the hotel. 
 
 Merriwell and his friends walked down the street, and 
 in the course of half an hour returned to that corner. 
 Then they saw Ready at one of the upper windows, look- 
 ing down at them. He had a big piece of cake in one 
 hand and a glass of wine or tea in the other. 
 
 "Come up to the feast !" he bellowed. "Great fun !" 
 
 But Merriwell had his eyes fixed elsewhere. Suddenly 
 he exclaimed : 
 
 "That hotel is on fire !" He had observed a tongue of 
 flame leaping from a window. 
 
 He started across the street, but before he had taken 
 a dozen steps the fire-alarm bell sounded. A few of the 
 people in the hotel seemed to be awaking t6 the fact that 
 the building was on fire. Merry's friends joined him, 
 and they stood near the center of the street, looking up 
 at the fire and discussing the matter. Then Ready was 
 seen again at the window, staring about in a bewildered 
 way, as if he contemplated leaping to the street below. 
 
 "Do you suppose the fire could cut him off so soon?" 
 Merry anxiously queried. 
 
 "It doesn't seem likely," Diamond answered. "But,
 
 146 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 
 
 of course, no one can tell. The Chickering set are up 
 there yet !" 
 
 A crowd was collecting, and Merry's friends were 
 thinking of going on across the street, when the arrival 
 of a clanging fire-engine drove them back to the corner 
 from which they had started. 
 
 It could now be seen that even in that brief space of 
 time the fire was rapidly spreading. The blaze first seen 
 had increased in size, and flames were now issuing from 
 other windows on that floor. The fire seemed to be in 
 the third story. Luckily, the hotel stood on a corner, 
 away friim other buildings. 
 
 People were now pouring in a stream from the exits. 
 Merriwell looked again toward the window where Ready 
 had been seen. 
 
 "Ready will come right across here as soon as he gets 
 down," he said. "I suppose he is all right, but the fire 
 is on that floor !" 
 
 But Ready did not appear. Other fire-engines arrived 
 and began their work. Firemen swarmed everywhere. 
 But the fire increased in intensity in spite of this fight 
 against it. The hotel appeared to have emptied itself of 
 its occupants. 
 
 And still Jack Ready did not come. Willis Paulding 
 stumbled across the street, white and shaky. His hair 
 and eyebrows were singed, his Lunnon-made clothes were 
 wet and limp, and he was terribly frightened. 
 
 "Merriwell," he gasped, "J ack Ready is up there 1"
 
 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 147 
 
 Merry started. A fear that such might be the case 
 had been growing on him. 
 
 "How do you know ?" he asked. 
 
 Paulding forgot his English drawl in his fright and 
 excitement. 
 
 "I saw him!" he admitted. "He was trying to get 
 Lew Veazie down the stairs when he fell. Veazie had 
 been drinking a little, and couldn't help himself." 
 
 "And where is Veazie?" 
 
 "He is down on the street somewhere." 
 
 "And you ran away and left Ready, after he had in- 
 jured himself while trying to aid you !" 
 
 Paulding dropped his head. 
 
 "The fire was right on us, and we " 
 
 "Where did he fall?" 
 
 "On the center stairway leading from the third story," 
 said Paulding, shivering under Merry's rebuke. 
 
 "Fellows, I am going up there after Jack Ready," said 
 Frank calmly. 
 
 "You'll go at the risk of your life !" shouted Browning. 
 
 But Frank was already half-way across the street. The 
 fire had spread with astonishing rapidity. Some com- 
 bustible material in the second story had exploded with 
 great force, and this had seemed to scatter the fire. The 
 entire second story was on fire now, as well as the one 
 above it. 
 
 Frank vanished in the crowd, which was retreating 
 through fear that the walls were about to fall. Other
 
 148 Cowardice of the dickering Set. 
 
 fire-engines had come up. The people who fell back 
 from the dangerous vicinity crowded on the Yale men 
 who had looked so anxiously after Merriwell as he ha- 
 stened to the aid of the imperiled freshman. Willis 
 Paulding, feeling Merriwell's rebuke, and stung by a 
 feeling of his own cowardice, had slipped away. 
 
 "I don't like that," Hodge grumbled, looking at the 
 spot where Frank had vanished. 
 
 "I've seen things myself that I like better!" grunted 
 Browning. 
 
 "You can bet your life that Merry will go wherever a 
 friend is in danger!" said Rattleton. 
 
 "Or a foe, either!" added Diamond. 
 
 "Fuf-fellows, I'm worried abub bub-bout this !" stut- 
 tered Joe Gamp. 
 
 "I'd feel easier a good deal if we had all stayed home 
 to-night !" droned Dismal. 
 
 For once, neither Danny nor Bink had any comment to 
 offer, funny or otherwise. A feeling that something 1 
 a \vful was about to happen stilled their chatter. 
 
 Then all started, leaping as if they had been shot at, 
 and pushed back into the retreating and startled crowd. 
 A furnace or something of the kind had given way in 
 the basement with a thunderous report. A great gap 
 showed in one of the walls, and the wall itself seemed 
 on the point of toppling down. 
 
 "Sounded like a siege-gun!" chirped a well-known 
 voice. "Fellows, I'm glad I wasn't in there then! Had
 
 Cowardice ol the dickering Set 149 
 
 the greatest time you ever saw narrow escape and all 
 that; but here I am again, with my stomach filled with 
 cake and my head intoxicated with tea. All right side 
 tip, you see !" 
 
 The speaker was Jack Ready! 
 
 "Where is Merriwell ?" Bart asked. 
 
 "Merriwell?" and Ready looked round. "Refuse me, 
 but I supposed he was the center of this intellectual 
 group! Yes, where is Merriwell?" 
 
 "He went up there after you to get you out of the 
 fire!" exclaimed Bink, in great excitement. 
 
 "You haven't sus-sus-seen him?" demanded Gamp. 
 
 Some firemen planted a ladder against the swaying 
 wall, as if to brace it, and a group came round the cor- 
 ner dragging a huge muddy hose, which they intended 
 to train on another part of the hotel. But, so far, the 
 fire had baffled all their efforts. 
 
 "Did he go up there?" Ready gasped. 
 
 "Sure!" said Danny. "He is up there now." 
 
 Ready's round, red-apple cheeks grew white. 
 
 "If he is up there now, he'll never come out !" 
 
 Bart stared at the shaking wall and the flaming win- 
 dows at the smoke clouds rolling from the doorways. 
 The hotel had become a furnace. Then he stepped out, 
 with a determined look on his dark face. Ready under- 
 stood the meaning of that look. 
 
 "You'll go to your death if you try it!" he declared. 
 "It is hotter than ten ovens, and some timbers fell from
 
 150 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 
 
 the second floor as I came out. If I hadn't rolled under 
 the stairway when I fell, and thus had protection, I 
 should have been cooked alive." 
 
 But if Hodge heard the warning, he did not heed it. 
 He pushed aside Ready's detaining hand and ran quickly 
 across the street. They saw him reach the first smoke- 
 filled doorway, and then he was swallowed up in the 
 smoke. The other members of Merriwell's flock stood 
 still, with shaking limbs and anxiously beating hearts. 
 
 "They will both be killed !" gasped Rattleton. 
 
 "Sure!" groaned Dismal. 
 
 "I don't believe we shall ever see Hodge again !" Ready 
 declared, and his cheeks grew even whiter. 
 
 Bruce moved as if he, too, thought of rushing into the 
 flames. Diamond's hand was laid on his shoulder. 
 
 "Wait a minute! No use risking any more lives! 
 Bart can do that, if any one can !" 
 
 Browning felt that this was true, and fell back with a 
 groan, while a bit of suspicious moisture shone in his 
 eyes. The walls were in such a state that the firemen 
 now began to disconnect the hose and to get the engines 
 away. They warned back the crowd, and policemen be- 
 gan to shout orders and to enforce them with batons. 
 
 In the meantime, what was Bart Hodge doing, and 
 what had befallen Frank Merriwell? Hodge was sure 
 that Frank had made his way to the stairway where 
 Willis Paulding had said Jack Ready had fallen. It was 
 the center stairway leading from the third story.
 
 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 151 
 
 Hodge had not much difficulty in passing through the 
 hotel office, for, after the dash through the doorway, he 
 found the smoke not so dense. It seemed to be sucked 
 into the doorway, and the clerk's desk and vicinity were 
 comparatively free of it. The room was deserted, and 
 there were everywhere evidences of a hasty leave-taking. 
 
 Bart ran first to the elevator, thinking he might be 
 able to use that, but the door appeared to be warped, and 
 he could not get it open easily. He did not know 
 whether the elevator was in running condition, and much 
 doubted it, because of the explosion in the basement. 
 Therefore, not wishing to lose any time, he jumped for 
 the nearest stairway, as soon as he felt that no help could 
 be had from the elevator, and climbed as fast as he could 
 toward the second story. 
 
 This stairway was filled with smoke, and he felt the 
 heat increase as he ascended, but he still had no trouble, 
 except from the smoke. But when he reached the second 
 floor his heart almost failed. The stairway on which 
 Jack Ready had fallen, and the only stairway Bart could 
 see, was wrapped in flames, which writhed and twined 
 like serpents. The heat, too, was intense. 
 
 Bending close to the floor, to escape the smoke and 
 heat as much as possible, Bart groped about, looking 
 everywhere for Merriwell, thinking he might have fallen 
 there. He saw him nowhere, and called loudly. But 
 no sound came back except the roar of the fire. It even 
 drowned all the noises of the street But not for a mo-
 
 152 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 
 
 ment did he think of turning back, though he knew how 
 awful the danger would be if he tried to go up that 
 burning stairway. He cast about for some sort of pro- 
 tection. A flimsy curtain of cotton material was stretched 
 across a doorway. This Hodge pulled down and wrapped 
 round his head, protecting his hands with it also as 
 well as he could. Then he measured the stairway and its 
 direction with a quick glance, and made a wild dash for 
 the fire. 
 
 He went up the stairway at a run, with his clothes 
 scorching and the protecting cotton cloth bursting into 
 flame. It was a desperate spurt, but Hodge went through 
 the fire, and with a bound threw himself beyond it, and 
 felt, rather than knew, that he was in some kind of hall, 
 where the fire was not so bad. He pulled aside the flam- 
 ing cloth, pitched it from him, put up his scorching hands 
 to shield his eyes, and looked about. 
 
 "Merriwell!" 
 
 The cry was one of joy. 
 
 "Merriwell !" 
 
 This time the exclamation held the tone of fear and 
 dread. Frank Merriwell was lying in this space, which 
 Bart saw now to be a wide corridor. Frank seemed un- 
 conscious. He was lying close against the wall, with 
 his arms doubled over his head'. Near him was a piece 
 of timber which had fallen from the floor above. Other 
 pieces of timbers seemed about to fall from the same
 
 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 
 
 place. This one, as Bart saw at a glance, had struck 
 Merriwell down. 
 
 Bart's heart almost stopped beating when the thought 
 came to him that perhaps Frank was dead. He leaped 
 toward him, with a bound, uttering that cry of "Merri- 
 well !" as he did so. 
 
 "Frank ! Frank !" he cried. "Frank, are you much 
 hurt?" 
 
 The roaring of the fire in the stairway sounded louder 
 than ever. Its noise was like that of a raging furnace. 
 Bart's hands were scorched, but he did not feel the pain 
 of the burns. Another piece of timber dropped from the 
 floor above within a foot of where he stood. Others 
 seemed about to fall. There was fire all round him, and 
 the whole corridor seemed on the point of leaping into 
 flame. 
 
 Hodge lifted Merry's unconscious form and faced the 
 fire. A groan came from Merriwell's lips. Bart looked 
 into the white face and saw a bloody lump on the side 
 of Merry's head. That face appealed to him as if for 
 protection from the fire. 
 
 In spite of his many faults, Bart Hodge held for Frank 
 Merriwell the love of a strong and manly heart. Frank 
 was the one true and faithful friend who had always 
 stood by him the one friend who always understood him 
 the one friend who was every ready to defend him. 
 And Hodge would have laid down his life for Merriwell I 
 
 He saw. that if he dashed through the fire with Merri-
 
 154 Cowardice of the Chickering Set 
 
 well, that face, so strong and manly and true, would be 
 horribly disfigured. He did not think of his own so 
 much as of Merriwell's. Yet he felt that if he got out 
 of the building with his burden he would have to make 
 haste. There were doors along the corridor, and he 
 knew that they opened into rooms. He put Merriwell 
 down, and finding the first door locked, kicked it in with 
 his foot. 
 
 The room was full of smoke, but the fire had not yet 
 entered it. Hodge hastily tore from the bed a big double 
 blanket, and retreated with it into the corridor. This 
 blanket he wound round Merriwell's face and shoulders 
 and hands ; then lifted Frank again, protecting himself 
 with the folds of the blanket as well as he could as he 
 did so. Thus dragging Merriwell, he stumbled toward 
 the hell of fire that roared in the stairway. 
 
 There was a jarring sound, and for a moment it 
 seemed that the whole building was tumbling down round 
 his ears. A section of the rear wall had fallen outward, 
 and the part of the hotel containing the kitchen was a 
 burning wreck. Bart hardly heard the sound, so absorbed 
 was he in the task before him. He did not feel Merri- 
 well's weight in fact, his strength seemed to be as great 
 as Browning's. 
 
 "Frank!" he cried, in his heart "Frank, my dearest 
 friend, if I can't carry you out, we'll die together !" 
 
 The fire in the stairway had greatly increased. But 
 Hodge did not hesitate. Wrapping the blanket closer
 
 Cowardice of the Chickering Set 155 
 
 about Merriwell and himself, he rushed, with seeming 
 recklessness, but with a boldness that was really the 
 highest form of courage, into that raging cauldron of 
 fire, and descended with the steady celerity of one who 
 sees every foot of the way and has no thrill of fear. 
 
 The blanket crisped and cracked and smoked into flame 
 as the fiery waves beat against it. Bart seemed to be 
 breathing liquid flame. But the thick bulk of the blanket 
 shielding Merri well's face and hands kept them from 
 the searing fire. 
 
 Half-fainting, but victorious, Bart Hodge reeled out 
 of the hotel, bearing Merriwell in his arms. A great 
 cheer went up from the excited crowd, for, somehow, the 
 information had spread that a daring attempt to rescue 
 a friend was being made by one of the college students. 
 
 Merriwell's flock dived through the thick smoke and 
 carried both Hodge and Merriwell to a place of security. 
 And even as they did so the tottering side wall, that had 
 so long been swaying, fell, and the shell of the burning 
 hotel collapsed like a house of cards. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The next morning Danny Griswold bounced into Mer- 
 riwell's room. Hodge was there. He and Frank were 
 talking about the fire and congratulating themselves that 
 neither had received bad burns and that Merry's injury 
 was not serious. 
 
 "News!" exclaimed Danny. "Morton Agnew left 
 New Haven last night"
 
 156 Cowardice of the Chickering Set. 
 
 "I knew he would," said Frank. "He knows I am 
 going to give his confession to the faculty this morning, 
 and he would not want to stay here a minute after that. 
 Yale will never see him again." 
 
 "Good thing for Yale!" Hodge grunted.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A WILB NIGHT. 
 
 A wild lot of sophomores and freshmen were cele- 
 brating the beginning of "secret-society week," by march- 
 ing round the campus at night in lock-step style, singing 
 rousing college songs. They danced in and out of the 
 dormitories, wildly cheered every building they passed, 
 while the classes bellowed forth their "Omega Lambda 
 Chi." 
 
 Down by the fence by Durfee's, on the campus, in the 
 gymnasium, at Traeger's and Morey's and Jackson's, and 
 wherever Yale men congregated, almost the sole topic of 
 conversation was of who would go to "Bones," "Keys," 
 and "Wolf's Head." 
 
 The air of mystery surrounding membership in these 
 senior societies, the honor which their membership con- 
 fers, and the fact that but a few men, comparatively, out 
 of any junior class can be elected to them, create an ab- 
 sorbing interest. 
 
 Skull and Bones, or "Bones," as it is popularly called, 
 is the wealthiest and most respected. Then follows 
 Scrolls and Keys, or "Keys," with Wolf's Head third 
 in order of distinction. The names are taken from the 
 society pins. Each of these societies has a handsome and
 
 158 A Wild Night. 
 
 costly club-house, whose secrets are no more to be ar- 
 rived at than are those of the sphinx and the pyramids. 
 
 Conjectures as to what society would get the most 
 prominent members of the junior class had engrossed a 
 good deal of thought for several weeks. Each society 
 takes in fifteen members, or forty-five in all, out of the 
 two hundred and fifty or more men that usually com- 
 pose the junior class. As every junior is anxious to be- 
 come a member, the feverish interest with which the 
 subject is regarded by the juniors may be imagined. This 
 interest had gradually spread throughout the college. 
 Now the subject suddenly leaped to such importance that 
 it overshadowed the ball-game which Yale was to play 
 against Princeton, and the coming boat-race at New Lon- 
 don, in which the phenomenally popular Inza Burrage 
 was to be the mascot of the Yale crew. 
 
 Class spirit, that wildly jovial night, seemed to melt the 
 sophomores into a fraternizing, loving brotherhood, 
 where discord was unknown, even though the class con- 
 tained such opposite elements as Buck Badger, Jim 
 Hooker, Donald Pike, Pink Pooler, the Chickering set, 
 Porter, Cowles, Mullen, Benson, Billings, Webb, and 
 others. Though these might join in class dances and 
 marches, and howl themselves hoarse in honor of the 
 sophomores and of Yale, some of them could no more 
 unite in any true sense than oil and water. 
 
 The campus was brilliantly illuminated. Powerful cal- 
 cium and electric lights bored holes through the dark-
 
 A Wild Night. 159 
 
 ness, turning night into day. All the windows of all the 
 dormitories which face the campus were crowded with 
 students and with women. 
 
 Three of these windows held Frank Merriwell's 
 friends. Frank was there, with Inza, Elsie, and Winnie, 
 together with Mrs. Hodge and Inza's invalid father, Ber- 
 nard Burrage. 
 
 "As in life, the good and the evil mingle," sighed Dis- 
 mal Jones, as his eyes fell on Jim Hooker and other hon- 
 orable sophomores who were marching in close proximity 
 to the Chickering set. "The wheat grows up with the 
 tares, and the result is an everlasting bobbery." 
 
 "There will be tears in your wardrobe if you don't quit 
 walking on me !" squeaked Bink Stubbs. 
 
 "Climb up on a chair," advised Danny, who had al- 
 ready taken his own advice, and was thus able to look 
 down into the campus without stretching his neck until 
 he was in danger of converting himself into a dromedary. 
 "It's just great !" 
 
 "Can't be anything great for me that holds that Chick- 
 ering crowd !" Browning grumbled. 
 
 "Isn't the campus beautiful!" was Inza's enthusiastic 
 exclamation. 
 
 It was, indeed, beautiful, for the fresh, tender green 
 of the elms was brought out with marvelous distinctness 
 by the brilliant lights. 
 
 "They're kuk-kuk-kicking up an awful dud-dud-dud-
 
 160 A Wild Might. 
 
 dust!" stuttered Gamp, pushing forward for a better 
 view. 
 
 "Dust assume to crowd in front of me, base varlet?" 
 questioned Bruce. "I'll forgive you if you'll just take 
 off your tall head and hold it under your arm !" 
 
 "I s'pose naow you think that's a joke !" said Gamp. 
 
 "It's more than a dust, fellows," said Merriwell. 
 "There is a fight on !" 
 
 Certain of the sophomores had bunched together under 
 one of the elms, and seemed to be struggling, as if in a 
 contest. 
 
 "It looks as though they might be playing football/' 
 suggested Elsie. 
 
 Winnie Lee leaned anxiously out of the window, for in 
 the center of that knot she had seen Buck Badger. She 
 had eagerly searched for him in the procession, and had 
 but found him when that indication of a wrangle came to 
 disturb her. 
 
 The procession seemed to be breaking up and concen- 
 trating beneath and around the elm where that struggle 
 was taking place. Far in front a number of students 
 were bellowing their "Omega Lambda Chi," but the 
 others had ceased to sing. 
 
 "See how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" said 
 Dismal. 
 
 And Dismal was right. The beginning of that scram- 
 ble was trivial enough. But the trouble which it kindled 
 was destined to outlive the moment and seriously affect
 
 A Wild Night. 161 
 
 the life and fortunes of at least one of the participants. 
 Jones was merely grumbling one of his proverbs, with- 
 out dreaming how appropriate the words really were. 
 
 Donald Pike had been nagging and tormenting the 
 Chickering set. He had bumped his toes against Ollie 
 Lord's high-heeled shoes. In the lock-step walk he had 
 put his hands crushingly on Tilton Hull's high choker 
 collar. He had pitched against and torn Gene Skelding's 
 flaring necktie. And he had even dared to knock off 
 Julitan Ives' hat and disarrange his lovely bang. 
 
 At last, in his exuberance, he seized a handful of 
 clammy soil that was almost the consistency of mud, and 
 playfully tossed it at Lew Veazie. It missed Veazie, 
 and, by an infortuitous fate, took Buck Badger smack in 
 the eye. Badger, who had seen Pike's antics, clapped a 
 hand to his eye with a grunt of pain and astonishment. 
 
 "You scoundrel !" he bellowed. Then he lunged at 
 Pike, with a startling suddenness that took Donald quite 
 off his guard and threw him headlong. 
 
 Badger believed that Pike had thrown the mud into 
 his eye purposely. There had been bad feeling between 
 them, and even worse, for some time, and the gap sepa- 
 rating them seemed to be growing wider all the while. 
 Each had said exasperating and belittling things of the 
 other, and a wall of hate had been built up where once 
 there had been a bond of strong friendship. The pain 
 in Badger's eye was excruciating, and it rendered him for 
 a little while absolutely reckless. Fortunately, it also
 
 162 A Wild Night 
 
 rendered him incapable of inflicting on his former friend 
 the punishment which his rage dictated. 
 
 For a short time affairs were exciting enough. Sopho- 
 mores and freshmen deserted the procession and leaped 
 for the elm where the crowd was quickly gathering. 
 Badger threw himself on Pike, after the latter was down, 
 and would have proceeded to pound his face, without 
 doubt, but that his arms were caught and held. 
 
 It was all over within less than two minutes. Some of 
 the Westerner's friends held him back and began to talk 
 some sense into him, while Pike's friends drew him out 
 and away. 
 
 "I reckon this isn't the end of it!" snarled Badger, 
 flinging the words at Pike. "There will be a beautiful 
 settlement of this, remember." 
 
 Then he hobbled blindly out of the crowd with some 
 acquaintances, to have his smarting eye attended to, while 
 the procession reformed, and the rollicking students be- 
 gan again to shout their "Omega Lambda Chi." 
 
 The "beautiful settlement" came at a late hour that 
 night. Badger encountered Pike while the latter was 
 on his way to his room. The Kansan's eye still pained 
 him, and his rage was hot. As soon as he saw Pike he 
 stepped across the walk and took him by the nose. 
 
 "That's the way I treat such skunks as you !" he 
 hissed, flinging Pike from him after offering him that 
 deadly insult "I want to warn you to keep out of my
 
 A Wild Night. 163 
 
 way after this. If you don't, I'll treat you just as I 
 would a rattler !" 
 
 "You mean you will kill me !" snarled Pike, rushing at 
 the Kansan in a fit of blind rage. 
 
 But he was no match for Badger, who flung him off 
 with surprising ease, and then held him at bay and at 
 arm's length by a clutch on his throat. 
 
 "I've a notion to choke the breath out of you!" said 
 Badger. "Don't tempt me too far, or I might forget 
 myself and do it. You know that I've got a red-hot, can- 
 tankerous temper when I get started. Now go! Git! 
 If you don't, I'll lift you with my shoe. And keep out of 
 my way, unless you want trouble!" 
 
 He pushed Pike from him with stinging scorn. 
 
 "I'll go !" said Pike. "But I'll pay you for to-night's 
 work! See if I don't! You'll find out that there are 
 more ways of fighting than with fists. You may wish 
 that you had killed me, before you get through with it !" 
 
 "What does the scoundrel mean by that?" the West- 
 erner questioned, staring at Pike as the latter hurried 
 away. "I reckon he is mean enough to do anything. 
 Well, he had better have a care !" 
 
 He was soon destined to feel the effects of Pike's threat 
 in a manner more crushing than any knock-down physical 
 blow which Pike could have delivered.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PIKE AND BADGER. 
 
 The next evening, which was Tuesday evening, while 
 the societies were hilariously enjoying their annual cal- 
 cium-light procession, Donald Pike took a car and ha- 
 stened to the home of the Honorable Fairfax Lee. He 
 had tarried in the campus long enough to be sure that 
 Winnie Lee was again enjoying the processional festivi- 
 ties from one of the dormitory windows. 
 
 "Nobody will know whether I am in that procession 
 or not," he muttered, as he started toward Lee's. "And 
 if they do know, what is the difference? I'm under no 
 obligation to be there, and I can say that I had a head- 
 ache, or anything else I want to, if I choose to take the 
 trouble to account for my absence." 
 
 To Pike's great satisfaction, he found Fairfax Lee 
 at home; and when he told the servant that he had an 
 important communication to make, he was invited into 
 the waiting-room, and finally was ushered into the pres- 
 ence of Mr. Lee. 
 
 The facing of Mr. Lee in this manner, even though he 
 could claim disinterested motives, rather phased even 
 the blunted spirit of Donald Pike. If he had dared to, 
 he would have committed his story to writing, and so 
 brought it to Lee's attention. But things that are writ-
 
 Pike and Badger. 165 
 
 ten often have an unpleasant way of reappearing, to the 
 discomfiture and undoing of the writer, and Pike's cau- 
 tion warned him against such risks. Words merely 
 spoken, he assured himself, can be denied, if that becomes 
 afterward necessary. Written words, undestroyed, can- 
 not be so easily escaped. 
 
 "Anything I can do for you?" Mr. Lee queried, when 
 Pike hesitated. "You have a communication, I believe ?" 
 
 Donald pulled himself together, and the opening sen- 
 tences of what he intended to say came back to him. He 
 had thought these out with care, and they seemed very 
 fine and even humanitarian. 
 
 "I want you to know at the outset, Mr. Lee, that in 
 coming to you with the information I bear I am wholly 
 disinterested. But the truth is due you. No one else 
 seems to have had the courage to tell you, and I shall." 
 
 Fairfax Lee began to look interested. 
 
 "You are very kind," he said, "and I thank you in ad- 
 yance for your favor." 
 
 This was so auspicious a beginning that Pike's courage 
 rose. 
 
 "I want to have a frank talk with you about a certain 
 young Yale man Mr. Buck Badger. You must have 
 noticed that he is very devoted in his attentions to your 
 daughter?" 
 
