Dick Merriwell’s Glory

CHAPTER III. GREAT NORTHERN FINDS ARLINGTON.

By this time the cadets were jubilant, and Chester Arlington was greatly puffed up over his success. The Fardale boys had anticipated nothing like this, and they were beginning to believe their team would take the game with ease.

“This is Arlington’s day,” declared Clint Shaw. “He struck it right this time.”

“He’s pitching a great game,” muttered Tom Walker.

“Rats!” growled Marsh. “Pitching nothing! It’s the support he’s had. Those chaps have hit him right along, but good luck has prevented them from piling up runs.”

“There has been lots of luck to it,” nodded Preston.

“I should say so!” snarled Marsh; “but you fellows wait—wait and see! If they keep on hitting the ball that way, they will put him to the stable before the game is over.”

Again Arlington’s support enabled him to hold the enemy down and keep them from scoring.

Chester was in high spirits as he came in to the bench and sat down beside Merriwell.

“I thought I could hold them down to-day,” he laughed.

24“You’re doing well,” declared Dick. “Keep the good work up.”

At the first opportunity Buckhart slid up to Dick’s side and muttered:

“You want to watch him close, partner. See how those fellows found the ball. Don’t sit still and let them pound out a victory when they get started. If we can hold them down now we have got the game. Arlington will take all the credit if we win.”

“He deserves some credit,” declared Dick.

“But you can see the kind of support he is getting. Why, Gardner could pitch a winning game with that support!”

Although June Arlington was well pleased by what was happening, she knew enough about baseball to understand that great credit was due her brother’s backers for the success he was having.

Zona Desmond, however, did not look at it in this light.

“I knew what he could do if he had the chance,” laughed Zona. “He hasn’t been given a fair show before this. Now, just look what is happening, and he is pitching against the hardest team Fardale will have to face this season. Aren’t you delighted, June?”

“Of course I am,” nodded June.

“But I think it was funny of Dick to put him into such a hard game,” declared Zona. “If Dick is the greatest pitcher in this school, why doesn’t he pitch the hard games and let the other fellows pitch the easier ones?”

25“Perhaps he has a good reason for not pitching to-day.”

The yellow-haired girl gave her head a toss.

“Very likely he didn’t care about taking chances himself. He was afraid.”

“You know better, Zona!” burst from Doris. “You know Dick is not afraid of anything!”

“Oh, that’s what you think! Other people may think differently.”

“I am sure Doris is right,” said June quietly. “I know Dick is afraid of nothing.”

“Well, it is a fine thing for a fellow when every girl he knows seems to fancy him such a wonder!” retorted Zona, with an unpleasant laugh.

The third inning proved to be a whitewash, Fardale not even succeedingsucceeding in getting a player down to first.

In the fourth inning the Great Northern got a man to third base with only one out. But Chester’s success made him confident of shutting off the score. His confidence vanished, however, when the next player lined the ball out for two bags and the enemy secured a run.

Buckhart glanced toward Captain Merriwell and shook his head. Nevertheless, Dick did not seem at all disturbed, although Tom Grace was roaring with laughter on the coaching line and declaring that the slaughter had begun.

“Accidents will happen, old man,” said Gardner, as he returned the ball to Chet. “Don’t mind that.”

“But you should have stopped it!” declared Arlington.

“Why, I couldn’t touch it!”

26“You didn’t try!”try!”

Earl’s face flushed.

“Oh, he has had his lesson!” averred Grace. “He knows how those liners feel! Bet his hands are burning yet!”

“If you’re afraid,” said Chet, “you had better let some one else play that position.”

This injustice touched Gardner keenly, but he made no retort.

The following batter lifted a long one into the field, and the runner on second believed he saw his opportunity to score.

By a splendid run Black succeeded in pulling the fly down, upon which he immediately threw to Gardner, who wheeled and snapped the ball to Tubbs for a double play.

This splendid work delighted the cadets and relieved Arlington. As he came in to the bench, however, Chester was growling at Gardner.

“If you had stopped the liner,” he said, “they could not have scored! You didn’t go after it until it was past you!”

Earl was beginning to get sore over this, and he gave Chet a resentful look as he warmly retorted:

“If you’re not satisfied with my playing I will get out of the game!”

“That will do, both of you!” said Dick sharply. “No one was to blame for that run. And no man in Gardner’s place could have touched the ball.”

At this Chester suddenly shut up, although he continued to feel angered because the run had been made.

“We still have a good lead,” said Dick. “Get into 27it, fellows, and hold them down! Perhaps you can add a few tallies right here!”

The cadets had not lost their confidence, and by a combination of good work and good luck they also landed a man on third with only one out.

By this time Factor was nervous. He had not anticipated this sort of a game, and he realized that his reputation with his own team depended on his success in the present contest. Fully aware that he was regarded as the weakest pitcher the Great Northern had, and that he had been used against the schoolboys because Grace did not wish to wear out a better man, he saw before him the prospect of release in case Fardale should win.

The cheering and singing of the cadets seemed once more to put vigor and determination into the players, and they went after Factor hotly. The next batter happened to be Singleton, and big Bob got in one of his wonderful long drives to the fence, on which he took three bags and sent a man ahead of him home.

Factor’s nervousness increased.

“What’s the matter with you, Bill?” growled Tom Grace. “Are you going to let those kids blanket you? You claim to be a pitcher!”

Factor set his teeth, determined to end it right there.

Once more Obediah Tubbs managed to get hit by the ball, and this added to the unsteadiness of the visiting pitcher. Then came Buckhart, who smashed the leather a fierce one, scoring Singleton and landing Tubbs on third, while he himself took second.

28Arlington walked out, smiling and confident, resolved to clinch his own game then and there. As a result of his overconfidence Factor was able to make him swing ineffectively twice and might have struck him out had he not lost control and hit Chet with the ball.

This filled the bases.

Grace called for “time” and walked into the diamond.

“See here, Bill Factor,” he said under his breath, “if you’re off your trolley you had better go to the bench. I will put Peterson in.”

“Don’t,”“Don’t,” begged Factor. “I’m all right! I can win this game!”

“Play ball! Play ball!” roared the cadets.

“Dear me!” shouted Ted Smart, waving his arms in the air. “It can’t be you’re frightened! Why, of course you’re not frightened! We know you will win! You can’t help winning! It’s just as easy as can be. You’re only playing a lot of kids, you know.”

“Poor old Factor! Poor old Factor!” sang a lot of the cadets in unison.

“I will give you one more show,” growled Grace. “It’s your last chance!”

This knowledge did not add to Factor’s steadiness, and, after having one strike and two balls called, Gardner tucked in a beautiful little single that scored two men.

Immediately Grace ordered Factor out of the box and replaced him with Peterson, who was a left-hander. Peterson had a nasty drop that curved in toward 29the batter’s ankles, and in short order he retired the home team.

At this stage of the game, however, the score was eight to one in favor of Fardale, and Arlington confidently declared he would never let the enemy overtake them.

The next two innings proved to be hard ones, and neither side scored.

The cadets saw that in Peterson they had a problem that was difficult to solve. Had this pitcher been put in at the beginning of the game, it is doubtful if Fardale would have obtained a run. As it was, it began to appear as if the schoolboys had secured a lead sufficient to give them the game.

No longer were the members of the athletic team laughing and joking, for at last they realized that they were “up against the real thing.”

As the innings passed and the home team continued to hold its lead, Arlington’s confidence increased until it reached the point where he was altogether too sure. Overconfidence is often as fatal in a hard game of baseball as lack of confidence. It has defeated many a team that should have been victorious.

The seventh proved to be a disastrous inning for Fardale. The visitors came to bat with the head of their list up.

Ligner justified his name and his position by catching an outcurve near the end of the bat and driving out a two-bagger. O’Rouke followed with a clean single to right field, and Ligner came home with three feet to spare. The throw to the plate in an effort to stop this run let O’Rouke advance to second.

30Yet Arlington had lost none of his confidence, and it still seemed that the cadets had a safe lead.

Chester believed he had found Hardy’s weak spot, which was a high ball close to the shoulder, but he had not discovered that the batter was one of those rare men who have no weak spots. This being the case, Chet was not a little surprised and disgusted when Hardy dropped back on a close one, caught it fairly, and singled. O’Rouke was held at third by the catcher, although it seemed that he might have scored.

It was now up to Tom Grace, the captain of the Great Northern, and the look on this man’s face indicated he meant business. Chester was smiling as Grace took his position to hit.

“Having a good time, my boy?” inquired the batter.

“Splendid!” retorted Arlington.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. I hope you don’t meet with any disappointment.”

“Don’t worry about me,” advised Chet, as he whistled in a high ball.

“Get ’em down, kid! Get ’em down!” cried Grace. “You have got to do it or furnish me with a stepladder! I am only five feet ten, and I can’t reach that high!”

When Arlington tried a slow drop, Grace stepped forward to the limit of his box and picked it up with a sweep of the bat that drove it over the infield and out between Black and Jolliby, neither of whom could catch it.

O’Rouke scored and Hardy followed him to the plate, making the third run of the inning without a man retired.

31No wonder the smile faded from Arlington’s face.

By this time Hector Marsh was convulsed with delight, although he was trying to conceal the fact.

“Here’s where they make a hundred!” he muttered in Preston’s ear. “They are onto little Chet at last, and he will never stop them.”

“It begins to look that way,” confessed Fred. “Wait a minute and you will see Merriwell take Arlington out.”

“He’s a fool if he does!” declared Hec. “This game isn’t important, and this is Merriwell’s opportunity to let Arlington stay in and get his bumps.”

June Arlington had grown pale, for she realized the danger, and it was with difficulty she repressed her agitation.

“Why don’t they catch those balls?” exclaimed Zona Desmond.

“They can’t,” asserted Doris.

“I don’t believe they’re trying,” declared Zona. “They are jealous because Chester is pitching so well, and they don’t want to catch them. What do you think, June?”

“I am afraid Dick will have to go in to save the game,” confessed June.

“Nonsense!” cried Zona, tossing her head. “How can he save it?”

“He might stop that hitting.”

“If those fellows will catch the ball it will be all right. I tell you they are not supporting your brother, June.”

“I don’t think that is the matter.”

“Well, I do! Any one can see it is!”

32Again Brad Buckhart had cast an appealing look toward Dick. All along the Texan had felt the visitors had a hitting team and might make a spurt any time, and now he was sure the dangerous moment of the game had been reached.

Chester set his teeth and faced Minot, the next batter.

Minot was a good waiter, and he compelled the Fardale pitcher to put the ball over the plate. Getting one that satisfied him, the batter drove it swiftly along the ground between first and second.

By a rapid play, which was astonishing for one so corpulent, Tubbs cuffed the ball to one side, although he did not capture it. Singleton was compelled to get off first to secure the ball, which permitted Minot to reach the bag in safety.

With two men on the bases, Brinkley followed the example that had been set by his companions and drove out a two-bagger, which scored Grace and Minot.

Still not a Great Northern man had been put out in the inning.

Although the cadets had cheered Tubbs for stopping the ball, there seemed a note of apprehension in their voices.

Hal Darrell was talking with Day and Whitney, and now Darrell said:

“See here, Day, old man, we’re going to lose this game if something isn’t done right away.”

“What do you think ought to be done?” questioned the chairman of the committee.

33“I think Merriwell ought to get in and pitch the game out.”

“Why doesn’t he do it?” exclaimed Whitney. “He is there on the bench, and he can go in any time.”

“Perhaps he thinks it won’t be right to take Arlington out now.”

“Do you favor interfering?” asked Day.

“Surely I am not in favor of keeping still and seeing this game lost,” answered Hal.

“Perhaps Arlington will take a brace,” observed Whitney.

“He’s got to take a brace pretty quick,” said Darrell. “If he doesn’t this game will be gone to the dogs before he knows it.”

“If the next man hits safely,” said Day, “I will speak to Merriwell.”

He had his opportunity a moment later, for Costigan, after fouling twice, drove out a grounder that could not be touched by the infield, and Brinkley took a chance to score on it. The ball was thrown to the plate, but the throw was bad and pulled Buckhart off so far that he could not tag Brinkley in time to stop the run.

The Great Northern had now made six runs in this fatal inning, and Fardale was but one score in the lead. Costigan was on second, and not one of the hilarious visitors was out.

“The game is lost!” declared Darrell.

Immediately Day hurried to Dick.

“Look here, Captain Merriwell,” he panted, “you have got to take that fellow out.”

“Is that an order from you?” asked Dick.

34“It is an order from the committee.”

“All right,” said Dick, as he quickly rose to his feet and made a signal.

Immediately Buckhart stepped onto the home plate to prevent Wallace from hitting.

Dick walked onto the diamond.

Instantly the cadets rose in a mass and roared his name.

“Well! well! well!” laughed Tom Grace. “At last we have put a blanket on your pitcher. He gets to the stable. Back, back to the stable, my pretty boy.”

Chester was white as a sheet. The moment he saw Merriwell rise from the bench he dropped the ball and walked out of the box.

“I am sorry, Arlington,” said Dick, in a low tone; “but I have got to take you out.”

“I am glad of it!” declared Chet. “It is fiendish luck! What’s the matter with those duffers behind me? Have they gone to pieces?”

“You are being hit hard, that’s all,” said Dick. “You’ve pitched a fine game up to this inning, but those Great Northern chaps are hitters, and they have solved your delivery.”

“That’s what you think,” retorted Chet; “but I know I’m not getting proper support. I am ready to go out.”

Although he was in no condition to pitch, Dick warmed up a little and went into the box.

“Now we will give this baby his bumps,” laughed Grace.

Merriwell had been studying the batters, and he felt that his only chance to stop the hitting was to 35“use his head.” He could not depend on his best curves, for his side was too lame to permit him to throw them.

Chester had been using speed, and now Dick began pitching a slow ball, which proved troublesome to the batters. After swinging twice at these slow ones, Wallace snapped:

“Oh! put a little ginger into your arm! What’s the matter with you? Speed up, kid—speed up!”

“Well, here’s speed for you,” retorted Dick; but again he threw a provokingly slow ball, with the result that Wallace popped up a little fly that dropped into Merriwell’s hands.

Like a flash Dick whirled and threw to second, catching Costigan off the bag, and two men were out.

“Ha! ha! ha! ’Rah! ’rah! ’rah! Ziggerboom! Riggerboom! Merriwell! Merriwell! Merriwell!” burst from the cadets.

“Talk about luck!” grated Chester Arlington, who had witnessed this play. “That’s his luck! Why can’t I have some of it?”

“Say, youngster,” called Tom Grace, “let me see your horseshoe. Where do you keep it?”

Dick paid no attention to this. He concentrated every faculty on the effort to retire Peterson, knowing the Great Northern pitcher was not nearly as good a hitter as Ligner, who followed him.

Peterson finally lifted a high infield fly, which Earl Gardner smothered, and the joy of the cadets was expressed in another wild cheer, for at last the enemy had been checked, with Fardale still one run in the lead.

36Arlington was savage enough when the boys came in to the bench.

“I had that game won,” he declared. “It was not my fault they made those runs. Why didn’t you chaps keep on playing baseball?”

This was more than Chip Jolliby could stand.

“Oh, go sus-sus-sus-soak your head!” he chattered, in disgust. “You need something to take the sus-sus-sus-welling out of it.”

“Be careful!” panted Chet. “I won’t stand that from anybody.”

“Don’t talk to us about support!” indignantly exclaimed Earl Gardner. “No fellow ever got better support on this field than you got.”

“That’s all right,” muttered Chet. “I saw you shirk. I saw you dodge a liner.”

“After the game I will tell you what I think about that,” returned Earl. “I can’t waste breath on you now.”

Although Fardale made a great effort to again increase her lead, Peterson was too clever for the boys, and they could not score on him. In the eighth inning Dick again worked his slow ball with success, only one single being made off his delivery.

“We have got ’em, pard!” muttered Buckhart, as the cadets again gathered at their bench. “You saved the game!”

“I hope so,” said Dick; “but we ought to have a few more runs.”

“Don’t fool with the kids, Peterson,” called Grace.

Peterson had no intention of fooling, and he struck out the first two hitters who faced him in the eighth. 37The next man lifted a foul that was captured by Wallace.

The Great Northern now came up for their last time at bat, and their captain urged them to wait for Dick’s slow ones.

“He can’t use speed,” said Grace. “He’s got a lame side. A fellow told me that before the game. Don’t get eager, fellows. Make him put the ball over, and don’t go after it too soon.”

This advice was taken, and the first batter got a safe hit.

The next man sacrificed him to second, and there seemed a possibility that the visitors would tie the score. At this point the strain and excitement was intense.

By steady headwork Dick caused the next hitter to bat an easy one to Bradley, who threw the fellow out at first.

“Whoop!” roared Buckhart, relieved and delighted. “We’ve got them now. They are done to a turn. You hear me warble!”

There is an old saying that “no game is over until it is finished.” This proved to be the case now, for the next hitter met one of Dick’s slow ones and drove it far into the outfield. In their desperate dash to catch this fly neither Flint nor Jolliby heard Dick’s warning cry to them.

“Take it, Jolliby!” was Merriwell’s command.

Flint did not stop, and the two collided just as the ball struck Chip’s hands.

Both went down, and the ball bounded away.

Right there misfortune fell heavily on Fardale, for 38both of the fellows were temporarily stunned and so bewildered that they had lost sight of the ball. It is certain that the Great Northern would have scored one run, but she could not have made two scores had either Jolliby or Flint found the ball quickly and returned it to the diamond. By the time Dave got the ball the man who had hit it was past third and coming home.

Flint made a magnificent throw to the plate, but Buckhart received the ball a moment too late, and at last the Great Northern was in the lead.

“There you have it!” muttered Chester Arlington, a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. “There is support for you, Mr. Merriwell.”

“Why, we knew how it would be!” laughed Tom Grace. “We were fooling with you youngsters all the time.”

“Talk about horseshoes!” roared Buckhart. “If that wasn’t a case of horseshoes for you fellows, I hope to be lynched for a horse thief!”

Now, for all of his side, Dick set his teeth and began to use speed and curves. Buckhart shook his head warningly, for he knew every speedy ball pitched by Merriwell was injuring his lame side. The jump ball and the combination curve proved too much for the next hitter. He fanned three times without touching the leather.

The Great Northern was out at last, but she had a lead of one run, and the general impression was that Fardale had lost the game.

Nevertheless Dick encouraged his players to struggle to the last, and they made a magnificent effort to 39win the game in the final half of the ninth. With one man out a runner was advanced to third, but Peterson again deceived the following batters, and Fardale failed to score.

The Great Northern had won the game, by a score of nine to eight.

CHAPTER IV. BY FAIR MEANS OR FOUL.

It was a hard game to lose, and the Fardale boys felt pretty sore over it. Not a few blamed Dick for not putting Arlington out earlier in the fatal seventh. It was generally admitted that Fardale would have won had Flint heard Dick’s cry to Jolliby as he was running after that long fly.

Among the cadets, there were a few fellows who seemed to feel well satisfied over the result, although they took care not to let this be generally known.

Hector Marsh found it difficult to repress his pleasure and pretend to be regretful. To Preston he secretly said:

“If I had planned that game it couldn’t have pleased me better. Arlington got his bumps and was taken out by Merriwell, and then Merriwell lost the game. Two mighty idols have tottered a little this day. You bet your life Arlington is sore!”

“I know he is,” nodded Preston. “Any one could see that when he went to the bench.”

“He will hate Merriwell for taking him out.”

“I don’t think Merriwell did it on his own responsibility. I saw Day speak to him.”

“That won’t make any difference to Arlington; he will be just as sore with Dick.”

In truth Chester was in bad humor. Having pulled on his sweater, he refused to accompany the rest of 41the team to the gymnasium when they retired there to bathe and change their clothes. He watched for his sister and her companions as they came down from the grand stand, and joined them.

“Well, what do you think?” he asked, with a sneering smile on his face. “Wasn’t that a fine game?”

“Oh, Chester, I am awfully sorry!” exclaimed June. “It was too bad!”

“Well, I am not sorry. I am glad of it! If those fellows had supported me right through the game the way they started off we might have won in a walk.”

“Just what I said,” agreed Zona. “I knew I was right about it!”

Seeing the mood her brother was in, June said nothing to arouse him further. As they left the grounds they found Mrs. Arlington’s carriage, with a driver on the seat, waiting outside.

“Come, girls,” said June; “there is room for all of us.”

Doris, however, who was on the verge of shedding tears over the game, was anxious to get away by herself, and declared she meant to make a short cut to Lakeside Academy.

“I will go with you,” said Zona. And they started off while Chester was helping his sister into the carriage.

Arlington did not permit them to go far alone, for he hastened to overtake them, expressing his desire to accompany them.

“We don’t need any one,” said Doris, immediately feeling sorry she had not accepted June’s invitation.

“You can’t be sure about that,” said Chet. “You 42have to go through the woods, and there are tramps in this vicinity.”

“I am glad you’re going along with us,” said Zona. “I told the girls you were not being supported. They couldn’t seem to see it that way, but I knew it.”

“Oh! June doesn’t know much about baseball, anyway,” said Chet. “She couldn’t tell whether I was getting proper support or not. But I think even Miss Templeton will acknowledge that Merriwell wasn’t supported. Look how those two chumps ran into each other and lost that fly.”

“That was too bad,” confessed Doris, in a low tone. “I think Dick would have saved the game but for that.”

Arlington laughed.

“Why didn’t he leave me in the box?” he cried. “It would have been just as well, and it might have been better. I could have stopped that streak just as well as he did. After putting me in to pitch this kind of a game, it was up to him to let me finish it.”

“Did he ask you to pitch?” inquired Doris.

“Of course he did! I didn’t want to pitch that game. I knew what I was going against. He didn’t want to pitch it, either, and that’s why he put me in.”

“You can’t mean that he was afraid to pitch this game?”

Chet shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know what you call it. If he wasn’t afraid, why didn’t he pitch it? He’s ready enough to pitch a game he thinks he can win.”

“Now, that’s just what I said,” cried Zona. “I thought it strange he should put you in to pitch 43such a game, when he thinks himself the greatest pitcher in the school.”

“Well, you know he is a fine pitcher!” flashed Doris. “Every one knows that.”

“Oh, of course, of course!” laughed Chester. “But he’s got brains enough to know when he is outclassed. Those chaps are professionals. What makes me tired is the fact that every one seems to think Mr. Merriwell perfect in every respect. I don’t pretend to be perfect myself. I have one or two faults, and he has his. For one thing, he talks too much to fellows he is friendly with. I could tell you something that would interest you, Doris.”

“Me?”

“Yes, indeed!”

“Why, what could you tell me?”

“Oh, never mind,” said Chet tantalizingly. “You think he is all right. I won’t say anything about it.”

Doris flushed.

“Do you mean to insinuate that he has been talking about me?” she asked.

“I won’t say another word,” declared Arlington, shaking his head. “I didn’t meanmean to say that much.”

At the same time he winked slyly at Zona.

They walked on in silence, Doris having grown pale. After a time she suddenly turned to Chester, saying:

“I don’t think it right for you to insinuate anything without making an explanation. You ought to tell me what you meant.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” he declared. “Forget it!”

44But it was not easy for Doris to forget, and when they came to the rustic bridge over Ripple Brook she paused there, looking down into the water.

Behind Doris’ back Chet made a signal to Zona, who did not understand it at first; but she finally drew aside.

Arlington leaned his elbows on the rail close beside Doris, speaking in a low tone.

“Do you want me to tell you the truth?” he asked. “Do you want me to tell you just what Dick Merriwell said?”

“I don’t believe he said anything.”

“All right; we will let it drop.”

But, girllike, Doris’ curiosity was aroused, and she felt a strong desire to hear what Arlington seemed willing to tell.

“If he did say anything, go ahead and tell me,” she finally urged. “But don’t tell me anything save the truth.”

“No danger that I will do that,” he asserted, with an air of apparent sincerity. “Of course, you met Dick first and were friends with him before my sister came to Fardale. I have heard all about it. I know the whole business. I know, too, that you and Hal Darrell were pretty good friends before Dick interfered between you.”

“He never interfered.”

“Well, that’s what I have heard. Why, a fellow at school told me that Merriwell himself said he cut Darrell out with you.”

Again the girl’s cheeks blazed.

45“I don’t believe he said it,” she indignantly declared.

“Well, that’s the talk at school. They say he brags about it to his friends. He claims he can get any girl stuck on him if he tries.”

“Somebody has been lying about him.”

“If that is true, how do the boys know that your father and Hal’s father, who were great chums, put it up to make a match between you when you were old enough? Who told that? Isn’t that one of the secrets you told Dick Merriwell yourself?”

Doris refused to answer. Her heart was beating furiously and she felt herself trembling a little.

“Miss Templeton,” Chet went on, “I don’t like to see you deceived by any fellow. You ought to know by this time that Dick Merriwell thinks more of my sister than he does of any one else. I will tell you what I have heard that he has said about this affair. He has told his friends that he hoped you would let him alone and take up with Darrell again.”

Quick as a flash, Doris straightened up, her eyes full of fire.

“Whoever has said such a thing, Chester Arlington, has lied,” she blazed.

Again he shrugged his shoulders.

“Perhaps they have,” he admitted. “I am only repeating the gossip of the school.”

“Well, I wish to hear no more of it. I wish you to let me alone. Come, Zona!”

Doris stamped her foot.

“You will leave us this minute!” she cried. “You 46pretend to be a gentleman. If you are you will not force yourself on us any more!”

“Oh, very well,” smiled Chester. “Sometime you won’t feel this way toward me. Good day!”

He lingered on the bridge and watched the girls as they climbed the path and disappeared into the budding woods. Zona turned to look back and waved her hand at him, to which he replied in like manner. When they had vanished, he muttered:

“The seed is planted; we will see what it grows into. I will win by fair means or foul!”

CHAPTER V. A TROUBLED HEART.

“What is the matter, Doris?” asked Zona, as the path at length brought them through the woods and in sight of Lakeside Academy.

Doris shook her head and swallowed down a choking lump in her throat.

“Nothing,” she answered.

In a moment Zona’s arm was about her.

“Tell me,” she urged. “I am your friend. What was it Chester said to you? I could hear but little of it.”

“He said enough to prove conclusively that he is no gentleman!” declared the troubled girl.

“Oh! I am sure you’re wrong about that. He is naturally a gentleman, Doris. If he told you anything, he told it because he believed you should know.”

“But it isn’t true—it can’t be true. Dick wouldn’t say such things to his best friends. I will never believe the academy boys are talking such gossip.”

Again Zona urged her companion to tell, and Doris finally consented. With her cheeks burning, she repeated what Chester Arlington had said.

“What do you think of that, Zona?” she demanded.

The girl with the yellow hair turned her face away.

“I—don’t—know,” she murmured, finding it difficult to reply.

48“You don’t know,” cried the other, grasping her arm. “Why, you don’t believe the boys are saying such things, do you?”

Suddenly, with a burst of absolute frankness, Zona turned toward her friend:

“Do you want me to tell you the actual truth?” she asked. “Perhaps it will be the best thing I can do. It will be better for you, better for Hal, better for Dick, better for every one.”

Although her heart was seized with apprehension, Doris urged Zona to speak.

“To begin with,” said Zona, “you know it’s true that your father and Hal’s, who have always been true friends, agreed long ago to make a match between you, if possible.”

“I know that,” murmured Doris. “And that’s the very thing I have resented most. As if we had no minds of our own. In France they make such matches, I believe, but not in this country. Any girl with the least spirit would resent it. It’s the very thing to make a girl detest a fellow.”

“But you don’t detest Hal?”

“Well, I thought I did. But for this foolish agreement between our parents I might have liked him very well.”

“Of course you would; you couldn’t help it. He’s a splendid fellow, and he’s done everything for you. All the girls like him, but as soon as you gave him the shake, he would have nothing to do with any of them.”

“I wish he would,” passionately exclaimed Doris. “I’d like him better myself if he would!”

49“No doubt of that,” smiled Zona, showing her fine teeth. “At the same time down in your heart youyou know you like him very well as it is. You have given him the cold shoulder simply because you were provoked over that agreement, and because Dick Merriwell happened to be convenient as a friend. Hal has been too earnest in his attentions, Doris.”

“Not of late. He despises me now.”

“Don’t think that! He is paying you back in your own coin, that’s all.”

“But this has nothing to do with the gossip Chester Arlington spoke of. How does this prove Dick said he was sorry he had ever become so friendly? I know he is not the boy to boast that he cut Hal out.”

“If there was no such gossip, Doris, how did Chester know about it? You say you want me to tell you the truth? Well, I will, even though you get angry with me. I have heard such talk myself.”

“You?” breathed Doris, as she started away and stared at her companion, her hands clinched. “You, Zona?”

“Yes,” nodded Zona grimly. “Why, it is the most natural thing in the world. Dick has his friends and confidants, and he is liable to trust them with his secrets and tell them his thoughts. You know girls have to talk; they can’t help it. They have their little secrets, and it often happens these secrets are betrayed by the ones they trust. Brad Buckhart is Dick’s closest friend. Why shouldn’t he talk things over with Brad? It’s perfectly natural. Brad might tell some one else, and in that way it could leak out. 50If there was no foundation of the truth in it you may think it never happened.”

“But I can’t—I can’t believe it!” murmured the distressed girl. “I shall go to him and ask him about it myself.”

Zona shook her head.

“You will do nothing of the sort,” she asserted.

“Why not?”

“You have too much pride.”

“Pride?”

“Yes. You know you can’t face Dick and ask him about it. What would he think of you? He would fancy you were running after him, and I am sure you don’t want him to believe that.”

“No, no!” panted Doris.

“Now, be reasonable, dear. When you think it over you know well enough that you like Hal Darrell as well as you do Dick. It is only because you were proud and spirited that you gave him the cold shoulder. At the same time you must see that Dick likes June Arlington. Of course, it is nothing but friendship, but it is friendship of a sort that means something. Many a time you have told me how much Dick has done for Chester. Why should he do all those things? Wasn’t it for the sake of June, and not for Chester? You’re not the girl to run after any fellow. You know a fellow gets tired of a girl who chases after him.”

“Oh, I decided long ago that Dick and I could never be anything but ordinary friends.”

“Then let him see it—let him understand it.”

“How?”

51“That’s easy. Suppose you receive attentions from Hal? That will open his eyes. He will understand what you mean quick enough. At the same time, if he still likes you more than he does June, it will bring him round pretty quick.”

“I don’t want to bring him round. If he bothered me I’d soon show him that I didn’t want his attentions.”

“Well,” laughed Zona, “at least you would have the satisfaction of doing that. If he didn’t come round you would know beyond question that he liked June better.”

“Oh, I don’t know what to do!” cried Doris. “I am just as miserable and wretched as I can be. It seems to me that every one is false and treacherous.”

“Not every one, dear,” murmured Zona, again clasping her friend. “You know you can trust me.”

Doris began to quiver:

“I—I—believe I—must cry!”

She could not keep back the tears of vexation and injured pride which welled from her eyes.

When the two girls reached the academy and were met by others who inquired about the game, Zona explained how Fardale had lost, and declared that both she and Doris had felt so badly over it they came near “crying their eyes out.”

Alone in her room, Doris gave way to her feelings, and the result of that “good cry” relieved the strain on her nerves so that she felt much better after it. Still she continued to think with perplexity and vexation of what Chester Arlington had told her.

Shortly after sunset, with the dusk of evening 52coming on, a carriage stopped before the academy, and June Arlington ran up the steps. She found Doris and Zona together in their room.

“Oh, girls!” she exclaimed. “I have a splendid plan! Mother has agreed to it, and I think it will be just fine! I am going to have the members of the baseball team and a few others at my house this evening, and I want you to come. I am going to invite several of the girls here, and we will have a jolly time. You know the boys feel so badly over that game that I think we ought to cheer them up. Now, what girls shall we invite?”

“That’s splendid!” laughed Zona. “Why, it’s almost an impromptu party! I wonder if we can obtain leave to go, Doris?”

“I think I can fix that,” said June. “I will see Miss Tartington about it myself. I don’t believe she will object.”

June and Zona eagerly talked over the plans, deciding on the girls to be invited. Doris took little part in this, which June finally noticed.

“What’s the matter?” she questioned.

“Oh, she was just about heartbroken over that game,” quickly explained Zona. “She can’t seem to forget it.”

“Nor I,” confessed June. “And I think I should feel worse than any one, for my brother pitched. We will make you forget it to-night, Doris.”

“I am not feeling well,” said Doris. “I—I don’t know as I can go.”

“Oh, goodness! What nonsense! Of course you 53will come. Why, we couldn’t get along without you.”

“Of course you will!” Zona joined in.

Suddenly through Doris’ mind flashed the thought:

“It is my opportunity to show him I don’t care.”

Immediately she said:

“Well, June, if Miss Tartington gives permission I will come.”

CHAPTER VI. A RISING CLOUD.

June’s party came off as arranged, and a jolly party it proved to be. Besides the members of the baseball team, Darrell, Smart, and one or two others were invited. Obediah Tubbs was on deck, with his “weather eye” peeled for pie. Chip Jolliby, stammering and awkward, yet bubbling with good nature, provided considerable amusement. There were games of various sorts, card-playing, music, and singing. Billy Bradley found a jolly little black-eyed girl, who interested him immensely, and to whom he gave pronounced attention. He was trying to entertain her when Ted Smart drifted up.

“When do the drinkables float on?” inquired Ted. “I suppose they are going to have lemonade, or fruit punch, or something? It’s about time.” He pulled out his watch and looked at it. “By the way,” he chirped, “why should a thirsty man always carry a watch?”

“’Anged hif Hi ’now!” confessed Billy. “’E surely can’t drink hout hof hit.”

“Why not?” chuckled Ted. “Every watch has a spring inside.”

At this the little dark-eyed girl laughed heartily, while Billy slowly scratched his head, a puzzled look on his face.

“Hi suppose that’s one hof your blooming Hamerican 55jokes!” he half growled. “Still Hi dunno ’ow ’e can get a drink hout hof hit.”

“Oh, Mr. Bradley!” laughed the girl. “How funny you are!”

“Lordy! Lordy!” muttered Ted. “I will have to show him the spring. Why, don’t you see, Sir William, any watch has a spring in it? A man who is thirsty can wet his whistle at a spring.”

Still it was some moments before Billy managed to grasp the point. When he did he suddenly hit his knee a slap and gave a shout:

“By Jove!” he exclaimedexclaimed. “That’s a good one, don’t y’ ’now!”

“How wonderfully quick you are to catch on!” chuckled Ted. “But I know another good one.”

“Go a’ead and give hit to hus,” urged the Cockney youth.

“What’s the hardest kind of soap?” asked Ted.

“The ’ardest kind?” repeated Bill. “Why, there’s lots of ’ard soaps.”

“But what’s the hardest kind?” persisted Ted. “Give it up?”

“Hi suppose Hi’ll ’ave to. What his the ’ardest kind hof soap?”

“Why, Castile, of course. Don’t you see, Sir William—cast-steel soap must be very hard.”

Still Bradley failed to tumble, and his perplexity added to the merriment of the dark-eyed girl.

“He’s a wonder, Billy is!” exclaimed Ted. “But just wait till he springs these conundrums and see how he will convulse everybody.”

“The ’ardest kind of soap,” muttered Bradley, 56wrinkling his brows. “Castile is the ’ardest kind hof soap.”

“Why, of course,” said the girl. “Steel is hard, isn’t it? He made it plain enough. Cast steel, Mr. Bradley, don’t you see?”

“Ow-wow!” gasped Billy. “Dear me! I hunderstand!”

“Let me whisper something in your ear,” said Ted. “Those are strictly new. I don’t think any one here has ever heard them before. If you want to bump this bunch good and hard, just spring them.”

“Hall right,” said Billy. “Hif Hi hever get a chance Hi’ll double them up.”

Ted went on his way, and soon he had the entire party puzzling over the answers to his conundrums, which he sprang one after another.

Suddenly Chip Jolliby unfolded himself and rose by sections to his full height.

“Wait a minute!” he cried. “I have a gug-gug-gug-good one!”

Instantly all gave him their attention.

“What is the difference between an auction and seasickness?” grinned the tall boy.

There were several guesses at the answer, but no one gave it. Finally Jolliby was urged to explain the difference between an auction and seasickness.

“Why,” he laughed, “one is a sale of effects and the other is the effects of a sail.”

Smart produced his handkerchief and began to sob.

“What’s the matter?” asked one of the girls.

“I have been robbed!” moaned Ted. “That was 57my pet property. I owned that. My happiness is ruined!”

“I’ll tell you where you can always find happiness,” declared Dick at once.

“Where?” cried Ted.

“In the dictionary,” answered Merriwell.

And immediately Smart fell off his chair with a thud.

“Don’t feel so bad over it, my little man,” said Buckhart, as he patted Ted on the head. “You’re a bright little fellow. You’re a wonderfully witty little chap.”

“Say, Texas,” chirped Ted, looking up, “bet you can’t tell what makes every one sick save the one who swallows it.”

“I am not good at guessing,” said Brad. “What is it?”

“Flattery,” answered Smart, and cheered up at once.

Catching Billy’s eye, Ted winked at him and nodded. Billy fancied he saw his opportunity.

“Hi have a beautiful conundrum, don’t y’ ’now,” he declared, and immediately received the attention of every one. “What’s the ’ardest kind hof soap?”

When all professed their inability to answer this conundrum and demanded the answer from him, the Cockney youth threw out his chest.

“Why,” he said, “that’s heasy. The ’ardest kind hof soap his cast-hiron soap, hof course.”

Having told this, he fetched his knee a resounding crack and then clung to his sides, as he doubled up with laughter. When he straightened up and 58looked around he was astonished to see a lot of blank faces, for no one save himself was laughing. Ted Smart had crammed his handkerchief into his mouth to keep from shouting.

“I am afraid we don’t catch the point, Billy,” said Dick. “You will have to explain it again.”

“What’s the matter, hanyhow?” exploded Bradley. “Hit’s dead heasy! You will see hit in a minute. Hi didn’t see hit at first. Why, think of it! Why, of course, cast hiron is the ’ardest kind hof soap!”

“Not having seen any cast-iron soap,” said Singleton, “we will have to take your word for it.”

Bradley was both disappointed and disgusted.

“Hit’s mighty queer, don’t y’ ’now!” he growled, “that nobody sees the point when Hi spring a joke! Some’ow, Hi can’t see the point now, myself. Hi thought Hi could, but Hi ’ave forgotten just what hit was. Now Hi ’ave got another one, and hit his better than that.”

Smart started to crawl behind the piano.

“Give us the other one,” urged the boys and girls.

“Well,” said Bill, “why should a thirsty man halways carry a watch? There you hare!”

Again, after a little, they gave it up and urged him to explain why a thirsty man should carry a watch.

“Why, don’t you hunderstand?” said Billy. “A watch ’as a well in hit.”

Once more, being satisfied he had hit the nail on the head this time, the Cockney youth laughed loudly. In the midst of his laughter he stopped with his 59mouth wide open, suddenly realizing that no one else was laughing.

From behind the piano came a sound like sobs of distress.

“Say, what’s the matter with you now?” snapped Billy.

“I don’t think I ever saw a well in a watch,” confessed Gardner.

“Did Hi say a well?” gasped Billy. “That was a mistake; Hi meant a cistern. That’s hit! Don’t you see?—a cistern!”

Then, when they failed to laugh, he gripped Tubbs by the shoulder and shook him.

“Why don’t you laugh, you fat chump?” he shouted. “If you don’t laugh Hi will ’ave to ’it you.”

“He! he!” said Obediah moanfully.

Somehow this was more than they could stand, and suddenly the entire party burst into shrieks of laughter. Immediately a look of happiness and relief overspread Billy’s face, and in the midst of all this commotion and merriment he stood in the middle of the floor repeatedly slapping his knee and crying:

“Hi knew you would see the point! Hi thought you couldn’t ’elp seeing the point! Hit’s hawful funny! Hit’s the funniest joke Hi hever ’eard!”

Out from behind the piano rolled Smart, who lay on the floor, clinging to his sides and gasping for breath. From one side to another he rolled, and his merriment caused tears to fill his eyes.

“You little wretch!” chuckled Dick, as he pounced on Ted. “This is some of your work.”

60“Kill me!” gasped Ted. “Put me out of my misery. Kill me and save my life!”

At last Bradley was satisfied, but he was not destined to be left in peace. One after another the boys came round to him with a watch, asking him to point out the cistern in it. Those who had no watch borrowed one in order to put the question. Finally Billy became indignant.

“Hi ham no blamed watchmaker, don’t y’ ’now!” he shouted. “Get haway from me, the ’ole hof you!”

All through the evening Doris gave Dick scarcely a look or a word. Once he spoke to her and tried to enter into conversation with her, but she quickly excused herself and left him. On the other hand, she had nothing but smiles for Darrell. At first Hal remained reserved, but beneath her sunniness he gradually thawed.

Zona Desmond improved the first opportunity to speak privately with Arlington. They were standing in a little alcove, and she observed that Chet was watching Doris closely.

“You have something to thank me for, Mr. Arlington,” she declared.

“Indeed,” he said, lifting his eyebrows. “How’s that?”

“I have saved you from a lot of trouble.”

“Have you?”

“Yes.”

“Then be sure of my thanks. But I am certain I do not understand what you mean. How have you saved me a lot of trouble?”

61“You know what you told Doris on the bridge this afternoon?”

Chet shrugged his shoulders.

“Yes.”

“Well, do you know what she was going to do?”

“I am sure I do not.”