 There was no reply to this, though Pike halted, in the 
 expectation that there would be one. 
 
 "I am well acquainted with Badger. In fact, until
 
 1 66 Pike and Badger. 
 
 very recently, he was my roommate, and we were good 
 friends. Perhaps when I tell you that he is not a fit man 
 to associate with your daughter, you may think I am led 
 by the fact that Badger and I are not now the friends we 
 were once. But it is not so. We are not friends simply 
 because his baseness became so apparent to me that I 
 could no longer associate with him. 
 
 "I have thought this thing over for a good while, Mr. 
 Lee, and as an honorable man, I did not think I ought 
 to remain silent and see things go on as they are. You 
 love your daughter, Mr. Lee?" 
 
 This last was rather an effective shot, for Fairfax Lee 
 loved Winnie devotedly. 
 
 "All this is very unpleasant, Mr. Pike, but I am ready 
 to hear what you have to say. I am free to confess that 
 you rather surprise me." 
 
 "Your daughter is an admirable young lady, Mr. Lee. 
 And though I cannot say that she and I are more than 
 the merest acquaintances, I thought it a shame that mat- 
 ters should go on as they are without a word from me 
 to you, to let you see what your daughter is walking into. 
 Or what she would walk into, if she should ever be so 
 unfortunate as to marry Buck Badger!" 
 
 Donald Pike had at last contrived to get into his tones 
 and manner a sympathetic element that, while it was 
 veriest hypocricy, was very effective. 
 
 "My daughter is not married to Mr. Badger yet !" said
 
 Pike and Badger. 167 
 
 Lee, somewhat bluntly, a frown on his usually pleasant 
 face, for his positon was far from agreeable. 
 
 "And I hope she may never be." 
 
 "You fail to specify," Lee reminded. "You make only 
 vague charges." 
 
 "There are many things," said Pike, coming to the 
 point now with great boldness, "but I shall name only 
 one. Buck Badger is a drunkard." 
 
 Fairfax Lee seemed astonished, and the frown on his 
 face deepened. 
 
 "He is the worst type of drunkard. Not a man who 
 drinks steadily, but one of those who indulge now and 
 then in crazy, drunken debauches. For weeks, even 
 months, he may not touch a drop of liquor. Then he will 
 go on a spree. You can verify this, I am sure, by in- 
 quiries carefully made among the students. More than 
 once he has been known to be on a drunk. He was 
 drunk when he went aboard the excursion steamer, 
 Crested Foam, when she was burned in the bay." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "It is true, Mr. Lee, every word of it. Your daughter 
 and a good many others think he was drugged by the 
 boat-keeper, Barney Lynn, and lured on the steamer for 
 the purpose of robbery. But when he met Lynn he was 
 already raving blind drunk, and Lynn merely took ad- 
 vantage of his helpless condition. You can know that 
 this is true if you will call or send a man to the saloon of 
 Joe Connelly. He went to Connelly's that night or
 
 168 Pike and Badger. 
 
 rather, the evening before filled himself up on the vilest 
 decoctions, and went out from there as drunk as a fool. 
 He has been there before many times. Connelly knows 
 him well." 
 
 All this was so circumstantial that Fairfax Lee was 
 alarmed and moved. He knew that Connelly's was one 
 of the worst dens of the city, and he felt sure that unless 
 there was something in the story Pike would not give 
 names in this way. He resolved to learn the whole truth 
 about the matter. 
 
 "If what you say is true, Buck Badger is not fit to asso- 
 ciate with any girl," he asserted. 
 
 "Especially not with a girl as innocent and unsuspect- 
 ing as your daughter, Mr. Lee. I have seen that for a 
 good while, and it has been a fight with my conscience 
 to keep from coming here with this story. I couldn't 
 delay it longer. I trust you see that I can have no hope 
 of gain, and nothing but right motives in bringing you 
 this story which you will find fully substantiated by a 
 course of inquiry." 
 
 Fairfax Lee was flushed and silent. 
 
 "All of Badger's friends, or most of them, I am sure, 
 know that he was drunk, and not drugged, when he went 
 aboard the Crested Foam. Some of them might admit 
 this knowledge." 
 
 "You are a sophomore?" 
 
 "Yes."
 
 Pike and Badger. 169 
 
 "And Mr. Badger is ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And you were recently his friend and roommate?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "I have your card, which I will put by for reference. 
 I presume, if I call on you, you will be willing to repeat 
 anywhere what you have said to me here?" 
 
 This was unexpected, and Pike hesitated. 
 
 "I don't care to get myself into trouble with Badger. 
 He is of the bulldog, pugilistic type, and the first thing 
 he would do would be to assault me like the bully he is. 
 I have given you the warning. You can get all the proof 
 you want. Probably you would never have heard of this 
 until too late, if I had not voluntarily brought you the 
 story." 
 
 "You are right," Lee admitted. "Perhaps that would 
 be asking too much." 
 
 "I have struck the blow, Badger," Donald Pike mut- 
 tered, as he left the handsome home of the Lees. "You 
 will find it more of a knock-down, I fancy, than if I had 
 hit you between the eyes with my fist. Nobody ever 
 walks roughshod over Don Pike and gets off without 
 suffering for it. You will hear something drop pretty 
 soon." 
 
 And so, chuckling, he took his way to the street-car 
 line, and returned to the campus and the Yale jollifi- 
 cation. 
 
 The Kansan had accompanied Winnie Lee home that
 
 170 Pike and Badger. 
 
 evening, as usual. The hour was late, and he did not 
 enter the house, but kissed her good-night at the gate. 
 
 "Good-night and pleasant dreams, sweetheart!" he 
 said as he turned to go. 
 
 His heart was light, for he and Winnie had enjoyed a 
 long and loving talk on the way home, and throughout 
 the evening there had been no untoward incident to mar 
 his pleasure. He had noticed Donald Pike's absence, and 
 had been glad of it, but he merely supposed Pike kept 
 away because of the row of the previous evening. If 
 there are such things as premonitions of coming trouble, 
 certainly they did not distress Badger that night. Win- 
 nie was also in a happy frame of 'mind as she tripped 
 lightly up the steps and entered the house. 
 
 Inza and Elsie had returned some time before. As 
 she had expected, they had retired to their rooms. She 
 was surprised, however, to find her father waiting for 
 her in the sitting-room, which was brightly lighted. As 
 she came into the room, she saw something ominous in 
 his face. She thought she was to be lectured for re- 
 maining out so late. 
 
 "Sit down, Winnie," he said. "I want to have a talk 
 with you." 
 
 His voice was even more ominous than his face. She 
 came and sat down by his side, when she had removed 
 her hat. He put his hand on her head and drew her 
 toward him.
 
 Pike and Badger. 171 
 
 "Did Mr. Badger come home with you, \Vmnie?" he 
 asked, and his voice was slightly tremulous. 
 
 "Yes, father. I know I stayed a little late, but it was 
 so hard to get away while so much was going on. I 
 Jon't know when I have had so pleasant an evening. 
 And besides, it was hard for Buck to get away, and we 
 had arranged for him to come home with me. The fes- 
 tivities had not ended when we left." 
 
 "Buck Badger must never come home with you again !" 
 he said, with a firmness and suddenness that took all the 
 color out of her cheeks, and seemed to take all the 
 breath out of her body. She sat still, as if frozen by the 
 statement, while a scared look filled her eyes. Then she 
 partly roused herself. 
 
 "What why do you say that?" 
 
 "I have learned that he is not fit to associate with you 
 is not fit to associate with any girl !" 
 
 "What have you heard, father?" she demanded, in a 
 trembling voice. "I know that whatever it is, it isn't 
 true, for Buck is fit to associate with any girl !" 
 
 She half-expected him to refer to the fracas of the 
 evening before in the campus. 
 
 "If there is one thing on which I am determined, it is 
 that my daughter shall never marry a drunkard !" 
 
 "Buck isn't a drunkard !" 
 
 "He was drunk when he was taken aboard the Crested 
 Foam by that boatman, Barney Lynn." 
 
 "No, father!"
 
 172 Pike and Badger. 
 
 "You think not, of course. You think he was 
 drugged." 
 
 "He was drugged. Lynn drugged him. He was not 
 drunk, and he had not been drinking. Who has been 
 telling you such things ? I am sure it cannot be any one 
 who has any honor." 
 
 "It was some one who felt it to be his duty to warn 
 me of the fact that my daughter is in danger of marry- 
 ing a drunkard. I thank him for it." 
 
 "But, father, you would not take the unsupported word 
 of any one, would you ? I know that Buck has touched 
 liquor at times, just as nearly all the college men do, 
 but he is not a drunkard, and he is not even a drinking 
 man. And he is now strictly temperate. He told me so 
 himself, that he has taken a pledge with himself never 
 to touch anything of the kind again. And Mr. Merri- 
 well you know that Mr. Merriwell wouldn't befriend 
 and favor him as he is doing now if Buck were a drunk- 
 ard." 
 
 "But I know, Winnie, dear!" Lee firmly, yet kindly, 
 insisted. 
 
 "And I know, father! Barney Lynn confessed to me 
 that he drugged Buck; but he said nothing about Buck 
 being intoxicated, which he would have done, wouldn't 
 he, if Buck had really been intoxicated when he met 
 Lynn?" 
 
 The girl was quick and alert. She understood that 
 80me desperate attempt to separate her from the man
 
 Pike and Badger. 173 
 
 she loved had been made, and she did not intend that it 
 should succeed without an effort against it on her nart. 
 
 "Who told you this lie, father?" 
 
 "I wish it was a lie !" Lee groaned. 
 
 "It is!" 
 
 "I have just come from Connelly's saloon, down in 
 one of the worst parts of the city. I was told to go 
 there and I would find the evidence I wanted. I went; 
 and I have just returned. Badger was at Connelly's the 
 night before the Crested Foam excursion. It is an all- 
 night resort though it professes, I believe, to close at 
 midnight. Badger left there at about two or three 
 o'clock, blindly intoxicated. He was simply reeling 
 drunk. He must have gone from there to the wharf, and 
 there he fell into the hands of Barney Lynn, who 
 drugged him for his money. This is true, Winnie. There 
 isn't the slightest doubt about it. I wish it were all a 
 terrible mistake, but it isn't. And that was not the first 
 time that Badger had reeled out of Connelly's far into 
 the night, drunk. He is given to just such drunken 
 debauches." 
 
 Winnie Lee's heart seemed to have turned to lead in 
 her bosom. She was cold from head to feet, except that 
 in her cheeks bright spots burned. Her father looked 
 at her with anguished eyes. He noted the pallor and 
 the hectic spots. 
 
 "Winnie, I can't let you throw yourself away on such 
 a fellow as Buck Badger! You must put him out ol
 
 174 Pike and Badger. 
 
 your thoughts. He is unworthy of you. I thought he 
 was an honorable young man, and now I find I was mis- 
 taken. I shall make further inquiries, but those I have 
 made to-night are enough to condemn him. You must 
 not see him again, and you must have nothing further to 
 do with him. I want you to tell him just what I have 
 said or I shall tell him myself, and give him a piece 
 of my mind in the bargain." 
 
 Winnie knew that she was trembling as with an ague, 
 but she tried to hold her emotions in check that she might 
 fight for herself and for Buck. Everything was at stake 
 now, she felt, for she loved Badger with an absorbing 
 love. 
 
 "You have simply been deceived, father," she in- 
 sisted. "I know it. Like many Yale men, Buck has 
 been a little wild at times. He knows it and acknowl- 
 edges it. But as for that night and that excursion, that 
 isn't true, I don't care who told you. Buck has a good 
 many enemies, and some of them have come to you with 
 this story. Tell me who told you, in the first place." 
 
 "It wouldn't be right just now for me to give his name. 
 And it is not needed. Connelly admitted that Badger 
 had been there often, and had gone from there drunk 
 the night before the steamer excursion. He remembered 
 it, because the story of the fire and of Lynn's death, and 
 the drugging of Badger, was in the papers, and he could 
 not forget the time. I wish it wasn't true, Winnie ; but 
 it is true. It will be hard, perhaps, for you to give him
 
 Pike and Badger. 175 
 
 up, but better that than for him to make you unhappy, 
 as he is sure to do." 
 
 "Hard!" she mentally cried. "It will kill me!" 
 
 He looked at her pathetically, yet with decision and 
 firmness. 
 
 "Make up your mind that he is unworthy. I will bring 
 you more proofs, if necessary. But I, first of all, lay 
 on you my commands. You must not see him again, 
 except to tell him that he cannot call again, and that you 
 cannot be anything to each other hereafter but the merest 
 acquaintances." 
 
 Man of affairs and of the world as he was, Fairfax 
 Lee had not yet learned that love cannot be made to 
 come and go at will. If the little god is blind, he is also 
 stubborn, and has a way of his own. 
 
 "I can't, father!" Winnie begged. "You must not 
 ask it of me." 
 
 "What? You would not continue to go with him, 
 knowing what I have told you? You would not permit 
 a drunkard to pay you attentions, or a man who is in the 
 habit of going on wild debauches ?" 
 
 "No. But Buck is not that kind of a man. You have 
 simply been deceived." 
 
 "I have given my orders," said Lee, with a sternness 
 he seldom used in speaking to Winnie. "I expect that 
 they will be obeyed. It is useless to argue the matter. 
 Buck Badger must not come into this house. I will 
 write him a note to that effect, myself. You shall not
 
 I7& Pike and Badger. 
 
 see him again! I shall tell him in plain words just 
 what I have learned, and that this house and your com- 
 pany are forbidden to him." 
 
 "But, father " 
 
 "We will not talk any more about it. You are stub- 
 born to-night. You will think better of it in the morn- 
 ing. No one no one, Winnie, loves you as I do! I 
 have given you every advantage. You shall not throw 
 yourself away on any one." 
 
 He got up, as if to end the interview. 
 
 The room and its belongings seemed swinging wildly 
 round in a crazy dance before the eyes of Winnie Lee. 
 She grasped at her chair for support. She seemed unable 
 to lift herself. In her heart there was only one cry 
 one wild cry: "Buck! Buck! Buck!" 
 
 By a great effort, she at last arose from her chair. Her 
 father saw the marblelike pallor of her face, and, touched 
 by this sign of distress, he came over, put his arms about 
 her and kissed her. Her cheek, against which he 
 pressed his lips, seemed cold as ice. 
 
 "Don't be foolish, dear !" he pleaded. "You shouldn't 
 grieve over a man who is so manifestly unworthy of 
 you. You know that I love you, and that I haven't said 
 these things to give you pain, but because it is my duty 
 as your father. Now, good night, dear." 
 
 "Good night !" she said, as if in a dream, and blindly 
 .walked toward the door,
 
 Pike and Badger. 177 
 
 In her room, she threw herself across her bed. 
 
 "Oh, what shall I do?" she moaned. "Buck! Buck! 
 Buck ! Who has told such terrible lies on you, dear ?" 
 
 And so she lay there, moaning out a grief that was 
 too great for tears.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE BLOW FALLS. 
 
 The next afttcnoon the Westerner received this note, 
 which was delivered at his room by a boy, who went 
 away before Badger had a chance to question him: 
 
 "MR. BUCK BADGER: Certain facts have come to my 
 knowledge which show that you are not the man I sup- 
 posed you to be. I find that you are not only a drinking 
 man, but that you often become grossly intoxicated, and 
 that you were so when lured aboard the Crested Foam by 
 Barney Lynn. Under these circumstances, you cannot 
 expect that I will longer permit your attentions to my 
 daughter. I ask you, therefore, not to try to see her 
 again, and not again to call at my house, where you are 
 most unwelcome. If there is any spark of manhood or 
 gentlemanliness left in you, you will respect my wishes 
 ^nd commands in this matter. Yours, 
 
 "FAIRFAX LEE." 
 
 The Kansan stared at the paper as if he could not be- 
 lieve his eyes, while a flush of hot displeasure crept into 
 his dark face. 
 
 "Who has been telling him that?" he growled, jam- 
 ming the note down on his table, and then picking it up 
 to read again. "I'll break the neck of the man that did 
 that. 'Not try to see her again?' Well, I don't think I
 
 The Blow Falls. 179 
 
 I allow I shall see her every chance I get, and whenever 
 I choose, and I'd like to tell Lee so. Why, what " 
 
 He got up from the table and began to walk back and 
 forth like a caged tiger. He was sure that some enemy 
 had struck at him in this way. Suddenly he halted, and 
 the pupils of his eyes contracted. 
 
 "Ah!" he snarled. "I reckon that was the work of 
 Don Pike. He said he'd strike me in a way that would 
 be worse than if he hit me with his fist, and this is 
 what he meant! Well, I'll settle with you, Pike, for that, 
 and don't you ever forget it ! You won't forget, either, 
 I allow, when I'm through with you. That's what- 
 ever!" 
 
 He crumpled up the note, hastily stuck it into a pocket, 
 jammed his hat on his head, and left his room hurriedly, 
 locking the door. He did not stop in the campus. It 
 was filled with Yale fellows, and the fence in front of 
 Durfee Hall was crowded. He saw here and there men 
 whom he knew well, and who nodded to him. He hardly 
 took time to return the greetings. 
 
 "What's the matter with Badger now?" rumbled 
 Browning. "He is charging along like a blind bull at a 
 fence." 
 
 "Why do you ever notice what the fellow does at all ?" 
 Bart Hodge grumbled. 
 
 "Well, even cranks are interesting," said Dismal Jones, 
 also looking curiously after Badger. * 
 
 "Curiosities likewise," remarked Danny Griswold, puff-
 
 i8o The Blow Falls. 
 
 ing at his cigarette. "And since our dear Merry has 
 just about adopted this wild bull from the plain, my in- 
 terest in him as a curiosity has increased." 
 
 "As a guess, I should say he is hunting somebody to 
 fight," said Diamond. 
 
 "Then he will be accommodated in mighty short or- 
 der," Browning prophesied. "I never yet saw a fellow 
 go after trouble and return without finding what he 
 sought. Mr. Badger is not the only fellow who goes 
 pawing round with his hair standing and blood in his 
 eye." 
 
 "Speaking from experience, Browning?" mildly in- 
 quired Bink Stubbs, scratching a match to light a ciga- 
 rette. "You have gone in search of trouble a few times, 
 to my knowledge." 
 
 "And you're searching for it now !" grunted Browning, 
 giving the little fellow a warning look. 
 
 All unaware of the fact that his rapid transit across 
 the campus had occasioned unusual comment, Badger 
 hurried on, and finally entered a car which took him to 
 the office of Fairfax Lee. 
 
 "Is Mr. Lee in?" he asked of the clerk in the oute* 
 room. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Will you give him my card, please, and tell him 1 
 should like to see him a few minutes?" 
 
 The clerk took the card and disappeared. He was 
 back immediately.
 
 The Blow Falls. 181 
 
 "Mr. Lee says that he cannot see you, sir!" 
 "Did he say that he is engaged?" 
 "No, sir. He does not care to see you !" 
 The Westerner's dark face burned, and he bit his lip 
 to keep the hot words from rushing out in a torrent. He 
 stood for a moment, hesitating. But a door separated 
 him, he believed, from Mr. Lee. He was almost ready 
 to push open that door and confront Lee and demand 
 an explanation of the letter forbidding him to see Winnie 
 again. But he got the better of himself, and walked out 
 of the office. 
 
 "If he thinks he can bluff me out, or freeze me out, 
 he don't know me!" he grated, as he turned away. "I 
 shall see Winnie as often as I can. Hanged if I don't 
 go up there right now !" 
 
 With the Kansan, to think was to act. And in a few 
 minutes he was in another car speeding toward the home 
 of the Lees. 
 
 "If I don't get to see her, perhaps I can find out some- 
 thing about this mess from Inza or Elsie. They may be 
 able to clear away the mystery. I allow I never was in 
 so horrible a snarl in my life. But I'll punch Pike's 
 head for this, and don't you forget it! That's what- 
 ever !" 
 
 But the Westerner met quite as chilling a reception at 
 Lee's home as at the office. The servant who met him at 
 the door had received her instructions.
 
 1 82 The Blow Falls. 
 
 "You are not to be admitted to the house," she said 
 sharply. 
 
 "Is Miss Lee in?" he persisted. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Is that true, or is it one of the society lies which de- 
 clares that a lady is out when she is in?" he bluntly de- 
 manded. 
 
 To this there was no answer. The servant began to 
 close the door. Badger stopped this by taking hold of 
 the knob. 
 
 "What do you want?" asked the girl, who was some- 
 what frightened by the Westerner's violent manner. 
 
 "I want to see Miss Winnie Lee." 
 
 "She is not at home." 
 
 "Then I want to see Miss Inza Burrage." 
 
 "She is not in." 
 
 "Then I should like to see Miss Elsie Bellwood." 
 
 "She is not in." 
 
 Badger suddenly changed his tactics. Bluster would 
 not do, he saw. He put his hand into a pocket and drew 
 out a five-dollar note, which he held up alluringly. 
 
 "If you will take a note for me to' Miss Lee, I will 
 give you this five dollars.'' 
 
 The servant shook her head and again tried to close the 
 door. 
 
 "If you will take a note to either Miss 'Burrage or 
 Miss Bellwood, I will give you the five dollars." 
 
 Once more the servant sought to close the door.
 
 The Blow Falls. 183 
 
 "I have my orders, Mr. Badger. I cannot afford to 
 lose my place for five dollars or fifty dollars. And I 
 wouldn't do what you ask, anyway. If you do not let 
 me close the door, I shall call for help." 
 
 "All right!" said Badger gruffly, releasing the door. 
 "But I will see those young ladies, just the same." 
 
 To accomplish this he remained in the vicinity of the 
 house until long after nightfall. But he was wholly 
 unrewarded for his vigil, and at last, distressed, humili- 
 ated, and angry, he took a car for the college grounds, 
 raging like a lion against Donald Pike. Even an enemy 
 of Badger must have pitied him that night. 
 
 The campus was filled with Yale men and their 
 friends, and there were excitement and sport, fun and 
 laughter, music and merriment galore. But Badger 
 could enjoy none of it. He had no thought for anything 
 but Winnie Lee and the treatment he had received from 
 her father. He wondered if she were at home, and was 
 half of the opinion that Lee had spirited her out of the 
 city. His disappointment in not seeing either Elsie or 
 Inza was bitter, for somehow he felt that if he could 
 see them they would be willing to help him. 
 
 With this feeling, he now began to look for Merriwell 
 and his friends, but they were not to be found. He 
 went to Merry's room, and then from room to room, even 
 venturing finally to knock on Hodge's door. Later he 
 learned that Hodge and Merry had called at the home of 
 Fairfax Lee, after he had given over his vigil, and had
 
 184 The Blow Falls. 
 
 been cordially admitted, and had accompanied Inza and 
 Elsie to a banquet, which was attended by the whole 
 Merriwell set. 
 
 The Westerner was more successful in his search for 
 Merriwell the next day, though he did not get a chance 
 to speak to Frank until the afternoon. 
 
 Badger was looking haggard and distressed as he came 
 up to Merry. They were in the campus, and Yale's fa- 
 mous "slapping" ceremony was soon to begin. The 
 campus was filling with men, and the members of the 
 junior class were out in full force, for out of that junior 
 class, by the "slapping" process, forty-five men were to 
 be selected as members of "Bones," "Keys," and Wolf's 
 Head. 
 
 "I looked everywhere for you last night," said Bad- 
 ger; and Frank told him of the banquet. 
 
 "Let's go somewhere where we can talk," the West- 
 erner invited, not relishing the throngs. "The air in 
 here chokes me." 
 
 Merry took him by the arm, and they pushed out of 
 the crowd. 
 
 "Now, what it is?" Frank asked. 
 
 Badger could have made a long story of it, but he cut 
 it down to narrow limits, acquainting Merriwell, in as 
 few words as possible, with the trouble that had come 
 upon him. Frank looked grave. 
 
 "This is serious, Badger," he said, not caring to coa-
 
 The Blow Falls. 185 
 
 ceal from the Kansan his true feelings concerning it 
 "But I'm ready to help you in any way I can." 
 
 "My fool jealousy was at the bottom of the whole 
 thing!" Badger admitted. "Just because I was jealous 
 of Hodge, I went on that drunk and let Barney Lynn 
 fool me into going aboard the boat and in drugging me* 
 Jealousy and whisky. That's what did it." 
 
 "I think you are right there." 
 
 "But, of course, Don Pike is the fellow that peached. 
 And I'll smash his face for it! I allow that everything 
 would have gone on as smooth as silk but for that." 
 
 "Now, what are you going to do?" 
 
 "Hanged if I know, Merriwell! I'll be driven to 
 something desperate, soon. Tell me what the girls said 
 about it." 
 
 "I don't think they knew anything about it. They re- 
 ported that Winnie had been sick in her room, and the 
 doctor had instructed that they were not to see her or 
 disturb her." 
 
 "Is she in the house, then?" 
 
 "I can't tell. She may be, and she may not be. One 
 thing is sure, Buck. Her father is not going to let you 
 see her again. And that makes me think it possible he 
 has spirited her out of the city. If she is in the house, 
 the pretense that she is sick cannot be kept up long." 
 
 "I don't know about that," said the Kansan dubiously. 
 "I allow that likely she is sick. The thing has almost 
 sent me to bed, and the effect on her might be as bad."
 
 1 86 The Blow Falls. 
 
 "Worse, probably." 
 
 "If she is sick in that house, I'm going to see her, if I 
 have to fight my way in." 
 
 "And be arrested. No, that's not the way, Badger. 
 I'll see Elsie and Inza this evening, and we'll find out 
 something definite." 
 
 "You have helped me before in this matter, Merry!" 
 the Kansan gratefully exclaimed. 
 
 "And am ready to do so again. I feel more certain 
 now than I did then that Winnie is not in danger of 
 throwing herself away on you. Pardon me for speaking 
 so plainly." 
 
 "Oh, it's all right!" the Westerner admitted, though 
 liis face colored. "I used to be a dog when I boozed 
 round, and that's what Fairfax Lee has against me now, 
 of course. He thinks I am the same. But I've sworn 
 off on the stuff, and you know it." 
 
 "I'll have a talk with the girls, and we'll see then how 
 the land lays, and what can be done." 
 
 "It will be a favor the biggest favor t I reckon, that 
 any man ever received." 
 
 A number of voices were shouting Merriwell's name 
 in the campus. 
 
 "You'll have to go, I allow," said the Westerner, grip- 
 ping Merriwell's hand. "But the first news you get 
 send it to me. Don't stop for expense, or anything else. 
 Send it along cab, telephone, telegraph, special mes-
 
 The Blow Falls. 187 
 
 senger, or a dozen, if there's danger one may not reach 
 me anything, just so you whoop the news to me. I'll 
 be walking barefooted on cactus spines every minute 
 from now until you make some kind of a report." 
 