“Well, she was just determined to go straight to Dick Merriwell and demand to know if it was the truth. What if she had done that? You would have found yourself in a fix.”

“I knew well enough that she wouldn’t.”

“How did you know?”

“Well, if I’m not mistaken, she has a little pride of her own. She could not do that without humbling her own pride.”

“Still, Chester, she was just angry enough to do it. And it was I who stopped her. If it hadn’t been for me you never would have known of those things you told her. You know you fibbed when you said it was the gossip of the school.”

He laughed easily.

“There is such a thing as lying in a good cause,” he said. “Merriwell doesn’t care a snap for her, and any one can see that. Look at him now. There he is in the corner, talking to my sister.”

“At least,” said Zona, watching her companion slyly, “you have done a good thing for Hal Darrell.”

Instantly a cloud came to Arlington’s face.

“I am not spending any time doing that fellow good turns!” he muttered.

“But see how Doris is taking up with him to-night.”

62“I see!”

Inwardly Zona was laughing. Things were occurring to satisfy her. She knew well enough that Chester had sought to break the friendship between Doris and Dick, with the object of placing himself in favor with Doris. In this he had failed completely.

“It was a shame for Dick Merriwell to come between them,” asserted Zona. “And your fib will be pardonable if Doris and Hal again become friendly as of old.”

“Oh, yes!” he grated. “It will be a fine thing, won’t it!”

“Why not?” she innocently asked.

“Never mind!” he growled. “Let it go!”

When refreshments were served in the dining room, Arlington made a desperate venture in offering Doris his arm to escort her to the table.

“I hope you will give me that much pleasure to-night,” he said.

“You will have to excuse me,” she murmured. “I have promised Hal.”

Even as she spoke Hal appeared, and she accepted his arm.

Chester clinched his hands and glared after them.

“I don’t see that I have made much out of this,” he thought savagely. “I have simply smoothed out things for Merriwell and left myself in a hole. But I won’t give it up! I am not beaten yet. I will trap Mr. Darrell if I live long enough.”

Zona appeared at his side.

“Come Mr. Thundercloud,” she laughed. “Why, 63you’re the picture of tragedy and revenge! Don’t let anybody get onto it.”

“What do I care for this bunch of flubs!” he exclaimed.

“We’re the only ones left,” reminded Zona, as Billy escorted the little dark-eyed girl from the room. “Aren’t you coming?”

“No!”

“You’re not? What are you going to do?”

“I am going upstairs,” said Chet. “I have got a headache.”

Although she urged him not to do this, he persisted, and to her chagrin she was left to enter the dining room alone. June met her at the door.

“I was just looking for you,” she said. “Where is Chester?”

“He has a headache,” said Zona. “He’s gone upstairs.”

Having excused herself for a few moments, June went in search of her brother. She found him pacing the floor in an upper room.

“Come, Chester,” she urged; “aren’t you going to join us?”

“Oh, what’s the use! I don’t want anything. Let me alone.”

“But you must come. Think how it looks! What will the others think?”

“I don’t care!”

“But I care, Chester. You must come down for my sake.”

“Tell ’em I’ve got a headache! Tell ’em anything.”

64“No, no; I can’t do that! They will know better. You must come down. Please come, Chester. I am sure I would do as much for you.”

“All right. I will come, June; but it’s a mistake. The best thing you can do is to leave me here. I am dangerous to-night.”

Nevertheless, she succeeded in leading him down to the dining room, and he took a seat at the table. However, he did not participate in the talk and laughter of the company, and after a while his gloomy spirits began to dampen the pleasure of the others.

Obediah Tubbs seemed to be the only one who was not disturbed, and he was so absorbed in eating pie, several of which had been provided for him, that he failed to notice the growing shadow.

When refreshments were over June urged some of the boys to sing, and she accompanied them on the piano. They sang “Fardale’s Way,” “Fair Fardale,” and two or three similar songs; but at last the party began to break up.

In turning from the piano, Darrell bumped full and fair against Arlington.

“I beg your pardon,” said Hal.

“Well, you’d better,” flashed Chet. “You ran against me on purpose.”

“Nothing of the sort.”

“You mean to call me a liar?” hissed Arlington. “I won’t take that front any fellow anywhere.”

In another moment he would have struck Hal in the face, but his wrist was seized by Dick, and some of the others stepped quickly between them. The girls were frightened, and June’s distress was completed 65by this ungentlemanly act on the part of her brother.

“Chester!” she entreated. “For my sake—please! please!”

“All right,” he said. “Take your hands off me, Merriwell. I will see that fellow again.”

Then he strode out of the room, and the departing guests saw no more of him that night.

CHAPTER VII. ARLINGTON MAKES MORE TROUBLE.

In making their trip through that section the Great Northern Athletic Association had succeeded in arranging a game with Rivermouth, to be played the following Monday morning after the game with Fardale.

Having been defeated by the Great Northern, the Fardale boys anxiously awaited the result of the game at Rivermouth.

It was generally believed that Rivermouth would be disastrously defeated. This being the case, when a telephone message was received, late Monday afternoon, that Rivermouth had won by a score of five to three, few were willing to believe it. His disbelief led Anson Day to call up the captain of the Rivermouth team and ask for the actual facts. To do this Day was obliged to visit a telephone pay station in the village, and his return was eagerly awaited by the boys at the academy.

It was one of those times when there were no drills or exercises of any sort, and the cadets were enjoying a brief leisure, many of them rambling over the parade ground, when Day, accompanied by one or two friends, came down the road from the village.

“’Ere ’e comes!” exclaimed Billy Bradley. “Now we will know ’ow ’ard Rivermouth was beaten.”

67The boys flocked around Day.

“What was the score?” they eagerly demanded.

“Five to three,” answered the chairman of the athletic committee.

“Dern my picter!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs; “that was close! I s’posed the Great Northern would beat ’em worse than that.”

“But the Great Northern didn’t win,” declared Anson. “The report that Rivermouth took the game was correct.”

“I knew it!” cried Ted Smart. “I was certain Rivermouth would win.”

Somebody gave him a punch in the ribs.

“You’re a fibber!” roared an excited cadet.

“Look here, Day,” said Bob Singleton, “are you sure you have this straight? Why, it can’t be possible!”

“I have it straight,” asserted Day positively.

At this the boys groaned.

“Well, wouldn’t that skin you alive!” chattered Jolliby.

“Great Cæsar!” muttered Barron Black. “If Rivermouth defeated those fellows what are we going to do against Rivermouth Saturday? We have to play her then, and it begins to look as if we were due for a trimming.”

“Oh! we could have beaten the Great Northern all right with Merriwell in the box,” asserted Hector Marsh, who had forced his way into the group. “We all know how the game was lost.”

“Hold on!” exclaimed Mel Fraser, Arlington’s roommate. “You can’t say that. Didn’t Merriwell 68go in? Wasn’t the game lost with him in the box? Don’t pile this whole thing onto Chester.”

“Waugh!” exclaimed Brad Buckhart. “They made two runs off Dick and seven off Arlington. That’s the size of it. And one run was made through a fielding blunder.”

At that moment a stocky, square-shouldered boy, who had remained silent, spoke up:

“I lost the game,” he said. “I am the only one to blame. Every one tells me that Merriwell shouted for Jolliby to take that fly. I didn’t hear him.”

The speaker was Dave Flint.

“I suppose that lets Merriwell out,” half sneered Fraser. “All the same he was in the box when the game was lost.”

Instantly Buckhart was aroused.

“I want to tell you fellows one thing,” he said. “I am going to tell it right here and now. I have kept still just as long as I propose to. My pard had no business to go in to pitch. He was not in condition.”

“Oh, was that it?” inquired Fraser insinuatingly. “Strange we never heard about it before.”

“Nothing strange in it!” fiercely retorted the Texan. “Dick don’t go around any whatever telling his troubles. Any one who knows anything about him could see Saturday that he used neither speed nor curves. He couldn’t. He was a heap used up. He had a lame side that kept him from pitching at his best. He had it a week ago, too, and he won that game by setting his teeth and pitching when every ball he threw nearly cut him in two. If he hadn’t pitched against Hilsboro his side would have been all 69right last Saturday. That is straight goods, and any galoot who says different is a prevaricator. You hear me warble!”

“Why didn’t he tell us about his side?” asked Earl Gardner.

“Why didn’t he? Because he didn’t want to knock the confidence out of his team. That’s why he didn’t tell.”

“How did he get this lame side?” inquired Fraser, still in a sneering manner.

Buckhart took a stride and confronted Arlington’s roommate.

“I will tell you how he got it,” he snorted. “He got it while doing Chet Arlington a good turn. He was jumped on by a bunch of Arlington’s associates and knocked against the edge of a pool table. That’s how he got it, Cadet Fraser.”

“We will take your word for it,” said Fraser, backing off, as he was somewhat afraid of the fighting Texan.

“Well, it’s a right good thing that you do,” growled Buckhart.

At this point a burst of laughter caused the boys to start and turn. They saw Chester Arlington pushing into the crowd.

“Well, I have expected something like that,” cried Chet. “I didn’t believe Dick Merriwell would take his medicine without making some sort of an excuse. A lame side, eh? Well, that sounds first rate; but, if you fellows have noticed it, it is a fact that a pitcher who loses a game always has a lame shoulder, a lame 70arm, or a lame side to put the blame on after the game is over.”

Buckhart’s face grew dark as a thunder cloud. He confronted Chester, who continued to laugh in that aggravating manner.

“Look here, you,” said the Texan in a low tone; “do you mean to call me a liar?”

“Oh, not at all!” said Chet easily. “Of course Merriwell told you all about his lame side. I don’t doubt that a bit.”

“Then do you mean to say that my pard lied? Waugh! I’d swallow it a heap better if you called me a truth twister. Maybe Dick will swallow these yer things from you, but hang me if I do!”

The fury of the Texan burst forth in a twinkling, and he struck full and fair at Chester’s face; but Arlington ducked, and his cap was knocked from his head. Instantly the boys pressed between them and pushed them apart. They remonstrated with Brad, who for the time being seemed to have wholly lost control of himself.

Hal Darrell was one of those who seized Buckhart.

“Hold on there, old man!” hissed Hal in Brad’s ear. “I am the one who is laying for that fellow. I am the one to settle a score with him.”

At last the Texan was quieted and led away.

After this the boys knew that at any time there might come a clash betweenbetween Arlington and Darrell or between Arlington and Buckhart.

Chester, however, kept by himself a great deal of 71the time, and the days slipped by without the expected encounter taking place.

Dick took little part in practice during the week, although he was on the baseball ground every day and saw that the team put in the proper work and was given needed coaching.

As Saturday grew near the apprehension of the cadets over the result of the game with Rivermouth increased. There were all sorts of rumors about the great improvement of the Rivermouth team, which was said to be superior to anything the place had turned out in many seasons.

Brad’s statement concerning Dick’s lame side was also accepted as a fact by the great mass of cadets. With Dick out of condition to pitch, it seemed that Rivermouth would have an easy thing.

“I am sorry you said anything about my side, old man,” declared Dick one day. “It was a mistake. I told you to keep still.”

“Pard,” cried the Texan, “I couldn’t do it—I just couldn’t keep my face closed and hear what they were saying. I had to spit her out.”

“And the result has been the very thing I feared. The boys have lost confidence. They are afraid of Rivermouth.”

“I am plumb sorry, partner. I reckon you’re right. I am tired of answering questions about your side.”

“Yes; they all want to know about it. Even Professor Gunn has heard about it and made inquiries.”

“We will never have any peace in this yere school until Arlington gets out,” averred the Westerner. “I have it pretty straight that he has been telling some 72rotten things about you lately. Just what he has told I don’t know, but I am going to find out if I can.”

“You pay too much attention to Arlington,” declared Dick. “I have found that the fellow who lies about another usually hurts himself the most. Lies, like curses and chickens, come home to roost.”

“That may be the way you look at it, pard; but the galoot who lies about me has to fight or run.”

“It’s useless to fight Arlington. If you whip him it simply makes him worse. Unless he straightens out of his own accord, he will eventually bring about his destruction.”

“Mebbe that’s right, but I can’t look at it just that way. Say, pard, are you going to try to pitch this game against Rivermouth?”

Dick nodded.

“I am going to pitch that game!” he grimly declared.

CHAPTER VIII. FARDALE WINS!

Never in all her baseball career had Rivermouth been more confident of victory than she was on that gray Saturday when she came to Fardale. Accompanied by a hundred rooters, the players marched from the station to Fardale field.

The cadets were waiting for them, and a crowd of spectators had assembled.

“Here they come!” was the cry, as the visiting team and its supporters were seen marching down the hill.

As the Rivermouth boys poured through the gate, and the visitors marched onto the diamond, Fardale received them with a welcoming cheer.

Little time was wasted. The visitors took the field for practice, and went at it in a sharp and snapping manner, which seemed to denote what they could do. Their supporters packed in a solid mass on the side reserved for them, and cheered the clever plays made by the practicing boys.

“Well, what do you think, pard?” asked Buckhart, as Dick stood watching the enemy.

“They’re overconfident,” declared Merriwell in a low tone. “It may be the cause of their defeat. If we get down to business at the very start and fight hard we may take some of the assurance out of them.”

74“How’s your side?”

“Oh, it’s still lame; but I find I can pitch with my left hand without straining it. I am going to see what I can do that way.”

“Great tarantulas!” gasped Buckhart. “Why, do you know that Peterson, a left-hander, pitched against them Monday, and they biffed him for eleven clean hits? You know how hard it was for us to hit him. Well, they found him pie.”

“All the same,” said Dick in the same quiet manner, “I shall begin with my left hand, and use it as long as possible. When I am compelled to do so, to save the game, I may use my right.”

Ted Smart left the seats and came out to Dick.

“Say! Guess!” chirped the little fellow. “Arlington feels sure you will win, doesn’t he?”

“I dunno.”

“He must!” said Ted in his queer way. “He’s betting on Rivermouth!”

“Is that so?” muttered Buckhart.

“That’s what they say,” nodded Ted. “Of course he wants to give his money away. It’s just like him. He loves to give his money away. That’s why he’s betting on Rivermouth.”

“Well, we will do our best to see that he gives it away this yere day,” asserted the Westerner.

It was a fact that Chester had bet on Rivermouth. He made no effort to hide his belief that the visitors would win.

The game began promptly on time, with Rivermouth at the bat. The first man started off in a manner 75to delight the visitors, for he drove out a single with perfect ease.

Buckhart shook his head a little and pounded his fist into the hole in his big mitt.

Still Merriwell continued to pitch with his left hand, and the next batter, in an effort to sacrifice the base runner to second, rolled the ball into Dick’s hands. Scooping it up quickly, Dick snapped it to Gardner, who covered the bag for Tubbs. Earl whistled it up to Singleton, and the handsome double play set the cadets into a roar.

“Dern my picter!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs. “That was too easy!”

The third batter tried hard for a hit. He simply lifted an infield fly that was easily captured, and Rivermouth was quickly retired in this manner without accomplishing anything, for all of her propitious start.

The visitors had a new pitcher, a long, lank, green-looking freshman, whose movements were very awkward, but who soon revealed the fact that he had an exasperatingly hard ball to hit safely. He was not a “strike-out” pitcher. He was one of the kind who kept batters popping up little flies or knocking easy grounders into the diamond.

Gardner and Black were both thrown out at first, and Flint reached the bag only through an error by shortstop. Bradley tried hard for a single, but popped a little fly into the lank pitcher’s hands.

The second inning was a fast one, for once more only one cadet reached first, and there he “died.”

“They can’t do anything with you!” yelled a Rivermouth 76rooter. “They are up against it to-day! You will make monkeys of them, the same as you did the Great Northern chaps.”

Three innings passed without a score. In the fourth Rivermouth got a runner to third; but two men were out, and, with three balls and no strikes called against him, Dick braced wonderfully, putting two straight ones over the plate and then fanning the batter with a drop.

This seemed to revive the confidence of the home team somewhat, and Jolliby started off with a hit in Fardale’s half. On Singleton’s out at first Chip reached second.

Tubbs bunted and came near beating the ball to first. Although he was thrown out by a narrow margin, Jolliby was landed on third.

Buckhart tried his best for a hit, but drove the ball along the ground at Armstrong. The pitcher snapped it up, whirled toward third, and held Chip close to that bag, after which he turned and threw to first. The throw was a trifle wide, and it bounded out of the baseman’s mitt. By the time the ball was picked up Buckhart had crossed the bag.

“Well! well! well!” roared the cadets in great relief.

“Up!” shouted the leader of the cheering, with an upward motion of both arms. “All up for Merriwell!”

Every boy in blue rose to his feet as Dick advanced to the plate, bat in hand.

“’Ere’s where we win the game, don’t y’ ’now!” shrieked Billy Bradley. “He will do the trick!”

77When Dick struck wide of the first ball with an awkward swing of the bat some were surprised. Others, however, saw the object, for Buckhart took second on that pitch, and Merriwell’s flourish had been for the purpose of bothering the catcher. He had not tried to touch the ball.

“A hit now will win this game!” panted Earl Gardner.

“He will get it,” said Barron Black confidently.

Armstrong was on his mettle, and did his best to deceive Merriwell. He led the batter to swing at a deceptive in-drop, and two strikes were called.

“Sit down! sit down!” yelled a Rivermouth fellow. “The inning is over! He will never disturb Armstrong!”

Barely had the words been uttered when Dick met one of Armstrong’s curves and sent the ball skimming along the ground at great speed.

The shortstop sprang to get in front of it, while Jolliby made a daring dash for the plate. The ball took an erratic bound just before reaching the shortstop and went over his shoulder.

Then there was a shriek from the cadets.

“’Ome! ’ome!” yelled Billy Bradley, who was on the coaching line near third.

Buckhart dashed over the bag and swung toward the home plate.

The left-fielder had come in for the ball, and he made a beautiful throw to the plate. Buckhart was tagged barely a second before he reached home, and was out.

78However, Fardale had scored a run, as Jolliby had reached the plate safely.

The game continued to be of the sort to keep every one keyed to a high pitch. Repeatedly Rivermouth seemed to be on the verge of scoring, but in each instance the home team managed to crawl out of the hole and save itself.

With seven complete innings played and no other run secured, it began to seem as if one score would settle that game.

In the first half of the eighth, however, a peculiar thing happened. The first two batters were easy outs. By this time, although they continued to cheer their team valiantly, the hearts of the Rivermouth cheerers were growing faint. The next hitter managed to drive out a clean one that looked to be good for two bases. It passed over Tubbs’ head just out of reach and went bounding away toward the fence.

Jolliby raced for it. The ball reached the fence and disappeared.

The Rivermouth runner was astonished on reaching second to find a coacher back of third wildly shrieking and motioning for him to come on. Wondering what had happened, he made for third, feeling certain he must stop there. In the meantime, Jolliby and Flint had reached the fence where the ball had disappeared, and were seen kneeling on the ground.

At that spot there was a small hole in the fence, and by a rare freak of fortune the ball had passed through this opening. Jolliby peered through a crack and could see the sphere outside the fence at a little distance, lying on the ground. He thrust his long 79arm through the hole and found himself barely able to touch the ball with the ends of his fingers. In trying to get hold of it he pushed it farther away.

Thus, while Chip was vainly seeking to stretch his arm far enough to get the ball, the Rivermouth runner came home with the tying score.

The spectators of both sides were shaking with excitement. The eighth inning ended with a score of one to one. In the ninth Rivermouth apparently started off with grim determination to win the game then and there. Two hits and a bad error filled the bags, with only one man out.

Chester Arlington, who had been watching the game with intense interest, now nodded and smiled.

“She’s over!” he declared. “The jig is up! Rivermouth wins right here!”

For the first time during the game Dick began to pitch with his right hand. Regardless of his right side, he used speed and curves. The next batter fanned twice in his eagerness to get a hit.

“Steady, old man!” cautioned the Rivermouth captain. “We have this thing clinched.”

Then the batter hit the ball a savage crack, and it shot on a dead line, so that it seemed certain to pass over Obediah Tubbs at least eight feet from the ground and somewhat to one side of the fat boy.

Obediah made a marvelous leap into the air.

Spat!

He had the ball! It was a most astonishing catch, and a wild cheer of delight went up from the cadets as the fat boy quickly stepped onto second and made a double play, the runner having left the bag.

80Somehow this strange blighting of their high hopes seemed to take the snap out of Rivermouth.

The first Fardale batter drove an easy one to third base, but the baseman fell all over himself in trying to pick it up. A comedy of errors followed. The infielders apparently sought to outdo one another in bungling plays, and the bags were filled.

Then Armstrong took a brace and struck out a batter. The next player connected with the ball in time to settle the game. The ball was lifted over the infield, the shortstop failing to get back for it, and Fardale scored the winning run in the last half of the ninth, thus capturing one of the hardest games ever played on that field.

CHAPTER IX. THE POWER OF A SUPERIOR MIND.

Near noon Saturday a steam yacht ran into Fardale harbor and lay alongside the wharf to coal. This yacht was the property of Mrs. Arlington. During the game June had invited Doris Templeton to accompany her on board the yacht that evening.

“I will call for you at Lakeside Academy,” said June. “If you can go, I will take you over in a carriage.”

Doris readily agreed to go if possible.

June was on hand according to agreement, and Doris was able to accompany her. As they were driving away from the academy, June said:

“I wasn’t sure you would come. I almost thought you might not.”

To the surprise of Doris, it seemed as if there was something of disappointment and regret in her companion’s voice.

“Why, don’t you want me to?” she asked in surprise.

“Oh, yes—yes, of course.”

Still Doris was not satisfied, and a feeling of uneasiness began to creep over her. Having reached the wharf at which the yacht lay, they left the carriage and went on board. The captain was on hand and apparently expecting them. He escorted them to the cabin.

82Somehow June seemed strangely nervous and excited; Doris fancied she was not at all like herself. The yacht was commodious and comfortable, although not extremely large, and it interested Doris exceedingly. Indeed, she was so absorbed in looking about that she did not notice a strange tremor of movement which ran over the craft. June observed it, and her face paled, but she said nothing.

At length Doris noted with surprise that something of a suspicious nature was happening.

“Why—what is it?” she questioned, looking at June in alarm. “The yacht is moving! How is that?”

Even as she spoke a boy appeared in the doorway and bowed smilingly.

“It means that we are going to take a little cruise,” he declared. “I am delighted to have such agreeable company.”

It was Chet Arlington!

Doris turned even paler than June.

“Chester Arlington,” she cried, “you don’t mean that? You can’t mean it! Why, you wouldn’t dare!”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s plain you don’t know me. I have taken a fancy to make a little cruise on this yacht, and, of course, I am not to blame if you chance to be aboard at the time I am sure you will enjoy it. You can’t help it. I will do my best to make it pleasant for you.”

At this June suddenly sprang toward her brother.

“Chester!” she exclaimed, catching her breath; “you promised me——”

83“Oh, never mind. That’s all right, sis. Don’t get excited.”

“But you promised me we would take a run only a short distance and then return.”

“I have not said how far we are going,” he coolly answered. “But it seems to me we may not be able to get back into the harbor to-night. It’s a little dangerous after dark.”

“You can get back if you can get out.”

“We will talk that over later. Make yourselves at home, girls.”

“Chester, order Captain Long to run back at once!” cried June.

“Sorry I can’t oblige you, sis.”

“You won’t do it for me?” she questioned.

“No, not even for you, June.”

“Perhaps he will do it for me,” said a calm voice, and the sound of that voice caused Chester to give a mighty start and turn, his own face blanching.

Another boy had descended the companionway and stood just outside the door.

“Merriwell!” gasped Chet.

“Exactly,” said Dick.

“How did you get on board?”

“Never mind that now,” said the uninvited guest, as his dark eyes were steadily fixed on Chester. “I want you to give your captain immediate orders to run back to the wharf!”

“Hanged if I do!”do!”

“But you will!”

“I won’t!”

Another step Dick took, and this brought him into 84the cabin, where the light was full and fair upon his face. In his dark eyes there was a strange magnetic power which Arlington felt. Chester experienced a queer thrill and gazed in fascination at those intense eyes. Dick lifted his hand and seemed by some marvelous power to keep Chet’s gaze steady and unmoved.

The two girls looked on in awe, feeling that between these lads there was now a mighty battle of minds. Arlington felt that his own determination was weakening and surrendering. He struggled to the last, but was not equal to the conflict.

Finally Dick spoke once more, and to Chester it seemed that the words he uttered came from a great distance.

“Chester Arlington, a week ago you told Doris Templeton something about me. Did you tell her the truth, or did you lie?”

“I lied!” was the whispered reply.

“Now,” said Dick, stepping forward and taking Chester’s arm, “we will go and tell the captain to put back to the wharf.”

Arlington permitted Merriwell to lead him from the cabin.

“Oh, June!” palpitated Doris, “I don’t understand it yet! Can’t you explain?”

“Yes, I will,” said June, although it plainly cost her a great effort. “Chester made me promise to bring you on board. He threatened to do something reckless if I didn’t. He said he would simply back off into the harbor as a joke. But I feared he might not be telling the truth. I was afraid I couldn’t trust him, and I sent a note to Dick Merriwell, asking him 85to come on board. I also arranged with the captain that he should be permitted to do so. That’s how he happened to be here.”

“June,” said Doris, “do you think Dick will make the captain turn back?”

“I think my brother will give that order, as Dick requested. Let’s go on deck.”

When they reached the deck they discovered that the yacht was already slackening headway. It came to a full stop, backed up a short distance, and then swung slowly around.

The girls stood, each with an arm about the other, as the dark buildings on shore drew nearer and nearer. At length, with the sound of signal bells in the engine room, the yacht came softly to the wharf, and two sailors threw out a plank after the hawsers were made fast.

Dick appeared before June and Doris, while in the background was seen the form of another boy, who stood there without approaching or interfering.

“Come, Doris,” said Merriwell, “I will take you to the academy. June, you did well to write me that note and arrange it for me to come aboardaboard. Good night, June!”

“Good night, Dick!” she murmured. “Good night, Doris!”

They passed over the plank, and the gloom on shore soon hid them from June’s eyes.

CHAPTER X. PERSISTENT CHESTER.

Spr-rr-rr-rr—crash!

“Hooray! A strike!”

“That does it!”

It was a rainy afternoon, and the members of the team were putting in the usual hour for the baseball practice in the gymnasium.

Darrell, Jolliby, Tubbs, and Merriwell were just finishing a bowling match on the new alleys, Dick and Obediah being matched against Hal and Chip.

Up to the last frame it had seemed as if Darrell and Jolliby were the winners. It looked like a forlorn hope when Merriwell took his place to bowl for the last time, as he needed eighteen pins to tie and nineteen to win. Nothing but a spare or a strike could save him. With a spare, his chance of getting nine pins on the last bowl would be very slim.

This being the situation, there was great excitement when Dick sent his first ball curving into the pins, striking number one quarteringly, and raking down the whole bunch.

“Dern my picter!” palpitated Obediah Tubbs, his eyes bulging.

“Wouldn’t that sus-sus-sus-sus-scald you!” chattered Jolliby.

“How sorry I am!” shouted Ted Smart, who was setting up the pins.

87“Talk about luck!” sneered Arlington, who was one of the spectators. “What do you think of that? That was a case of horseshoes, all right!”

“Luck! Waugh!” snorted Buckhart. “Didn’t he hit ’em right?”

“I have seen them hit a hundred times in that way without making a strike,” retorted Chet. “But he has to get nine pins with his next ball in order to tie. He can’t do it.”

Up to this point Dick had been bowling for sport and for the fine exercise it provided. It must not be understood that he was not trying to do his best, for he always did at anything. But now Arlington’s words aroused him, and he was seized with a sudden powerful desire to win.

“Bet you a horse he gets them!” exclaimed the Texan.

“If he does,” declared Chet, “it will be more of his slobby luck. When it comes to bowling he is a mark. I can bowl a little myself. I’d like to get at him once at this. But he doesn’t dare to give me a show on these new alleys.”

“Hi suppose you’re a wonderful bowler?” put in Billy Bradley. “I suppose you ’ave an hastonishing record?”

“I have bowled one hundred and thirty-eight in a single string of candlepins,” asserted Chet.

“And then you woke up!” observed Buckhart. “You’re pretty clever—let you tell it.”

Chester was not a whit abashed. He continued to boastingly assert that he knew he was able at any time. 88barring accident, to defeat Merriwell or any other boy in the school at candlepins.

“Dern his picter!” muttered Obediah Tubbs, nudging Dick, who was apparently unconscious of Arlington’s presence. “Don’t you hear what he is saying? By Jim, he needs a good lesson!”

Merriwell, however, felt it was an impossibility to teach Arlington a lesson he would remember, for even his experience on the yacht had had no lasting effect.

“Ken you git nine pins?” anxiously whispered the fat boy.

“I can try,” was Dick’s quiet answer, as he lifted the polished candlepin ball and stood with his eyes fixed on the pins.

“Watch him!” muttered Arlington, seeking to divert the bowler’s attention. “He knows we’re all looking at him. See him get two pins with that ball.”

It’s a sure thing that mind as well as body plays a prominent part in scientific bowling. Not only does it require brains to secure the best result, but the bowler must fix his mind on the object he desires to accomplish most, seeing in advance what success he would attain, and must, in rolling a curving ball, behold in advance the sweeping movement he wills the ball to take. It is sometimes the case that a player may secure a good string by rolling carelessly, without any particular mental effort. This is always a matter of chance. But the heady bowler who uses his brains, and seems to control the ball with his mind, is one who persistently and repeatedly accomplishes surprising results.

Arlington knew something of this, and he understood 89that it was often a fatal mistake for a player to let his mind be diverted in the least, at the moment when he starts to deliver the ball. This being the case, it was Chester’s object to “rattle” Dick if possible. He failed utterly.

Advancing three steps to the line, Dick sent the ball down the polished alley, striking the pins with a clattering crash, leaving but one standing on the corner.

Dick had won the string with a ball to spare.

The boys gave a shout of satisfaction, while Arlington bit his lip in disgust.

“Dern my picter!” cried Obediah Tubbs. “I kinder thought that I was going to beat you by my rotten bowling, Dick; but you pulled us out of the hole.”

“That was clever,” laughed Chet, as he stepped onto the runway of the alley; “but still I believe it was nothing more than luck. As I have just said, I can bowl a little myself, and I don’t depend on luck. I challenge you to go me a string, Merriwell.”

Dick was becoming wearied by these repeated challenges on the part of Arlington. Defeat after defeat made no difference with Chester. He persisted with bulldog determination in his efforts to beat Merriwell at something.

Hal Darrell was annoyed by the insolent manner in which Chester forced himself among them. His eyes blazed as he said in a low tone:

“This party is made up. We’re bowling among ourselves now! When we have finished, get your friends and take the alley! Don’t butt in!”

“I am not speaking to you, sir!” retorted Chet haughtily. “I have issued the challenge to Mr. Merriwell. 90Perhaps he doesn’t dare accept. If that’s the case, of course I will retire.”

“Gug-gug-gug-gug-go chase yourself!” said Jolliby. “You know he isn’t afuf-fuf-fuf-fuf-fraid of you!”

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Chet. “I am here on the spot, and I have issued my challenge. I am feeling just like bowling him now, and it will show he hasn’t the nerve if he tries to put it off.”

“Dern his picter!” whispered Obediah Tubbs. “You will have to trim him, Dick. There ain’t no way out of it.”

Suddenly Dick’s mind was made up.

“One string settles it, does it, Arlington?” he asked.

“That will be all you will care for,” laughed Chet. “You will get all the satisfaction you want in one string.”

“Get off your coat,” said Dick. “I will bowl you one string.”

Among the spectators who gathered around were a few sympathizers with Chester. These chaps were in every instance dissatisfied fellows, who themselves had failed to be particularly successful at anything, through lack of determination or industry, and who were envious of others who succeeded.

Chet joyously removed his coat and hung it on a hook. He also took off his collar and tie and rolled up his sleeve, displaying his forearms.

A coin was flipped to decide who should lead off, and the lead fell on Arlington.

“Get them right on the spot, every one of them, boy!” he called to Smart.

“I will do it,” retorted Ted. “It will be such a 91beautiful sight to see them standing there after you roll! They will be all up for Merriwell when you get through!”

Arlington examined the balls, and picked out and placed aside two that were slightly marred. Then, having weighed several of them in his hands, he selected one and slightly dampened his fingers with the sponge.

As Chet started to roll Buckhart started to say something, but Dick silenced him with a gesture and a look.

With his eyes on the pins, Arlington balanced himself on the balls of his feet, ran lightly forward three steps, and sent the ball spinning whirringly down the polished surface of the alley. It struck the head pin squarely and cut a hole through the bunch, leaving five standing, three on one side and two on the other.

“Hard luck!” exclaimed one of the fellows who sympathized with him.

“Oh, that’s all right!” retorted Chet with supreme confidence. “I will clean them off.”

He then assumed a new position on the alley and rolled for three pins on one side. It seemed that he would hit them perfectly, but the ball missed the pin in advance by the narrowest margin and clipped off the other two.

“Now that was hard luck!” he exclaimed. “Never mind; I will take the two on the other corner and start with nine.”

“That’s the talk!” cried a spectator.

Chester rolled with care and hit the nearest pin, which set its mate swaying, and the latter finally fell.

92“Nine pins!” announced Gardner, who was scoring.

“I don’t believe Smart had them on the spots,” declared Chet, standing with his hands on hips and glaring at the two pins left upright. “That ball should have taken them, sure.”

“What a shame!” cried Smart. “I am so disappointed!”

“That will do for you!” flared Chet. “While you’re setting up pins, you’re supposedsupposed to be dead!”

Arlington sat down with an air of dissatisfaction.

It was now Dick’s turn, and he was ready by the time Ted had the pins up.

Dick’s ball seemed to strike them handsomely, and he swept down eight pins, leaving, however, one standing on each corner.

“Now that was hard lul-lul-lul-luck!” came from Jolliby.

Merriwell said nothing. Picking up another ball, he took his position on the left side of the runway and prepared to try for one of the pins. As he started to bowl some of his friends uttered low exclamations of dismay, for it seemed that the wooden sphere would leave the alley four or five feet before it reached the pin. Nevertheless, this did not happen, for the ball took a pretty curve and clung to the edge of the alley until it struck the pin fairly and sent it spinning against the buffer.

“Ha!” was the cry. “He did it!”

“Well, there is one remaining on the other corner,” laughed Chet. “Let’s see him pick that off.”

“He will do it, you bet your boots!” declared Buckhart.

93Dick now got into position at the right hand of the runway and rolled what is called a “cross-alley” ball. That is, he rolled the ball so that it started on the right side of the alley, crossing diagonally to the left on a perfect line for the pin at the corner. In this manner this pin was picked off, and Gardner called:

“Ten pins for Merriwell!”

“Beautiful work!” exclaimed one of the boys, while several clapped their hands softly.

“Evidently you’re going to stretch yourself, Merriwell,” laughed Arlington, maintaining that insolent atmosphere. “You will have to stretch yourself, all right, my fine fellow. I haven’t started to bowl yet.”

“You’d better start right away,” said Buckhart, whereupon Dick promptly stepped over to Brad, to whom he spoke in a low tone.

“Don’t make any talk, old man,” he said. “I have more friends here than he has, and I want him to have just as good a show as I do. If he beats me let him do it fairly; if I beat him I will do so without taking any advantage.”

“Well, you’re a whole lot scrupulous!” growled the Texan. “That galoot certain has missed no opportunity to take advantage of you.”

“Do you wish me to put myself on the same level?”

“You can’t get down to his level in a year if you try!”

The pins were up and Arlington was ready. He thrust up his right sleeve a little farther, so that the lower portion of his swelling biceps could be seen.

Chester did not use a curve, but rolled a ball with a moderate amount of speed, starting his first one in 94each set from the right side of the alley and sending it toward the head pin. This time he barely missed the pin in advance, and the ball lopped off the entire side of the bunch, leaving four standing on the opposite side.

“That would have been a strike if he had touched the head pin,” declared one of the spectators.

“It is a spare now,” averred Arlington, with unshaken confidence. “I can’t miss them.”

At this statement some one laughed.

“Oh, laugh away!” exclaimed Chet. “But just watch this ball a moment!”

Chester rolled his second ball. This time he used a trifle too much speed. The ball seemed to hit the head pin squarely, and the pin took one of those peculiar, freakish jumps that carried it clean over the others without touching them.

Arlington stood still in the middle of the runway with his hands on his hips, glaring at the pins.

“I’d like to have some one tell how that happened,” he finally cried.

“Hard luck!” said a voice. “You should have had your spare!”

“I know it!” growled Chet, picking up another ball.

He then did a foolish thing, for, having missed the spare, he rolled the final ball carelessly, the result being that it simply clipped off the corner pin.

In a close candlepin bowling match every point counts, and the winner often is the man who can best pick off single pins.

“Eight pins for Arlington!” said Gardner, as he recorded 95it on the score board, making a total of seventeen.

Dick had hard luck with his first ball, cutting two pins out of one side of the bunch.

“That’s a shame,” said Chester, laughing.

Although Dick took the greatest pains, his next ball cut out two pins on the opposite side, and left in the worst possible position the ones standing.

At this Chester laughed heartily.

“A wooster!” he shouted. “You’ll get five pins on this roll, if you’re lucky.”

Brad Buckhart was both angry and disgusted.

“Well, that was beastly luck!” he muttered.

“Pick off two of the corner ones, Merriwell, old man,” advised Barron Black, who was an interested spectator.

Dick paused a moment in consideration. He had once been able to get eight pins out of a similar break by hitting the head pin, although he knew the chances were ten to one that he could not score more than two, while the odds were decidedly against obtaining more than one in hitting them in that manner.

Nevertheless he decided to take chances and roll for all he could get. With this in his mind, he sent the third ball straight for the head pin. He gave it a twisting whirl as it left his hand, using great speed.

The head pin was struck and sent flying against the others. To the astonishment of Arlington and the surprise of every one, those pins flew in such a peculiar manner that all save one went down.

“Well, what do you think of that?” exclaimed Chet.

96“I think it was great luck,” smiled Dick quietly, as he turned to sit down on the bench.

“Luck!” said Buckhart. “It was science. You hear me chirp!”

“Science!” sneered Arlington. “Why, it wouldn’t happen in a hundred times! Science, indeed!”

Gardner recorded the score on the board, the total giving Dick nineteen points and putting him two in the lead.

“I think I will have to let myself out if I am going to beat his luck with my science,” said Chet.

When the pins were up, he sent the first ball into them in such a manner that they all fell, save two. Those two were widely separated, but at one side of the alley a deadwood fell, lay spinning a moment, and then began to roll toward the other side.

“Look at that deadwood!” burst from Arlington. “Why, the confounded alley isn’t level! The left-hand corner is lower than the other, or that pin wouldn’t roll across in such a manner.”

“The left-hand corner is lower,” immediately agreed one of the spectators. “We discovered that several days ago.”

“Well, that puts a big element of chance into the game,” declared Chet. “When the pins roll like that there is no telling what may happen.”

The rolling pin, however, stopped against one of the two left standing, and Chester studied its position.

“That isn’t so bad,” he finally declared. “If I can hit that deadwood fairly I know I can get the pin it rests against, and the deadwood ought to drop the other pin. Watch me do it.”

97Having called their attention in this manner, he chose his ball and with careless ease and assurance sent it straight at the end of the deadwood.

The ball did not swerve a fraction of an inch during its course down the alley. It struck the deadwood perfectly, and in a twinkling both pins were down.

Arlington had made his first spare.

Exclamations of satisfaction and applause burst from a number of the witnesses, while Dick Merriwell generously clapped his hands and said:

“That was a beautiful shot, Arlington.”

“Oh, I knew I could do it!” smiled Chester in a most conceited and lofty manner. “I can always do a thing like that when I have to. You can’t beat me at this little game, Merriwell.”

Ted Smart heard these words, even though he was standing up the pins at the far end of the alley.

“If there’s anything I admire it’s a chap that never boasts!” cried Ted. “There’s the modest fellow for you!”

“Until you finish setting up those pins you’d better be seen and not heard!” warmly retorted Arlington.

Dick followed with a handsome break, leaving only two pins standing.

“There is a spare for him,” declared Black.

“If he gets it,” said Chet instantly.

A deadwood had fallen in such a manner that it seemed certain Dick could not miss sweeping down the pins with it. While he was picking up his next ball, however, this deadwood began to roll toward the lower side of the alley, and by the time he was ready it was 98too far from the standing pins to be any use against them.

“Fine old alley!” laughed Arlington. “That’s how, by being out of level, it robs him of almost a sure spare.”

Dick used a curve, and again it seemed that his ball would leave the alley on the right side. Once more it curved in time to cling to the edge, but it failed to touch the pin in advance and simply removed the one on the extreme corner.

“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed Chet. “That’s the time he didn’t do it! The cant on the alley surely did me a good turn then. He would have made it had the deadwood remained where it fell.”

Merriwell made no complaint, but chose his third ball, and with it sent the last standing pin against the buffer, which gave him another score of ten, with a total of twenty-nine.

“Twenty-nine,” said Chester, as he rose and looked at the score board. “I must get two pins with my first ball in order to tie him. Well, here goes for eight pins.”

Crash! He sent the ball into the pins. Six fell.

“Only six!” he exclaimed, as if disappointed.

“That puts you four in the lead in the third box,” said one of the spectators.

“That ball should have been good for eight or nine,” asserted Chester.

“Dern my picter!” exclaimed Tubbs. “He beats the earth!”

“Sus-sus-sus-sixteen looks pretty good for him in that box,” stuttered Jolliby.