 Merriwell returned to the campus, where Yale tradi- 
 tion was gathering the .members of the junior class back 
 of the fence, near Durfee Hall. 
 
 The ceremony of "slapping" is peculiar in many re- 
 spects. No official announcement is made of the fact 
 that this formal and queer manner of announcing elec- 
 tions to the senior societies is enacted. No announce- 
 ment of the coming event is given to the public. The 
 members of the junior class are not notified by any one 
 that they are expected to appear on that spot by the fence 
 at a certain time to be ready to be "slapped," if they 
 have been lucky enough to be chosen for membership in 
 the great senior societies. Nevertheless, the entire junior 
 class, with half the college, and hundreds of spectators 
 from the city, gather there on the third Thursday after- 
 noon in May, between the hours of four and six o'clock, 
 and witness or participate in the spectacle. 
 
 "Slates" had been made up weeks before, and shrewd 
 guesses given as to who would be chosen to this society 
 and to that, though it was all mere guesswork. Nearly 
 every one had agreed, however, that Merriwell would go 
 to "Bones," as the leading society is called, and that 
 "Bones" would be glad to get him, and would be re- 
 ceiving an honor as well as conferring one. Buck Bad-
 
 1 88 The Blow Falls. 
 
 ger, restless as a wolf, stood back and gloomily watched 
 this gathering, and heard the buzz of talk and con- 
 jecture without really comprehending a word. Often he 
 was not aware that he saw the things that were transpir- 
 ing directly under his eyes. 
 
 But at length he aroused himself. Elsie and Inza had 
 suddenly come within the range of his vision, and the 
 sight of them stirred him out of his moody trance. He 
 moved in their direction, but before he could come up 
 with them, to his great disappointment, the pushing 
 crowd swallowed them. Then he went in search of Mer- 
 riwell, whom he found without trouble, for Merriwell 
 was with the expectant juniors. 
 
 "Which way did they go?" Frank asked. 
 
 "Toward that building I mean in that direction. But 
 I lost them in the crowd." 
 
 "I thought they might come down this afternoon! 
 (Winnie wasn't with them?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Frank was about to start away to find the girls, if he 
 could, and question them in the interest of Badger and 
 Winnie, but at that moment he was approached by Jack 
 Diamond, one of the seniors. 
 
 Diamond walked up to Merriwell with all the dignity 
 of the Great Mogul of Kuddyhuddy, and gave him a re- 
 sounding slap on the back. Diamond belonged to 
 "Bones," and the slap was a notification that the society, 
 had chosen Merriwell.
 
 The Blow Falls. 189 
 
 "I can't go now, Badger," said Frank, a bit regret- 
 fully. 
 
 Then be left the campus for his room, as each man 
 slapped is expected to do, followed by Diamond, where 
 he was notified formally of his election and told to ap- 
 pear for initiation at the society hall on Friday evening. 
 
 Of what that initiation consists no one not a member 
 ever knows, and no member will ever tell. Its mys- 
 teries are more impenetrable than Free Masonry.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BUCK AND WINNIE. 
 
 Shortly after nightfall, Badger started again for the 
 residence of Fairfax Lee. He had no definite plans, but 
 rather blindly hoped something might turn up to favor 
 him. He confessed to himself that he was "all gone to 
 pieces," but he had no desire to go into some liquor den 
 and load up with bad whisky, as he was once accustomed 
 to do when trouble or disappointment struck him. 
 
 "It was red-eye that got me into this, I reckon, .and 
 I'll let the stuff alone hereafter. I've promised to, and 
 I will, no matter what comes. That's whatever!" 
 
 And when Buck Badger put his foot down he usually 
 put it down hard. 
 
 "I'd feel better if I could only meet Don Pike and 
 swell up his eyes for him," he continued to growl. "But 
 the coward has sloped." 
 
 It did, indeed, seem that Pike was making an effort to 
 keep out of the way of the Westerner. The very sight 
 of the Lee home quickened Badger's heart-beats. He 
 felt that he would give anything to know if Winnie was 
 in the house, or had been spirited away. 
 
 "Like enough, her father has locked her in her room ! 
 But there ain't any keys whatever that are made strong
 
 Buck and Winnie. 191 
 
 enough to keep me from seeing her. I'll do it sooner or 
 feter." 
 
 Fortune favored the Westerner fortune and his 
 sweetheart, Winnie Lee. Winnie was as wildly anxious 
 to see Buck as he was to see her. She had been locked 
 in her room for stubbornness in refusing to promise 
 never to see Badger again, and the other girls had been 
 told that she was ill and could not be seen. They knew 
 better now, for Winnie had finally bribed and coaxed 
 one of the servants to tell them the truth. They had 
 not known it long, but long enough for Inza indignant 
 as she was brave, and brave as she was indignant to 
 send to Winnie a note, signed by herself and Elsie, 
 assuring the unhappy girl of their sympathy and firm 
 friendship. And that note was wrapped round a door- 
 key which fitted Winnie's door, which the servant was 
 bribed to carry. 
 
 So it came about that shortly after nightfall Winnie 
 let herself out of her room, and creeping down some 
 familiar halls and stairways, emerged into the grounds 
 surrounding the house. Then she turned toward the 
 street. She did not know what she meant to do, only 
 she had a feeling that Buck was somewhere in the vi- 
 cinity trying to find an opportunity to speak to her. She 
 had felt sure that he would not abandon the attempt to 
 communicate with her. She had on her jacket, with a 
 scarf thrown over her head. She felt that she would 
 not be easily recognized.
 
 192 Buck and Winnie. 
 
 She stopped as she drew near the corner which gave 
 a view down the street. There was a stir beyond the 
 wall. The next instant a form came flying over the 
 fence. 
 
 "Winnie!" 
 
 "Buck !" 
 
 It was Badger! 
 
 "I have been crazy to see you !" he whispered, clasping- 
 her tightly in his arms. "I knew it wasn't your fault 
 that I did not get to see you. Have they had you 
 locked up?" 
 
 "Yes," she answered, fervently returning the kiss. "I 
 just got out of the room. Somehow, I felt that you 
 were down here, and I slipped down as soon as I could." 
 
 "I knew you were true as steel," he fervently declared. 
 "Nothing whatever could ever have made me believe 
 otherwise." 
 
 "Did father write to you ?" 
 
 "Yes. He told me never to come here again, and that 
 I must not try to see you. I came to the house, and 
 the servant said you were not in, and would not admit 
 me even when I asked for Elsie and Inza. I have had 
 an awful time." 
 
 "I have nearly died!" she confessed. "Oh, it has 
 simply been terrible ! I thought once I was going crazy. 
 Father does not understand how he has tortured me, or 
 he would not do it, I know. He cannot realize what it 
 means. He simply thinks I am still a child, and that I
 
 Buck and Winnie. 193 
 
 ought to submit to him in this matter, as I have always 
 done in all other things." 
 
 "You are old enough now to have a mind of your 
 own, I allow!" 
 
 "And he has heard such awful stories about you, Buck. 
 Just terrible things." 
 
 That deep rage against Donald Pike struggled again 
 in the heart of the Kansan. 
 
 "I think I know who told him. What were the things, 
 anyway ?" 
 
 He said this with a great dread, for he already knew. 
 
 "Oh, I knew you were not guilty, Buck! Never 
 fancy for a moment that I thought you guilty. I told 
 him you were innocent. I knew that it couldn't be true 
 that you were" she sobbed "drunk when you went 
 aboard the Crested Foam." 
 
 Badger winced as if stabbed. The dying boat-keeper, 
 Barney Lynn, confessed to drugging Badger, but did 
 not tell Winnie that Badger was drunk at the time. The 
 Westerner knew this, and had 'been, as he had admitted 
 to Merriwell, just coward enough to be glad that Lynn 
 did not tell Winnie the whole truth. Now, as the sweat 
 of a great inward struggle came out on his face, he 
 wished he had been courageous enough to inform her 
 of the real facts, instead of sheltering himself behind 
 that palatial confession of the boat-keeper. It was a 
 virtual falsehood that was coming home to him in a most 
 unpleasant manner.
 
 194 Buck and Winnie. 
 
 "I have stood up for you, Buck, against everything 
 that father could say," Winnie artlessly and innocently 
 continued. "When he insisted that you were drunk at 
 the time, I told him I knew it was not so; and I have 
 stood by it. He thinks he has discovered proofs from a 
 saloon-keeper named Connelly, who keeps a vile resort 
 somewhere down in the worst part of New Haven. Con- 
 nelly says you were intoxicated at his house that night. 
 But I told father that the same fellow who gave him the 
 information against you in the first place must have hired 
 Connelly to say that. A man who will sell liquor will 
 lie, you know, Buck !" 
 
 Badger was violently trembling, but Winnie, in the 
 ecstatic joy of meeting him, did not notice it. There was 
 a tempest in the Kansan's soul. Winnie's sweet and 
 trusting faith in him filled him with an anguishing 
 shame. Could he tell her now that he was drunk that 
 night that all the things said against him by Connelly 
 and that unknown informant were true? Would she not 
 turn against him if he did? Would she not despise him? 
 Would not her love be obliterated? Badger felt as if 
 the ground were reeling under his feet. 
 
 Once he was about to give away to the evil impulses 
 that were fighing against him. But he did not. At 
 last, as she chattered on, so strongly asserting her faith 
 in his innocence, he caught her convulsively to him. 
 
 "Winnie !" he gasped, and his voice was so hoarse and 
 unnatural that she was startled. "My God! Winnie,
 
 Buck and Winnie. 195 
 
 don't say those things ! I know that when I confess the 
 truth to you you will feel that I am the biggest scoun- 
 drel that ever walked. But I must tell you. I was a 
 coward and a fool, I reckon, for not telling you before. 
 But I just couldn't, Winnie! But those things are 
 true! I was drunk that night I was at Connelly's I 
 was _j' 
 
 Her form seemed to grow rigid in his arms. 
 
 "I must tell you the truth now, if it kills me!" he 
 continued, almost gasping out the words. "And if you 
 cast me off, I believe it will kill me! But it seems to 
 me that I'd rather die than to have you think me inno- 
 cent when I am guilty. I could never stand it in the 
 world. I'm a dog, I allow ! I'm not fit to associate with 
 you whatever not in the least! Your father is right 
 about that. I see it now, though I didn't before. But, 
 Winnie, I love you, and I love you! That is all I can 
 say. I allow I haven't a right to say that now, but I 
 must say it. You won't cast me off for this? You will 
 give me another show? Before God ? I haven't touched 
 the stuff since that night ! Not a drop ! And I'll never 
 touch it again!" 
 
 "Buck," she whispered, at last, "I wish you had told 
 
 me that at the very first" 
 
 "And you wouldn't have spoken to me again?" 
 "Yes, Buck, I should have spoken to you again. I 
 
 should have been very sorry, Buck. I should have
 
 196 Buck and Winnie. 
 
 grieved over it, as I do now. But I should have loved 
 you just the same, Buck." 
 
 "Then you do love me? You do not intend to tell 
 me to go and never speak to you again?" 
 
 "Don't you understand a girl's heart any better than 
 that, Buck? She never casts a man off for such things, 
 if she truly loves him though, perhaps, she ought to! 
 Love isn't a thing of the head, but of the heart. I love 
 you, Buck, and I am very sorry!" 
 
 He held her as if he meant never to let her go, and 
 she submitted to his crushing caress. 
 
 "You are true true true as steel!" he exultantly 
 cried. 
 
 "Be careful, or you will be heard, dear! We are 
 right by the house, remember." 
 
 "Is your father in?" 
 
 "No, but he may return at any time. It would be ter- 
 rible if he should discover us here." 
 
 "What are we to do?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know. I haven't had time to think. 
 What you have confessed has so upset me that I seem 
 to know nothing else. I can't think of anything else. 
 You see, Buck, I can't tell father any more that you 
 were not drunk that night!" 
 
 The hated word seemed to choke her. 
 
 "No!" 
 
 "And what shall I say to him?"
 
 Buck and Winnie. 197 
 
 "I reckon that is entirely too much for me." 
 
 "But I will stand up for you all I can!" 
 I allow that you are an angel!" he enthusiastically 
 declared. 
 
 "You have a low conception of angels. I can't im- 
 agine one meeting a man in this surreptitious fashion. 
 Really, Buck, when you come to think of it, it is almost 
 as bad as as what you did at Connelly's, you know!" 
 
 "Not on your life, it isn't ! It's the thing I knew you 
 would do and there isn't any truer or better girl what- 
 ever on this earth!" 
 
 "I am glad you think so, Buck." 
 
 The Westerner was trembling as much now with de- 
 light and pleasure as he had before been trembling with 
 apprehension. The fear that Winnie would cast him 
 off when she knew the truth about the Crested Foam 
 affair, that had so distressed him, had given place to a 
 deep satisfaction. 
 
 "It would be dreadful if father should discover us here. 
 I am really getting scared !" she continued. 
 
 "I reckon that there isn't any other place whatever 
 where we can go?" he anxiously asked. 
 
 "No. But we can stand and talk here a little while. 
 Then I shall have to hurry back into the house before 
 my absence is noticed. One of the servants I can trust 
 to help me, but, I am afraid, not the others." 
 
 "And Elsie and Inza?" 
 'Yes, of course, all they can. They have just heard
 
 198 Buck and Winnie. 
 
 about the trouble I have been having. They thought 1! 
 was sick. I don't know what they can do." 
 
 "Carry notes," Badger suggested. 
 
 "Yes. Oh, they will do what they can! They sent 
 me a key that fits the door of my room. And they are 
 coming up to see me to-night and to-morrow, they said 
 in their note, in spite of the prohibition. But, of course, 
 they will have to be careful. Father is very set when 
 he makes up his mind to do anything, and he is very 
 stern at times, though he loves me. He thinks he is 
 doing the thing that he ought to do, and that he is really 
 keeping me from throwing myself away " 
 
 "On a drunkard!" said the Westerner bitterly. 
 
 "But you don't drink now, Buck! And you never 
 were a drunkard !" 
 
 "Perhaps I oughtn't to blame him any whatever!" he 
 grumbled. 
 
 "His intentions are good, but it is going to make it 
 hard for us, for, of course, I do not mean to give you 
 up, if he keeps on ordering me to do so from now until 
 the day of " 
 
 "Our marriage!" 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "I was going to say the day of my death !" 
 
 "I allow that the day of our marriage sounds a good 
 deal better." 
 
 "I think it does myself," she admitted, and the Kansan 
 took this as an excuse to kiss her again.
 
 
 Buck and Winnie. 199 
 
 "We'll pull out of this snarl in some way," he hope- 
 fully declared. "I don't know just how, but we'll plan 
 something." 
 
 "Oh, I'm afraid of father!" and she shivered. 
 
 "I don't see just how we are to get round the old 
 man's objections myself at this moment, but something 
 may come our way. If we can continue to meet, I 
 reckon we can plan something." 
 
 "We can meet to-morrow evening right here." 
 
 "Good. That's all right." 
 
 "And many more nights, if we are not discovered. 
 I'll be as nice to father as I can, and perhaps he will not 
 dream I am such a disobedient thing, after all. But I 
 do hate to deceive him ! I never did before in my life, 
 and it strikes me as something awful. He doesn't dream 
 that I would do such a thing." 
 
 "I think he does, or he wouldn't have locked you in. 
 If he had trusted you, there would have been no need 
 of that." 
 
 "True," she admitted. 
 
 "And I shall be a living lie, just as you were, Buck, 
 when you made me think I knew all about that Crested 
 Foam affair. So you see I am not much better than 
 you were, if any. But you will never deceive me about 
 anything again, will you, Buck?" 
 
 "Never!" the Kansan asserted. 
 
 "And if you should find out who told father?" 
 
 "I'll punch his head."
 
 2OO Buck and Winnie 
 
 "And get into more trouble ? You mustn't !" 
 
 "I know who it was. Don Pike did that, I'm certain, 
 and if I don't pay him for it, I allow it will be because 
 I don't get a chance." 
 
 "Don't get into more trouble !" she begged. 
 
 "There won't be any trouble for me!" 
 
 Her fear of discovery was so great that she would not 
 remain out long, but crept back into the house and up 
 to her room. Badger, however, lingered, staring up at 
 the house and vainly endeavoring to think of some plan 
 which would enable them to overcome the violent objec- 
 tions of Mr. Lee. 
 
 "I allow I am in a hole," he grumbled. "But as 
 long as Winnie has no notion of throwing me over, I 
 shall not let any coyote weakness get the better of me I 
 'Not on your life !" 
 
 He was about to leap the fence and make his way back 
 to the campus, when he saw a man sneak into the yard 
 and drop down behind some shrubbery not far from the 
 front door. He could not make out the man's face and 
 form because of the darkness. 
 
 "Mighty queer, that is!" thought the Westerner, star- 
 ing at the spot where the man had disappeared. ''He 
 don't act as if he intended to try to rustle the ranch. I 
 reckon I'll wait a bit." 
 
 Badger had not long to wait. Fairfax Lee came down 
 the walk from the street scarcely a minute later. 
 
 "If this wasn't New Haven, in the great and cultivated
 
 Buck and Winnie. 201 
 
 East, I should say the fellow is laying for Lee with a 
 gun, or a lariat!" 
 
 As Lee came down the path, the man appeared from 
 behind the shrubbery, as if he had just returned from 
 a visit to one of the side doors, and placed himself in 
 front of the politician. Lee stopped in a hesitating way, 
 and it was clear to Badger that he was afraid of this 
 intruder. 
 
 "What are you doing here?" Lee demanded. The 
 man advanced a step, with a threatening whine. 
 
 "You wouldn't see me at your office, and I have come 
 here, Lee. When are you going to get me that appoint- 
 ment?" 
 
 Lee was one of New Haven's prominent politicians. 
 
 "I have told you that I can't do anything for you, 
 Gaston!" he declared. 
 
 "But you said before the election that you'd git me a 
 job!" 
 
 "I said nothing of the kind !" 
 
 "That's a lie!" the man addressed as Gaston fiercely 
 asserted. "You wouldn't see me at the office, so I've 
 come here, and I want justice done. You have been 
 turning me away every day. I was right so long as I 
 could hustle votes for you, and now I'm dirt!" 
 
 "You are simply a lunatic." 
 
 "And you mean to put me in an asylum?" the man 
 hissed.
 
 2O2 Buck and Winnie. 
 
 "That is the appointment I'll get for you, Gaston, if 
 you trouble me." 
 
 'Til kill you!" Gaston snarled, drawing a knife. 
 "That's what I have made up my mind to do to you !" 
 
 "Stand aside, sir, and let me pass!" Lee commanded, 
 though his voice was shaky. "I shall have you arrested 
 if you " 
 
 For reply, the man leaped at Lee with a snarl like that 
 of an enraged dog. 
 
 "Loony as a locoed cowboy!" thought Badger. He 
 was on the point of rushing to Lee's assistance. But 
 there was no need. Lee, who was light on his feet, 
 avoided the rush and ran for a side door, through which 
 he escaped into the house, leaving Gaston to rave and 
 mutter, and at last retreat into the street and hurry 
 away. 
 
 Not until the man had disappeared did the Westerner 
 leave the grounds. Then he leaped the fence, and hur- 
 ried back to the campus. Here a large number of stu- 
 dents were rollicking in the somewhat wild and reckless 
 student fashion, to their own great delight and the 
 amusement of hundreds of spectators.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FUN IN THE CAMPUS. 
 
 Under an elm in front of Durfee some students were 
 gathering "fruit." They began, by collecting it from 
 members of the Chickering set. Of all the men in the 
 college, the Chickering set were the most unpopular with 
 their fellow students. Their silliness and supercilious- 
 ness were so unbounded as to be disgusting to all sensi- 
 ble men. From the immaculate Rupert, with his patent- 
 leather shoes and shining tile, down to the cowardly 
 little lisper, Lew Veazie, they were alike detested. Hence 
 it came about that when Rupert Chickering appeared 
 under the famous "fruit" tree wearing a more than ordi- 
 narily gorgeous shirt, the cry of "Fruit!" was imme- 
 diately raised. 
 
 Rupert uttered an exclamation of dismay and turned to 
 run. He had heard that cry before. But he only ha- 
 stened what he sought to evade. A foot outstretched 
 for the purpose tripped him, and brought him sprawling 
 to the ground. Before he could rise, one of the laughing 
 students was upon him. 
 
 "See here !" he exclaimed, "I'll have you know that I 
 will not submit to any such outrage! I know you, and 
 I shall report you to the faculty !" 
 
 He tried to fight oil the youth who held him, but a
 
 204 Fun in the Campus. 
 
 dozen other men rushed to this youth's assistance. Then 
 a wild-eyed fellow produced a shining pocket-knife and 
 slowly and exasperatingly opened its sharpest blade. 
 
 "Help !" Rupert squawked. 
 
 The knife was flourished in the air, and the tag on 
 the lower end of Rupert's shirt-bosom was deftly ampu- 
 tated. 
 
 "Fruit!" was again shouted, and a dash was made for 
 Gene Skelding, who, as usual, wore a rainbow shirt that 
 outshone Joseph's "coat of many colors." 
 
 "Help !" Skelding howled. 
 
 But a score of hands outstretched to grasp him, and 
 he, too, went down, screeching lustily. Another knife 
 flashed and another shirt-tag was neatly severed. 
 
 Lew Veazie, who had been with Rupert and Gene, 
 started to run, deeming discretion the better part of 
 valor. But he took only a step when he, too; went 
 down. And again an amputating knife did its work. As 
 soon as a shirt-tag was cut off, the amputator, flourish- 
 ing it on the blade of his knife, like an Indian flaunting 
 a scalp-lock, made a dash for the elm, where it was 
 pinned up as a trophy. 
 
 Then it was found that a "taste" for shirt-tags had 
 been created by this exciting bit of experience, and other 
 men, who had been loudly laughing and cheering over 
 the discomfiture of Chickering and his inane friends, 
 found themselves suddenly on the ground, with wicked-
 
 Fun in the Campus. 205 
 
 looking knives flashing before their eyes, and their shirts 
 being mutilated by the pressure of keen knife-blades. 
 
 In the midst of this "fun," Buck Badger arrived on the 
 campus from his stolen interview with Winnie Lee. 
 Though his face wore a perplexed expression, it had 
 lost its gloom. There might be trouble for him in the 
 future, but Winnie's words had for the present driven 
 the blackest of the shadows out of his heart. The desire 
 uppermost in his mind just then was to meet and whip 
 Donald Pike. He had sworn to himself that he would 
 do that the first thing, and he meant to keep the oath. 
 
 Nevertheless, reaching the elms of the campus at this 
 exciting moment, he was willing to cease temporarily his 
 search for Pike and view the fruit-gathering. It would 
 be rare sport, provided, of course, that his own shirt was 
 not forced to yield "fruit." 
 
 To prevent this, and that he might see better, he 
 grasped a low-hanging limb and swung up into one of 
 the elms. 
 
 "Fruit!" was being shouted everywhere, and the in- 
 dications were that scores of trophies would adorn the 
 old elm the next morning, if some stop was not put to 
 the thing by the college authorities, which was not likely. 
 "Society week" is expected to be noisy, and things are 
 winked at which on ordinary occasions would bring rep- 
 rimands. 
 
 Another person had invaded the branches of the elm
 
 206 Fun in the Campus. 
 
 but a minute before the ascent of the Westerner. That 
 other person was Donald Pike, who looked down now 
 on the man he felt instinctively to be his mortal foe with 
 a little shiver of dread. More than once Pike had re- 
 gretted making that revelation to Fairfax Lee, for .the 
 chances that discovery would come and that Badger 
 would fiercely summon him to answer, seemed very 
 great, when he gave himself time to reflect. And he 
 feared Badger. 
 
 All might have gone well on this evening with Pike, 
 however, if his fear of discovery had not made him try 
 to climb farther up the tree. The Kansan heard the low 
 scraping sound, in spite of the din in the campus, and 
 glanced upward, and when he did so he saw and recog- 
 nized the man he was looking for. A calcium-light was 
 sending its rays through the higher branches, and Pike's 
 white, scared face was as plainly revealed to Badger as 
 if the two were facing each other in a lighted room. 
 
 The hate which Badger had been nursing swelled to 
 the point of bursting. He forgot the search for "fruit," 
 in which he had been interested, seeing only the enemy 
 whom he had sworn to whip as soon as they met. 
 
 As yet they had not met; but Badger, blinded by his 
 intense anger, decided that the meeting should come 
 without delay, even if the place was a tree-top; and he 
 began to climb up the trunk and boughs of the tree 
 toward Donald. Pike looked about in a despairing 
 way. The distance to the ground seemed dishearten-
 
 Fun in the Campus. 207 
 
 ingly great. Kis first impulse, therefore, was to climb 
 still higher, and this he began to do. 
 
 But, recollecting the tenacity of Badger's purpose in 
 whatever the Kansan was engaged, he felt sure that he 
 would be pursued into the very top of the tree and 
 shaken to the ground. Therefore,, he hastily crawled 
 out over a horizontal limb, whose drooping ends dipped 
 toward the earth. If driven to the worst, he felt that 
 he could drop from one of those drooping ends without 
 serious injury. 
 
 With a howl of rage, Badger climbed on after the 
 frightened youth, and pursued him out on the horizontal 
 limb. 
 
 But there were to be other actors in this little over- 
 head drama. A couple of cats, chancing to be in the 
 campus when the students invaded it, had run up this 
 identical elm, and had crouched in wild-eyed fear on that 
 same bough, watching the wild orgies of the students. 
 They had probably been there for a considerable period, 
 not daring to descend while that howling, dancing mob 
 held the grounds. Perhaps they even fancied that those 
 yells and ear-splitting squeals v/ere directed against 
 them. They must have thought so when Don Pike 
 crawled out on the limb toward them, followed by Buck 
 Badger. 
 
 The cats looked about, meowing anxiously. There 
 was no other bough near which they could gain by a 
 leap. And as Pike, looking back and gasping with
 
 2o8 Fun in the Campus. 
 
 fright, crawled straight on toward tWem, the cat that was 
 farthest out on the end of the limb launched itself 
 through the air in a desperate leap for the ground. 
 
 There was no cleared space in which it could alight, 
 and it struck Bink Stubbs on the top of the head, jam- 
 ming his hat down over his eyes and hurling him back- 
 ward. 
 
 "Dog my cuc-cuc-cuc-cats !" stuttered Joe Gamp, look- 
 ing up in open-mouthed wonder. 
 
 "The sky is raining cats !" whooped Danny. 
 
 "Somebody amputate its tail!" yelled a student. 
 
 "Cut off its shirt-tab !" shouted another. 
 