99“Sixteen is better than the average spare,” confessed Mel Fraser, who had heard the match was taking place and hurried to the gymnasium to witness it.

“No bigger than the ordinary spare that I make,” declared Chet, wagging his head.

“Well, there is another spare for you, if you hit them right,” said Fraser.

“Oh, I will get it, all right,” promised Arlington, posing with his second ball ready. “Just watch this!”

Once more, however, his confidence was too great, and to his unspeakable disgust he missed the pins entirely.

Instantly he caught up the third ball and sent it with a snapping movement flying down the alley. This ball took off only one pin, which gave Chester seven in his fourth box and a total of forty.

“If the alley had been level, I must have made another spare with my second ball!” he growled as he sat down.

This was not true, for the ball had swerved, at most, less than half an inch in its course.

Dick slowly moistened his fingers with the sponge.

“Now let’s see him get another ten!” cried Arlington. “He can’t make all nines and tens.”

Dick’s curve was a fraction too wide, for the ball missed the head pin and gave him a poor break.

“I told you!” laughed Chet. “He couldn’t keep up that string of tens.”

Buckhart started to say something, but remembered Dick’s warning and stopped.

For all of the bad break, Merriwell sent his next 100ball into the pins in such a manner that they fell handsomely and only one was left standing.

“Well, he has nine!” nodded Chester. “I think he will leave that one standing.”

“You’ve got another th-th-th-th-think coming!” burst from Jolliby, as Dick picked off the tenth pin.

“Ten!” called Gardner, making the record on the board. “Thirty-nine for Merriwell in the fourth box!”

Arlington rose and stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the score board. He whistled softly.

“Thirty-nine,” he said. “Why, he’s only one behind!”

“And he hasn’t made a spare yet,” observed Barron Black.

“I see I must get down to business,” said Chester. “I have fooled with him just as long as I can.”

Having made this remark, he chose a ball and rolled.

Crash!

Every pin fell!

“A strike!” shouted Fraser.

“Well, wouldn’t that ju-ju-ju-jar you!” chattered Jolliby.

“I rather think it will jar Mr. Merriwell a little,” said Chet, as he gracefully sat down, his face wreathed in smiles.

Dick did not look disturbed. There was in his eyes that strange, grim determination so often seen there on the diamond and the gridiron.

“There’s a strike!” cried one of the watchers, as 101Merriwell’s first ball smashed into the pins, sending them flying.

It was not. On the corner one pin remained tottering and swaying a little until it settled and stood still.

Not a word of complaint came from Dick. Instead, he rolled his next ball with great precision, and removed the standing pin, thus getting a spare.

“That’s all right,” exclaimed Black. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see him get as many pins on his spare as Arlington does on his strike.”

CHAPTER XI. THE WINNER.

“Oh! it wouldn’t surprise you, eh?” sneered Chet. “Well, if he gets as many pins on his spare as I do on my strike, I’ll eat my hat!”

This confidence on Arlington’s part caused more than one to smile. Chester sent his first ball smashing into the pins, and five fell.

“Here’s where I get another spare!” he laughed, picking another ball from the return.

In truth, the standing pins were in such a position that a spare could be made without difficulty in case they were hit correctly. Arlington took pains to be very graceful in his movements as he sent the ball down the alley, and the mere fact that he thought of himself, without fixing his mind on the object he wished to accomplish, may have kept him from success. At any rate, he missed the pin he wished to hit and secured only two of the remaining five.

“Seventeen on his strike! Fifty-seven in all!” announced Gardner, as he jotted down Chet’s score in the fifth box.

With his last ball Chester obtained two more pins, making nine in the sixth frame, with a total of sixty-six.

“There, I guess that will hold you for a while,” he said, with a glance at Dick, as he sat down. “Let’s see you get seven pins with your first ball!”

103Dick did his best, and hit the pins in what seemed to be a perfect manner, yet he secured but five of them, which gave him fifteen on his spare and fifty-four as a total in the fifth box. This left him three points behind Chester.

A moment later, however, a shout arose, for with his second ball Dick cleaned the alley.

He had made another spare.

“What do you think of that for luck?” cried Arlington.

“Luck!” burst from Buckhart. “Why, he earned it! It was good bowling.”

Rising and facing the score board, Chester saw at once that Merriwell needed only two pins on his spare to get sixty-six in the sixth box.

A grim look came to Chet’s face. At last he realized that the game was not going to be as easy as he had anticipated.

“It’s up to you to get a spare yourself, Chester,” said Mel Fraser.

“Dern my picter!” piped Obediah Tubbs. “I’ll bet he’ll need it.”

“Pretty poor bowling! Pretty poor bowling!” cried Smart, as he reset the pins.

Arlington stood quite still with his ball poised and his eyes fastened on the head pin.

Sp-rr-rr-rr—crash!

Then there was a shout, for Chester had made another strike. Instantly his look of anxiety disappeared, and he smiled again as he sat down.

“I can’t bother with spares now,” he said. “I will have to scoop a few strikes.”

104“Gug-gug-gug-gug-great thutteration!” stuttered Jolliby. “This is gug-gug-gug-gug-getting almighty hot!”

Although Dick rolled with the greatest care, he made a bad break with his first ball and was able to secure only eight pins in the seventh box, making a total of seventy-four.

Arlington seemed on his mettle, for his first ball gave him eight pins, and he followed this up by cutting off the remaining two, thus making another spare, which gave him twenty in his seventh box and a total of eighty-six.

“That clinches it,” he nodded.

“Sure thing!” agreed Mel Fraser. “This is going to be a corking old string!”

Of all Dick’s friends Brad Buckhart was the only one who seemed entirely unshaken in confidence. The Texan remained firm in his belief that Dick would win.

With only three boxes to roll and Arlington twelve points ahead in the seventh box, the case looked desperate indeed. But Merriwell was one who never gave up as long as there was a shred of hope left, and now he delighted his friends by sending a graceful curve into the pins and sweeping them all down except one on the corner. This pin stood and tottered until a rolling deadwood struck it.

Then it fell!

“Whoop!” burst from the Texan, as he smote his thigh a crack. “There it is! There’s a strike for you!”

“He needs it,” said Fraser.

105“Well, he has it,” retorted Buckhart. “This yere game isn’t finished yet, not by a long shot! You hear me chirp!”

Arlington was not disturbed by Dick’s success. With his nerves perfectly steady he prepared for the next effort. But he only got six pins, which gave him sixteen on his spare and a hundred and two, all told, in the eighth frame.

“Look at that! Look at that!” smiled Fraser. “There’s a score for you! One hundred and two on eight rolls! He will make a hundred and twenty!”

“I am afraid he is out of reach,” muttered Barron Black. “I am afraid Merriwell can’t touch him.”

“Hi dunno habout that,” said Billy Bradley. “There’s a chance left, don’t y’ ’now!”

“A mighty slim one!”

“Well, Dick his the boy to make hit hif hit can be done. ’Ere he goes!”

Seven pins fell with the first ball, and but one was left standing when Dick rolled the second. This gave him nineteen on his strike, with a total of ninety-three against Chester’s one hundred and two. At that point Arlington was nine points in the lead.

With the remaining ball Dick tried to secure the last pin standing, but barely brushed it, and it did not fall. At the end of the ninth the score stood one hundred and eleven to one hundred and two in Arlington’s favor.

Chester made ready for the final effort.

“He can’t beat me now,” Chet was exultantly thinking. “I have him at last!”

Then, although handicappedhandicapped by a poor break, he succeeded 106in securing ten pins in the final box, making in all a total of one hundred and twenty-one, which was indeed splendid bowling.

“It takes nineteennineteen to tie and twenty to win,” said Fraser. “It is settled now beyond question.”

“Wait a minute and see,” nodded Buckhart.

Barely had the pins been reset when Dick sent his first ball into them and swept them down in a twinkling, leaving not even a deadwood on the alley.

Buckhart nearly had a fit.

“I knew it!” he cried. “I was dead certain of it.”

Although Chester was somewhat disturbed, he simply shrugged his shoulders and observed:

“It is necessary for him to make nine points with his next two balls in order to tie. If he makes ten he wins.”

“He will never do it,” asserted Fraser.

“Say, if we were anywhere else, I would bet my last dollar on that!” Buckhart exclaimed. “You wait and see if he doesn’t do it!”

“Isn’t it too bad!” Smart was heard saying to himself, as he reset the pins. “How sorry I am! I hate to see him win!”

Dick picked two balls from the runway. Holding a ball in each hand, he prepared to roll.

Now there was a hush. Arlington felt his nerves quivering a little. To himself he was asking if it could be possible that Merriwell’s usual luck would stand by him and enable him to win at the finish.

With a soft, whirring sound the ball sped down the alley. When it struck the pins they flew.

“Seven!” was the shout. “Two more ties!”

107“He will get ’em, too!” declared Buckhart. “He will win!”

One of the deadwoods had fallen on the higher side of the alley, while there were two in the gutter. This pin in the gutter Smart instantly removed. As he did this, the deadwood started to roll toward the lower side of the alley.

Already Dick was on the point of bowling, and he delivered his ball while the deadwood was in motion.

Arlington was on his feet now, and he saw that Merriwell’s last ball was curving gracefully toward the pins.

“He has them! He has them!” breathed Chet, in unspeakable dismay, for he felt certain the ball would hit the pins perfectly.

A moment later a groan came from some of the witnesses, for the curving ball touched the deadwood, which had rolled into its path. The ball was deflected just enough to miss the two head pins and clip off the one at the corner.

In this unfortunate manner Merriwell had been prevented from securing at least two of the pins and probably three.

Arlington had won by a single pin.

Chester’s triumph was complete, and he made the most of it. Fraser hastened to shake his hand and congratulate him.

The disappointment of Dick’s friends seemed acute, but Dick accepted defeat with the same composure that was habitual with him in times of triumph.

“You hold the record on the alley, Arlington,” he 108said. “One hundred and nineteen was the record before.”

“Oh, that’s a poor string for me!” asserted Chester laughingly.

Brad Buckhart was furious, but he managed to suppress his anger.

Dick slipped on his coat and walked away.

“Of all the beastly luck I ever saw!” growled the Texan, joining him. “Why didn’t you challenge him to bowl again?”

“Because our agreement at the start was that we were to roll only one string. That settled it.”

“But you should have won! You would have won only for that rolling deadwood!”

“Forget it!” smiled Dick. “It is of no consequence.”

“What? No consequence? No consequence to have that fellow beat you? Why, pard, he is not in your class at anything!”

“He is a clever fellow, Brad; you can’t deny that.”

“All the same, he can’t beat you again once out of ten times.”

“I don’t know about that. In fact, I am inclined to think your statement altogether extravagant.”

Ten minutes later Dick had changed his clothes for a gymnasium suit and came forth to engage in a fencing bout with Darrell. Both boys were clever with the foils, and soon a number of cadets were watching them. Arlington and Fraser joined the spectators.

It was a beautiful spectacle to watch the graceful movements of the two lads, and the clever work of 109both was applauded. Dick was beyond question the superior of Darrell, who accepted the situation with good grace.

Arlington, however, did not hesitate to comment on Merriwell’s style and work. These comments were not wholly complimentary.

“Look at that lunge!” he exclaimed derisively. “Why, any one could parry that! His wrist is stiff. He loses half his opportunities to counter.”

“Still,” observed Fraser, “he is called the best fencer in the school.”

At this Chet laughed derisively.

“Wait,” he said. “If he dares I will try him a go. Come on, and I will get into a suit.”

Arlington hastened to the dressing room, returning as soon as possible in a gymnasium suit.

Dick was resting, and Chet walked straight up to him.

“I’d like to tackle you,” he declared. “What do you say?”

“All right,” nodded Dick.

Professor Broad, instructor in gymnastics, was near at hand, and was selected to act as referee.

Once more an eager and excited throng of boys assembled to witness a contest between Arlington and Merriwell.

In Dick’s eyes there was a slight gleam of fire as the two boys faced each other. Chester was smiling in that supremely confident manner of his.

“On guard!” called Professor Broad.

At this the two lads made the graceful movement of coming on guard.

110“Engage!”

The foils met with a steely, hissing sound.

“Here’s where a rolling deadwood doesn’t spoil the match,” observed Buckhart.

Chester entered into the bout in earnest, forcing the attack from the start. His movements were quick, and he was catlike on his feet. Repeatedly he lunged and recovered in time to prevent a counter.

Dick watched Arlington’s style and movements closely, seeking to discover his capabilities.

“Why, Chester is playing with him!” declared Fraser. “He is keeping him busy, too.”

“Juj-juj-juj-just you wait a bit,” stuttered Jolliby. “Merriwell hasn’t bub-bub-bub-begun yet.”

A dozen times, in scarcely more than as many seconds, Chester sought to counter on his adversary, and a dozen times he was foiled by a simple movement of Dick’s wrist. At last, like a flash of lightning, Merriwell lunged, and the button of his foil counted in quarte.

Arlington’s backward spring was made too late to avoid this. He lighted on the balls of his feet and came forward in a twinkling, seeking to catch Dick off guard after that thrust.

Once more Chester’s effort was foiled by a graceful and easy movement on Merriwell’s part. And again Dick scored, this time in prime.

“Well! well! well!” cried Buckhart. “Didn’t I say so? Didn’t I know it?”

Chester flushed and showed symptoms of anger.

“Oh, this is just the beginning!” he declared.

“If this was the real thing it would be all over for 111you now,” asserted the Texan. “You’d have a surgeon trying to patch you up by this time.”

“That will do,” said Professor Broad sharply. “The spectators will make no remarks.”

“Well, I opine I can think,” muttered Brad to himself.

Enraged by the success of Merriwell, Arlington continued the bout with redoubled energy. For some moments he succeeded in keeping Dick on the defensive, but all the while Merriwell was watching for another opening, which he found at last. His thrust was so swift that the eye could scarcely follow it, and he scored in second.

A savage exclamation escaped Chet’s lips.

“Play fair! Play fair!” he cried.

“I’ll call the fouls,” said the athletic instructor.

This seemed to excite and enrage Arlington more than ever, and he flung himself into the contest with great fury.

In warding off the fellow’s thrusts and avoiding his fierce attacks, Merriwell now displayed marvelous skill. He was supple as a panther and quick as a flash of light, and the look on his handsome face was that of one who conquered by mastering himself.

Chester’s breast was heaving and his lips parted. He was rapidly becoming winded through his own furious movements. When his attacks showed signs of weakening Dick began to push the engagement, and from that moment to the finish he played with Chet in a manner that revealed his superiority to every spectator. Again and again he scored without once being touched by the button on Arlington’s foil.

112“I knew it!” muttered Brad Buckhart, in deep satisfaction.

At last, determined to make one count, at least, Chester risked all in a thrust which left him quite unguarded. The point of his weapon was caught by the point of Merriwell’s, and it slipped and passed through to one side until the guards of the foils touched. Then, with a single light, quick turn of the wrist, Dick snapped Chester’s foil from his hand and sent it spinning into the air. As it fell he caught it gracefully, gave it a turn in his hand, and held it hilt first toward his antagonist.

Arlington’s face grew purple with rage. With a quick movement, he seized the proffered foil, and an instant later the blade whistled through the air as he sought to strike Dick across the mask with it.

Down dropped Merriwell, his left foot sliding back and the fingers of his left hand lightly touching the floor. At the same instant he thrust, and the button of his foil struck against Chester’s padded jacket with such force that the blade was doubled into a half circle.

For all of this thrust Dick was up and away before Chet could recover.

“Try that again! Try that again!” grated Arlington.

Even as he uttered the words, while he was following Dick up, the latter once more dropped and thrust. To every one it seemed that Chester was beyond reach, yet that movement on the part of his antagonist gave Dick such a long lunge that he easily counted.

113“There you have it!” whispered Buckhart, in great satisfaction.

Arlington was astounded.

“What do you think of that, professor?” he demanded. “Is it allowable?”

“Perfectly,” answered Broad.

“All right! all right!” snarled Chet, once more seeking to engage his antagonist.

By this time Arlington realized that he was in no way a match for Dick with the foils. Still he vowed to himself he would not stop until he had countered once on Merriwell.

At last Dick lowered the point of his foil in such a manner that Chester fancied the opening was such that he could not be checked.

Nevertheless, with a sidelong movement of his hand, the marvelous young fencer caught Chet’s blade and turned it so that again the foils slid past until the guards touched.

Once more there came that twisting snap of the wrist, and once more Arlington’s blade was sent spinning into the air.

Chet stood panting and baffled, making no attempt to pick the weapon up.

“I should say that was about enough,” declared Broad, who saw that Arlington was too angry to continue. “You had better try some one for whom you are more nearly a match.”

“Oh! I am a match for him,” panted Chet. “He will find it out yet!”

With that, overcome with chagrin and shame, Arlington turned and hastened to the dressing room.

CHAPTER XII. A DASTARDLY DEED.

The following afternoon there was an extra drill of Arlington’s class, in which he was compelled to take part. He detested this work, and his heart was full of envy as he stood in line with his classmates, bearing a rifle, and saw the members of the baseball team, several of whom had been excused from drill, hastening away to the ball ground.

“Oh, this is a fine old school!” he thought. “Now if I was on the baseball team I could get out of this work.”

His mind wandered so that he failed to hear the command, twice repeated, of “right dress,” and at length the cadet officer in command was compelled to speak directly to him.

“Dress, Cadet Arlington!” was the order.

Chet’s face grew crimson as he moved into line with his companions. He was destined to suffer still further annoyance, for the inspecting officer, on looking his rifle over, reprimanded him sharply for not having it in perfect order.

“What does he think!” Arlington mentally exclaimed. “Does he fancy I am going to spend my time rubbing at a useless old gun with a greased rag? That’s a fine occupation for a gentleman’s son!”

When drill was over, and he could get away, Arlington hastened toward the ball ground, arriving 115there to find the boys on the point of leaving. In vain he looked around for Merriwell.

“Hello, Arlington!” said Jack Harwood. “Why, you look ugly enough to chew nails!”

“I am! I am sick of a school where a lot of fellows can get excused from drill in order to put in baseball practice. I believe in using every one alike.”

“Do you?” smiled Jack. “Why, it has been hinted here that you fancy you should be used better than any one else.”

“Well, I haven’t been! I have been used worse! Merriwell is the only fellow who can do just as he pleases around here. Where is he?”

“Why, I saw him a while ago,” said Jack. “I saw him strike off to the south.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

“With a ball suit on?”

“Yes.”

“Wonder where he was going?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll bet I do!” muttered Chet.

Five minutes later Arlington was also hurrying away.

“Let me catch him!” he growled. “I know where he has gone! He is playing a double game.”

Coming to the woods, he hurried along the path that led to the rustic bridge over Ripple Brook. As he approached the vicinity of the bridge he moved with great caution, coming at last to a point where he could look down along the path and see the bridge. 116There he suddenly halted. Leaning on the rail of the bridge, he saw Zona Desmond.

Beyond Zona, at the opposite end of the bridge, partly hidden from view, he beheld another girl in company with Dick, who was talking to her. The foliage prevented him from obtaining more than a glimpse of them, and immediately he hissed:

“I knew it! He came here to meet Doris. If ever there was a two-faced duffer, it is Merriwell; but I will fix him—I will fix him!”

Backing away a short distance, he turned and fled along the path, retracing his course. He did not stop running until he was within sight of the academy. There were some boys on the parade ground, and he hastened toward them.

“Seen anything of Darrell?” he asked.

“Why, yes,” answered one. “There he is over yonder.”

Reaching Hal, Chet touched him on the shoulder.

“I have something to tell you,” he said.

Darrell frowned.

“All right; tell away.”

“It’s private.”

“Private?”

“Yes. It will interest you, and you won’t care to have everybody hear it.”

Chet drew aside and, after a moment’s hesitation, Hal followed him. He did not trust Arlington, whom he regarded with the greatest aversion, yet something led him to listen to the fellow’s words.

“I presume,” said Chester, “you think Dick Merriwell 117is one of your friends? You fancy him a fine sort of a chum, don’t you?”

“We’re not chums,” retorted Hal. “We’re simply friends.”

“Oh! you’re friends, are you?” was the sneering retort. “I suppose you are such friends that you are always open and aboveboard with each other. You wouldn’t deceive each other for the world, would you? You don’t have an idea that Merriwell would fool you?”

“He is not that kind.”

“Oh! isn’t he? That shows how little you know him.”

“I am sick of this business, Arlington,” declared Darrell. “No fellow in this school has done as much for you as Merriwell. Yet you continue to backbite him. What sort of a cock-and-bull story have you faked up now?”

“Oh! I am not going to tell you any story, but if you want to see something with your own eyes that will wake you up, just follow me and get a move on.”

“I can’t waste time in chasing you about.”

“Well, you’d better—you’d better!” nodded Chet. “I will show you something that will make you sizzle.”

“What will you show me?”

“Come and see. I will prove to you by the evidence of your own eyes that Dick Merriwell is a double-faced sneak. If I don’t prove it——”

“If you don’t prove it,” said Hal grimly, “I will make you wish you had! Go ahead!”

“You will follow?”

“Yes. Lead on.”

118Not a few of the boys were surprised to see Chet and Hal walking rapidly away in company. As soon as they were some distance from the academy and not liable to attract attention, Arlington started into a run.

“We must hurry!” he called. “Get a gait on you, Darrell!”

Coming to the path through the woods, they ran along this, with Chet in advance and Hal close at his heels.

“I am a fool!” thought Darrell more than once. “I know it. I ought to be kicked for taking any stock in him.”

Approaching a spot from which they might peer down the path to the bridge, Chester slackened his pace and cautioned his companion to move silently.

At last Darrell reached out and seized Chet by the collar, stopping him in his tracks.

“Now, hold on,” he said, in a low tone, “I want you to tell me just what you are going to show me.”

“You will see in a minute.”

“What is it?” demanded Hal. “I refuse to play the monkey any longer unless I know why I do it.”

“Don’t speak so loud!” whispered Arlington. “We will be in sight of the bridge in a minute. There is some one down there by the bridge, or was a short time ago.”

“Merriwell?”

“Yes.”

“Who else?”

“Oh, two girls!”

“Who are they?”

119“Well, one is Zona Desmond; but she didn’t go there to meet Merriwell. She just came to accompany a chum. Now you ought to guess who the other girl is. You know who she chums with.”

Hal’s eyes gleamed.

“See here,” he said, “you don’t mean to tell me that Doris Templeton met Merriwell at the rustic bridge by appointment?”

“Don’t I?”

“Do you?”

“It looks like it. I saw them together down there.”

“I believe you lie!” grated Hal. “Why, Doris told me herself——”

Chester began to laugh.

“So she told you she would never have anything more to do with Merriwell, did she? Ha! ha! She probably thought so then; but you know how he fascinates the girls. They can’t resist him. He is a perfect sneak! He charms them!”

“Your sister——”

“Now don’t say a word about her!” harshly exclaimed Chester, in a low tone. “I’d give fifty dollars to have her here now so I could show her! I have done everything possible to break her foolish friendship with that fellow.”

Darrell felt his blood burning hot in his veins. His admiration for Doris had remained unchanged through everything, but the manner in which he believed she had “turned him down” for Dick had made him bitter and morose. At last her eyes had been opened to the fact that Merriwell admired June Arlington more than any one else, and again she had 120turned to Darrell. This had filled him with deepest satisfaction, and over and over he vowed Merriwell should never again interfere between them.

Now—now, what if they had met by appointment at the bridge!

“Go on, Arlington!” he said. “Hustle! Prove it—or you will wish you had!”

Once more they stole softly forward, quickly coming to the spot where the bridge could be seen.

Chester had feared the trio might have left the bridge during his absence; but his heart gave a leap of triumph as he saw they were still there. Dick was talking to both of the girls now, while Zona was idly tossing pebbles into the pool below the bridge.

“There!” panted Chet. “There they are! Now you see! Now you’re satisfied!”

Hal stood quite still for a moment, then began to retreat softly, drawing back so that he could not be seen by the three on the bridge.

Chester followed, eagerly demanding:

“What are you going to do? Aren’t you going down there and pitch into him?”

“You poor fool,” retorted Hal, in the greatest disgust. “You miserable, sneaking spy!”

“Here! here!” grated Arlington. “What do you mean by talking like that?”

“Why, you blithering idiot,” said Darrell, “that’s not Doris down there with them! That’s your own sister, June!”

Arlington stood still a moment as if turned to stone. Then he whirled and peered forth along the path toward the bridge.

121Darrell had spoken the truth. In his eagerness and excitement Chester had not paused to obtain a good view of the girl with Merriwell, being convinced on seeing Zona that her companion must be Doris.

“Well, I’ll be blowed!” he growled, backing away. “I swear I thought it was Doris!”

Darrell stood looking at him, with an expression of supreme contempt on his face.

“Arlington,” he said, “you’re not only an ingrate, but you’re a liar and a sneak! That’s my opinion of you.”

“Be careful!” palpitated Chet, quivering with disappointment and rage. “I won’t stand that from any fellow!”

“You will have to stand it from me!” retorted Hal, in the same low tone. “You know it’s the truth, too! You have been lying about Merriwell, and now you play the spy upon him! Why, I thought you had reformed—and that you were going to be honorable and upright! Is this your honor? There is not a particle of decency in your miserable body! You don’t know what it is to be decent! You’re a disgrace to your sister and to your family! You are a disgrace to Fardale! I was a fool to take any stock in you and follow you here! I am ashamed of it! Here and now I quit you, and I want you to keep away from me at all times in the future!”

With that Hal turned his back on Chester and started to move away.

Shaking with rage, Arlington made two swift, silent steps and leaped on Hal’s back, grasping him by the throat and hurling him to the ground.

122Hal made a desperate effort to turn on his assailant, and together they rolled over and over in the path until they came to the top of the slope, down which they plunged, crashing into the bushes at one side. Arlington’s hold was broken, but he continued fighting savagely.

The girls and Dick had been startled by the sounds, and now Merriwell came running up the path. June and Zona followed.

When Dick reached the struggling boys he found Hal holding Chet down, and was in time to see Darrell lifting his clinched fist. With a leap he seized Darrell’s fist and prevented the blow.

“Hold on, Hal!” he exclaimed. “Don’t hit him!”

June saw her brother and uttered a cry of alarm as she ran forward.

“The spy! The sneak!” grated Darrell.

“Let me up!” panted Arlington.

“Don’t! don’t—don’t strike my brother!” burst from June’s lips.

“The girls, Hal—think of the girls!” urged Dick.

“He jumped on me!” declared Chester. “He jumped on my back!”

“You liar!” hissed Darrell.

“Let him up, Hal,” urged Dick. “It’s the best thing you can do. Let him up.”

June added her pleading, and Darrell finally rose to his feet. Arlington scrambled up, livid with rage.

“You will pay for this!” he palpitated, shaking his fist at Darrell. “I will fix you for this!”

He seemed on the point of again attacking the boy 123he had so treacherously assaulted. June seized his arm.

“Stop, Chester—for my sake, stop!”

“For your sake!” he snarled, turning on her. “Why should I do anything for you? What do you mean by coming here to meet this duffer, Merriwell? I thought better of you! You’re a fine sister to have! I’m ashamed of you! You’re a disgrace!”

“Chester!” she gasped.

“I mean it!” he raged. “Now, you come along with me!”

Saying which he seized her roughly by the arm, giving it a jerk that made her utter a cry of pain.

That was too much for Dick, who suddenly tore him from June and sent him staggering to one side.

“Don’t put your hands on her again, Arlington!” he said, in a low tone, his eyes blazing.

“You’re crazy, Chester!” exclaimed June.

“Well, isn’t it enough to make a fellow crazy! What will your mother say when I tell her? Nice sort of a girl you are!”

Dick quickly stepped toward Chet.

“Another insulting word from your lips and you will regret it!” he declared.

Their eyes met, and for a moment there was a silent battle between them. At last Chester looked down.

“Oh, this doesn’t end it!” he muttered.

“Take the girls away, Merriwell,” urged Hal. “I’ll take care of him.”

“No, no!” panted June.

Turning his back on Arlington, Dick stepped to June’s side.

124“Come,” he said, “let me take you back to the academy. He will be all right when he cools down. It isn’t safe for you to trust yourself with him now. He is beside himself with rage.”

It was quickly arranged that Hal should act as Zona’s escort, and the four set off down the path. Chester watched them a few moments and then deliberately started to follow, at the same time crying:

“You’re both cowards! Merriwell is a coward and a sneak! I dare him to come back!”

“Pay no attention to him, Hal!” said Dick.

Although they disregarded Arlington, he continued to follow them all the way through the woods.

“How did it happen?” asked June. “Why, I don’t understand it! Chester has been so good lately, and I thought he had changed.”

“How did you two come to be there, Darrell?” asked Dick.

Hal flushed.

“I will tell you sometime,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about it now.”

Coming to the border of the woods where they were in full view of Lakeside Academy, Dick paused.

“I think I can handle Chester better than any one else,” he said. “I am going back. Darrell, take the girls to the academy.”

June clung to his arm.

“Dick, you—you won’t——”

“Trust me,” he said.

“I do,” she whispered. “I trust you fully, Dick.”

Arlington saw Merriwell turn back and wondered at it.

125“He’s coming!” panted Chet. “I wonder what he thinks he’s going to do?”

After a moment he turned and fled along the path, and, although Dick followed at a rapid walk, Chester soon disappeared from view.

Wondering if Arlington would not stop, Dick continued to hurry along. The bridge was reached and recrossed, but nowhere could Chet be seen. Near the spot where the encounter had occurred Merriwell paused a moment.

“Strange,” he muttered. “Strange Darrell should be here with him!”

On the ground near his feet he saw a jackknife, and he stooped to pick it up. As he bent over something came whizzing through the air and struck him on the side of the head. It was a heavy stone, and Dick fell senseless to the ground.

As the stricken boy lay there the bushes were parted and a pair of eyes peered out at him. They were set in a pale, wrathful face, and the voice of Arlington muttered:

“Soaked you that time!”

Then, as Dick continued to remain motionless, Chester came creeping from the bushes and hesitatingly approached him.

“Hit him plumb on the head,” he said. “That was a big stone, too. By George! perhaps I cracked his skull!”

Drawing a little nearer and feeling a quiver of apprehension run over him, Chester bent and turned the prostrate lad upon his back. As he did so he saw a streak of blood across Merriwell’s temple.

126A gasp came from the lips of the young scoundrel and he straightened up.

“Heavens!” he muttered, “I believe I have fixed him! Must have hit him fairly on the temple. If I did he’s dead, that’s all!”

Fear grew upon him as he stared at the pallid face of the unconscious lad. Bending over, he placed his hand on Dick’s breast. With a cry he started back.

“He’s dead!” he whispered. “I have killed him! Good Lord! what a scrape!”

He was trembling in every limb. Suddenly he crouched like a hunted thing and began staring around.

“No one saw me!” he whispered. “They can’t prove it! What will I do? Darrell will find him when he comes back!”

Through his mind ran a wild plan to carry the body away into the woods and conceal it somewhere. With this object in view, he again bent over Merriwell; but suddenly terror seized him to such an extent that he could not touch the silent figure.

“No, no!” he half screamed, as he quickly drew back. “I can’t do it—I can’t! I won’t put my hands on him again!”

With his heart pounding furiously in his bosom, he began to retreat, his eyes still fixed on the boy he had so treacherously struck down. Step by step, foot by foot, he backed away. The bushes closed around him. He paused a moment to take a last look at that still form and then vanished.

With a feeling of horror and guilt growing upon him, he hurried away into the silent woods. Now 127and then he cast an apprehensive glance backward over his shoulder, for time after time he felt that the spirit of the lad he had slain was following him.

“They will call it murder!” he groaned. “But I’ll deny it! I’ll swear I never did it! How can they prove it against me?”

The woods grew thicker and thicker. Finally he found himself crashing and floundering through a dense jungle. Before him the tangled bushes seemed to bar his way, and, as he sought to force a passage, they resisted and held him back.

“You can’t stop me!” he snarled. “You can’t hold me! I know what you are trying to do. You want him to catch me!”

At length he paused, panting and exhausted. For some moments he stood listening to the silence of the forest. Behind him at a distance a twig snapped. It seemed as loud as a pistol shot, and he gave a great start.

“He’s coming! he’s coming!” he palpitated, and then tore his way through the tangled underbrush. The branches whipped his face and tore his clothes. He tripped and fell on his hands and knees. He crept onward. Finally he sank on his stomach, prostrate on the dank ground, where he lay trembling and breathing heavily. Somewhere in the dense wood a tree toad piped mournfully.

“Peep! peep! peep!” cried the little fellow, and there was unutterable sadness and lamentation in the sound.

“Dry up!” whispered the haunted lad. “Be still and let me listen!”

128But the only voice he could hear, save that of the tree toad, was the voice of his conscience, which seemed to whisper over and over:

“You’re a murderer! You’re a murderer!”

“Who says so?” he almost shouted. “It’s a lie! It’s a lie! I am not a murderer!”

But a gloomy echo answered:

“Murderer!”

CHAPTER XIII. FORCED TO FIGHT.

Until the shadows began to deepen and night was close at hand, Chet lay hidden in the thicket.

“I am getting what is due me,” he finally confessed. “No fellow ever treated me better than Merriwell has. What a fool I have been! It’s too late now—too late! I may as well go forth and confess. Let them hang me; what do I care!”

Then the horror of the scaffold, the shadow of which seemed upon him, made his blood run cold through all his body.

“They won’t hang me!” he half sobbed. “Why, they can’t! My father is a rich man! He will save me! They will never hang the son of D. Roscoe Arlington!”

But still, although he kept telling himself over and over that he would escape such a fate, the benumbing fear of it would not leave him.

“What a disgrace it will be to my mother! And June—how can she bear it! Poor June! Never any fellow had a better sister. But how have I treated her! This very day I insulted her before Merriwell and Darrell. Oh, if I could begin over again! But it is too late—too late!”

Then he noted that darkness was coming on, and the shadows added to his terror.

130“I can’t stay here any longer,” he said. “I must get out of the woods.”

Wearily he dragged himself to his feet and forced his way through the thicket. Again the branches whipped against him and tore at his clothes. At times, with savage rage, he snatched himself free from the clinging twigs.

At last the darkness grew so great that the wretched lad feared he would be unable to find his way out of the wood. This fear seemed to give him new energy, and he plunged on and on, escaping at length from the jungle-like thicket and finally coming to the edge of the timber.

In the west, where the sun had vanished, there was a faint, reddish tinge as of a conflagration. Overhead the sky was dark and grim.

“There is the academy,” he murmured, as he saw gleaming lights in the distance. “Shall I go back there? What shall I do? I might run away, but it would do no good. They would overtake me. They would know then that I was guilty. If I go back I may be able to bluff it through. What a fool I was! Why didn’t I rob Merriwell of his trinkets and money and bury them somewhere in the woods? Then they might think it was done by a tramp. But it is too late for that now.”

It was difficult, indeed, for him to return to the academy, but he set his teeth and started on a run. Across the fields he went, leaping the fences. In this manner he finally came into the road not far from the academy and unexpectedly ran fairly into a number of boys who were walking along that road.

131“Whoop!” cried one. “Whoever is this yere galoot? Whoever is this rambling maverick?”

Chester was seized by several hands, but he attempted to break away.

“Let me alone!” he cried. “Mind your own business!”

“What?” roared the voice of Buckhart. “Chaw me up! I opine I recognize that musical voice. See here, pard, here’s the fine gent you’re looking for.”

Then Arlington came near swooning, for, in spite of the darkness, he saw before him Dick Merriwell. And around Dick’s head there was a white bandage.

“So it’s you!” exclaimed Dick, confronting his enemy. “And you are the whelp who struck me down in the woods! I am looking for you!”

“You’re a liar!” instantly cried Chester. “I haven’t touched you!”

“Fighting talk, pard!” said Buckhart.

“Oh, yes!” sneered Chester, “you want to force a fight on me, do you? That’s Merriwell’s game, is it? He has a lot of his friends with him, and I am alone. I will fight him, but give me a fair show. Let me have some of my friends with me. I will fight him any time.”

“I will meet you in Chadwick’s pasture in an hour,” said Dick.

“I will be there!” hotly retorted Chester. “And I will have some friends with me.”

“I will bet a bunch of longhorns he won’t come,” said the Texan.

“You’re a liar, too!” blazed Chet. “I tell you I’ll be there!”

132“We will take his word for it,” came quietly from Dick. “If he doesn’t keep the appointment—well, we’ll know what to think of him then.”

Before the expiration of an hour Dick and his companions crossed Chadwick’s pasture and descended into the little hollow where so many encounters had taken place. With Merriwell were Buckhart, Smart, Jolliby, and Tubbs.

“By Jim!” exclaimed Obediah, “I am hungry! Anybody got a pie in his pocket?”

“You don’t mean a pup-pup-pup-pie?” asserted Jolliby. “What you need is a dud-dud-dud-drink. How would some whisky gug-gug-gug-go?”

“I don’t drink whisky,” piped the fat boy. “It takes the coat off a fellow’s stomach.”

“Worse than that,” chuckled Smart. “It takes the coat off a fellow’s back.”

“I think this yere is a fool piece of business, anyhow!” growled the Texan. “I’ll bet Arlington doesn’t show up. He certain knows he is about to get a good trimming if he does, and he is not looking for that.”

“I think he will be here,” said Dick quietly.

“Well, it’s about time he was here now. Where is he?”

“Wait and sus-sus-sus-see,” advised Jolliby. “I didn’t suppose Dick would fuf-fuf-fuf-fight him, anyhow.”

“I don’t know what you think I am made of, Jolliby,” said young Merriwell grimly. “I have stood almost everything from Arlington, but the time has passed for me to stand any more. He struck me down in the wood. What could I do about it? If I reported 133it, it is possible he would be expelled. In that case he would think me afraid of him. Even now, because of his sister’s sake I have stood so much, he seems to fancy I fear him. I have got to get that out of his head.”

Buckhart laughed.

“You will get it out of his head all right to-night if he shows up.”

The sound of voices now came to their ears, and several persons were seen approaching through the darkness.

“Here they cuc-cuc-cuc-come!” whispered Jolliby.

There were four of them, as Dick and his friends saw when the approaching party drew nearer. One fellow advanced quickly and spoke to them.

“I see you’re waiting,” he said. “Arlington is ready, too.”

It was Mel Fraser.

“Yes, we’re waiting,” said Brad. “Let him strip and get into gear. We will settle this thing in a hurry.”

“He is all ready without stripping,” asserted Fraser. “He don’t need to take off his coat. Here he is.”

He made a motion toward one of his companions, who stepped out from the others.

Dick tossed his coat aside and announced his readiness.

“Fly at it!” exclaimed Buckhart. “And may the best man win!”

A moment later the two met and the fight was on.

Although the moon was obscured by clouds, there 134was a faint, hazy light that enabled the spectators, by pressing close, to watch the struggle.

“Get into it, pard!” growled Buckhart.

“Go for him, Arlington!” cried the companions of Dick’s antagonist. With the bandage showing plainly about his head, Merriwell circled round his enemy, moving to the left. No word came from the lips of the other lad.

There was a moment of sparring, and then Merriwell’s foe closed in swiftly, leading with a blow at Dick’s head.

Dick ducked and tried to counter on the fellow’s body, but was blocked.

“That’s the stuff, Arlington!” shouted Fraser. “Keep him going! Keep after him!”

During the next few moments Dick busied his antagonist to such an extent that the fellow had no chance to keep after him. Indeed, it was with considerable difficulty that he avoided the varied attacks made upon him.

Nevertheless, his defense was so skillful that Merriwell was somewhat astonished.

“Arlington has been taking lessons,” he decided. “This is not his style of fighting.”

Finally Dick received a blow on the shoulder that jarred him slightly, and the enemy sought to follow up the slight advantage thus gained. In doing so, he left an opening that Merriwell improved, and a sudden cry rose from the spectators, for, following the smack of a hard fist, one of the fighters went down.

“It is Arlington, by Jim!” squeaked Tubbs. “Dick soaked him a good one that time!”

135“You bub-bub-bub-bet your life!” chattered Jolliby.

The fellow recovered in a twinkling and sprang to his feet. Dick was waiting, and they went at it again with still greater fury. Round and round they circled, their feet sounding thuddingly on the solid ground.

The spectators grew more and more excited. Buckhart was in a perfect fever.

“Put your brand on him! Put your brand on him!” palpitated the Texan.

“Don’t hit him!” entreated Smart. “It would be a shame to hit him!”

“Keep him going, old man!” urged Fraser. “He’s up against the real thing to-night.”

The fight was so fast and furious that it kept every spectator on edge. Once or twice the circle was forced to fall back swiftly to get away from the struggling lads. Several times Dick’s antagonist sought without success to close with him, but seemed at last to accomplish his object.

“Down with him!” hissed Fraser.

But it was not Dick who went down. He managed to twist his opponent over his hip and throw him heavily. Immediately he rose to his feet and waited for the other to get up.

“Why didn’t you soak him when you had him?” asked Brad.

“I can’t hit a chap when he is down,” declared Dick.

“Give him the same chance at you and see what he will do!”

“That makes no difference to me.”

The fallen boy rose slowly, but was at Dick in a 136twinkling as soon as he reached his feet. Apparently he sought to take Merriwell by surprise, rushing unexpectedly and savagely. However, he was the one surprised, for Merriwell’s hard fist struck him a blow that stopped him in his tracks. His hands fell for a moment, and Buckhart palpitated:

“Now! now—put him out!”

Dick might have struck the final blow, but for some reason he held his hand, giving the other time to recover.