 Bink and Danny, Gamp and all the others of Merri- 
 well's friends who chanced to be grouped there, had 
 already suffered the amputation of their shirt-tabs, and 
 having no further fear on that point, were hilariously 
 anxious that not a shirt-tab should be worn by a Yale 
 man that night. The "fruit" on the tree at Durfee was 
 increasing in quantity and variety at a prodigious rate. 
 
 "A dollar apiece for its ears !" some one else screeched. 
 
 But the cat was too agile for the hands that were 
 reached out to stop its flight. It whisked under the legs 
 of the students and was out and away like a shot. 
 
 "Been up there watching the performance !" some one 
 sung out. 
 
 "Gug-gug-goshf ry ! There's a man up there!" Joe 
 Gamp howled, as his eyes fell on Donald Pike. "It wiU
 
 Fun in the Campus. 209 
 
 be raining mum-mum-men, as well as cuc-cuc-cuc-cats, 
 next thing ! Ahaw ! ahaw ! ahaw !" 
 
 As his lips flew open to their widest extent to emit 
 this roar, the other cat sailed downward out of the tree 
 and struck him squarely in the mouth. He tumbled 
 backward with a roar, which, however, was not at all 
 hilarious, and began to dig sputteringly at his tongue and 
 lips, which were liberally coated with cat hair. 
 
 "More, cats !" said Dismal. "I'd as soon have the 
 frogs of Egypt, as to have the trees showering down 
 cats." 
 
 "How do you like cat diet, Gamp?" screeched Bink, 
 who did not relish the way he had been laughed at. 
 
 "Ill die-it, if one of 'em hits me!" Dismal solemnly 
 asserted. 
 
 "Look out !" a student warningly yelled. "The man is 
 coming, too!" 
 
 Everybody beneath the limb fell back out of the way, 
 pushing against those behind, many being hurled down 
 and trodden on. Then Donald Pike, sprawled out like 
 one of the cats, came sailing down out of the tree. His 
 teeth were fairly chattering. He believed that Badger 
 was right at his heels, with hands reached out to seize 
 him. Fortunately, he was not injured by the desperate 
 leap. 
 
 "Fruit!" was yelled by a dozen voices, and the throng 
 pressed together again to lay hold on him. 
 
 J3ut Don Pike's terror gave him the strength of a
 
 210 Fun in the Campus. 
 
 giant. He hurled aside those who sought to detain him, 
 and leaped through the crowd and away. The next in- 
 stant the Kansan dropped out of the tree, swinging for 
 a moment by one of the drooping branches, to break the 
 force of the fall, and alighting on the ground with ease 
 and lightness. 
 
 "Fruit!" 
 
 The Westerner could not escape, for the students had 
 closed in again, and he was literally ringed in. 
 
 "Fruit ! fruit !" was yelled on all sides. 
 
 Twenty men threw themselves on the Kansan. He 
 tried to hurl them off, and did succeed in flinging some of 
 them aside. This enabled him to gain his feet. 
 
 "Let go !" he snarled. 
 
 "Fruit! fruit!" was being chorused. 
 
 Again the hands and arms closed on him. 
 
 "Let me go, I say ! I want to overtake that fellow !" 
 
 Only a few near him understood his words. The ma- 
 jority thought he was merely showing a vigorous protest 
 against the threatened loss of his shirt-tab, and they 
 had no sympathy with anything of that kind, for they 
 had suffered the same humiliation, and were naturally 
 determined to inflict the same thing on every student 
 they could lay their hands on. 
 
 "Let go !" Badger shrieked, white with wrath, lunging 
 with his hard right fist. 
 
 It struck a student in the face and hurled him crash-
 
 Fun in the Campus. 211 
 
 ingly backward. But the next moment the fist and arm 
 were caught and held. 
 
 Then began a fierce struggle for the mastery. Time 
 and again the Westerner, whose strength was great, 
 hurled off the men who sought to hold him down. Twice 
 he got on his feet, merely to be tripped and thrown again. 
 Not until he was almost beaten and choked into insensi- 
 bility were his assailants able to rip open his vest. 
 
 Ordinarily, Badger wore a soft silk shirt which hadi 
 no tab, but on this night he had on a white shirt, whose 
 tab was amputated by a dexterous thrust as soon as the 
 vest was pulled open. Then he was permitted to rise 
 to his feet, reeling, sick, blind with rage and humiliation 
 and a sense of baffled hate. 
 
 But his chief thought still was of Donald Pike. 
 
 "Which way did he go?" he panted, as soon as he 
 could get his breath. 
 
 "Well, your High-Muchness, the cats scattered and 
 the man made himself scarce !" was the scoffing answer, 
 given by the student who had felt the terrible force of 
 Badger's fist. "Perhaps there is another man up in the 
 elm who can tell you!" 
 
 Badger did not wait for further nagging, and, as no 
 hands were now extended to oppose him, he made as 
 hasty an exit as he could from the midst of the shout- 
 ing, laughing, howling throng. 
 
 "Heavens!" he thought. "I hope that neither Inza,
 
 212 Fun in the Campus. 
 
 nor Elsie, nor any of my friends, saw that from the 
 dormitory windows !" 
 
 Even in the midst of his rage against Pike, Badger 
 was cut to the quick by this thought, for he was filled 
 with a foolish pride. 
 
 "I'll thump Pike a few extra for that !" he snarled, as 
 he got out of the crowd. His pulse was at fever-heat, 
 and his face as hot as flame. He did not feel the bruises 
 and blows which had been showered on him. 
 
 "I reckon I'll not get close to him again for a week !" 
 he grumbled. "Why couldn't those ruffians attend to 
 their own affairs and let me attend to mine? I allow 
 that it was none of their business whatever! This is 
 my trail, and I wasn't interfering none with their range. 
 Confound the luck ! But when I do meet him I'll make 
 him pay for it !" 
 
 But the Westerner was mistaken in one portion of his 
 surmise. He met Pike, or rather ran against him, at 
 the first building he turned. 
 
 Donald had ventured back to see what had happened 
 to his pursuer, and was looking at the shouting tumult 
 in the campus, and did not observe Badger, who came 
 along the walk close to the wall. The Kansan recog- 
 nized Pike first, and leaped at him with a snarl like that 
 of an enraged panther, and as he leaped he struck a blind- 
 ing blow. 
 
 It knocked Donald backward, but it did not fall fairly
 
 Fun in the Campus. 213 
 
 enough to inflict serious injury. The next moment Bad- 
 ger was on him, and had him by the throat. 
 
 "By heavens ! I've a notion to kill you right here !" he 
 hissed, his fingers closing on Pike's throat. 
 
 "Don't !" Pike pleaded, gasping out the appeal. 
 
 "You told Fairfax Lee that I was drunk when I went 
 on the Crested Foam. You scoundrel! You ruffian! 
 You sneaking coyote!" 
 
 His fingers tightened with every exclamation. 
 
 "Don't kill me !" Pike begged wheezingly. "I'll go to 
 him and take it all back !" 
 
 "Then you did tell him ? I allow I ought to kick you 
 clean out of your hide, you onery varmint!" 
 
 There was no answer, and Donald Pike, apparently 
 ceasing to breathe, fell back as limp as a rag. 
 
 A bit of reason began to glimmer into the brain of 
 the Westerner. Though he had asserted that he would 
 almost kill Pike, he did not really intend to do anything 
 of the kind. He merely meant to inflict a punishment 
 which should be in a measure commensurate with the 
 wrong which Pike had committed against him. But 
 the Kansan's great rage, combined with his humiliating 
 experience in the campus, which had still further in- 
 flamed him, had driven him to more than ordinary reck- 
 lessness. He had been fairly insane. The fire began to 
 go out of Badger's eyes when Pike did not stir and 
 seemed not to breathe. 
 
 "I reckon I squeezed a bit too hard!" Badger rarot-
 
 214 F un i n the Campus. 
 
 tered, regarding the unconscious youth with some degree 
 of anxiety. "Well, I was wild enough to choke his heart 
 out!" 
 
 He stooped over Pike and saw the livid finger-marks 
 on the throat. Still Pike did not stir, and the West- 
 erner's anxiety correspondingly grew. He put a hand 
 on Pike's left breast, and failed to locate the heart-beats. 
 At last, after an alarming interval, Pike gasped, to Bad- 
 ger's intense relief. 
 
 "I allow I'd better let it go at this," he reflected. "I 
 don't want to kill the skunk, though if any man what- 
 ever deserved to be murdered, he does. But I don't 
 want anything of that kind against me. As Merry has 
 told me, I've got an awful temper when it gets started. 
 I shall have to watch myself against that, same as against 
 red-eye !" 
 
 Pike gasped again, and then his breathing came at in- 
 creasingly frequent intervals. The students were wildly 
 howling in and around the campus, but Badger scarcely 
 heard them. He was thinking only of Pike. 
 
 "This may keep him in his room a few days," he mut- 
 tered. 
 
 "If it does no more than that, I don't care. He de- 
 served that much. But he's got to keep clear of me, or 
 I can't be responsible for the consequences. I'll tell him 
 so as soon as he comes to himself and knows what has 
 happened."
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A CRUSHING BLOW. 
 
 Buck Badger stared at a letter in a familiar hand- 
 writing which had come to his room in the afternoon 
 mail. He had delivered to Donald Pike that threatening 
 talk the night before, when Pike came back to the land 
 of sentient things after that awful choking. 
 
 The infliction of this punishment on Pike, and the feel- 
 ing that Winnie would stand by him in spite of every- 
 thing, had so satisfied the Westerner that he had been in 
 an uncommonly comfortable frame of mind, in spite of 
 the fact that the powerful opposition of Fairfax Lee was 
 yet to be overcome. With Winnie true, and time and 
 youth in their favor, there seemed no good reason why 
 he should be in the dumps. 
 
 But the letter at which he now gazed with starting 
 eyes and anguished face! It was from Winnie herself, 
 and what it said was enough to make the Kansan's brain 
 reel: 
 
 "MR. BUCK BADGER: Father knows that we met last 
 night, and he is much displeased, as he has a right to 
 be. I am very sorry I said to you the things I did, for 
 we can never be anything more to each other. I have 
 had time to think more clearly since I saw you, and this 
 is my decision. It will do no good to talk it over,
 
 216 A Crushing Blow. 
 
 for this is final. Therefore, if you are a gentleman, you 
 will not try to see me again. I return to you by express 
 your ring and the things you have given me. 
 
 "WINNIE LEE." 
 
 "I can't understand it!" he gasped, as he recalled her 
 words of the evening before. "Yet she wrote it. There 
 isn't any doubt whatever of that. I wish there were, but 
 I know that handwriting too well." 
 
 He read it over again and again, as if searching out 
 some other meaning. It seemed so impossible. Yet 
 there it was. He got up and began to pace round the 
 room, stopping almost every time he passed the table to 
 take another look at the letter. 
 
 "Thrown over!" he groaned. "And after all we've 
 been to each other! I allow she couldn't stand up 
 against her father. How in thunder did he find out that 
 we met last night? Some onery, spying Piute of a 
 servant, I reckon. Well, I seem to be rounded up now, 
 and Winnie's given me the branding-iron with her own 
 white hand." 
 
 He mopped the sweat from his face. 
 
 "I won't accept it! That's whatever! She says that 
 if I'm a gentleman, I'll not try to see her again. Glad I 
 ain't a gentleman ! Glad I'm a man and I allow a 
 man is a good deal bigger than a gentleman! I s'pose 
 a gentleman would sit down and twiddle his fingers, and 
 do nothing. Well, I ain't built that way ! Not on your 
 life! I'm going to see her again, whether she wants
 
 A Crushing Blow. 217 
 
 to see me or not. I'll see her, if I have to fight my 
 way into that house ! That's whatever !" 
 
 He gave his breast a thump, as if he fancied he was 
 striking at an enemy. His face was red and his neck 
 veins stood out like cords. His heavy shoulders were 
 thrown back, and his broad white teeth gleamed in a 
 determined fashion. 
 
 "I'll find out just why she changed her mind so sud- 
 denly. Of course, it was her father's work. He has 
 kept her under his thumb so long that she has come to 
 the conclusion that she has to mind him in this, too ! He 
 thinks I'm not good enough for her, I allow! Well, I 
 ain't no man on earth is good enough for her but I'm 
 just as good as Fairfax Lee, any day in the week! 
 Hanged if I don't tell him so, too! 
 
 "Yes, I'll walk into his office, if I have to knock over 
 that clerk to do it, and I'll tell him what I think of 
 him, if I'm arrested for it next minute. In this beastly 
 East, instead of meeting a man and fighting him, the 
 first thing a fellow thinks of, if he has a word with an- 
 other, is to call in the police. But I'm not afraid of the 
 New Haven police!" 
 
 Badger's heart seethed like a volcano. 
 
 "See her! Well, I reckon! I'll see her if I die for 
 it ! I'll see her, even if she refuses to speak to me ! I'm 
 going to find out what's at the bottom of this !" 
 
 While the Westerner was thus storming, an express- 
 man came with the little package containing the ring and
 
 218 A Crushing Blow. 
 
 the trinkets which Badger had given to Winnie. It con- 
 tained no note, but the address was in Winnie's hand- 
 writing. 
 
 Badger tore the package open almost before the ex- 
 pressman was out of the room. A lump came into his 
 throat as he looked at the ring. He remembered so dis- 
 tinctly the time he gave it to her and all the words then 
 said. It seemed impossible that she had returned it now 
 in this curt manner. 
 
 "I'll ask her to take it back!" he muttered. He 
 dropped the ring into a pocket of the suit he was wearing, 
 that he might be sure to have it with him when he met 
 her for that he would meet her in some way or other 
 he was firmly resolved. 
 
 "Her father has driven her into this. It's not her 
 wish, I know. But she is so good and dutiful that she 
 may stick by this decision, to please him. I allow that 
 there is where the trouble is going to come. But I won't 
 give her up ! Not unless she tells me positively with her 
 own lips that everything is ended." 
 
 Badger now did something which he would never have 
 dreamed of doing a short time before. Even the thought 
 of it would have been greeted with scorn. He carefully 
 put the letter in an inner pocket, put away the trinkets 
 which Winnie had returned, and set out to find Frank 
 Merriwell. The act did not even strike him as incon- 
 gruous. 
 
 "Inza and Elsie will do anything for Merriwell! He
 
 A Crushing Blow. 219 
 
 can go in and out of Lee's house as he wants to. I allow 
 he will be glad to help me in this thing, if he can. The 
 trail looks to be so confoundedly tangled that a bit of 
 help in ciphering it out will be mighty welcome just 
 now!" 
 
 He scowled as he crossed the campus and remembered 
 the unpleasant experience of the previous night. The 
 tree in front of Durfee still bore a large quantity of 
 "fruit." The tab of Badger's shirt was there. 
 
 "Come over here and pick out your property !" shouted 
 a student who was standing in a group near the tree. 
 
 Badger strode on without a word, for he was in no 
 humor for pleasantries. 
 
 "Fruit !" squealed Danny Griswold. 
 
 "Where are you going, my pretty maid ?" Bink Stubbs 
 sang from his perch on the fence. 
 
 "Going to hunt up those cats," said the Westerner, 
 with sarcastic scorn. "I hear their kittens squawling 
 for them !" 
 
 Danny fell over against Bink. 
 
 "A joke from Badger!" he murmured. "Somebody 
 fan me!" 
 
 "I'll fan you!" grunted Bink, who was not pleased 
 with the Kansan's retort, pushing Danny roughly from 
 him. 
 
 "Do !" begged Danny. "That took my breath. What 
 will happen next?"
 
 220 A Crushing Blow. 
 
 Badger swung on at a swift, nervous pace, and 
 mounted to Frank's room. 
 
 "Come in !" Frank sung out, as the Kansan's knuckles 
 hammered on the door. 
 
 He was rather surprised to see Badger at that hour. 
 But he put away the book he had been studying, and 
 pushed out a chair. 
 
 "Take a seat!" he invited. 
 
 "I reckon you'll think it's mighty funny that I should 
 come to you for advice and help?" 
 
 "Why, no! It's a way my friends have. And they 
 know that I am always ready to do whatever I can for 
 them." 
 
 "Well, it's about Winnie!" said Badger bluntly. 
 Whereupon, in a few words, he told his story. 
 
 "That rather stumps me, Badger," Frank admitted. 
 "I think, though, that the straight way is the best. If 
 you're willing, I will see Lee in your behalf. I shall 
 have to admit to him that you were intoxicated at that 
 time, but I'll try to make him see that you are pretty 
 straight goods, for all of that. Perhaps a few words 
 from one who knows you will be helpful." 
 
 "If you will, Merry, I can't ever thank you enough. It 
 will be about as big a favor, I allow, as one man ever did 
 for another, and I sha'n't forget it." 
 
 Merriwell looked at his watch. 
 
 "I can't go to his office this afternoon, but I'll see 
 him at his house to-night. I may be late getting there,
 
 A Crushing Blow. 221 
 
 but I'll try to time it to be there when he gets home from 
 his club." 
 
 Badger went away as if walking on air. He could 
 hardly think of anything else throughout the remainder 
 of the day, and night found him in the vicinity of the 
 Lee home, even though he had a feeling that Merri- 
 well would prefer he should keep away from there until 
 the result of the promised interview was known. 
 
 "I wish Merry would hurry," he thought, as he finally 
 advanced to the fence, drawn there by his intense desire 
 to be near to Winnie. "I'll speak to him before he goes 
 in, and ask him to come right out as soon as possible 
 with the news." 
 
 As he stood thus by the fence, a light step sounded, 
 and, looking over, he recognized in the dim light the 
 form of Winnie Lee. He was by her side at a bound. 
 
 "You must not stand by that note!" he pleadingly be- 
 gan. "I allow that you will see, when you think 01 it, 
 that it isn't right by me !" 
 
 He did not attempt to touch her or stoop toward her. 
 She had, in writing that letter, forbidden familiarities. 
 Their relations toward each other were unchanged. He 
 remembered the ring in his pocket. 
 
 "Buck ! you silly fellow ! Don't you know that I didn't 
 mean to cast you off?" 
 
 "But the note?" he gasped. "It was in your hand- 
 writing? And the ring? You sent back the ring!" 
 
 "Yes, I wrote the letter because father commanded me
 
 222 A Crushing Blow. 
 
 to write it, and I sent back the ring for the same rea- 
 son. You ought to have known that!" 
 
 The change in his feelings was so great and sudden 
 that he could hardly repress a shout. 
 
 "I reckon I'm the biggest idiot unhung!" he con- 
 fessed, as he took her in his arms. "But when I saw that 
 the writing was yours, I fancied your father had by 
 threats, or in some way, induced you to change your 
 mind, and that you really thought, in duty to him, you 
 ought not to see me any more. Say, I'm too happy to 
 think ! I'm " 
 
 "You are just a silly fellow!" 
 
 "You never shot straighter! I'm a roaring idiot!" 
 
 He kissed her and held her face toward the light in a 
 rather vain effort to see its outline. 
 
 "I've been crazier since I got that note than any locoed 
 cowboy that ever tore up the ranges. I've simply been 
 wild!" 
 
 "I am very sorry, Buck. Yet I think I must have 
 suffered as much. Last night father obtained from me 
 a confession that I had met you in the grounds here. 
 He asked me if I had met you, and my confused looks 
 made my denials useless. Then he ordered me to write 
 that note and to send back the ring. He mailed them 
 himself. And he made me promise that I wouldn't meet 
 you again. But when I made it, I realized that I couldn't 
 keep it." 
 
 ''You're an angel!"
 
 A Crushing Blow. 22% 
 
 "I never heard that angels were disobedient." 
 
 "Some of them." 
 
 "And they were punished for it. Oh, Buck, I hope 
 we will never regret this that there will be no punish- 
 ment for this!" 
 
 "There won't be!" he grimly declared. 
 
 "Father is gone," she said. "Out of the city!" 
 
 "And I wanted Merry to see him here this evening," 
 in a tone of regret. "Merry is to have a talk with him 
 and try to get him to see that I am not such a soaking 
 Piute as I've been painted!" 
 
 "I'm sorry, too, Buck though I was glad." 
 
 "Glad?" 
 
 "I intended to ask you into the house. Is it veiy 
 wrong ?" 
 
 "I don't think so !" he whispered, joy and triumph in 
 his voice. "Where you lead I will follow. By and by 
 I hooe we will walk abreast."
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 INTO A TRAP. 
 
 When Buck and Winnie walked into the house, tHey 
 walked into a trap, though the laying of a trap for them 
 was not contemplated by Mr. Lee. 
 
 Encountering none of the servants, Winnie conducted 
 Badger into the parlor. 
 
 "Merriwell will be here soon, I allow." 
 
 "We're not afraid of Merriwell !" 
 
 "Only thinking that you and I want to have this meet- 
 ing all to ourselves. Then the servant that shows Merri- 
 well up, if one does, may see us, and I calculate that I 
 ain't hankering to meet up with any of your servants on 
 this trip. None whatever!" 
 
 But Winnie was not disturbed. 
 
 "Father is going over to Hartford to-night on busi- 
 ness," she laughed, laying aside the scarf and jacket. "I 
 heard him say to the cook that he wouldn't return be- 
 fore to-morrow." 
 
 There was a certain exultant defiance in Badger's 
 bearing that made him, in spite of his bulky, heavy 
 shoulders and modern clothing, somewhat resemble some 
 ancient knight ready to do battle for his "ladye fair." 
 Winnie Lee observed it, and was pleased. The West- 
 erner's devotion was so true that she felt rather proud ol
 
 Into a Trap. 225 
 
 it And, indeed, Badger, in spite of his many faults, 
 failings, and weaknesses, had some admirable traits of 
 character. 
 
 All at once Winnie heard footsteps approaching the 
 door of the parlor. She thought the steps were those of 
 a servant, and blamed herself for not closing the door. 
 Then a familiar form appeared in the doorway, and her 
 cheeks grew white. Buck Badger looked up at the same 
 moment, and his dark face flushed. 
 
 Fairfax Lee had changed his mind about going to 
 Hartford! He had returned home, let himself into the 
 house, and walked up-stairs. Seeing the light in the 
 parlor, he had approached the door. 
 
 He was as much astonished as the lovers. For a mo- 
 ment not a word was spoken. Winnie seemed about to 
 swoon, and Badger put a hand on her shoulder, as if to 
 support her. Then Mr. Lee broke the silence, and 
 stepped into the room. 
 
 "What is the meaning of this disobedience ?" he sternly 
 demanded, speaking to Winnie. 
 
 She staggered to her feet, trembling before him. 
 Badger sprang up, erect and defiant. 
 
 "I thought you promised me that you would never 
 meet him again?" 
 
 She did not answer. 
 
 He turned with flashing eyes on the Westerner. 
 
 'And I forbade you the house, sir!" 
 
 Badger wanted to take him by the throat.
 
 226 Into a Trap. 
 
 "See here, Mr. Lee!" he said, in a voice that de- 
 manded a hearing. "I know you told me that I wasn't 
 welcome in this house, and I reckon I know full well that 
 I am not welcome. But that's no sign that I am going 
 to stay out of it, as long as it shelters your daughter !" 
 
 "Winnie, you will go to your room !" 
 
 He advanced toward her, and she drew away from 
 Badger. But she did not go toward the door. Her 
 father stepped to her side. 
 
 "There is the door!" Lee commanded, addressing the 
 Kansan. 
 
 "I see it," said Badger. "You don't need to show it 
 to me !" 
 
 "Will you go out of it? Will you leave this house?" 
 Fairfax Lee was panting with rage. "Get out of this 
 room!" he cried. 
 
 Badger straightened his thick shoulders, and his broad, 
 white teeth gleamed unpleasantly. 
 
 "Mr. Lee, you are Winnie's father, and because of 
 that I shall pay no attention to your insults; but I tell 
 you now, that you may understand it, that I love your 
 daughter and intend to marry her!" 
 
 "By heavens, you never shall!" 
 
 "It may be a long trail, Mr. Lee, but there will be a 
 home-coming at the end of it. I shall see her as often as 
 I can, and I shall write to her when I can, and I shalJ 
 marry her ! I have promised to, and I'll do it '"
 
 Into a Trap. 227 
 
 "Never speak to my daughter again!" Mr. Lee thun- 
 dered, pointing Badger to the door. 
 
 "Good night, Winnie," said the Kansan, as he passed 
 out. "There will be better days by and by." 
 
 Then he fairly reeled down the stairway, sick and giddy 
 and almost gasping, yet shaking with rage against Fair- 
 fax Lee. 
 
 Badger waited in the vicinity of the house in a fever of 
 impatience until Merriwell appeared. Though a more 
 inauspicious time, seemingly, could not have been found, 
 he had strong confidence in Frank's ability to aid him. 
 It was a feeling which was invariably produced in the 
 hearts of all. 
 
 He met Merriwell at some distance from the Lee resi- 
 dence, and drew him away for a talk, in which he ac- 
 quainted him with what had taken place. Then Frank 
 went on into the house, and the Westerner recom- 
 menced his vigil. 
 
 The interview which shortly followed between Frank 
 and Mr. Lee was of an interesting and important char- 
 acter. Fortunately, Fairfax Lee had a very high opinion 
 of Frank Merriwell. Otherwise he would not have 
 heard him at all in behalf of Badger. Even as it was, he 
 at first listened with nervous impatience, unwilling to 
 believe that anything could be presented in the West- 
 erner's behalf. 
 
 Merriwell went over the whole ground with great 
 candor and frankness. He admitted that Badger was in-
 
 228 Into a Trap. 
 
 toxicated when lured aboard the Crested Foam. But he 
 asserted his belief that the Kansan was all right at 
 heart. He laid stress also on the fact, which was now 
 clearly understood by Fairfax Lee, that Winnie loved the 
 Kansan ; and he insisted that the latter had no real taste 
 for liquor, but was driven into his debauch by a fit of 
 jealousy. 
 
 "I will think over this," Lee promised. "As you say, 
 I have no desire to be unjust; still less do I wish to be 
 harsh beyond what is necessary. I once thought well of 
 Badger. I can't say more now. His actions have seemed 
 to me very low and very dishonorable." 
 
 The long interview ended with this. But Merriwell, 
 not realizing that Badger was still waiting for him in 
 wild anxiety, made a call on Inza and Elsie, which was so 
 pleasant that it was much more protracted than he had 
 intended it should be, and the hour grew late. 
 
 In the meantime, other things were hurrying events 
 to a climax. Fairfax Lee had hastened home that night 
 in fear of his life. Bill Gaston, once a useful political 
 worker, who had been driven insane by his failure to 
 secure an appointment he craved, and who the day be- 
 fore had been locked up for threatening Lee's life, had 
 escaped and was at large. That the man was crazy there 
 could be no doubt, and that he would shoot Lee on sight 
 seemed just as certain. 
 