After that, Merriwell’s enemy was wary and cautious for several seconds. Dick followed him up and pressed the fight, but was given no good opening for a telling blow.

“Waugh!” growled the Texan. “I certain don’t understand this yere pard of mine any. Here that galoot soaks him on the head and knocks him silly, but he continues to let him have more than an even show in this go.”

“Dick always fuf-fuf-fuf-fights fair,” said Jolliby.

Merriwell’s foe seemed to recover rapidly, for soon he was once more meeting Dick halfway, and the fight seemed fiercer than ever.

This kind of battle could not last long, for some time one or both of the boys were bound to weaken. Plainly, it was a struggle in which staying power must tell.

In the end Dick’s splendid condition and fine training told. His foe was breathing heavily, although persisting in the same fierce style of fighting.

Several times Dick tried to end the encounter with a telling blow, but the skill of the other chap enabled 137him to avoid this until his wind began to fail. Finally Merriwell forced his enemy to retreat and kept close after him.

“It’s all over!” half laughed Buckhart, as Dick struck Arlington repeatedly. “There he goes!”

Even as the words were spoken, Dick landed a sledge-hammer blow on the jaw of his antagonist, and Arlington went down like a log.

“I knew it!” declared the Texan.

The fallen chap did not stir.

“Give me a match,” cried Dick. “Quick—give me a match!”

Some one thrust a match into his fingers, and he struck it, protecting the blaze with his hands and throwing the light full on the face of the chap who lay prone on the ground.

“Look!” he cried. “Here’s the Chester Arlington I’ve been fighting!”

Then there were many exclamations of astonishment, for it was seen that the fellow was not Arlington at all, although he wore Arlington’s clothes and was built very much the same as Chester.

“Dern my picter!” piped Obediah Tubbs, in astonishment. “What kind of a gol-dinged game is this?”

“Cuc-cuc-cuc-crooked work!” burst from Jolliby. “Where is Mel Fraser?”

But Fraser had backed away, and now he suddenly took to his heels and fled.

“Here, you!” growled one of the fallen chap’s companions. “Let him alone! We will take care of him!”

“Whoop!” roared Buckhart.

138“You will take care of him, will you? Well, I opine we will take care of you. Get into them, fellows!”

Instantly he went at them, and he was followed by Jolliby and Tubbs, who were fierce with rage and indignation at the trick.

The young toughs could not stand before such an assault, and they, like Fraser, turned and fled. Tubbs would have pursued, but he tripped and fell heavily, upon which all stopped, permitting the fleeing boys to escape.

“Well, of all the low-down tricks I ever heard of this takes the prize!” declared the Texan. “What do you think of it, pard? It’s mighty queer you didn’t tumble.”

“I did,” said Dick.

“When?”

“Some time before the finish. I saw his style of fighting was not like Arlington’s.”

“Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you let us know?”

“It was too late then. There was but one thing to do, and I did it. Arlington’s proxy got what was coming to Chester.”

“Hang a sus-sus-sus-sneak!” cried Chip. “Confound a cuc-cuc-cuc-coward! That’s what Arlington is! He didn’t dare fuf-fuf-fuf-fight you!”

“Oh, don’t say such hard things about him!” half sobbed Smart. “See how kind and self-sacrificing he was. He permitted another fellow to take his place and enjoy the pleasure of this little scrap. Wasn’t that splendid of him? Wasn’t it perfectly fine?”

139“I hope this chap isn’t hurt much,” said Dick; and as he uttered the words the fellow stirred and attempted to sit up.

“By Jim! I guess he is all right,” said Tubbs.

“Dud-dud-dud-do you know him, Dick?” asked Chip.

“I have seen him. He is well known in town. His name is Moran.”

“Yes, that’s my name,” acknowledged the fellow. “Where are the others? Where’s my gang?”

“The whole bunch stampeded,” answered Brad.

Moran was surprised and disgusted.

“They’re a fine lot,” he muttered. “Look here! what sort of a slugger did I go against? Arlington told me the fellow would be easy.”

“Well, you’re a fine specimen,” growled the Texan. “Whatever were you trying to celebrate?”

“I got the coin, and I reckon I earned it, too,” was the retort.

“So Arlington paid you for this job, did he?” questioned Dick.

“Sure thing! But I made a mistake. I put the price too low.”

Merriwell’s indignation was unbounded.

“You’re lucky to get off so easy,” he declared.

“Easy!” exclaimed Moran. “Why, you t’umped me up in fine style. Where did you learn to handle your dukes that way? I am the champion of Fardale, but you’re too much for me.”

“Dern your picter!” said Tubbs. “What you need is a coat of tar and feathers.”

140“No,” said Jolliby. “That’s wh-wh-wh-what Arlington needs.”

Moran slowly rose to his feet.

“Anyhow, I have got a good suit of clothes out of him,” he said. “That will help pay the extra for the slugging I went against. But that don’t settle it; he will hear from me again. He lied to me; you bet I will soak him for it, too!”

“Now, that’s where you’re talking, stranger,” nodded Brad. “If you agree to soak him good and plenty we will let you off; otherwise, it’s up to us to finish this job.”

“Let me alone and see if I don’t put it all over him the first chance I get. I swear I will, or my name is not Tom Moran!”

“Please don’t hit him,” entreated Smart. “That would be too bad.”

“Oh, I won’t hit him,” growled the fellow. “I will just knock the stuffing out of him!”

“All right,” said Dick. “We’ll let you go with that understanding.”

CHAPTER XIV. A RECKLESS YOUTH.

Chester did not return to the academy that night. This was nothing remarkable, for his mother had made arrangements which enabled him to frequently stop with her without obtaining permission. A written excuse from Mrs. Arlington was all that Chester needed to present in case of such infringements on the rules of the school.

Nevertheless, when he failed to appear the following day, Fraser worried, and knew that more than the ordinary excuse would be required from him.

Dick watched in vain for Arlington. Obtaining leave the following evening, he went into town. He contemplated calling at Mrs. Arlington’s before returning to the academy, with the intention of asking June about her brother.

The necessity of doing this was avoided, for, as he was leaving the post office, he saw June pass on the opposite side of the street. She was alone, and immediately Dick hastened after her. To his surprise, she turned into the street that led toward the harbor. Wondering where she could be going, he followed, until the crest of the small hill was reached, and the harbor lights lay twinkling beyond.

By this time she had discovered that some one was behind her, and Merriwell noticed that she quickened her steps. Immediately he made haste to overtake her, at the same time calling her name.

142In surprise she stopped.

“Is it you, Dick?” she exclaimed. “Why, I saw some one coming, and I was afraid.”

“Afraid, June? Then why did you choose this street? Why did you come this way alone? I was surprised when I saw you take such a course.”

She seemed at a loss for a reply.

“Surely you know this part of the town is not safe for you to be in after dark without an escort?” he said.

“My mother’s yacht is down there,” she murmured. “I didn’t know but what I might find Chester on——”

“He has not appeared at the academy to-day, June.”

“I know it. He told me he was not going back there to-day.”

“Then you saw him?”

“Yes. He came to the house near noon. I was surprised to see him. Oh, Dick, I am afraid it is no use. I am afraid Chester may as well leave Fardale.”

“Perhaps it would be better for him,” Dick admitted.

“But father should know—father should take him in hand. If he goes away of his own accord, as he has threatened, there is no telling what he may do.”

“You fear that he is contemplating something of the kind?”

“I do. He must be kept here a little longer. Mother expects father to come on in a week or two.”

“In your anxiety about your brother, June, you are rashly venturing into a dangerous part of the village. Better wait until morning before seeking him.”

143“I can’t!” she exclaimed. “I am sure he is again with bad companions. I can’t ask you to do anything more for me.”

“But I will do anything for you, June. Let me see you safely home, and then I will try to find your brother.”

“Oh! will you?”

“I give you my promise.”

“Dick! Dick! you have done so many things for me. I am grateful, be sure of that.”

“Don’t talk about gratitude, June. Come, let’s turn back.”

She permitted him to accompany her until they were again in the vicinity of the post office. There she paused and begged him to leave her and go in search of Chester. This he finally consented to do.

Passing once more over the hill, Merriwell came again into the disreputable portion of the village, wondering if Arlington could be found on board his mother’s yacht, and, if so, how he could be approached.

Passing one of the cheap saloons of that locality Dick paused, for to his ears came the sound of singing. The voice was a melodious one, and he was sure he recognized it as that of the boy he sought. The song was a reckless drinking melody, and the singer was joined when it came to the chorus by several hoarse voices, roaring as follows:

144“He is in there,” muttered Dick, “and it is plain he is carousing with a lot of desperate characters.”

Approaching the place, Dick quickly discovered why he had heard the singing so plainly, for a window stood open. He did not enter, but passed round the corner and paused near this window, where he looked into the low, smoky barroom. It was a sailor’s resort, and a number of rough-looking men were inside.

Standing in front of the bar, glass in hand, was Chester Arlington, swaying slightly as he sang the second stanza of the drinking song.

Again the sailors joined in the chorus, some of them thumping the tables at which they were seated, while Arlington beat time in an extravagant manner.

As they finished, Arlington hurled his glass, liquor and all, crashing against the wall.

“That’s the stuff!” he cried. “It takes men to drink fire-water. It’s not pap for babies. I know a chap who thinks he is a man, and who is proud because he doesn’t drink. Bah! he makes me sick. I’d like to fill him to the chin. I’d like to put him under the table. Have another one on me, boys! Set ’em up, Johnnie, old man—set ’em up!”

“You’re all right, my hearty!” huskily cried one of the sailors, reeling up and slapping Chet on the shoulder.

“Look here, my friend,” said Chet, bracing with his feet wide apart and giving the sailor a savage look, “don’t get so free with me. I will treat you all right, but keep your distance. I am Chester Arlington! I am the son of D. Roscoe Arlington. My mother’s yacht lies off Gibb’s wharf.”

145“You’re all right,” reiterated the sailor. “’Scuse me. Didn’t mean anything particular. You spend your money.”

“You bet your life I do! I know how to spend it. I know how to live while I live. I don’t dry up and die, and think I am still living. Say, Johnnie, this is awful booze. Haven’t you anything better?”

“This is good enough for my customers,” answered the bartender. “They don’t kick. You claim to be a man, and this is the sort of stuff men drink.”

“All right; I can drink as much as anybody else.”

He dashed off the vile stuff that was provided, then crossed the door toward the window, where two or three men were sitting at a table.

Already Dick had recognized one face at the table as that of Tom Moran.

“Hello, boys!” said Chet, as he dropped on a chair. “What’s the matter with me? I’m all right! Who said I was intoxicated?”

“Not a soul,” laughed Moran. “Certainly, you’re all right.”

“Rotten bad booze, just the same,” asserted Chet. “Wouldn’t I like to drive a quart of that stuff into Dick Merriwell! He is a model chap, he is. He never drinks. If I had him where I wanted him I’d make him drink and I’d make him smoke. Have a cigarette?”

Fumblingly Chester produced a package of cigarettes, which he offered to his companions, none of whom accepted.

“All right,” he said; “I will smoke alone. Have cigars on me? Johnnie, give these gentlemen cigars.”

146CigarsCigars were provided, and all began to smoke.

“Wish I had Merriwell where I could get my hands on him to-night,” growled Chet, thumping the table. “Captain Long’s ashore, and I can run the old yacht myself. I’d like to get Merriwell onto her. I’d carry him out to sea, and I’d fill him to the muzzle.”

“When does Long return?” asked Moran.

“He won’t be back for two days. Gone to New York on business. Old lady sent him. Sailors will stand by me. They’ll do anything I want them to do—all but that dago, Tony. He can’t be trusted. Can’t trust a dago, anyhow. Say, you fellers! will you stand by me? I’ll pay. I can get the coin. Will you help me shanghai this Merriwell? I will fix it up somehow; I will get him in the trap. We’ll run him off.”

“Why, of course,” said one of the sailors. “You can count on this crowd for anything.”

“Then I’ll do it!” vowed Chet, again striking the table. “You bet your life! I know how. I’ll fake up a letter from my sister. I’ll make appointment for him, and we’ll jump on him. Then we’ll sack him onto the yacht and give him a little cruise. That’s the stuff! He’ll smoke cigarettes! He’ll drink booze before I am through with him!”

In his present condition any sort of a wild scheme seemed feasible to Arlington.

“You ought to have it in for him, Tom,” he said, nodding at Moran. “You bear marks of his knuckles on your mug now.”

“That’s right!” growled the young bruiser; “but you told me he was easy!”

147“Ought to have been easy for you. You ought to do him up without half trying. Wait till we get him on the yacht. Then you can thump him if you want to. Then you can get square with him. What do you say?”

“Go ahead,” said Moran. “Give me the chance.”

“I’ll fix it,” averred Chet. “I’ll soak him if it is the last thing I ever do around here! Might as well get out of this old town, anyway! Got to leave this rotten old school! When I do leave I want to have Merriwell fixed so he can’t hold up his head again and say he don’t drink and don’t smoke. If it wasn’t for Tony we’d be all right. I can depend on the rest of the crew. Where’s Lazaro? He is my right-hand man. He ought to be here now. Where is he?”

No one seemed to know.

“Told him to be here,” Chet mumbled, dropping his cigarette and looking around in vain for it.

While he was searching for the cigarette a slim, dark-faced man entered and approached the table.

“Here comes Tony,” said one of the sailors.

Arlington braced up and stared at the newcomer.

“Who invited you?” he demanded.

“I beg da pard, Mist’ Arlington,” said the Italian, respectfully touching his cap. “I t’ink I better tella you. Nobod’ on da yacht. I t’ink you better know. Mebbe your mother no lika it.”

“What’s that to you, you dago dog!” snarled Chet. “You pay attention to your own business!”

Instantly the dark face of the Italian grew darker and his black eyes glittered.

148“Tony no dago doga!” he hissed. “He no gita drunk! He minda his bis’!”

“What’s that?” growled Chet, pushing back from the table.

“Your sist’ very fina girl,” asserted the Italian. “You maka her feel very bada. You ought to be ashameda.”

Somehow Arlington managed to throw off, for a moment, the effects of the liquor, and he rose quickly to his feet, taking a single step. Evidently Tony was unprepared for what happened, for he fancied Chester was too intoxicated to do anything of the sort. At any rate, he could not avoid Arlington’s blow, which made him stagger.

“You cur!” snarled the enraged youth. “Don’t dare speak of my sister! Don’t dare refer to her!”

With a savage Italian oath, Tony plunged his hand into his pocket, and the lights flashed on a glittering blade of steel, which his shaking fingers brought forth.

Fortunately for Arlington, the two sailors and Tom Moran seized the enraged Italian.

“Leta go! Leta go! He strika me!”

“Put up that knife!” growled one of the men. “Do you want to hang?”

“He strika me!” palpitated Tony, struggling to get at Chet.

The sight of the knife caused Chester to pale a little and shrink away.

“Hang onto him!” he ordered. “Don’t let the murderous fellow break away from you!”

One of the sailors attempted to reason with the 149Italian, but it was some moments before Tony quieted down and put up the knife. By that time several others had taken a hand, and there was no possibility that the infuriated Italian could reach Chester.

As soon as he saw this, Arlington once more became bold and reckless in his manner, and applied several scornful epithets to Tony.

“Get out of here, now!” he commanded. “Go back to the yacht and stay there!”

Without a word the Italian turned and left the saloon.

Dick had been prepared to leap through the window to Arlington’s protection in case it was necessary, and he was relieved when the affair terminated in this manner. At the same time, he felt that Chester had made a desperate and bitter enemy in Tony.

When the Italian was gone Arlington sat down at the table and once more ordered drinks.

“I will have that fellow discharged,” he declared.

“If you don’t,” said Moran, “the chances are that he will stick a knife between your shoulders some dark night.”

“Oh, I am not afraid of the dog!” averred Chet. “I am afraid of no one! The man doesn’t live that I am afraid to face!”

“How about Dick Merriwell?” inquired Moran.

“Why, I don’t give a rap for him! He’s a common bruiser, and that’s why I don’t fight with him! I paid you, didn’t I?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what are you kicking for? You have no kick coming. Drink up.”

150By this time Dick had decided that it would be anything but an easy task to get Arlington away from his companions while in such a condition. He could not return and tell June, and he was wondering what could be done when suddenly, without the least warning, he was struck to the ground by some one who had noiselessly approached from behind.

CHAPTER XV. A FRIEND IN NEED.

Bound hand and foot, Dick Merriwell lay on the floor of the deck of Mrs. Arlington’s yacht and heard Chester giving orders which indicated that he meant to put out from the wharf and leave the harbor as soon as the engineer could get up steam.

Dick had been carried there by his captors, who, after striking him down, bound him firmly before he could recover and resist.

Chester came and stood near him, swaying a little as he looked down at the unlucky youth.

“Got you this time, Merriwell,” he declared thickly. “So you were sneaking around and looking into the windows, were you? Well, you made a bad mess of it. Where’s Lazaro?”

“Here, sir,” answered a voice, and a man approached.

“Lazaro, you’re all right!” asserted Chet. “Lazaro, you’re a dandy! How did you happen to spot him, Lazaro?”

“I saw some one standing near the window. The light shone on him. He seemed to be listening and watching. I crept near. Then I saw it was the fellow you had pointed out to me. I hit him with my sand bag.”

“Good boy, Lazaro—good boy!” cried Chet. "I hit him with something harder than a sand bag a short 152time ago, but he has a hard head. Can’t knock him out very easy. We’ll give him a little sea voyage. I’m dry.

“Arlington,” said Dick, “you’re intoxicated. You had better wait a while before carrying out your foolish plan. What good will it do you?”

Chester laughed recklessly.

“Oh, it’s great sport!” he declared. “You will enjoy it. We will make you enjoy it. You don’t know what it is to be a man and drink and smoke like a man, do you? Well, I will teach you. Lazaro, tell that fool engineer to hurry up with his steam.”

“He is doing his best, Mr. Arlington. We will cast off directly.”

“Here, you chaps!” called Chet. “Some of the sailors come here. I want you!”

They approached.

“Take this fellow and lug him into the cabin,” was the command. “Dump him down on the floor and let him lay there.”

Dick was lifted and carried below. After a few minutes Chet came stumbling down the companionway and entered the cabin. He was followed by Tom Moran.

“Here he is, Moran,” chuckled the reckless boy. “Here’s the proud and mighty Mr. Merriwell. He is very quiet now.”

“He seems to be,” said Moran.

“He is the chap who gave you those marks. Take it out of him if you want to, I don’t care.”

153“Why, I can’t do that when he is tied and helpless,” said Moran.

“Can’t you? Well, now that’s funny. I thought you were just fierce to get at him? I thought you were just palpitating to hammer him?”

“Not this way,” said Chet’s companion, shaking his head.

“What if I order you to?” asked Arlington.

“It won’t do you any good,” grimly answered the young bruiser. “I fights square when I fights, and I don’t punch up any man who can’t punch back.”

“Ho! ho! ho!” laughed Chet. “All right. You will enjoy my little picnic with him. What do you think of a chap who thinks he is better than other people because he doesn’t drink, or smoke, or swear, or have any bad habits? He’s never tasted of liquor, and boasts of it. Well, he will get a taste to-night. You bet your life! Within an hour he will be drunk as a fool. Where’s Lazaro?”

“Here, sir,” answered a voice, and Lazaro appeared.

“I want some whisky, Lazaro. Do you know where the keys of the wine locker are kept?”

“I think so, sir.”

“Well, get them.”

“Captain Long——”

“Hang Captain Long! I am captain now! I want those keys!”

“Very well, sir.”

Chester lighted a cigarette and puffed at it.

Dick was sitting up now, with his back against a locker.

154“Get hold of him, Moran!” ordered Arlington. “Let’s sit him up where we can look at him.”

The captive was lifted to a seat on the locker.

“There you are,” said Chet, standing in front of Dick, with his feet apart and puffing at the cigarette. “How do you like the smell of this?”

He blew a whiff of smoke into Dick’s face.

“Never smoke, eh? Well, you bet you will smoke to-night! Here, confound you! take this and smoke, if you don’t want to be skinned alive!”

He attempted to thrust the cigarette between Dick’s lips, but it fell to the floor. In trying to pick it up, he fell awkwardly himself, and Moran assisted him to his feet.

“Where’s Lazaro?” he demanded. “Why, the keys ought to be right here! Where’s he gone?”

“I don’t know,” answered Moran.

“Well, I’ll find him! I’ll find him! I want the keys! I want to get at that booze!”

Staggering a little, he left the cabin and stumbled up the companionway to the deck, leaving Moran alone with Dick.

As soon as Chester was gone and Moran felt sure he was alone with Dick, he spoke in a low tone:

“That drunken fool is crazy, Merriwell. He is bound to get us all in a bad mess. I am willing enough to drink his liquor and take his money; but he is going too far to suit me.”

“What are you going to do about it?” asked Dick quietly.