 Buck Badger, wandering like a restless spirit in the 
 vicinity of the house, saw a man leap the fence and
 
 Into a Trap. 229 
 
 sneak toward a rear entrance. The man's general ap- 
 pearance and crouching attitude were like those of the 
 crazed office-seeker whom Buck had once seen threaten- 
 ing Lee in that very place. 
 
 "After Lee again!" was Badger's conclusion. "I 
 reckon I'd better camp on his trail. He said he would 
 kill Lee, and that must be what he is up to !" 
 
 Thereupon, Badger also leaped the fence and slipped 
 through the shadows in the direction taken by the man 
 he supposed to be Gaston. 
 
 "Eh! what does that mean?" 
 
 Badger stopped stock-still. He saw several men be- 
 neath a window, which they had forced open. One man 
 was being helped through. 
 
 "Can't be a band of assassins, I allow? More likely a 
 lot of burglars trying to crack the crib." 
 
 The Westerner was right in his guess. These were not 
 friends of Bill Gaston bent on assassination, but house- 
 breakers, whose cupidity had been aroused by the fact, 
 which had chanced to come to their knowledge, that a 
 diamond brooch worth ten thousand dollars had recently 
 been taken from the Lee residence. A crib which held 
 such valuables seemed to them a good one to rip open, 
 and they had obtained information that Fairfax Lee was 
 expected to be away from home that night. They had 
 found that most of the servants were out, too, and because 
 of this it appeared safer to make the raid at an early hour, 
 before the servants returned.
 
 230 Into a Trap. 
 
 Badger stood in indecision in the shadows, wondering 
 what course he ought to pursue. Before he could make 
 up his mind, the first burglar had disappeared, and a 
 second was being helped through the window. Two of 
 the burglars there were four or five of them, as Badger 
 could see were to wait outside, while their pals on the 
 inside made their search for valuables. 
 
 Suddenly there came a cry for help from within the 
 house, followed by the sounds of a struggle. Fairfax 
 Lee, unable to sleep and wandering as restlessly about 
 within the house as the Westerner had upon the outside, 
 had come unexpectedly upon the first burglar at the 
 upper landing of the rear stairway. The burglar looked 
 so marvelously like the crazy office-hunter, Bill Gaston, 
 that Lee believed him to be Gaston, and that Gaston had 
 invaded the house for purposes of assassination. 
 
 Though Lee had dreaded a meeting with Gaston, and 
 would have gone far out of his way to avoid anything 
 of the kind, he was by no means a coward. He expected 
 a shot from Gaston's pistol, and to prevent this, he hurled 
 himself on the burglar with a suddenness and boldness 
 that took the latter by surprise. 
 
 The cry for help did not come from the lips of Fairfax 
 Lee, but from those of the burglar. Badger, however, 
 fancied that the call had come from Lee. Without wait- 
 ing to consider the danger, or to ask himself how he was 
 to account for his presence in the grounds and in the 
 house, Buck Badger ran toward the open window.
 
 Into a Trap. 231 
 
 As he did so, he saw two of the other burglars leap 
 through. They were going to the assistance of their 
 pal. Then a shot sounded. 
 
 Badger crossed the intervening distance at a sprinting 
 pace, and found himself suddenly confronted by the bur- 
 glar who was still on guard at the window. A pistol 
 gleamed in the dim light. Badger knocked it aside, 
 struck the man a blow that would have felled an ox, and 
 went through the window with a flying leap that took 
 him to the foot of the stairway. 
 
 He saw the two burglars on the stairs near the top. 
 One held a dark-lantern and the other a heavy jimmy. 
 Above, the sounds of the fight continued, and the bur- 
 glar attacked by Lee was still bawling for help. 
 
 Fairfax Lee felt that he was fighting for his life, and 
 he still believed that he was fighting Bill Gaston. He 
 did not hear the burglars on the stairs. He was trying 
 to get the supposed Bill Gaston by the throat and choke 
 him into subjection. The burglar's shot, fired almost 
 pointblank at Lee, had done him no injury, and now the 
 weapon was on the floor. 
 
 "Help!" bellowed the burglar. 
 
 He got his throat free, but he could not throw off those 
 clutching hands. Visions of striped clothing and prison 
 officials loomed before him, for he had once done time. 
 His anxious ears heard what Lee did not the calls of 
 the ruffians who were hurrying to his assistance and he 
 fought like a tiger.
 
 232 Into a Trap. 
 
 Buck Badger went up the stairway in quick leaps. If 
 the burglars heard him, they must have fancied he was 
 the guard left at the window, for they did not look round. 
 But before the Kansan could reach the upper landing, 
 the three scoundrels were on Lee. 
 
 "Clip him on der head !" one of them growled. "Don't 
 use yer barker too much noise! Hit him wid der 
 jimmy. All der cops in New Haven will be in dis crib in 
 a minute!" 
 
 Fairfax Lee was still putting up a stiff fight, and the 
 jimmy flashed in the air. Before it could descend, Buck 
 Badger flung himself into the midst of them, with the 
 impetuous leap of a mountain-lion. The man with the 
 uplifted jimmy went down before a blow from the Kan- 
 san's fist, and the other was hurled aside. The burglar 
 that Lee had been fighting tore himself loose and turned 
 toward Badger and the stairway. Then the Westerner 
 heard the ominous click of a revolver. These burglars, 
 like all of their craft, were ready to do murder if it 
 seemed necessary. 
 
 Lee tripped the burglar with the revolver, and the 
 shot went into the floor. The other burglar was com- 
 ing up the stairway with tremendous leaps. The house 
 seemed to be arousing. Badger heard a woman scream. 
 
 "Kill him !" was panted by one of the villains. 
 
 Then the jimmy descended, and though the Westerner 
 tried to knock the blow aside, his arm was beaten down, 
 and the jimmy fell on his head with crushing force.
 
 Into a Trap. 23 J 
 
 (Badger's head seemed to split open under that blow, and 
 a blur of blood and mistiness followed. He felt him- 
 self reeling and sinking, with his feet slipping on the 
 stairway, toward which he had fallen. Then he dropped 
 like an ox in the shambles. 
 
 But before complete unconsciousness came, he heard 
 the shout of a well-known voice the voice of Frank 
 Merriwell ! 
 
 Merriwell came upon the scene from a corridor, having 
 been drawn by the calls and the pistol-shots, and with 
 marvelous quickness and certainty grasped the whole in- 
 tent of what he beheld. 
 
 Fairfax Lee struck aside the revolver that was pointed 
 at Frank, and again began to call for help. The next 
 instant Merriwell was in the thick of the fight. Though 
 no man could have understood his peril more perfectly, 
 there was at that moment in Merriwell's heart a wild 
 thrill of joy. He laughed as he struck at the nearest 
 ruffian a laugh that sounded strangely out of place. 
 
 The blow fell with crushing force, and the ruffian 
 tumbled backward against the wall. Before Merriwell 
 could turn, two of the other three ruffians were on his 
 back. One had drawn a knife and the other had the 
 jimmy. The remaining burglar was on the stairs, and 
 was lifting a revolver. Merriwell lunged toward him, 
 and the man, instead of firing, lost his footing, and went 
 tumbling down the steps. 
 
 T nasmuch as he had a revolver, he seemed the most
 
 334 Into a Trap. 
 
 dangerous, and Frank leaped after him, dragging with 
 him the scoundrels who were trying to strike him from 
 behind. But the terrible fall knocked the breath out of 
 the burglar, and he slid helplessly on down the stair- 
 way, letting the revolver go bumping and clattering to 
 the floor below. Merriwell wheeled with lightning quick- 
 ness to meet the man with the threatening jimmy. 
 
 Badger seemed to be slipping down the stairway, also. 
 Then Frank saw him lift himself and try to stagger to 
 bis feet. Without taking further note of this, Merri- 
 well promptly closed with the other burglar on the stairs. 
 
 "Shoot him, Bill !" the fellow cried, to his pal above. 
 
 But that worthy, believing that "he who fights and 
 runs away may live to fight another day," was making 
 tracks for the nearest window, intending to leap to the 
 ground. 
 
 The burglar who had closed with Frank, endeavored 
 to trip him, with the result that he was himself shot over 
 Frank's head, and went to the bottom of the stairs at a 
 flying leap, bowling over his pals, who were trying to 
 get on their feet and pull themselves together. Merri- 
 well caught the stairway rail, down which he slid almost 
 as quickly. His hand closed on the revolver which had 
 fallen to the floor; and, with it cocked and leveled, he 
 wheeled, facing the men, who, swearing horribly, were 
 igain trying to gain their feet. 
 
 "Surrender!" he sharply called. 
 
 The answer was an oatft.
 
 Into a Trap. 235 
 
 "Surrender, or by the gods of war I'll drop you one 
 and all right where you are! Up with your paws!" 
 
 They knew he meant it, and there was no escape. The 
 next moment the three burglars at the foot of the stairs 
 put up their hands in token of submission. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Badger sat in his room. His bandaged head ached 
 painfully, but in his heart there was a glow of pleasure. 
 The surgeon had told him that he would be all right 
 in a day or two, and he had just received a note from 
 Winnie Lee. 
 
 "Dear Buck," it read, "I have had a long talk with 
 father. He says that both you and Merriwell fought like 
 heroes, and that your prompt appearance on the scene no 
 doubt saved his life. In spite of this, though, he is not 
 willing that I shall receive calls from you. But I can see 
 that his opposition is not nearly so strong as it was, and 
 I have hopes that it will soon disappear altogether. 
 Father says that the burglars which Merriwell captured 
 will no doubt be sent to State's prison. Thank Frank for 
 me for his great favor in speaking to father for you, as 
 he did for I can see that father's change toward you is 
 due more to Frank's talk than to your fight, brave as that 
 was. I will meet you as often as I can, Buck, and I 
 will send you a note every day. And we will be true to 
 each other always, in spite of father's opposition. Your 
 sweetheart, WINNIE." 
 
 "There never was any girl truer!" muttered the Kan- 
 san, as he read and reread the note. "That's whatever 1
 
 236 Into a Trap. 
 
 She is true as steel! But," he continued, "how can I 
 thank Merriwell for his part in the affair ? He pulled me 
 through, all right, and there's no mistaking that fact." 
 
 Hardly had he uttered these words, than a knock came 
 at the door. "Come in," said Buck and in walked Frank 
 himself ! 
 
 "Well, I'm glad to see you," said Buck, "and that's 
 whatever! I want to know how I can thank you for 
 what you've done for me in this affair, in going to Win- 
 nie's father in the way you did." 
 
 A gleam came into Frank's eyes as he sat there, and a 
 smile played on his lips. 
 
 "My dear fellow," he said finally, "I don't want any re- 
 ward from you or any one else for what I do, by way of 
 helping them out. I do the best I can in that respect 
 the same as you or anyone else would do and that's re- 
 ward enough for mo a clear conscience! Thanks, all 
 the same, Buck."
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 BAD NEWS. 
 
 So sunshine follows storm! 
 
 It was a jolly party aboard the Merry Seas, as she 
 bowled along on her way from New Haven to New 
 York. It was composed of Frank Merriwell and a num- 
 ber of his intimate friends ; and wherever Frank and his 
 friends were, Dull Care usually hid his agued face and 
 gave place to smiling Pleasure. 
 
 "That grumbling old boatman at the New Haven wharf 
 was a liar!" groaned Dismal Jones, as if it were a grief 
 that he had not found the boatman's unpleasant prognos- 
 tications true. 
 
 "What did he say?" asked Danny Griswold, who had 
 been prancing the deck like a diminutive admiral, stop- 
 ping now and blowing a cloud of cigarette smoke from 
 his nostrils. 
 
 "He said that a smoker of cigarettes is always a meas- 
 ly runt!" grunted Bruce Browning, from the big chair 
 in which he had ensconced himself almost as soon as he 
 came aboard, and which he had hardly left since. 
 
 "You're another!" said Danny. "He didn't say any- 
 thing of the kind." 
 
 "He was a poet," said Dismal, "and he threw his com-
 
 138 Bad News. 
 
 ment into rime. I was taken in by him, I suppose, be- 
 cause he seemed to be half-way quoting Scripture: 
 
 " 'The Pharisees were hypocrites, 
 And the Merry Seas is a ship o' fits !' " 
 
 "A ship o' fits ? Nothing eccentric about this steamer, 
 so far as I can see !" 
 
 "Except Danny Griswold !" exclaimed Bink Stubbs. 
 "He is enough to give anything fits." 
 
 "Something your tailor is never able to give you !" 
 Danny retorted. 
 
 "Sit down !" growled Browning. "You are shutting 
 out the view !" 
 
 "What view?" Danny demanded. 
 
 "The view of the steamer's funnel. I'd rather look at 
 that. It can smoke and keep still and you can't." 
 
 Inza and Elsie came along, accompanied by Merriwell 
 and Bart Hodge. Winnie Lee, who was at present un- 
 der her father's displeasure for her persistence in con- 
 tinuing to encourage Buck Badger, was not aboard, but 
 Amy May was a member of the party. At the moment, 
 she was conversing gaily with Bernard Burrage, Inza's 
 semi-invalid father, on the forward-deck. 
 
 "We're going to have a fog!" said Merriwell, speak- 
 ing to Bruce and those near. "I have been hoping it 
 would hold off until we reach New York, but it isn't go- 
 ing to." 
 
 "I'd rather be in a ship that has fits now and then.
 
 Bad News. 239 
 
 than to be stuck in a fog-bank 1" Bink declared. "I guess 
 that New Haven boatman was a prophet, after all." 
 
 The Merry Seas was a steamer running on a some- 
 what irregular schedule to New Haven and New London, 
 and back to the great metropolis by the sea route along 
 the ocean side of Long Island, touching at one or two 
 Long Island points. 
 
 Merriwell's friends had decided on a steamer voyage 
 to New York and back as a change from the usual work 
 and athletics at Yale. Not that they were tired of either. 
 But nothing of signal importance was OP the program to 
 detain them in New Haven, and they were away, there- 
 fore, for this short trip by boat. 
 
 The ordinary Sound route between New Haven and 
 New York was familiar ground to every member of the 
 party, and something new was desired. Hence they had 
 taken the Merry Seas, which had steamed to New Lon- 
 don, and out to sea between Block Island and Montauk 
 Point, and had then laid her course down the Long Island 
 coast for New York harbor. 
 
 Inza laughed at Bink's lugubrious declaration. Gamp 
 was laughing, too. 
 
 "If we get stuck in a fog, we can have Joe Gamp yell 
 a few times for us. That will do for a fog-horn." 
 
 "Then the Merry Seas will have fits, sure enough 1" 
 Bink. 
 
 Gamp looked serious. 
 'Well, honest, now, that dud-dud-don't sus- sound so
 
 240 Bad News. 
 
 funny to mum-me as it dud-does to you. Owned a cuc- 
 cuc-carf once, that was pup-prancing raound in the med- 
 der pup-pup-pasture, and I gug-got so tickled that I just 
 sus-set daown and hollered. Goshfry! you wouldn't be- 
 lieve it, bub-bub-but that cuc-carf fell over dead's a stun 
 wall !" 
 
 "Gave it heart-disease, of course!" Bink gravely ob- 
 served. "Not to be wondered at." 
 
 "I'm just tut-tut-telling this story as a warning tut-to 
 you !" Joe solemnly observed. "The hoss dud-dud-doc- 
 tor said that the pup-poor thing's head was weak. Sus-so 
 when we get into a fuf-fog and I begug-gin to holler, 
 bub-bub-better pup-put cotton into your ears, Binky!" 
 
 Stubbs fell back into Danny's arms. 
 
 "Ar-r-r-r !" he gurgled. "I've got 'em now. Fits !" 
 
 "I'll give you fits, if you don't stop tumbling over 
 against me!" Danny howled, giving Bink a push that 
 landed him in Browning's lap. Everybody laughed, and 
 Merriwell and his companions walked on round the 
 steamer's rail. 
 
 "It hurts me to think that I must separate soon from all 
 those jolly fellows !" Merry observed, in a saddened voice. 
 "But commencement is rushing this way at railroad speed, 
 and most of them will go out of Yale then forever." 
 
 "We'll not get blue about it until we have to," said 
 Elsie, though the thought had saddened her more than 
 once.
 
 Bad News. 241 
 
 "Just see how the fog is coming down!" Inza ob- 
 served. 
 
 "Hello!" cried Hodge, "another vessel!" 
 
 A steamer hove into view through the thickening mist. 
 The boats began to sound their whistles. 
 
 "A sort of Flying Dutchman!" remarked Merriwell, 
 and, indeed, the passing steamer did seem more a phan- 
 tasm of the fog than a real vessel carrying living, breath- 
 ing people. The Merry Seas sounded her whistle at fre- 
 quent intervals as she pushed on into the fog, and for 
 some time after the steamer had vanished her hoarse 
 whistle could also be heard. 
 
 "Hello!" cried Browning, who had been lazily look- 
 ing over some late New York papers. 
 
 The tone and the change in his manner told that he 
 had come on a startling piece of news. 
 
 "What is it?" Diamond asked. 
 
 "Maybe only the same name!" said Browning, and 
 then read this paragraph from the telegraphic columns : 
 
 "A young Irishman named Barney Mulloy was at- 
 tacked and killed by hoboes near Sea Cove, on the coast 
 not far from Sandy Hook, yesterday morning. The ob- 
 ject of the tramps was doubtless robbery, as Mulloy is 
 known to have had a considerable sum of money on his 
 person." 
 
 Browning looked up questioningly. 
 'Likely another fellow, though!" he said.
 
 242 Bad News. 
 
 "By Jove! I'm afraid not!" exclaimed Frank, who 
 had hastily taken the paper from Bruce, and was staring 
 in consternation at the fateful item. 
 
 "There may be a hundred Barney Mulloys !" said Rat- 
 tleton. 
 
 Frank shook his head. 
 
 "I had a letter from him a few days ago, and he was 
 then stopping at Sea Cove. He was making money, 
 too!" 
 
 Merriwell felt stunned. Barney Mulloy had been one 
 of his dearest friends, faithful and honest, kind-hearted 
 and true, jolly and hopeful. Through all of his hilari- 
 ous experiences at Fardale, Frank had not a stancher 
 adherent. And now Barney was dead, slain by a lot of 
 miserable tramps! Tears of honest grief and indigna- 
 tion came into Frank's eyes. 
 
 "Barney Mulloy dead ?" exclaimed Inza, coming up at 
 that moment and hearing the news. 
 
 "What?" cried Elsie. 
 
 "Report in the Herald," Frank answered. "Killed yes- 
 terday by hoboes, somewhere below Sandy Hook." 
 
 Bad news spreads as if by magic. In a little while 
 the other members of the party, having read the story 
 for themselves or heard of it from others, gathered round 
 Merriwell. 
 
 "Well, he was an honest boy," said Hodge, a noticeable 
 tremor in his voice.
 
 Bad News. 243 
 
 "A better-hearted lad never lived!" Merriwell as- 
 serted. 
 
 Frank's mind went back to Fardale, and, grieved as 
 he was, he could again hear the yells of Barney Mulloy 
 and Hans Dunnerwust, when they crawled into bed with 
 the lobsters, which they thought were centipedes. It had 
 been one of the funniest incidents of the Fardale days, 
 for both thought they were poisoned by the bites of the 
 creatures, and that they would surely die. The whole 
 thing had been a practical joke, in which Frank had 
 played a prominent part. And now Barney, the mis- 
 chievous, the loyal, the reckless, was dead! 
 
 "I can hardly believe it !" Merry declared. "It doesn't 
 seem possible. But there is one thing! I shall spend 
 some money in having those hoboes hunted down and 
 punished for their crime." 
 
 "I wish I could have happened along there about the 
 time they jumped on him!" growled Hodge, and the 
 light in his dark face showed that he would have done 
 his best to make it hot for the hoboes ii he could have 
 put his hands on them. "Barney had the right kind of 
 stuff in him." 
 
 This depressing bit of news took all the merriment 
 and life out of the little party. And, as the steamer 
 wallowed on through the increasing fog, the world 
 seemed suddenly to have become wrapped in gloom. 
 
 "Wish we'd stayed in New Haven!" grunted Brown-
 
 244 Bac * News. 
 
 ing. "I'll have to smoke faster to keep warm, or go 
 below." 
 
 "And I wish we were in New York," said Bink. 
 "There is something there to warm up the blood." 
 
 Danny looked at him. 
 
 "Drinks? Likely the captain has a private bottle 
 tucked away somewhere that he will give you a nip 
 out of." 
 
 "Life, I mean. Pulsing streets, swarms of people, 
 theaters, hand-organs " 
 
 "Oh, yes, a monkey is usually lost away from a hand- 
 organ !" 
 
 "I suppose that is why you always seem so lonesome! 
 When Merry is sad, we all are grumpy ! New York 
 would help to lift us out of the dumps."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ADRIFT IN THE ATLANTIC. 
 
 "So thick you might cut it with a knife 1" 
 
 Captain Darien, who had walked forward and joined 
 the group of Merriwell's friends, looked off into the 
 wall of gloom as he said this. The Merry Seas was 
 mournfully blowing her whistle, and others were con- 
 tinually heard. The steamer was Hearing New York 
 harbor. 
 
 "Will you try to run in, captain?" Frank asked. 
 
 "Oh I think we can make it. I don't like to anchor 
 out here all night. I have a pretty good idea of just 
 where we are." 
 
 "The fog may lift before night." 
 
 The captain looked at his watch, and saw that it in- 
 dicated nearly three o'clock. 
 
 "I'm afraid not. And likely it will be no better in 
 the morning. I shall try to go in." 
 
 A fog-siren somewhere on the invisible shore was 
 sending out its unearthly blasts. Then a whistle seemed 
 to cut the gloom right ahead, and a big black shape 
 loomed through the murk. The Merry Seas sounded 
 her warning, and the helm was jammed hard a-starboard. 
 Another shriek came from the phantom that had seemed
 
 346 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 to rise right out of the sea. With that shriek, she also 
 swung off. 
 
 "I thought we were in for a collision!" said Frank, 
 breathing more freely. "It will be a squeak as it is." 
 
 Elsie had nervously clutched him by the arm. All were 
 moving back from the dangerous vicinity toward the 
 other rail. 
 
 "A tug !" said Bart, who was standing near Merriwell. 
 
 The tug, which was a large one, seemed now fairly on 
 top of them. In size, it was as large or larger than the 
 Merry Seas. A collision of the two vessels would be a 
 serious thing. 
 
 "We're going to strike, or scrape !" Frank warned, 
 taking Inza and Elsie each by an arm. "Brace for it!" 
 
 Orders were being given, and the whistles were 
 hoarsely blowing. Both vessels were still falling off. 
 Some one on the tug bellowed frantically through a big 
 trumpet. 
 
 "What was that ?" Inza asked. 
 
 "Tows!" said Frank. "Something about tows!" 
 
 The tug and the steamer did not strike, though they 
 grazed each other so closely that a collision seemed un- 
 avoidable. Then there was more bellowing through 
 trumpets and more whistling, and Frank felt the Merry 
 Seas tremble under him as her engines were reversed. 
 He knew not what to expect 
 
 Crash 1
 
 Adrift in the Atlantic. 247 
 
 The big tug, Gladiator, had a string of heavily laden 
 barges in tow. Into one of these barges, in spite of 
 every effort to prevent it, the bow of the Merry Seas 
 crashed with terrible force. It was as if a horse should 
 rush headlong against a stone wall. 
 
 The shock was terrific. Merriwell heard a sound of 
 smashing timbers and snapping iron. He was pitched 
 violently from his feet as the bow of the Merry Seas was 
 forced downward by the collision. He felt himself fly- 
 ing through the air. Then he struck the water, and went 
 down, down, down! 
 
 But Frank did not lose consciousness. And as he came 
 to the surface, he supported himself by a gentle motion 
 of his hands and feet, and tried to look about. He knew 
 how great was his peril. But his thoughts were not 
 wholly of himself. He thought of Inza and Elsie, of 
 Hodge and his other friends. What had befallen them? 
 Had they, too, been hurled into the sea by that awful 
 shock? If so, there could be little doubt that some of 
 them, if not all, would be drowned. 
 
 He shouted for assistance, and heard a hoarse whistle 
 not far away. He could see nothing, for the fog was as 
 impenetrable as a blanket. He began to swim toward 
 the sound. He could not tell whether the whistle was 
 that of the tug or the Merry Seas or of some other ves- 
 sel. Again he sent up a call for help. The water was 
 cold and his clothing heavy. He was thinking of try-
 
 248 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 ing to get out of his shoes and outer coat, when he heard 
 a human cry not far away. 
 
 "Help ! help !" some one called. 
 
 "Help! help-!" Frank shouted. 
 
 But instead of swimming on, he turned in the direc- 
 tion of the cry. It indicated a human being in distress 
 and peril, and he felt that he might be able to save a life. 
 
 "Help !" came the cry again. 
 
 The voice was so choked and thick, and there was such 
 a rush of water in his ears that Merry could not tell 
 much about it, yet it seemed familiar. It was near at 
 hand, too; and, sending back an answering call, Frank 
 swam straight toward it. 
 
 "Help!" was shouted, right at hand now, for the voice 
 seemed to be drifting toward him. 
 
 "Where are you?" 
 
 For answer, Merriwell received a heavy blow on the 
 head and breast from a piece of timber. He went under 
 with a cry, his head ringing and his senses reeling. 
 
 The next thing he knew, he was stretched out on 
 some sort of raft, and some one was holding him there 
 by sheer force. His feet and legs were trailing through 
 the water. The whistle of the steamer or tug sounded 
 again, but farther away. 
 
 "Is that you, Merry? How are you feeling?" 
 
 It was a familiar voice, though thick and husky the 
 voice of Bart Hodge.
 
 Adrift in the Atlantic. 249 
 
 It steadied Merriwell's reeling brain. He took hold 
 of the boards and sought to draw himself still higher 
 on them. 
 
 "That you, Hodge?" 
 
 "Yes. I thought that was you, Merry. How are 
 you?" 
 
 "Soaked. But I guess I am all right. Something hit 
 me on the head and shoulders, and I went under. I was 
 swimming this way. Heard somebody call." 
 
 "I called, and you were struck by this drift. I heard 
 you, and felt the shock when you struck. I reached out 
 and got hold of you and here you are ?" 
 
 "Yes, here and where is that?" 
 
 "In the Atlantic, somewhere off New York. I doubt 
 if the captain knew." 
 
 "What became of the rest of the crowd?" 
 
 "Don't know. That collision threw me clean over the 
 rail. I fell near these boards. I don't know but they 
 came from the barge. When I came up, I bumped 
 against them, and then hung on and began to call for 
 help." 
 
 There was a moment of silence. Both were listen- 
 ing. Whistles could be heard here and there. Off to 
 the left somewhere they fancied they heard a voice call- 
 ing, but whether it came from the deck of a vessel or 
 from some unfortunate in the water they could not de-
 
 250 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 termine. Near and far the whistles of steamers and tugs 
 were hoarsely bellowing. 
 
 "With so many vessels around, we ought to be picked 
 up soon," said Hodge. 
 
 ''We would be, if any one could see anything. But a 
 boat would have to run right over us to find us. Hark! 
 wasn't that rowlocks?" 
 
 Again they listened. The sound of oars was certainly 
 heard. 
 
 Clug-clank, clug-clank, clug-clank. 
 
 "Let us call together," said Merry. "Now ! As loud 
 as you can." 
 
 Both shouted with all their might. For an instant they 
 fancied the boat was coming toward them, and they 
 shouted again. But it was almost impossible to deter- 
 mine the direction of sound. They could not them- 
 selves be sure of the direction of the boat. The "clug- 
 clank" grew fainter and fainter. 
 
 "We're bound to be picked up soon," Merriwell cheer- 
 ily declared. "We must be right in the track of vessels. 
 We'd be picked up right away if it wasn't for this beastly 
 fog." 
 
 Hodge was silent. 
 
 "What do you suppose has become of the others? 
 They were right with us, you know, when we went over !" 
 
 "I'm afraid to think about it," said Frank, with a 
 shudder, which was not caused by the chill of the 
 water.
 
 Adrift in the Atlantic. 251 
 
 "I can't help thinking about it!" 
 
 "Nor I. But I'm hoping we were the only ones that 
 went overboard. We must try to believe that, Bart, unti> 
 we cannot believe it any longer." 
 
 Hodge was silent. 
 
 "And as for ourselves !" 
 
 "Oh, I wasn't thinking of ourselves," said Bart. "We 
 can hang on here a good while, I think. I suppose we're 
 being carried out to sea, though !" 
 
 "Not much doubt of that, I guess. But we've pulled 
 through worse scrapes together, Bart!" 
 
 "That's right, Merry! And we'll pull through this. 
 Are you up high enough on the boards? Let me help 
 you ! You can't be feeling very strong after that blow." 
 
 Merriwell drew himself higher out of the water, and 
 found that the heavy board supported his weight 
 
 "If only the fog would clear now ! I hear a whistle 
 away off there." 
 
 "Do you suppose the Merry Seas was sunk?" Hodge 
 asked. 
 
 "I sha'n't think so until I have to. I think the barge 
 got much the worst of it. The steamer seemed to cut 
 it right in two." 
 
 "Perhaps we can get up higher on these boards." 
 
 "I've been thinking of that myself," Hodge answered. 
 
 The two friends had locked hands across the narrow 
 space that separated them. Now, by Merriwell first 
 helping Bart and then Bart returning the favor,
 
 252 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 managed to get up higher out of the water, and were 
 gratified to find that the boards were sufficiently buoyant 
 to sustain them. 
 
 For fifteen or twenty minutes they had thus drifted on, 
 talking and conjecturing, listening at intervals, and now 
 and then sending up a loud call. The fog-siren on the 
 shore was still screeching, and the whistles of vessels 
 were now and then heard. But about them was that 
 impenetrable gray wall of fog. 
 
 Having secured an easier position, Frank fumbled 
 with his chilled fingers for his watch, which he finally 
 drew out. It was wet, of course, but, to his surprise, 
 was still merrily ticking away. By holding it near his 
 eyes the time could be told. 
 
 "About half an hour, I judge, since the collision." 
 
 "No more than that? Seems to me it has been a half 
 a day." 
 
 Again there was silence. 
 
 "I should think a vessel would anchor, instead of try- 
 ing to go on in such a fog as this !" Bart snarled. 
 
 The memory of the disaster was beginning to make 
 him bitter against the captain. 
 
 "They do, usually. The captain thought he could 
 make his way in, that is all !" 
 
 "And I'm afraid some of our friends have gone to the 
 bottom as a result of it. We seem in a good way to 
 investigate Davy Jones' locker ourselves V
 
 Adrift in the Atlantic. 253 
 
 "I'm going to believe that our friends are all right. It 
 can't be possible that both the tug and the steamer sank. 
 The tug wasn't really in the collision, you know. She 
 would be able to take off every one from the steamer, no 
 doubt, even if the steamer was so injured that she could 
 not float. The thing I most fear is that some of them 
 may have been hurled overboard, just as we were, and 
 were not lucky enough to find anything to sustain them. 
 But I shall not believe anything of the kind as long as 
 I can hope that it isn't so." 
 
 But for Merriwell, Hodge would have been very de- 
 spondent, especially as the long hours of the afternoon 
 began to wear on and no boat came near them, and their 
 frequent cries seemed to remain unheard; but Frank's 
 hopefulness and cheerful optimism were not without good 
 effect on the mind of his friend, and they were even able 
 at times to talk with some degree of mental comfort. 
 
 Frank was sure that they were steadily drifting out 
 to sea. He believed, from the change in the apparent 
 direction of the fog-siren, that they were moving down 
 the coast toward Sandy Hook. But they were evi- 
 dently floating farther out to sea, for the sounds of the 
 siren were fainter and farther away. 
 
 "I believe the fog is going to lighten." 
 
 Merriwell lifted himself and strained his eyes through 
 the gloom. A suggestion of a breeze had fanned him. 
 
 "If the wind gets up, the fog may be driven away," he 
 said.
 
 254 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 "And the wind will kick up a sea!" suggested Bart. 
 
 "But if the fog lifts, we will probably be seen by some 
 vessel !" 
 
 There could be no doubt that a gentle breeze was be- 
 ginning to blow. 
 
 "Sure enough, the fog is thinning!" Bart cried joy 
 fully. "But I don't hear any more whistles." 
 
 "Hark! there one sounded." 
 
 "Miles away!" 
 
 "Wait till the fog rises. Perhaps there are others." 
 
 Anxiously they watched the gray wall. The wind died 
 away, and once or twice it seemed that the fog was grow- 
 ing denser, instead of lightening. But by and by the sun- 
 light seemed to permeate it. It appeared to become 
 thinner. Then, like a great curtain uplifted, it for a little 
 while swung upward from the face of the heaving sea. 
 All around were the green rollers, rising and falling with 
 an oily swell. 
 
 Hodge uttered an exclamation of gratification. 
 
 "Look!" 
 
 Merriwell looked in the direction indicated. Not a 
 fourth of a mile away a dingy fishing-sloop was bobbing 
 along, with her dirty mainsail and jib set, yet seeming to 
 catch no breeze. Both Merry and Hodge forgot their 
 discomfort, forgot their chilled and benumbed condi- 
 tion, and, lifting themselves as high as they could, shouted 
 lor assistance. 
 
 Tkere must have been some breeze in the dingy sails,
 
 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 for the vessel was moving athwart the line of their 
 progress, and they were being carried along by the tide. 
 
 "Shout again!" said Merriwell, and again they lifted 
 their voices together. 
 
 In another direction a steamer could be seen, but those 
 on the steamer evidently did not see the sufferers on the 
 raft 
 
 "I don't believe there is a soul on the sloop!" Bart 
 declared, in a despairing way. 
 
 "Well, if she keeps on her course, we'll get so near 
 that perhaps we can swim to her and climb on board." 
 
 But Bart was wrong. Hardly had he made the dec- 
 laration, when a man appeared on deck, accompanied by 
 a shaggy dog. 
 
 Merriwell and Hodge renewed their cries to attract his 
 attention. But the man gave them absolutely no heed. 
 Once they fancied that the dog turned his nose in their 
 direction. 
 
 "He don't want to see us," Bart growled. "We are 
 near enough for him to hear ! I " 
 
 His sentence was interrupted by a young lady who 
 rushed suddenly on deck from the "cuddy" or cabin. A 
 scream issued from her lips as she appeared, and imme- 
 diately a second man came into view, from whom she 
 seemed to be fleeing. 
 
 "My God ! Inza Burrage !" 
 
 Merriwell fairly shouted the words. 
 
 Inza did not see the raft and her friends. She ap-
 
 2$6 Adrift in the Atlantic. 
 
 peared to see only the shaggy-bearded fellow, who now 
 stood grimly looking at her. 
 
 "She's going to jump overboard!" cried Hodge, so 
 excited that he almost fell off the raft. 
 
 Merriwell shouted with all his might Inza turned 
 and saw the raft. She uttered another piercing cry, 
 stretched out her hands, and seemed again about to leap 
 into the sea. 
 
 Instead of heeding the cry sent up by Merriwell, Inza's 
 pursuer leaped at her to prevent her from jumping over 
 the rail; and, then, bearing her in his strong arms, de- 
 liberately carried her back into the cuddy. 
 
 Merriwell and Hodge shouted, yelled, screamed. The 
 one man on the deck paid not the slightest attention to 
 their cries. 
 
 "He refuses to hear us !" said Hodge. 
 
 The other man appeared, and they called again. One 
 of the men went to the tiller, and the course of the sloop 
 was changed. 
 
 "They are going to pretend that they did not see u*, 1 * 
 Frank exclaimed. 
 
 "Hold to the raft, Hodge ! Stay by it !" 
 
 "What are you going to do?" Hodge demanded. 
 
 ! Tm going to swim to that sloop!"
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE FISHING-SLOOP. 
 
 "Stay with the raft," Merriwell again commanded. 
 
 "But I want to go with you ! You will need help !' 
 
 "Perhaps I may have to return to the raft. I can't 
 find it if you leave it." 
 
 "We can get on that vessel. And perhaps, if you go 
 alone, you will be killed." 
 
 Merriwell was as anxious and almost as much excited, 
 but he kept his head. 
 
 "Don't you see that the sloop is moving on the new 
 tack. She may be going faster than I can swim. Stay 
 on the raft !" 
 
 As he gave this last command, he slipped out of his 
 heavy, soaked outer coat, quickly removed his shoes, 
 and, pushing these articles to Hodge, let himself into the 
 sea, and began to swim toward the dingy fishing-sloop. 
 Hodge did not again shout, for he saw that Merriwell's 
 plan was to swim to the sloop, climb aboard of it, and 
 by a sudden attack overwhelm the men. 
 
 "He's crazy!" Hodge grated. "They will see him, 
 and they will simply knock him back into the sea. They 
 act as if they were lunatics or drunk ! Why don't they 
 look this way?" 
 
 It was indeed singular, but neither of the men seemed
 
 258 The Mystery of the Fishing-sioop. 
 
 to have noticed the raft or heard the cries that came 
 from it. Merriwell was a splendid swimmer, and in 
 spite of his chilled condition and his hampering clothing, 
 he moved through the water almost like a fish. 
 
 "Of course I couldn't have kept up with him!" Bart 
 grumbled. "But I could have done my best. He can't 
 overpower both of those men alone." 
 
 He held tightly to the shoes and the coat, and looked 
 longingly after the swimmer, turning his eyes often to 
 the sloop, that now, under the influence of a light breeze, 
 was going along in a surprising fashion. 
 
 "And how did Inza come to be aboard of that sloop ?" 
 
 Bart had not time to think of this before, but now 
 the answer came quickly enough. Inza's clothing had 
 clung to her, as she rushed on the deck, showing that her 
 skirts were weighted with water. No doubt, she, too, 
 had been hurled into the sea by the collision of the 
 steamer with the barge, and this fishing-boat had in some 
 manner picked her up. 
 
 "It's very queer, though, the way that fellow acted! 
 She was afraid of him. But she is below, and he is now 
 on deck. Likely enough he has her shut up in the 
 cabin." 
 
 He beheld Merriwell lift himself slightly out of the 
 water and send out a ringing call. But the men on deck 
 did not stir. And the sloop sailed on. 
 
 "The scoundrels !" Bart hissed, through his white teeth, 
 "I should like to knock their heads together. They re-
 
 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 259 
 
 fuse to hear him. They are carrying Inza away, and 
 they do not intend that any one shall come aboard. And 
 this within the very shadows of New York City!" 
 
 The sloop heeled over under the breeze and increased 
 her speed. Merriwell was palpably losing ground. Bart 
 heard him call again and again, with the same result, 
 and then Bart also lifted his voice. 
 
 The result was the same. The sloop moved straight 
 on. At last he saw Merriwell turn about and swim again 
 toward the raft, when it became evident that he could not 
 overtake the sloop. 
 
 "That is enough to kill Merry!" he thought sympa- 
 thizingly. "And Inza saw us, too! I wonder what she 
 thinks?" 
 
 Slowly and with seeming weariness Merriwell came 
 back toward the raft. Bart lifted himself as high as he 
 could to mark the spot where the raft lay tossing. When 
 lifted on the crest of a wave, Merriwell came plainly in 
 sight; but when either Frank or the raft slipped down 
 the glassy surface of those big, green rollers, he seemed 
 to sink into the sea. 
 
 "I'm afraid he is going to have a hard pull ! He must 
 be tired out." 
 
 He shook his fist at the sloop. It was growing smaller 
 and smaller. A haze was again creeping over the sea. 
 
 "My God! What if the fog should settle down again 
 and keep Merry from finding the raft?" 
 
 Bart shuddered at the thought But Merriwell was so
 
 260 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 
 
 strong a swimmer that Bart's hopes rose again almost im- 
 mediately. There were indications that the fog was 
 once more descending, but Merriwell was now swimming 
 straight toward the raft with a bold, firm stroke, and 
 with considerable speed. 
 
 "Right here, old man!" Bart encouragingly called. 
 
 "I'm coming!" Merriwell shouted, and his tones did 
 not show exhausting fatigue. 
 
 Then he swam up to the raft, and Bart helped him to 
 climb upon it. 
 
 "What was the matter with those scoundrels?" 
 
 "Deaf!" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Deaf as posts, both of them!" Merriwell explained, 
 resting on the boards and panting from his exertions. 
 "They didn't look this way simply because they didn't 
 hear us. I'm sure of that, from the way they acted. I 
 began to think so when I told you to hang to the raft. 
 I believed that if I could overtake the sloop, and could 
 climb aboard and make myself known, or knock them 
 down, as my intention was, I could then release Inza and 
 sail the sloop over here and get you. But I couldn't 
 swim fast enough." 
 
 "You went through the water like a fish!" 
 
 "But the sloop went faster. If that breeze hadn't 
 sprung up, I think I could have made it." 
 
 "And what are they doing with Inza?"
 
 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 261 
 
 "I don't know. But I'm glad of one thing. She isn't 
 dead." 
 
 "Deaf!" muttered Bart. "Deaf as posts! Well, that 
 does make the thing a bit clearer." 
 
 The reaction from the tremendous exertions which 
 Merriwell had put forth made itself felt now. The ex- 
 citement having passed, he felt almost exhausted. He 
 climbed up as high as he could on the boards, and Bart, 
 who was terribly benumbed and chilled from long ex- 
 posure to the cold water, held him thus while he rested. 
 
 "It was too much for you, old man!" he said con- 
 solingly. 
 
 "I had to try it!" was Merriwell's answer. 
 
 "The fog is shutting down again," said Bart. 
 
 "But it won't stay down. The sea looked red out to- 
 ward the west. I think it will clear away to-night." 
 
 He was in no mood to say more.. And the raft drifted 
 on, while the gray fog settled round them, and its chill 
 and gloominess seemed to go to their very hearts. 
 
 But as Merriwell had predicted, the fog lifted again, 
 and at the end of another hour of an experience as terri- 
 ble as either had ever been called to undergo, the gray 
 bank again swung up toward the sky. The sun was sink- 
 ing redly into the sea, and night was at hand and what 
 night might mean in their weakened and chilled condi- 
 tion, adrift on the great ocean toward which they seemed 
 to be so resistlessly borne, they dared not think. 
 
 "The sloop!" Bart cried, rousing himself.
 
 262 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 
 
 Merriwell lifted himself and looked. It was the sloop, 
 sure enough. A little to the southward of east, with 
 its dingy sails furled and their bulging shapes turned to 
 great lumps of gold, with the mast standing out in dark 
 tracery against the red skyline, lay the fishing-sloop. 
 
 "It's the same!" Merry exclaimed. 
 
 "Sure! There can't be any doubt about it" 
 
 "And she has cast anchor." 
 
 "What does that mean?" 
 
 "She is a fishing-sloop, and I've an idea we must be 
 on the fishing-grounds off the Jersey or New York coast. 
 There is no other explanation. She is out here on a fish- 
 ing-trip." 
 
 "And Inza?" 
 
 "We'll have to wait for her to clear that mystery away." 
 
 "What will we do? If those fellows are deaf, there 
 is no use in shouting." 
 
 "We are drifting toward her, you see. We'll be along- 
 side before dark, if this continues." 
 
 "Then we'll get on board of her !" 
 
 "And we'll find out a few things, if we have to knock 
 those fellows on the head." 
 
 The thought was so exhilarating that the warm blood 
 was again driven through their veins, and the numbness 
 seemed in a measure to go out of their chilled bodies. 
 Nothing is so reviving as hope. And hope was theirs 
 again. The raft drifted so slowly and Bart was so eageo
 
 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 263 
 
 that he wanted to leap into the sea and swim to the 
 vessel. 
 
 "Let us save our strength," was Merriwell's advice. 
 "We are going straight there. We will probably need 
 all the strength we have." 
 
 "I see only one man. He is pottering about near the 
 cabin." 
 
 "The other is aboard somewhere. And you noticed 
 that dog? If he puts up a fight, too, I've an idea that 
 he will be worse than either of the men." 
 
 The progress of the little raft was tantalizingly slow, 
 but it moved steadily, and after the sun had set and 
 while the darkness was gathering on that great expanse 
 of water, it swung close in under the stern of the sloop. 
 Not a sound was heard aboard of her as she lazily lifted 
 and rolled on the heaving swell. 
 
 Frank took his shoes in one hand, but thought it not 
 well to burden himself with the extra coat. 
 
 "Now !" he whispered. "Let the raft go. We can cut 
 that boat loose if we have to trust to the sea again. Fol- 
 low me!" 
 
 Then he slipped silently into the sea, Hodge imitating- 
 his example. Softly swimming round to the bow, Frank 
 got hold of a chain that ran down from the bowsprit. 
 
 "Here," he softly whispered. "Lay hold of this, and 
 come right up after me." 
 
 "I'll be there!" Hodge whispered back. 
 
 Then, hampered by the shoes, Merry climbed slowly
 
 264 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 
 
 aboard, and Bart swung up after him. Together they 
 dropped to the deck, and crouched low, with the water 
 running in rivulets from their clothing. 
 
 Frank felt softly about, and his hands fell on a club- 
 like maul which fishermen use for stunning the large fish 
 they catch. There was nothing else near in the shape of 
 a weapon. He passed the maul to Bart, and clutched one 
 of the shoes as a club in his right hand. 
 
 "Good luck!" he softly whispered. "How are you?" 
 
 Hodge was chilled to the bone, and his teeth were fairly 
 chattering. 
 
 "I'm all right. A bit chilly, but I guess things will be 
 warm enough for me in a few minutes. I'm ready. Go 
 on!" 
 
 A dark form was standing beside the cuddy. But for 
 his certainty that the men were deaf, or nearly so, Merri- 
 well would not have indulged in even this whispered con- 
 versation. He crept now toward this man, with Hodge 
 crawling at his heels, and when near enough, leaped on 
 the man with a sudden and disconcerting pounce. 
 
 Though the surprise must have been great, the man, 
 who was large and strong, wheeled round to resist the 
 attack, and the large dog, which had before been seen, 
 sprang up from the deck and flew at Merriwell's throat. 
 The ready club in the hands of Bart Hodge tumbled the 
 dog over with a howl, and Merry and the big fisherman 
 began to struggle in the growing darkness for the mas- 
 tery.
 
 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 265 
 
 To and fro on the deck they reeled. The dog leaped 
 up again and tried to come t to the assistance of its mas- 
 ter, but turned upon Hodge when he struck at it again 
 with the maul. Its eyes seemed balls of green fire in the 
 gloom, and the hoarse growl that came from deep down 
 in its throat was anything but pleasant to hear. 
 
 But Bart Hodge met its onset with a stout heart, rain- 
 ing his blows with such swiftness and precision that it 
 dropped to the deck. Then he hurried to the assistance 
 of Merriwell. But Frank was already the victor. Though 
 the man had the strength of an ox, he had not Merriwell's 
 science and skill in fighting, and Frank had not only 
 knocked the breath out of him, but had hurled him to 
 the deck. 
 
 "That rope, Bart ! It is right here. I tripped over it 
 Tie him!" 
 
 A cry followed this a cry from Inza. She rushed out 
 of the cuddy door, and after her sprang a man with a 
 lighted lantern. 
 
 Hodge faced toward this man, intending to fell him 
 with the club. 
 
 "Frank! Frank!" Inza cried. "I knew you would 
 come, Frank!" 
 
 Then she noticed the uplifted club. 
 
 "Don't strike him, Bart!" 
 
 She threw herself between Hodge and the man with 
 the lantern. Merriwell was still holding down the man 
 he had conquered.
 
 266 The Mystery of the Fishing-sloop. 
 
 "What is it?" he questioned, looking up and trying to 
 read Inza's meaning by the light of the lantern. 
 
 "The men are deaf!" said Inza. "They rescued me 
 from a piece of boat, to which I clung after the collision !" 
 
 The man with the lantern seemed about to spring 
 upon Frank in spite of Hodge's threatening club. Inza 
 touched him on the arm. 
 
 "Friends !" she screamed, in an endeavor to make hi 
 hear.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 INZA'S STORY. 
 
 The man did not hear Inza, but he felt the touch, and, 
 turning quickly about, caught something of her mean- 
 ing in her manner. The deaf are wonderfully quick in 
 such things. He made a horrible grimace and pointed at 
 Merriwell. Again she laid a hand restrainingly on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Let the man up, Frank," she urged. "The fellows 
 are harmless enough, but they are as deaf as adders !" 
 
 "Look out for the dog!" Frank warned. 
 
 The dog, which had crawled away in a seemingly dy- 
 ing condition, had struggled again to its feet and ap- 
 peared to be meditating another attack on Hodge. 
 
 "I've got an eye on him," Hodge called back. "Look 
 out for your man!" 
 
 Merriwell released the fellow he had overthrown, and 
 the man climbed dazedly and sullenly to his feet. Inza 
 hurried toward him, shrieking and making motions with 
 her hands. The man did not understand her. It began 
 to seem that both of them contemplated an attack on 
 Bart and Merry. 
 
 "Wait a minute!" she cried. "Don't strike them, 
 Frank, Bart, if you can help it 1"
 
 268 Inza's Story. 
 
 "I think I'm awake," growled Hodge, as if he wanted 
 to pinch himself to make sure of it. 
 
 The scene was certainly a strange one as strange as 
 if taken from a comic opera. The fishing-sloop rock- 
 ing on the long swell, the dog cowed and uncertain, one 
 deaf man doubtingly flashing the lantern in the face of 
 Bart Hodge, and the other swaying unsteadily on his 
 feet, as if he contemplated making a blind rush at Merri- 
 well. In less than a minute Inza reappeared from the 
 cuddy. She held in her hand a piece of paper on which 
 she had hastily written some explanatory sentences. This 
 she thrust beneath the nose of the man who held the 
 lantern. 
 
 The effect was magical. The lantern came down, 
 something that sounded like an attempt at words gurgled 
 in his throat, and he made a signal to the other fisher- 
 man, whose attitude also changed instantly. 
 
 "It's all right now !" Inza laughed, though the laugh 
 sounded a bit hysterical. 
 
 "Well, I'm glad that it is !" said Merriwell. "But an 
 explanation would be comfortable." 
 
 "These men rescued me from the piece of broken boat 
 to which I was clinging," Inza hastily explained. "I 
 was knocked overboard by the collision. They are fish- 
 ermen, and are now anchored on their fishing-grounds." 
 
 "So I see. But what about one of them chasing you, 
 when you ran out of the cuddy this afternoon? You 
 tried to jump overboard!"
 
 Inza's Story. 269 
 
 "The men both thought me deranged by what I had 
 passed through, and I suppose I may have acted strange. 
 I saw you and Bart on the raft, and I tried to make the 
 men see you. But they thought I was going to jump 
 overboard, and I was carried bodily into the cuddy and 
 locked in. I didn't know at the time that they could 
 read writing, or I should have tried that; though I was 
 kept locked in the cuddy so long that it would have done 
 no good !" 
 
 Then she began to motion to the men ; and one of the 
 fellows came toward Bart in a sheepish way and held 
 out a hand. Bart hesitated about taking it, fearing a 
 trick ; but the man's intentions were honest. Having 
 made this advance, the way to an understanding was so 
 fully paved that within less than ten minutes thereafter 
 both Frank and Hodge, having wrung out their clothing 
 in a contracted place below deck, were warming them- 
 selves and trying to get dry by the cuddy stove, while 
 Inza was rattling on with the story of her adventures. 
 
 "I really don't know yet whether I am awake or dream- 
 ing!" said Bart. "This abcut knocks everything I have 
 ever seen!" 
 
 "Just fishermen," said Inza. ''They would have picked 
 you up, no doubt, if they had seen you they couldn't 
 hear you ; or if I had been able to make them see you. 
 It must have been an hour or more after that when I 
 found that they had writing-material in the little desk 
 over there, and 1 wrote them a note. But the fog was
 
 270 Inza's Story. 
 
 so thick then that it was no use for them to make a 
 search." 
 
 "Why didn't they run back to New York with you?" 
 
 "Simply because they thought they had done their duty 
 by me, and that it would pay them better to come out to 
 the fishing-grounds and take me in on their return. I 
 promised them money, but " 
 
 She laughingly held up a little purse. 
 
 "I had just ten cents in that, and you see I couldn't 
 convince them of the fabulous wealth of my father and 
 my friends by exhibiting that. They said they woul'd 
 take me when they went in, and I could not get anything 
 else out of them." 
 
 "Perhaps a little money as much or more than they 
 can make out of this fishing-trip will induce them to 
 take us right in. That is, as soon as the wind rises. 
 We're not only anchored, but we're becalmed now." 
 
 Frank was thinking of Elsie and of the others who 
 had been on the Merry Seas. His heart was aching with 
 anxiety. Bart and Inza were scarcely less distressed. 
 
 The cabin or "cuddy," which had been surrendered to 
 them by the fishermen who were now outside, was a 
 diminutive place, smelling unpleasantly of fish and burnt 
 grease. On two sides were bunks. Near the center was 
 the rusty stove about which the three friends were gath- 
 ered. Its heat caused their wet clothing to emit a cloud 
 of steam. At one side was the writing-desk, fashioned 
 by clumsy hands, and scattered about was a miscellane-
 
 Inza's Story. 271 
 
 Ois assortment of odds and ends, consisting of sea-boots 
 and oilskin coats, nets, and fishing-tackle. 
 
 "Not a ladies' parlor," Inza admitted, glancing about 
 "But I tell you I was glad to get into it." 
 
 "And you don't know anything about the people on the 
 Merry Seas?" Frank asked. 
 
 A look of pain swept across the dark, handsome face. 
 
 "Not a thing! I am worried to death about all of 
 them, especially father. But I hope for the best. If 
 any others went overboard, the tug was right there to 
 pick them up, and we can believe, until we know other- 
 wise, that it did. We have been so very fortunate our- 
 selves !" 
 
 "More than fortunate !" Merry observed, with a thank- 
 ful heart. "Now, if we can only get to the city without 
 delay! Call in the fishermen and perhaps an offer of 
 money can do something. If not, we can capture the 
 sloop and take it in ourselves !" 
 
 "But there is no breeze," Bart reminded. 
 
 "That is so. But call in the fishermen. We may get 
 some opinions out of them." 
 
 Jabez and Peleg Slocnm, the deaf-mute owners of the 
 fishing-sloop Sarah Jane, of Sea Cove, New Jersey, were 
 what one might call "queer ducks" ; a thing not so much 
 to be wondered at when the fact that they had been deaf 
 and dumb from infancy is taken into consideration, with 
 the further fact that the greater part of their fifty odd 
 years had been spent in the lonely and precarious calling
 
 272 Inza's Story. 
 
 of Atlantic fishermen. They were rough and gnarled 
 and cross-grained, like the sloop whose deck they trod; 
 yet, in spite of all, like that same sloop, they had some 
 good qualities. 
 
 To them fishing was the end and aim of existence. 
 Hence, as soon as Merriwell, with the aid of pencil and 
 paper, began to talk of being taken straight to New 
 York, the fishermen shook their heads. They had work 
 to do out there on the fishing-banks. It was probable 
 they reasoned that it was not their fault that these young 
 people had fallen in their way. They had dutifully res- 
 cued them from watery graves or, in the case of Hodge 
 and Merriwell had permitted them to rescue them- 
 selves. And thus, whatever obligation they may have 
 been under as fellow human beings had been fully dis- 
 charged. They did not want Merriwell's money and 
 they certainly did not desire to run to New York. It was 
 not their habit to visit New York. Sea Cove was their 
 home, and, whenever they pulled up their rusty anchor 
 for a run from the banks, they returned to Sea Cove in- 
 variably, unless blown out of their latitutde by a storm, 
 as sometimes happened. 
 
 Finally one of them wrote: 
 
 "See in morning." 
 
 "And now we'll have something to eat!" Inza de- 
 clared. "Both of you are famished. You are getting 
 thawed out and dry, and if your stomachs are strong 
 enough to stand the odor of things, I'll go ahead and get
 
 Inza's Story. 273 
 
 some supper for you. I know where everything is in 
 the what do you call it? locker? Peleg, that's the 
 taller one, showed me." 
 
 "Peleg must be sweet on you," remarked Frank, laugh- 
 ing. 
 
 She picked up a "spider" and shook it at him. 
 
 "Don't trouble the cook, Mr. Merriwell, if you expect 
 to get anything to eat!" 
 
 "I was just going to remark that I admired his taste. 
 He is a man of most excellent judgment!" 
 
 "How is your taste, Mr. Hodge ?" Inza calmly queried. 
 "Do you think you can eat fish?" 
 
 "I could eat a whale. I'll gobble up this fish-basket 
 pretty soon if you don't hurry and serve something." 
 
 "Very well. Fish-baskets on toast. There are fish 
 in a box back there. And there are crackers in this 
 box. And over there I found some pretty nice canned 
 goods." 
 
 Merriwell smiled. Inza's manner was like a break of 
 sunshine. 
 
 "Your talk makes me simply ravenous." 
 
 That they were ravenous they showed when they fell 
 to on the supper which Inza prepared as best she could 
 from the materials available. There were many things 
 that might have been improved. They might have gone 
 out on the deck, for one thing, but the wet fog had come 
 down again, with a chill that went to the bones a chill
 
 274 Inza's Story. 
 
 that was simply horrible to Frank and Bart in the damp 
 condition in which their clothing still remained. 
 
 The fishermen did not seem to mind the fog, however, 
 but walked the deck and smoked, garbed in oilskins and 
 sou' westers. They talked, too, by signaling to each other 
 with their hands. Merry, Hodge, and Inza sat up until 
 a late hour, going over and over again all the points of the 
 day's experience, with the many conjectures and unan- 
 swerable questions which grew out of it. 
 
 The fact that the sloop belonged in Sea Cove, the vil- 
 lage near which, according to the newspaper report, Bar- 
 ney Mulloy was killed, was a matter of intense interest, 
 even though the fishermen could in no wise enlighten 
 them on the subject of Barney's murder. Frank con- 
 tinued to hope that a breeze would spring up, and that 
 he could induce the Slocums, by a liberal money offer, to 
 set him and his friends ashore at the nearest point with- 
 out delay. In the event of a refusal, the temptation to 
 take the vessel in himself would have been strong, but he 
 knew that such a course would hardly do in these modern 
 days. It smacked too much of piracy. Money was the 
 lever he hoped to use, and when the breeze came he in- 
 tended to make the lever sufficiently strong to move even 
 these placid souls. 
 
 But the breeze did not come. The fog seemed to 
 grow thicker and damper. At length weariness over- 
 came the whole party. Then Inza was left in full pos- 
 session of the cuddy, while Hodge and Frank crept into
 
 Inza's Story. 275 
 
 a narrow sleeping-place forward which Jabez Slocum 
 pointed out to them. As for the fishermen themselves, 
 they seemed content to stretch out under a tarpaulin on 
 deck; and the Sarah Jane, with lights set to show her 
 position, though they could not have been seen a dozen 
 feet distant, rocked sleepily in the fog at the end of her 
 cable. 
 
 When morning dawned, the fog rolled away under 
 the influence of a brilliant sun, showing an attractive 
 sight. Other fishing-boats, big and little, were rising 
 and falling on the swell. To the northward a steamer, 
 outward bound, trailed from her triple funnels banners of 
 black smoke. From the southward a "fruiter," as the 
 vessels bringing fruit from the West Indies are called, 
 came bravely up the coast. There were other vessels 
 schooners, barks, sloops, and the coast itself was visible 
 as a blue line. Finally, one of the Slocum brothers came 
 to Merriwell and held out a scrap of paper. Frank 
 glanced at it, and read, in an almost illegible scrawl: 
 "Sea Cove." 
 
 "They will take us to Sea Cove !" Inza explained. 
 
 "New York City," Merry wrote. 
 
 The deaf-mate shook his head and again pointed to the 
 name "Sea Cove." 
 
 "What's the odds?" said Bart. "There is a railway 
 there, and no doubt boats running to New York. And 
 then it will give us an opportunity to investigate the
 
 276 inza's Story. 
 
 murder of poor Barney a little. By to-night we can be 
 in New York, if all goes well !" 
 
 "Put us aboard the fruiter or some steamer," Frank 
 again wrote. 
 
 But the man shook his head. 
 
 "It is Sea Cove or nothing," said Inza. "And he would 
 be glad, I think, to have it nothing." 
 
 "Sea Cove it is, then," Frank agreed. 
 
 But the promise was productive of no immediate good. 
 There was no breeze, and, as the Sarah Jane was on the 
 shallow banks, far out of the route of the steamers, there 
 was nothing to do but to cultivate patience and wait. At 
 Frank's urging, Peleg set a signal from the masthead, but 
 it drew no vessel near them. 
 
 The Slocums seemed glad that they were not to be 
 called on to sail at once for land, and they proceeded to 
 get out long hand-lines and fish over the sides of the 
 sloop. Wherever they went they were followed by their 
 dog, that limped from the blows Bart had given it. The 
 dog would not make friends with the newcomers, but 
 showed its teeth in a threatening way whenever Bart or 
 Frank came near. Finally Merriwell and his friends also 
 engaged in the fishing to kill time, and with considerable 
 success. Thus the day wore wearily along until well into 
 the afternoon. 
 
 "A breeze !" Frank gleefully exclaimed at last, holding 
 up a hand. "The wind is coming ! I feel that if this old
 
 Inza's Story. 277 
 
 boat doesn't get a move on soon, I shall have to jump 
 overboard and swim ashore." 
 
 "Well, I should hope you would take me on your 
 back !" Inza observed, her voice thrilled with the thought 
 that the long-expected breeze was actually coming. "I'm 
 as frantic as any one can be to put foot on land and 
 learn what has happened to our friends and to father !" 
 
 The Slocums were ready to go home now, and as the 
 breeze rapidly increased in strength and gave evidence of 
 having come to stay, they speedily got the Sarah Jane 
 under way, with the help of Frank and Bart, and stood 
 off for the Jersey shore. Frank was now perfectly will- 
 ing that they should run to Sea Cove direct, for a little 
 thought and some questions put to the Slocums had 
 shown him that he could reach New York from there by 
 wire, and by rail from a point near-by, and he could take 
 a little time to investigate the Barney Mulloy affair.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE GHOST OF BARNEY MULLOY. 
 
 "Another calm !" Bart growled, in disgust. Night was 
 approaching, and the Sarah Jane lay becalmed a mile from 
 shore and nearly ten miles from Sea Cove. The shore, 
 high and sandy, was plainly visible, with pretty cot- 
 tages among some trees a short distance back from the 
 edge of the water. The Slocums had a good glass, which 
 brought all this out with much distinctness. 
 
 "If we could just draw the land near enough with 
 that glass to jump ashore!" Inza sighed. 
 
 "I've a plan almost as good," said Frank. 
 
 This plan was to have the Slocums set them ashore in 
 the dory. By a little questioning in writing, they learned 
 from the fishermen that the group of cottages was Glen 
 Springs, and that there was a telegraph-office there and 
 a daily visit by a small steamer from New York, but no 
 railway. This increased their anxiety to be set ashore at 
 Glen Springs, for by putting themselves in telegraphic 
 communication with New York they could ascertain with- 
 out delay of the fate of the Merry Seas and of her pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 For a small financial consideration the Slocums were 
 willing to put Merriwell and his friends ashore in the
 
 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 279 
 
 dory; which was done by Peleg, who pulled a good, 
 strong stroke, and sent the clumsy boat through the water 
 at a surprising rate of speed. 
 
 "Attack the telegraph-office first," Inza suggested. A 
 telegram to New York brought this answer: 
 
 "Merry Seas towed in considerably injured. Missing 
 are Frank Merriwell, Bart Hodge, Inza Burrage. Other 
 passengers landed safely. Bernard Burrage at Hotel Im- 
 perial." 
 
 Bart threw up his cap. Merriwell was writing another 
 message, directed to Bernard Burrage, assuring him of 
 the safety of Inza and asking that this fact and the fact 
 that he and Bart were also safe be communicated at once 
 to their friends at the hotel and elsewhere. 
 
 "That will fix things up all right," he remarked, as the 
 operator began to click off the message. "Of course, we 
 can't know all the particulars until later; but it is enough 
 to know that none of our friends are lost, and to be able 
 to let them know that we are all right." 
 
 "You bet !" Bart cried. "This is great ! I was mighty 
 anxious, I tell you." 
 
 "And I was simply crazy!" Inza exclaimed. 
 
 The relief to their feelings was so great that the hard- 
 ships of their recent experience seemed to be at once for- 
 gotten, and they became almost happy. They could not 
 be quite happy, for the news of the murder of Barney 
 Mulloy still cast its shadow.
 
 280 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 
 
 "When does the next boat leave for New York ?" Frank 
 asked of the operator. 
 
 "To-morrow noon." 
 
 "We can drive through to Sea Cove?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And when does a train leave Sea Cove ?" 
 
 "To-morrow at six-forty-five and ten-thirty." 
 
 As they were very tired, it was decided, therefore, that 
 they would remain in Glen Springs until early the next 
 morning, when they would drive to Sea Cove, make in- 
 quiries there about Barney, and take the ten-thirty train. 
 The hotel at Glen Springs was small, but it looked clean 
 and inviting. 
 
 "What do you know about the murder of a young 
 Irishman named Barney Mulloy, by tramps near Sea 
 Cove, day before yesterday?" Merry inquired. 
 
 "Only what the papers said," was the operator's an- 
 swer. 
 
 "And no one else in the village can tell us?" 
 
 "I think not." 
 
 The hotel was in the suburbs, having a view of the 
 sea, and was really a summer hotel more than anything 
 else. It had very few guests as yet. From it a number 
 of messages were sent to New York and received from 
 there by our friends that evening messages from Elsie 
 and Mr. Burrage. and from other members of the party 
 that had been on the Merry Seas.
 
 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 281 
 
 Though fairly tired out by his exhausting experiences, 
 from which the long hours on the fishing-sloop had not 
 enabled him to recuperate, Frank Merriwell was not able 
 to sleep until a late hour. His thoughts were of Barney 
 Mulloy. In memory he traveled the round of the Far- 
 dale days. The death of Mulloy in that terrible manner 
 had upset him more than he had realized. He had not 
 felt it so much during his exciting experiences and while 
 weighted down with anxiety concerning the fate of the 
 Merry Seas. 
 
 "I just can't sleep!" he muttered, seating himself at 
 last by a window and looking out toward the sea, along 
 a greensward on which the moonlight fell lovingly. 
 "Poor Barney ! Perhaps I ought to have gone on to Sea 
 Cove and begun my investigations at once. But Inza was 
 so tired. She has held up bravely, dear girl, through it 
 all, but this evening she looked ready to drop. I felt that 
 we ought not to go on until she was rested. She will 
 sleep well now, since she knows that her father is safe." 
 
 Something dark moved among the shadows, and a fa- 
 miliar form approached. Merriwell started up with a lows 
 cry: 
 
 "Barney Mulloy!" 
 
 He saw the young Irishman as plainly as he had ever 
 seen him. The face, though, was white and bloodless. 
 The ghostly figure moved with a heavy step, coming 
 straight up the walk toward the building. Frank sat 
 rooted to his chair. In the shadow of the piazza, the
 
 282 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 
 
 figure seemed to turn, and was then lost to view. Merri- 
 well threw up the window. 
 
 "Barney!" he softly called. "Barney Barney Mul- 
 loy!" 
 
 The only answer that came back was a slow and heavy 
 tread, that seemed to come from a corridor opening out 
 upon the walk along which Barney had come. 
 
 Tramp, tramp, tramp ! 
 
 The footsteps sounded with great distinctness. Merri- 
 well threw open the door of his room leading out into 
 this corridor. The light of the lamp flooded the corridor, 
 and he was able to view it from end to end. He could 
 have sworn that the footsteps were just beyond his door. 
 But the corridor was absolutely empty. And the foot- 
 steps had ceased. 
 
 Frank whistled softly to himself. He was not super- 
 stitious, but this was rather shaking to the nerves. He 
 hurried back to the window and looked out upon the 
 walk and down the moon-lighted sward. No sound came, 
 save the dashing of the surf. He leaped through the 
 open window and proceeded to inspect the grounds in 
 that vicinity. The ghostly form had vanished. 
 
 "Hodge !" he called. "Hodge ! Come out here." 
 
 Hodge, who occupied an adjacent room, and who had 
 been asleep, threw up a window and looked out. 
 
 "Yes," he said. "As soon as I can slip into my t 
 clothes. What is it, Merry?"
 
 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 283 
 
 "I don't know," Frank confessed. "I wish I did 
 know." 
 
 "Of course, there are no such things as ghosts," he 
 declared, when Bart joined him. "But if ever a man saw 
 one, I did just now the ghost of Barney Mulloy !" 
 
 Hodge stared at his friend as if wondering if Frank's 
 mind was not affected. 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Just what I have said to you. I saw an apparition that 
 resembled Barney Mulloy. And I not only saw it, but I 
 heard it. It came right along here, and turned in there, 
 and then I heard it in the corridor. I threw open the cor- 
 ridor door before any one could have got out of there, 
 and the corridor was empty!" 
 
 "You must have been dreaming!" 
 
 "Not a bit of it, Bart. I hadn't gone to bed. I haven't 
 been even a bit sleepy. I was sitting at my window, and 
 I saw it as plainly as I see you." 
 
 "You certainly must have been dreaming, Merry !" Bart 
 insisted. "Have you looked all about?" 
 
 "Everywwhere." 
 
 Bart walked over to the door which opened from the 
 corridor on the lawn. It was not locked. 
 
 "It couldn't have been Barney, of course ; but whoever 
 it was went through here into the corridor." 
 "And how did he get out of the corridor?" 
 "Walked on through into the office."
 
 284 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 
 
 "The office is closed. The landlord and all the serv- 
 ants retired long ago." 
 
 "Well, it couldn't have been a ghost !" 
 
 "I am wondering if it could have been Barney him- 
 self?" 
 
 "He was attacked near Sea Cove, not here !" 
 
 "I am going to rout out the landlord," Merriwell de- 
 clared. "Perhaps he can throw some light on the sub- 
 ject." 
 
 "He told you, when you inquired, that he had heard 
 nothing except what was in the papers." 
 
 "But he may be able to help us to clear away this mys- 
 tery." 
 
 When summoned, the landlord came down into the little 
 office looking very sleepy, very stupid, and somewhat an- 
 gry. Merriwell told what he had seen and heard, and 
 repeated the newspaper story about the murder of Bar- 
 ney. 
 
 "Well, that was at Sea Cove," was the answer. 
 "Ghosts always come back to the place where the person 
 was killed. Why should it come here ? I don't like this. 
 If you tell it, it will give my house a bad name. No one 
 wants to board in a haunted house, and it will ruin my 
 summer's business." 
 
 "But I thought you might help us to an explanation," 
 Frank insisted. 
 
 The sleepy and stupid look had passed away. The
 
 landlord had once been a seafaring man, and he was a 
 bit superstitious. Still, he was not willing to acknowl- 
 edge that Frank had beheld something supernatural. He 
 would not deny its possibility, but repeated over and over 
 his belief that ghosts always return to the place of the 
 murder and to no other place, and that the repetition of 
 the story would drive away his summer boarders. 
 
 "I tell him he was just dreaming," said Bart. 
 
 "Sure!" with a look of relief. "Of course, he was 
 dreaming. There's been nobody in Glen Springs looking 
 like the chap you describe, and I'm sure that nobody has 
 been walking in that corridor, 'less it was burglars." 
 
 So Frank went back to his room, accompanied by Bart. 
 He knew that he had not been asleep, though, and he felt 
 sure that he had really seen and heard something, and 
 was not the victim of a hallucination. Merriwell sat 
 down again by the open window, and Bart dropped into 
 a chair by his side. 
 
 "If the thing comes again, we'll capture it!" said 
 Hodge. "Somebody may be playing ghost, just to scare 
 us. I have heard " 
 
 He did not complete the sentence, for he really heard 
 something at the moment that stilled the words on his 
 lips and drove the blood out of his face. 
 
 Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp ! 
 
 The sounds came unmistakably from the corridor. 
 
 'There it is again !" Frank exclaimed. 
 
 Bart leaped toward the door and quickly threw it open.
 
 286 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 
 
 The lamplight again streamed out into the corridor. 
 But the sounds had ceased, and the corridor was empty. 
 "Hodge stared down the corridor in stupid bewilderment. 
 
 'Of all the strange things!" he gasped. 
 
 "That is the strangest!" Merriwell added. "You 
 heard it for yourself then !" 
 
 Bart walked out into the corridor, peered out of doors 
 through the glass set in the side door, and opened the 
 door leading into the deserted office. There was noth- 
 ing to be seen. When he came back, his face was beaded 
 with moisture. 
 
 "Merry, I wish you'd tell me the meaning of that !" 
 
 "I wish you would tell me, Bart! You thought I was 
 dreaming, or fancied that I saw and heard something. 
 You see now that you were mistaken." 
 
 "Unless I am dreaming myself !" 
 
 "You are perfectly wide-awake, Hodge, and so am I! 
 There is a mystery here." 
 
 "Never knew anything like it," mopping his face. 
 "Whew! It brings the cold sweat out on me!" 
 
 He dropped down into the chair by the window, leaving 
 the corridor door open. Nothing further was heard. 
 
 "Ghosts don't like a bright light!" Merry reminded, 
 smiling grimly. Bart got up, closed the door, and sat 
 down again. 
 
 Then his hair seemed to stand upright on his head. 
 Out of the shadow of the building, near one of the angles, 
 walked the ghostly form which Merriwell had beheld.
 
 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 287 
 
 Hodge was unable to speak at first. Merry noticed his 
 manner and the look in his staring eyes, and sprang to the 
 window. As he did so, the ghostly form vanished into 
 the shadow, and again those steps were heard in the cor- 
 ridor. 
 
 "If Barney is dead, that was his spirit, sure enough !" 
 Hodge whispered, in an awed way. 
 
 Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp ! 
 
 The steps echoed in the corridor. Even Merriwell's 
 stout heart was assailed by a feeling that was like super- 
 stitious dread. 
 
 "It looked just like him !" 
 
 "The very picture of him, only white-faced, as if he 
 had just come out of the grave !" 
 
 Tramp, tramp, tramp! sounded the steps in the cor- 
 ridor. 
 
 "Open the door, Merry, for God's sake!" Hodge 
 gasped, as if the words choked him. "See if there isn't 
 something in the corridor ! There must be !" 
 
 Merriwell stepped to the door and flung it open. In- 
 stantly the sounds ceased. 
 
 "Somebody is playing a joke on us, I believe !" Bart 
 declared, and anger came to drive out the superstitious 
 feeling that had shaken him. "I'm going to take a look 
 round the house myself, and if I find anybody " 
 
 "I'll go with you!" Merry exclaimed, and both leaped 
 through the open window. 
 
 They circled round the house, looked down the paths
 
 288 The Ghost of Barney Mulloy. 
 
 and out over the sward on which the moonlight fell, but 
 not a form could they see. 
 
 "Give it up !" Hodge admitted. "I don't know what to 
 think." 
 
 They came back to the window, and again they heard 
 the footsteps in the corridor. Hodge went through the 
 window at a flying leap and hurled open the corridor 
 door, only to again find silence and blankness. 
 
 "The place is haunted!" he exclaimed. 
 
 "But there are no such things as ghosts!" 
 
 "I know it. Of course, there can't be that's what 
 I have always believed. I have always fancied that 
 stories of ghosts were lies and foolishness, and I'm not 
 ready to back water on that belief. But I can't under- 
 stand this business." 
 
 "Nor I." 
 
 "Shall we call the landlord again?" 
 
 "What good will it do?" 
 
 "Shall we wake Inza?" 
 
 "And rob her of her rest and fill her with anxiety? 
 No, let her sleep. She needs it." 
 
 "Well, I shall not be able to sleep any more to-night." 
 
 'And it looked just like Barney!" Frank declared. 
 'His very image !"
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THEl PHANTOM A G A I HF 
 
 Both Merriwell and Hodge were so sure they had seen 
 something that they again let themselves out through the 
 window and made a search of the grounds. The result 
 was the same. Not a moving form was to be seen. But 
 as they returned toward the room, they once more heard 
 those mysterious footsteps. 
 
 "Stop!" 
 
 Frank laid a hand on Bart's arm, and both stood still 
 and listened. 
 
 "Where does that seem to be?" 
 
 "Merry, that's coming from your room ! The thing is 
 in your room!" 
 
 Hodge's voice shook, in spite of himself. 
 
 Frank dashed toward the open window. But before he 
 could reach it, the sounds ceased. When he looked in, 
 the room was empty. The light was shining, and the 
 door leading to the corridor was closed. 
 
 "No one could have got out of that room without our 
 knowing it!" Merriwell whispered. Hodge had reached 
 his side, and both were staring into the room. 
 
 "Of course not. The thing is impossible." 
 
 "And yet those footsteps sounded right here." 
 
 's go in and take another look into the corridor.'*
 
 290 The Phantom Again. 
 
 For answer Merry drew Bart back into the shadows by 
 the window. 
 
 "Keep still right here a little while. Perhaps the- 
 the thing will return. If some one is playing us a trick, 
 we may capture him." 
 
 "I should like to lay my hands on the villain!" Bart 
 hissed. Though they stood there in utter silence for five 
 minutes, the sounds did not come again. 
 
 "Of course, there is some rational explanation of this," 
 Merriwell declared, as they again approached the win- 
 dow. "There must be! It is the wildest nonsense to 
 think otherwise." 
 
 "Well, I wish that rational explanation would hurry 
 this way. I'm ready for it, old man ! This thing is 
 shaking my nerves all to pieces." 
 
 "I didn't know you were troubled with nerves ! Nerves 
 are for hysterical girls and old women !" 
 
 "Well, I've got 'em now! as the drunken man said 
 when he began to see snakes. I haven't any doubt 
 about it" 
 
 Hodge so seldom indulged in a joke, that Merry looked 
 surprised. They had reentered the room and he glanced 
 at his friend in wonder. 
 
 "Likely that thing will begin to walk again pretty 
 soon," said Frank, after they had remained another min- 
 ute or so in a listening attitude. "You sit here and watch 
 by this window, while I slip into the corridor."
 
 The Phantom Again. 291 
 
 Hodge obediently dropped into the chair, and Merri- 
 well let himself into the corridor. He closed the door af- 
 ter him, so that if any one approached or entered the 
 corridor that person could not see him, and began his 
 vigil 
 
 The silence was so great that he could hear his watch 
 ticking away in his pocket. It seemed strange that it 
 should run after its salt-water ducking, but he reasoned 
 that probably the works were not touched by the salt 
 water. His clothing had dried long ago, but he felt the 
 need of a change. However, he had taken a bath since 
 reaching the hotel, and so was in a measure comfortable. 
 
 There was a great deal to think of as he stood there 
 in the gloom, but the minutes dragged along like weeks. 
 This sort of vigil was rather nerve-trying. He was sure, 
 now that he had time to think about it, that some very 
 little thing might account for the mystery. He began to 
 think that the footsteps had probably been made by some 
 servant or by a somnambulist. Sounds are very decep- 
 tive as to direction, as he more than once had discovered. 
 The footsteps might have been at some distance from the 
 corridor. 
 
 "But that doesn't explain what I saw and what Bart 
 saw !" he muttered. "I might have thought my eyes de- 
 ceived me, but Bart saw it, too. That was either Barney 
 Mulloy, or some one who looks marvelously like him. If 
 it was really Barney, then the poor fellow is not dead! 
 I sincerely hope we shall find out that he was not killed.
 
 292 The Phantom Again. 
 
 Perhaps the entire newspaper report was based on a mis- 
 take. The papers are full of errors." 
 
 The sounds did not come again, and when it seemed al- 
 most useless to wait longer for them, he returned to the 
 room, where he found Bart watching silently by the win- 
 dow. 
 
 "Seen anything?" he asked. 
 
 "No. Heard anything?" 
 
 "Not a thing." 
 
 "I didn't suppose you had, or I should have heard it, 
 too." 
 
 "It will probably not reappear to-night." 
 
 "Well, I'm not in love with ghosts, but I have been 
 wild to have the thing pass along that walk again. It 
 wouldn't get away from me this time ! I've planned just 
 what to do." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "I can reach that walk in three jumps from this win- 
 dow, and it would take a lively ghost to get away from 
 me. I was going right out there the first glimpse I got 
 of it." 
 
 "Then you're not afraid of ghosts?" laughed Frank, 
 for there was something amusing in his companion's 
 manner. 
 
 "I might be, Merry, if there were any. But I've been 
 thinking as I sat here. I know I saw something, and 
 that something was a man. He didn't look so strong 
 but that I could tumble him over easy enough. That
 
 The Phantom Again. 293 
 
 was my plan, and then we could see who it is. It 
 couldn't have been Barney, for all it looked so much 
 like him." 
 
 As he spoke, he saw the ghostly figure again, but much 
 farther away. Its face was turned toward the window, 
 and the moonlight revealed it plainly. Beyond all ques- 
 tion, it was the face of Barney Mulloy! 
 
 Bart went through the open window at a bound. 
 
 "Barney !" he called. "Barney Mulloy !" 
 
 The mysterious figure drew quickly back into the 
 shrubbery and disappeared. Merriwell sprang through 
 the open window after Hodge, and together they raced 
 to the point where the figure had been seen. When they 
 got there they could discover nothing. 
 
 "That was Barney Mulloy !" Merriwell asserted. 
 
 "Sure !" 
 
 "And he isn't dead!" 
 
 "Barney or his spirit!" 
 
 "It was Barney." 
 
 "Why didn't he stop when I called to him?" 
 
 "I don't know. There is a mystery here." 
 
 "Biggest one I ever struck, Merry! It knocks me 
 silly."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 MERRIWELL'S FRIENDS. 
 
 The time was well on toward morning before Merri- 
 well and Hodge turned in to try to get some sleep. No 
 more mysterious sounds or ghostly appearances had been 
 heard or seen. The sun was scarcely up when they were 
 aroused by a trampling of feet and the sounds of well- 
 known voices in the corridor. A rap fell on Merry's 
 door. 
 
 "Arise, ye sleepers, and wake I mean, awake, ye 
 sleepers, and rise!" shouted Harry Rattleton. 
 
 "Come out here and let me pull you out of bed!'* 
 grunted Bruce Browning. 
 
 "He is sleeping like the sleeper in the sleeper which 
 runs over the sleeper and does not awaken the sleeper in 
 the sleeper which ' 
 
 "You give us that sleepy feeling yourself, Danny!" 
 Bink Stubbs grumbled. 
 
 Merry tumbled out of bed, unlocked the door, and 
 thrust his head into the corridor. Before him were Bruce 
 and Diamond, Rattleton and Dismal Jones, Bink and 
 Danny, and through the half-open door leading into the 
 office he also caught a glimpse of Elsie Bellwood and 
 (Bernard Burrage.
 
 Merriwell's Friends. 295 
 
 "Glad to see you !" he cried. "Where did you tumble 
 from?" 
 
 Bart had his door open now, and began to ask ques- 
 tions. 
 
 "I'll be out in a minute," Frank promised, and began 
 to dress with the speed of a lightning-change artist. A 
 little later Merriwell's entire party gathered in the hotel 
 office, for Inza had been awakened and joined them. 
 
 Mutual explanations flew thick and fast. Merriwell's 
 friends, after being taken to New York, had shortly fallen 
 in with a party of Yale students, mostly seniors, who had 
 come down from New Haven on the steamer Richard 
 Peck, and were on their way to view the new govern- 
 ment fortifications at Sandy Hook, by special permission 
 of General Merritt, commander of the Department of the 
 East. This permission had been obtained by Lieutenant 
 Andrew Bell, of the First United States Artillery, who 
 had recently been detailed by the secretary of war as pro- 
 fessor of military science in Yale College. 
 
 Merriwell's friends had been invited to join this com- 
 pany of students, that they might the more quickly reach 
 their friends, and had been brought to Sandy Hook by 
 the government steamer General Meigs. From Sandy 
 Hook the steamer's large steam-launch had hurried them 
 on to Glen Springs. 
 
 "And now you are going right back with us to Sandy 
 Hook!" Elsie enthusiastically exclaimed.
 
 296 Merriwell's Friends. 
 
 Suddenly a silence fell on the jolly party, occasioned by 
 the shadow that came over the face of Frank Merriwell. 
 
 "I can't go until we have settled the mystery of Barney 
 Mulloy," he declared ; and then gave a hurried account of 
 what he and Bart had seen and heard. 
 
 "I hoped you wouldn't say nothin' about that!" grum- 
 bled the landlord, who had been until then an interested 
 listener. 
 
 Up to that moment he had seemed pleased, though 
 nervous, for it gratified him to have guests who were of 
 sufficient importance to be brought to Glen Springs by the 
 launch of a government steamer. 
 
 "This must be all nonsense, you know !" he declared. 
 "And I can't have any such reports go out about my 
 house. If it gits the reputation of being ha'nted, then 
 good-by business. I won't have a guest set foot in the 
 doorway all summer. I know these people who claim not 
 to be superstitious. They ain't superstitious so long as 
 other people sees things, but they git confoundedly so 
 soon's they begin to see things themselves." 
 
 "You have seen things at sea that puzzled you ?" Merry 
 asked, knowing that he was making a center shot. 
 
 "Who said that I'd ever been to sea? And s'pose I 
 have ? I ain't worried people to death about it and broke 
 up another man's business. There ain't a thing- in this. 
 This ain't out at sea, ye know !" 
 
 The landlord seemed to have the peculiar feeling that
 
 Merriwell's Friends. 297 
 
 only ghosts that sailed or walked the briny deep were 
 worthy of consideration. 
 
 "Explain it, then !" Merriwell demanded. "You can 
 make us feel that nothing strange happened last night if 
 you will explain the thing." 
 
 "You was just dopey !" the captain argued. "Your 
 nerves was shook up from bein' in the water so long, and 
 the skeer of the collision." 
 
 Though there seemed no use to make an investigation, 
 Merriwell began one immediately. He felt sure that 
 Barney Mulloy was somewhere in Glen Springs. 
 
 "I know that I saw him!" was his persistent declara- 
 tion. 
 
 "And heard him walk !" added Hodge. "I can swear 
 to it." 
 
 "Yes. And though the thing is so strange, it makes 
 me feel better, for I am sure now that Barney is not 
 dead." 
 
 "But he looked like a ghost! Bart admitted. "I'm 
 with you, though, to the end in this thing. We'll go to 
 the bottom of it." 
 
 Questioning the people of the village yielded no better 
 results. Everybody agreed that no person answering 
 to the description of Barney Mulloy had been in Glen 
 Springs. Some of them were even more nervous and 
 indignant than the landlord, for almost the sole re- 
 munerative business of these people was the keeping of
 
 298 Merriwell's Friends. 
 
 summer boarders, and they feared that gruesome reports 
 about the place would drive guests away. 
 
 "Mr. Hodge and I are coming back here to-night," 
 Merriwell said to the landlord. "Perhaps we shall bring 
 some of these friends with us. It seems useless to con- 
 tinue the investigation now, and I want, besides, to ask 
 some questions at Sea Cove. The launch is all ready to 
 return to Sandy Hook, and the officer in command says 
 that his orders require him to return there without further 
 delay. But we will come back to-night." 
 
 The landlord's face did not give the proposition an 
 eager welcome, though one of his business tenets was 
 never to turn a guest away. 
 
 So the launch steamed away to Sandy Hook, leaving 
 Glen Springs and its strange and unsolved puzzle behind. 
 
 Frank only partly enjoyed the trip. 
 
 But for that seemingly impenetrable mystery, the trip 
 to Sandy Hook, with the visit of inspection which fol- 
 lowed, would have been jolly. However, there was so 
 much to be happy and thankful for, anyway, that the 
 spirits of the party partook largely of the brightness of 
 the day. 
 
 The run of the speedy launch up the coast was pleas- 
 ant, and at Sandy Hook they found their fellow students 
 awaiting them, and were given a right royal welcome 
 by Captain Isaac Heath, the officer in charge of the pro- 
 ving-grounds.
 
 Merriwell's Friends. 299 
 
 "Say, fellows, this is great!" Danny warbled, as Cap- 
 tain Heath escorted them to where the big guns were. "I 
 always did like big guns !" 
 
 "You're such a big gun yourself !" sneered Bink, under 
 his breath. 
 
 "Binky, if my brain caliber required no more than a 
 number five hat, as yours does, I'd sing low about big 
 guns !" 
 
 "Number five hat? Why " 
 
 "This ten-inch breech-loading rifle takes a charge of 
 one hundred and ten pounds of Dupont smokeless powder 
 and a projectile weighing five hundred and seventy-five 
 pounds," Captain Heath was explaining, as they stopped 
 in front of the big seacoast defender. 
 
 "Say, they're going to fire it !" Bink gasped. 
 
 "Of course, you idiot ! Did you think it was going to 
 fire them ?" 
 
 "Better stand on your tiptoes and stick cotton into 
 your ears," Browning warned, as the big gun was quickly 
 made ready for hurling its terrible projectile. 
 
 "Wh-what if the dinged old thing should bub-bub- 
 burst?" Gamp anxiously asked. 
 
 "We should have to 
 
 "'Ask of the winds, that far around 
 With fragments strewed the sea !' " 
 
 was Danny's comforting answer. 
 
 Dismal and Rattleton retreated a step or two, as did
 
 3<x> Merriwell's Friends. 
 
 Elsie Bellwood. But Inza stood her ground as bravely 
 as Merriwell himself. 
 
 Then, before more could be said, the big cannon 
 boomed forth its volume of deafening sound, making the 
 very walls shake. Danny tumbled backward, then picked 
 himself up and felt over his person very carefully. 
 
 "Am I all here?" he anxiously queried. 
 
 All watched the direction in which the huge shot had 
 been fired, but it fell miles away. Merriwell and a few 
 others, provided with strong glasses, saw it drop into the 
 sea. The captain was talking again. 
 
 "The instruments record an initial velocity of one 
 thousand feet per second, with a pressure of twenty-four 
 thousand pounds." 
 
 "I've been under greater pressure than that," Danny 
 chirped. 
 
 "When you were shot?" Bink asked. "All guns, big 
 and little, are under pressure when they are shot." 
 
 "I'll put your throat under pressure when we get 
 away from here!" Bink threatened. 
 
 "This is a twelve-inch rifle, loaded with one hundred 
 and thirty pounds of powder and a projectile of the same 
 weight as the first." 
 
 The party had moved to a new point, and Captain 
 Heath was again talking. Other guns were fired, after 
 the discharge of this one ; the last shot being sent from 
 a twelve-inch rifle with a charge of four hundred and
 
 Merriwell's Friends. 301 
 
 seventy-five pounds of Dupont brown prismatic powder 
 and a projectile weighing one thousand pounds. 
 
 The roar, the jar, and the vibration were like that ol 
 a miniature earthquake. Captain Heath's calm voice wa 
 heard again, after a short silence. 
 
 "The velocity was two thousand and eighty-eight feet 
 per second, and the pressure four thousand pounds. This 
 pressure is ten thousand pounds too high. The powder 
 is too quick, and will be condemned." 
 
 After this there was an examination of the guns and 
 carriages, with a lecture by Lieutenant Bell ; an examina- 
 tion of the gun-lift battery and the hydraulic lifts, and 
 the wonderful Buffington-Crozier disappearing-carriages, 
 and a look over the site of the new artillery post to be 
 known as Fort Hancock. Then luncheon was served. 
 
 In spite of the many interesting things which he had 
 seen and to which he had listened, Merriwell could not 
 get his thoughts away from Barney Mulloy. He had 
 already obtained consent for the party to be taken on the 
 launch to Sea Cove and Glen Springs at once, after 
 luncheon. Thinking of these things and with his head 
 full of the plans for discovering the secret of the hap- 
 penings at Glen Springs, he walked round the works 
 again, viewing the emplacements and the big guns, but 
 with his thoughts far enough away from the things on 
 which his eyes rested. 
 
 Suddenly he was attracted by a cry. It seemed to 
 come from the air, and it made him think of the appari-
 
 3O2 Merriwell's Friends. 
 
 tion and the ghostly footsteps. But when he glanced 
 up he saw Danny Griswold's head protruding from the 
 muzzle of a large coast-defense cannon. Merriwell was 
 astonished, though such a piece of recklessness was just 
 like Danny. It was not that Frank feared any peril to 
 Danny from the gun, but the officers and gunners would 
 be indignant, no doubt, if they caught the little joker 
 playing hide-and-seek in that way with one of their pets. 
 
 "I'll give him a scare," he thought. "He is getting al- 
 together too fresh." 
 
 "Danny Griswold, that gun is loaded, and they are go- 
 ing to fire it !" Merry cried, with well-simulated fear. 
 
 Danny's red head came farther out, like the head of a 
 tortoise issuing from its shell. 
 
 "Then I suppose I shall be able to get out of here!" 
 Danny chirped. "I can't do it, unless I am shot out. 
 I slipped in here easy enough, but I've grown, I guess, 
 for I can't slip back." 
 
 "How did you get in there, anyway?" 
 
 "Climbed in." 
 
 "I'm afraid you will have to climb out." 
 
 A gunner came hurrying upon the scene. 
 
 "Wh-what?" he sputtered. 
 
 "Our little friend is in need of assistance. If he gets 
 out of there he will never play cannon-ball again." 
 
 "If you will just fire me !" Danny begged, not a bit 
 abashed. 
 
 The gunner was not at all willing that Danny's plight
 
 Merriwell's Friends. 303 
 
 should be discovered by an officer, so he quickly went to 
 Danny's assistance, and "fired" him by bodily pulling hint 
 out of the cannon. 
 
 "Thanks!" chirped the little joker, as he dropped to 
 the ground. "Bink says that I'm a small-caliber projec- 
 tile, but I was quite big enough for that cannon. Say, 
 do you fire men every day?" 
 
 The gunner could not suppress a grin. 
 
 "Men? Well, you're, likely to get fired, young feller, 
 if you monkey round these guns!" he declared.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE MYSTERY CLEARED AWAY. 
 
 What news was obtainable at Sea Cove about Barney 
 Mulloy was important, though somewhat unsatisfactory. 
 (Barney had been attacked by tramps and badly hurt, but 
 not killed, though at first the report of his death had gone 
 out. One of the tramps had been nearly killed in the 
 fight, and Mulloy had disappeared. 
 
 "What became of him? Where did he go?" were 
 Merriwell's questions. 
 
 "We didn't pay much attention to it," was the answer 
 given by Merriwell's Sea Cove informant. "Likely he 
 walked off, or went away on the boat or train. Easy 
 enough to get out of this place." 
 
 With this meager information, Frank and his friends 
 hurried back on the launch to Glen Springs. 
 
 "He isn't dead !" was Merry's cheerful declaration. 
 "That must have been Barney that Bart and I saw." 
 
 "But the walking?" Hodge dubiously questioned. 
 
 "And why should he be in hiding?" Diamond de- 
 manded. 
 
 "Some men love darkness, because their deeds are evil," 
 Dismal droned. 
 
 "Well, you may be sure that Barney's deeds were not 
 yil," said Frank. "Barney is straight, and true blue."
 
 The Mystery Cleared Away. 305 
 
 Night was at hand when the launch cast anchor in the 
 shallow harbor in front of Glen Springs and sent a boat 
 ashore with Merry and the friends he had chosen for the 
 vigil of the coming hours of darkness. The landlord 
 of the little hotel was not pleased that they had returned 
 for the purpose of capturing the "ghost," though he was 
 beginning, as he confessed, to feel "creepy" about it him- 
 self. 
 
 "I was intendin' to set up and watch for it, if you 
 hadn't come," he finally admitted. 
 
 No one answering to Barney's description had been 
 seen in Glen Springs through the day. In fact, no 
 stranger whatever had been seen in the place from the 
 time the launch went away until it returned. 
 
 "It's mighty curious," Bart grimly observed. 
 
 "I have a feeling that we will learn to-night just what 
 it is," said Merriwell. 
 
 Frank occupied his old room, and sat at the window 
 with Hodge, while Diamond, Rattleton, and Bruce re- 
 mained in the office. The doors leading to the corridor 
 were at first closed. Merry looked at his watch after the 
 lights were put out in the part of the building occupied 
 jy the landlord and his family. 
 
 "It ought to be coming around again pretty soon," Bart 
 remarked, finding it impossible to escape a queer, un- 
 easy feeling, anxious as he was to see the specter, and de- 
 termined as he was to effect its capture if it again ap- 
 peared.
 
 306 The Mystery Cleared Away. 
 
 As he said it, the sounds of those mysterious steps 
 were again heard in the corridor, and they heard the oc- 
 cupants of the office fling open the door. 
 
 "You weren't walking in here?" Diamond demanded. 
 
 "Not on your life!" Bart answered. 
 
 "But we heard some one !" 
 
 "Of course you did, and so did we. And we heard it 
 last night !" 
 
 Rattleton and Bruce came on through into Merriwell's 
 room. 
 
 "Scrate Gott, this is enough to turn a man's hair 
 white!" Rattleton sputtered. 
 
 "Did you think we were just jollying you about this?" 
 Bart sharply asked. 
 
 "No, but " 
 
 "You're likely to see the thing, as well as hear it," 
 Hodge asserted. 
 
 The landlord, who had not retired, though making a 
 pretense of so doing, tumbled down in much excitement, 
 in response to Rattleton's summons. 
 
 "Did you see it, boys?" he gasped. 
 
 His face was white, and he was trembling. All the as- 
 sumed bravery had gone out of him. 
 
 "Only heard it walking there in the hall," Frank an- 
 swered. 
 
 The landlord gave a jump. He had forgotten that he 
 was standing by the corridor door. 
 
 "Oh, you can't see anything !" Frank reminded. "That'a
 
 The Mystery Cleared Away. 307 
 
 the trouble. We can hear the thing walking, but we 
 can't see anything. Qose the door, and we may be able to 
 hear it again." 
 
 "Don't! don't!" the landlord pleaded. 
 
 "But I want you to hear it. Perhaps you can tell us 
 what it is." 
 
 "There is never anything in the corridor," the landlord 
 declared. "I can't set here if you shut that door." 
 
 "There he is again !" said Hodge, in the voice of one 
 who expects to behold the supernatural and inexplicable 
 and has steeled himself against unpleasant sensations. 
 "There he comes ! Barney, as sure as guns !" 
 
 The landlord dropped limply into a chair, and stared 
 out through the open window in the direction indicated 
 by Hodge's pointing finger. The others grouped round 
 Merriwell and Bart. 
 
 "You see it?" Frank whispered. 
 
 "Let me out of this !" the landlord gurgled, though no 
 hand was restraining him. "Booh-h-h! Let me out of 
 this. Ah-h-h-h-h ! It's a ghost, sure enough ! Don't 
 you see that white cloth on its head a bloody white 
 
 cloth?" 
 
 He seemed about to tumble over in a fit. 
 
 "He's coming this way!" Merry whispered. "Just 
 keep still now, all of you !" 
 
 Rattleton seemed about to bolt from the place, though 
 the others were bravely standing their ground.
 
 308 The Mystery Cleared Away. 
 
 "No ghost there!" said Browning. "That's a live 
 man." 
 
 "It's Barney," Merry declared. "He is not dead. His 
 head is tied up." 
 
 "But what makes the him sneak along in that way?" 
 Rattleton gasped. "Whee-giz, it makes my blood run 
 cold! Ugh!" 
 
 "Just keep still, and we shall soon find out!" Frank 
 sharply commanded, in a whisper. 
 
 The ghostly figure came slowly up the walk. Nearer 
 and nearer it drew, walking as if it did not fear dis- 
 covery at that late hour. 
 
 "There is another !" Rattleton whispered. 
 
 The figure of a woman came into view, hurrying rap- 
 idly along the path after Mulloy, and seeming to be in 
 pursuit of him, though he appeared not to know it. 
 
 "Now!" Merry whispered. "Ready, Hodge now!" 
 
 He leaped through the window, with Bart at his side. 
 The ghostly figure was but a few yards away. Before it 
 could turn in the direction of the sound they were half- 
 way across the intervening space. 
 
 "Barney ! Mulloy !" Frank called. 
 
 The figure uttered a cry, and started to run. But 
 Frank's pace was too swift. Almost in iae next instant 
 his hand fell on the shoulder of the specter. 
 
 "Don't you know me, Barney? I'm Merriwell!" 
 The figure ceased its struggles.
 
 The Mystery Cleared Away. 309 
 
 "Hurroo! Is it yez for thrue, Merriwell? I t'ought 
 it wor an officer thryin' to arrist me." 
 
 "Break loose and run, ye fool !" was squealed in a 
 high, feminine voice. "Run, Barney, dear run !" 
 
 "Niver!" Barney declared. "Niver will I run from a 
 fri'nd loike Merriwell!" 
 
 "But you'll be put in jail! You'll be hung!" the 
 woman shrieked, in a vain effort to stampede the Irish lad. 
 "Them fellers is officers." 
 
 Bart had pushed up, so that Mulloy could recognize 
 him. 
 
 "Save me frum her, Frankie !" Barney pleaded. "Woo- 
 oo! Begorra! She's crazier than wildcats!" 
 
 Then he whispered : 
 
 "The ould sinner wants to marry me. Think av thot! 
 She's been hoidin' me frum the officers fer matrimoonial 
 poorpuses. Take me away from her, Frankie, darlint! 
 Oi've kilt a thramp, and I'm in peril av bein' hoong for 
 it; but I'd rather be hoong than to marry such a cat as 
 thot ! Bad cess to her !" 
 
 "Gentlemen, the poor fellow is out of his head!" the 
 woman purred, modulating that shrieking voice. "His 
 head has been hurt, and he don't know nothin' thet he's 
 talkin' 'bout." 
 
 Barney clung to Merriwell and Hodge as if he feared 
 the woman would drag him bodily away from these 
 friends.
 
 310 The Mystery Cleared Away. 
 
 "Oi suppose thot she may be able to foorce me into 
 marryin' her/' he moaned. "Oi kilt a thramp, and Oi 
 wor hidin' frum the officers may the divil floy away wid 
 thim and Oi sneaked intil her house, d'ye moind, and 
 hid me loike a fool under her bed. The crayther had 
 been lookin' under thot bed for forty years to foind a 
 man ! And whin she let her ould oyes loight on me, she 
 pulled me out av there; an' she's been kapin' me and 
 scarin' me intil fits and hoidin' me from the officers iver 
 since and, bad cess to her, nixt wake she wor goin' to 
 marry me." 
 
 "Why did you sneak round the hotel and along the 
 paths in that queer way?" Frank asked, after the vine- 
 gary-visaged and matrimonially inclined female had de- 
 parted in despair and disgust, and he had Barney alone. 
 "That still puzzles me. We heard that you had been 
 killed by those tramps, and you looked and acted enougk 
 like a ghost to be one!" 
 
 "A ghost, is it?" said Barney, glancing about as if he 
 did not like even the thought. "Thot ould witch wor 
 kapin' me hid away from the officers in thot wee bit av 
 a house roight behind the three over there, and all the 
 ixercoise Oi could git wor whin Oi could shlip out av 
 noights and walk round and swally a brith av fresh air. 
 Oi t'ought Oi had kilt the thramp and thot the officers 
 wor watchin' for me ! Thot ould divil hilped me to be- 
 lieve thot hersilf ! So whin Oi heard yez call, av coorse 
 Oi worn't goin' to sthop and be arristed. A ghost, is it?
 
 The Mystery Cleared Away. 311 
 
 Oi'm thinkin' thot yez'd be crapin' round, too, if yez 
 t'ought thot a rope wor riddy to toighten about the neck 
 av yez!" 
 
 "Haw! haw! haw!" 
 
 The roars did not proceed from Joe Gamp, but from 
 the landlord of the hotel. Now that Barney was found 
 to be real flesh and blood, and not a spirit, the landlord 
 had entered more heartily into the search for the mysteri- 
 ous source of the strange footsteps. He had been willing 
 that the doors opening into the corridors should be 
 closed for only when the corridor was darkened could 
 the ghostly sounds be heard. 
 
 As soon as the "footsteps" came again he threw open 
 the door and chucklingly led the way out through a side 
 room into a shedlike structure that came up against the 
 corridor wall. 
 
 "There is your ha'nt !" he roared, pointing down into a 
 pen in the shed. "There is your ha'nt! A gol-derned 
 old sea-turtle ! Haw ! haw ! haw ! Ho ! ho ! ho ! He ! 
 he! he!" 
 
 The turtle was a monster in size. 
 
 "But I don't see !" said Merriwell. "This doesn't ex- 
 plain." 
 
 The landlord hopped into the pen and flipped the huge 
 turtle over on its back against the wall. Thereupon it 
 began to kick out with its great flippers, striking then>
 
 312 The Mystery Cleared Away. 
 
 against the corridor wall and making the sounds which 
 had seemed to be footsteps. Merriwell looked round. 
 
 "I see!" he admitted. "The light from the lighted 
 corridor came through that transom." 
 
 "Jest so!" said the landlord. "Whenever your light 
 shined in here it scart the turtle, and it quit kickin'. It's 
 always trying to climb out of the pen and falling over on 
 its back ; and when it tips over near the wall and strikes 
 with them flippers, it makes that sound. If it ain't near 
 the wall, of course it don't strike nothin' to make the 
 sound. And, of course, soon's it can turn itself back 
 which it can't sometimes for hours it quits kickin' out." 
 
 "And yez tuk me for thot thing and thot thing for me, 
 and aitch av us knew nothing about it, and it wasn't 
 ayther av us!" chuckled Barney. 
 
 "Just so!" said Merriwell. "And right glad I am to 
 understand it, and to know that you are living!" 
 
 "And Oi niver wor gladder to see anybody in my loife ! 
 The soight av yez makes me well. And Bart, me jewel ! 
 Yez are as foine a laddie as iver lived! Give me the 
 touch av yer hand ag'in !" 
 
 And so the mystery was solved, and Barney escaped, be 
 it said, heartwhole and body free while Frank and his 
 friends returned to the city. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 Frank Merriwell Down South Frank Merriwell's Loyalty 
 
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