“Well, I am not going to see him carry this thing much farther,” asserted the other. “He thinks I am 155a chump. He doesn’t know that I am dead sore on him. Your little finger is more of a man than the whole of his worthless body.”

“Thank you!” returned Merriwell, with a grim smile. “But that does me little good. Whoever tied me up this way certainly fixed me good and solid. I have tried my best to get my hands free, but I can’t budge them.”them.”

“See here,” said Moran, “the whole crew is drunk and reckless. If I am caught—well, I don’t care, I will chance it. Here, let me get at those cords! Quick!”

Dick turned on the locker so that Moran was able to get at the cords which bound the captive boy’s hands behind his back. Working swiftly, the young bruiser loosened the cords until it seemed certain that Dick could free himself with a very small effort.

“Now let them be just that way,” said Moran. “They will think you are all safe and solid. When the time comes I’ll get you out of this.”

“I will see that you lose nothing by it,” promised Dick.

“Oh, that’s all right. I ain’t——Keep still! Here he comes!”

Chester was heard talking to some one as he once more stumbled down the companionway, and he was followed by Lazaro and two sailors on entering the cabin. He had the keys, and in a few minutes the wine locker was opened and a bottle of whisky produced.

“Now,” cried Chet, “we will all drink! Mr. Merriwell will take a drink! I have brought some men with 156me who will see that he takes a drink! If he refuses they will strip him and give him a taste of the rope’s end.”

Glasses were brought out and Arlington filled them, spilling much of the whisky in doing so. His condition was both pitiful and disgusting.

“Now, Mr. Merriwell,” he said with sarcastic dignity—"now, Captain Merriwell, I invite you to drink with me. I am sure you won’t refuse. Lazaro, hold the whisky to the young gentleman’s lips. Let him taste the kind of stuff that real men drink. It will do him good. See that he drinks it. Make him drink it! Confound him! Drive it into him!"

Lazaro took a glass of the stuff and started to obey.

“Wait!” commanded Chet. “Come to think of it, I would like that job myself. I want to be the first person to put a drink into him. Give me the booze.”

In taking the glass from Lazaro’s hand he dropped it, and the stuff was spilled as the glass smashed on the floor.

“Never mind that; plenty more,” laughed Arlington. “Give him another geyser! Fill her up!”

Another glass of liquor was handed him, and he stepped in front of Dick, who was vainly trying to catch his eye.

“Oh, you’re a wonder, you are!” sneered Chet. “You think you can make me obey you just when you want to, but I know you. I know better than to let you catch me this time. Here, you, drink—hang you, drink!”

He bent over and held the glass to Dick’s lips.

“Drink!” he again snarled.

157Merriwell’s lips remained firmly closed.

“Won’t you!” grated Chester. “I bet you will! I know you will! I will choke you till you do it!”

With his left hand he seized Dick by the throat.

A moment later Merriwell rose to his feet, tearing his hands free, and struck Chet a blow that sent him clean across the cabin. With his feet still bound, Dick was unable to follow up this advantage.

Chester recovered and gave a cry to Lazaro and the sailors:

“Jump on him! Down him!” he panted.

As they started toward Merriwell another surprising thing happened, for Tom Moran suddenly produced a pistol, which he leveled at them.

“Hold up, you drunken dogs!” he exclaimed. “This thing has gone too far! It stops right here! Back up, or I will blow you full of holes!”

They halted in their tracks.

“What?—what?—what?” gasped Chet, in astonishment. “What ails you, Moran? What do you mean?”

“I mean that I am not a crazy fool, if you are. I don’t care to go to the jug for this piece of business. Here you, Merriwell, take this knife and cut those ropes that hold your feet.”

With his free hand Moran produced a jackknife, which he quickly passed to Dick, who opened it and freed his feet with a single slash at the ropes.

“Now, I think we’re pretty near good for this whole drunken gang,” said Moran. “I’ve had a little booze to-night myself, but I have some sense left.”

“You traitor!” palpitated Arlington; and then, with 158a sudden lurch, he staggered toward the companionway.

Dick had closed the heavy jackknife given him by Moran, but he still held it in his hand. As Arlington reeled to one side Merriwell saw crouching, just beyond the cabin door, a dark-faced man, whose beady eyes glittered in a deadly manner and whose hand clutched the haft of a knife.

It was Tony!

Suddenly the Italian sprang forward, for Arlington had stopped a few feet away, and his back was toward the door. The glittering knife was lifted for a murderous blow.

Whiz!—something flew through the air and struck Tony fairly between the eyes.

It was the heavy jackknife, which Dick had thrown at the Italian. Tony was knocked backward and dazed for a moment. The knife fell from his hand and struck, point first, in the floor, where it stood quivering.

Filled with sudden horror, for all of his intoxicated condition, Arlington staggered aside and stood staring at the Italian.

With a bound, Dick caught up the knife.

“Get out of here, all of you!” he cried. “Be lively about it! Look out for that Italian there! Take care of him!”

As they hesitated, Dick turned to Chester.

“Do you want to be carved up?” he asked. “If you don’t, tell your intoxicated men here to take care of that chap.”

The fact that he had escaped by such a hair’s breadth 159and that Merriwell was now free seemed to overcome Arlington.

“Look out for him, Lazaro! Look out for him, boys. Take the dago away!”

“But this fellow?” questioned Lazaro, with a motion toward Dick.

“Don’t mind this fellow,” said Moran, still holding his pistol ready for use. “No one will trouble him any more to-night. I promise you that. Get on out of here!”

“Cursa you!” hissed Tony, glaring at Chester. “I geta you yeta!”

“Take him away,” Chester urged, retreating from the door.

The sailors seized Tony and hustled him up the companionway to the deck.

Arlington stood swaying slightly, one hand to his head. The situation seemed to bewilder him.

“What are you trying to do, Moran?” he hazily asked.

“It’s a good thing for you,” was the reply, “that this fellow you fancied tied so hard and fast happened to be free just then. He saved your life.”

“Did he?” mumbled Chet.

“That’s what he did. Now it’s up to you to see that he goes ashore without further molestation.”

“All right! All right!” said Chester. “I’ll run away! I’ll be gone in the morning! Engineer getting steam up! I’ll get out of here!”

Suddenly Dick stepped toward Arlington, seized him by the shoulders, and sternly said:

“Look at me! You’re not going to do anything of 160the sort! I wouldn’t care a rap what you did if it wasn’t for your sister. You could run away, or do anything you chose to do. Already you have caused her untold worriment and distress. If I can prevent it, you shall cause her no more at present. You’re going ashore with me, Arlington.”

The manner in which Dick uttered the final words seemed to indicate there was not the least doubt in his mind on that point.

“Who says so?” whispered Chet thickly.

“I say so, and I mean it. You will go. We will go on deck now, and you will order the engineer to bank his fire. Come along!”

Moran looked on in surprise, for he began to perceive that the tables were turned and Merriwell was master of the situation in every respect.

“Just a joke,” mumbled Chester. “Just a little fun. Didn’t mean anything by it. Confound that dago! He tried to stab me, didn’t he? Did you stop him, Merriwell? What did you do? I didn’t see.”

“Never mind what I did. Come on, now. Follow us, Moran, and see that the Italian gets no fresh opportunity to use a knife. Arlington must go ashore, for his life wouldn’t be safe if he remained here.”

“Guess that’s so,” acknowledged Chester, as he permitted himself to be led up the companionway to the deck.

Having reached the deck, Dick again told Chester to order the fires banked.

Lazaro was waiting near, and he concealed his surprise, if he felt any, when Arlington gave this order. The yacht had not left the wharf, and a few minutes 161later, accompanied by Dick and Moran, Arlington was on shore.

“Just a little joke,” he kept muttering. “Didn’t mean anything by it. Drank too much. Made a fool of myself, I guess. Wonder if June knows ’bout it. She’s good girl. Nobody can say anything ’bout her to me. I won’t stand for it! She’s all right!”

“We will get him over to the hotel, Moran,” said Dick. “I wonder if there is any way to do it without his being seen?”

“Tell you what I can do,” suggested Moran. “I can get a closed carriage and come for you.”

“That’s it,” said Dick. “We will be on the road somewhere between here and the hotel. Just you hustle. I’ll watch for you.”

“All right,” was the assurance. “Depend on me.”

And Moran started away on a run.

Arlington awoke the next morning in a room at the Fardale House. He had a splitting headache, and his mouth was dry as a pine board. When he stirred a groan came from his lips.

“Oh, murder!” he muttered. “What is the matter with me? Where am I?”

Dick Merriwell rose from a couch near the window.

“You must feel pretty rocky this morning, Arlington,” he said.

Chester stared at him in blank astonishment.

“What the dickens are you doing here?” he questioned. “Where did you come from?”

“Why, I found you on a little toot last night and 162managed to get you in here without attracting much attention. I stayed with you to see that you came out of it all right. Want a drink of water?”

“Give me a bathtub full! I will drink it all!”

“Here you are,” said Dick. “A whole pitcherful.”

Arlington seized the pitcher and drank greedily.

“Oh, my head!” he muttered. “What sort of stuff was I drinking, anyhow? And I had such a beastly dream! Why, I dreamed about kidnapping you and taking you aboard the old lady’s yacht and having a devil of a time. Then there was a dago trying to stab me, and all that kind of stuff. I’ll never touch any more cheap booze!”

“That was a pretty bad dream,” said Dick. “But, as long as it was a dream, it’s best to forget it. You will have to take a cold bath and brace up to get back to the academy.”

“A cold bath!” gasped Chet, shaking with horror. “I can’t do that! Great Cæsar! I can’t do that! Not this morning!”

“You will have to, just the same,” asserted Dick. “I am here to see you through this thing.”

In spite of Arlington’s protestations, Dick forced him to get out of bed, compelled him to take a cold bath, made him drink a strong cup of coffee, and finally led him like a lamb back to the academy. And for a time, at least, it seemed as if Chester Arlington had really learned a lesson that he took to heart.

CHAPTER XVI. DARRELL CALLED INTO THE GAME.

Fairport’s new grand stand was filled long before the time arrived for the game with Fardale to begin.

As Hal Darrell entered he was both surprised and pleased to see, seated together, three girls, two of whom he knew, for they were Doris Templeton and Zona Desmond.

Zona smiled on Hal and bowed to him, but Doris seemed anxiously watching the Fardale players, who were grouped about their captain, near the bench.

“Oh, Doris!” cried Zona; “here is Hal! I say, here is Hal, Doris! Are you asleep?”

The girl addressed gave a slight start and greeted Hal with a fleeting smile and a welcoming word.

“This is my cousin, Miss Dale, Mr. Darrell,” said Zona. “She lives here, you know, and that’s how Doris and I happened to be here to-day.”

Hal bowed, cap in hand.

Bessie Dale, a freckled, vivacious, lively little girl, gave him a smile and a nod.

“I suppose you came to see your team beaten to-day, didn’t you?” she said, laughing.

“I expect so,” was his surprising answer.

“You don’t mean it, Hal!” cried Doris quickly.

“Why not?” he said. “Fairport has been winning right along this season, and Fardale might be in better shape.”

164“What’s the matter?” Doris questioned. “I knew something was wrong. I could tell it by their actions.”

“Oh, I don’t know that there is anything particular the matter, but the whole team is in bad shape. It has struck one of those streaks when a team goes down hill. They have fallen off in their batting and in their fielding.”

“I told you Fairport would win to-day,” said Bessie Dale. “Of course, I am sorry for you girls, and I know you think your great Captain Merriwell can’t be defeated.”

Doris made a place at her side, and Hal sat down.

“Can’t you find out what the trouble is?” she asked.

“I am not particularly anxious about it,” he indifferently retorted, speaking in a low tone. “In fact, I don’t care a rap if Mr. Merriwell does get his bumps to-day.”

“How can you say so, Hal! I don’t understand you!”

“I have good reasons,” he grimly retorted. “I have heard a few things lately. He needn’t take me for a chump.”

“I am sure he doesn’t, Hal.”

“And I fail to see why you should be so greatly interested in him. If you knew everything——”

Darrell checked himself, as if fearing he would say too much.

“If I knew everything!” palpitated Doris. “Why, I know that it is Fardale against Fairport, and you are a Fardale boy! Isn’t Dick in condition to pitch to-day?”

“I don’t know about that.”

165“You know he has not been in the best condition lately. Oh, Hal, why didn’t you stick to baseball? You might be in the game, and you were a good pitcher.”

“If I had stuck to it I’d not pitch this game,” he declared.

Believing Hal constantly loyal to Fardale, these words from him continued to puzzle Doris.

“Why, I am sure you would do anything to win for your own team.”

“Under certain conditions I would. But I, like others, have grown weary of doing things for which another person gets all the credit.”

“I wish you would explain!” she exclaimed, her annoyance increasing. “You’re not a bit like yourself to-day, Hal! I am surprised at you!”

“Some time I will explain—perhaps. When I do you will understand. I have heard things that have opened my eyes.”

“You can’t believe all you hear, Hal.”

“Well, I have seen things, too.”

At this moment Merriwell was seen approaching the grand stand.

“Wonder what he wants!” muttered Darrell.

Dick entered and came up to them, bowing and lifting his cap.

“What’s the matter?” asked Zona. “Is it anything serious?”

“I don’t think so,” he answered. “I am glad to see you and Doris here at the game. It’s a surprise.”

Zona then introduced him to her cousin, and in her tantalizing way Bessie Dale said:

166“This gives me an opportunity to offer you my sympathy in advance, Mr. Merriwell. Of course, you know our boys are going to win to-day. They haven’t lost a game since getting their new suits.”

“Well, it’s about time their streak was broken,” retorted Dick. “I thank you for your sympathy, but hope we will not need it.”

“Oh, but you will! You haven’t seen Jack Ware pitch this year! All the fellows say he is a perfect wizard, and I hear your team is not batting very well now.”

“You may hear almost anything, Miss Dale. I say, Hal, can’t you give us a lift to-day? We need you.”

“Need me!” muttered Darrell in surprise. “Why do you need me?”

“Gardner was taken ill on his way here, and is too sick to play. He is out there, but he says he can’t go into the game.”

“Well, you have a substitute.”

“Yes, but not a man who can fill his place, without shifting the team around, which is a bad thing. I want to keep the boys in their regular positions.”

“Well, you know I am not in practice.”

“You have practiced some. You have been out a few times with the team.”

“All the same, I am not in shape to play, and I don’t care to go into a game and make an exhibition of myself.”

“You will not make an exhibition of yourself. You can play at short if you will, and it will fill the gap left by Gardner. I know you want to see us win this game. You will do this—for old Fardale?”

167“I can’t,” persisted Darrell.

In a moment Doris’ hand fell on his arm.

“Please do, Hal,” she urged anxiously.

He saw a look exchanged between her and Dick, and somehow it made his blood hot.

“What if I go out there and lose the game?” he exclaimed.

“If you do no one can blame you,” said Doris.

“Certainly not,” agreed Dick. “All we can expect of you is that you will do your best for the old school. You can get into Gardner’s suit in time for the game. Come on, Darrell!”

A moment more Hal hesitated, but at last he rose.

“All right!” he half growled. “I will play, but I don’t stand for any kicks after the game.”

He followed Dick from the grand stand, and they were joined by Gardner, who looked pale and ill, indeed. Beneath the grand stand there was a dressing room, and to this they repaired in order that Hal and Earl might exchange garments.

“I am sorry one of your players is ill,” said Bessie Dale. “You will have that as an excuse for your defeat.”

“Not at all!” quickly retorted Doris. “Hal can play as well as Gardner. He might have been a better player if he had kept at it. The team will not be weakened by taking him on.”

“That’s right,” said Zona. “Still, I am beginning to feel as if Fairport might win.”

At this Bessie laughed outright.

“You will feel more so after you see them play a while,” she averred.

168After a short time Dick and Hal emerged from the dressing room and hurried to join the Fardale players. As they walked out Merriwell said:

“I am going to change the batting order to-day, Darrell. Gardner has been batting at the head of the list. He was a good man to lead off. I am going to put you in fourth place, which is a more important position.”

To this Darrell made no reply.

Following is the batting order of both teams as given to the scorers:

Roberts, Macon, and Anson were three new men on the home team; otherwise the team was about the same as it had been the year before.

Preliminary practice on both sides was sharp and snappy, and it keyed the spectators up to a point of intense interest and eagerness.

Five minutes after the time set for the game to begin the umpire walked out to his position and Fairport trotted onto the field.

“Now they start!” exclaimed Zona. “Oh, girls, isn’t it awfully exciting! I am just as nervous as I can be!”

“I can’t blame you,” smiled Bessie Dale in that tantalizing 169manner of hers. “It’s natural you should be.be. But I am not. See how calm and confident I am.”

“How do you feel, Doris?” asked Zona.

Doris could not have described her feelings had she tried. Somehow there was in her heart a sense of doubt and dread. An inward voice seemed warning her that all was not as it should be.

“Play ball!” cried the umpire.

“Now we’re off!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs. “Git right after her, fellers!”

A year before Ware had been rather slender and slight, but in the last twelve months he had developed wonderfully, and was now a rather well-built chap. With the ball in his hands, which were pressed together in front of his breast, he settled himself on his feet with his toe upon the slab.

Barron Black took his place at the plate, and barely was he in position when the Fairport player delivered the ball, which whistled past the batter’s shoulders, so near that the latter was driven back a little.

Warren snapped the ball back to Ware, who sent it in a second time with astonishing quickness, catching Barron slightly off his balance and thus securing a called strike.

Instantly Dick spoke to the players near him on the bench.

“Look out for that trick of his, boys. You saw how he worked it. Don’t let him play that on you. Be ready for the next one when he drives you back with an inshoot.”

With two strikes and two balls called, Black hit a hot one along the ground between Macon and Roberts. 170Macon managed to touch it so that it was deflected and bounded straight into Roberts’ hands.

The shortstop sent it humming across to first, and the leading Fardale batter was out.

“There you are!” shouted the Fairport crowd. “That’s the way we do it!”

“’Ow hunfortunate!” muttered Billy Bradley, as he walked into the batter’s box.

Billy got a wide one and let it pass for a ball. Then came a swift inshoot that made him jump away, and once more Warren snapped the ball to Ware, who instantly returned it.

Bradley had remembered Dick’s cautioning words, and he was not fooled by this piece of business. The ball was a straight, swift one, and he met it with a resounding crack. Out on a line it went, but Roberts thrust up his bare right hand and gathered it in with a—spat!

It was swift and beautiful work, and the crowd had good cause to cheer heartily.

“’Orseshoes!” shouted Bradley, who had dropped his bat and started for first, only to stop suddenly when he witnessed the spectacular one-hand catch.

“Didn’t I tell you, girls!” laughed Bessie Dale.

“You told us,” admitted Doris. “But both of our boys hit your wizard of a pitcher.”

“They hit the ball, but they didn’t get safe hits. Safe hits count, you know.”

“Had that last one been six inches higher Bradley would have made two bases on it,” asserted Doris.

“Oh, yes, if, if!” said Bessie. “But if’s don’t count in this game.”game.”

171Dave Flint took his place to strike.

“Here’s your third victim, Jack, old boy!” bellowed Anson, from first base. “He is just as easy as the others.”

Ware smiled in a confident manner. He threw the first ball straight at Dave’s head, but Flint avoided it with ease. The next one was a drop, and the boy with the scar gently lifted it over the infield for a safe single.

“There! there!” breathed Doris Templeton. “Now you see!”

“Here comes Hal!” exclaimed Zona. “What will he do?”

“Oh, I hope he gets a hit!” exclaimed Doris, her hands pressed together and her anxiety betrayed in her face.

“Jack Ware won’t let him,” retorted Bessie Dale. “Jack never lets any one get a hit off him at a critical time.”

“This isn’t critical yet,” said Zona. “This is only the beginning of the game.”

“That’s true,” nodded Bessie. “If he did get a hit it isn’t likely your team could score off it.”

“Well! well! well! what’s this?” cried Roberts, dancing around in his position back of the base line between second and third.

“Fruit!” roared Anson, stooping and pounding his mittmitt with his fist. “Ripe fruit! Pluck it, Jack, old boy!”

“He’s a pitcher, Ware!” said Macon. “Pitchers can’t hit a house! You’ve got him!”

172“Put them right over the pan!” roared Conway from centre field. “We’re all behind you.”

“He never got a hit in his life,” asserted Crockett. “We have seen him before.”

Now, whatever had been Hal’s intention on walking out to the plate, suddenly a flash of anger came into his eyes and his jaw squared. Ware sent a high one humming past Hal’s head, whereupon the latter looked skyward in a derisive manner.

“Hello! he is an astronomer!” chuckled Roberts. “He is looking for new planets!”

“Fan the astronomer!” shouted Anson.

“Astronomer!” snickered Warren, as he crouched under the bat. “That fits you, old man! You can hit a star easier than that ball!”

Again a high one sped through the air, and again Hal threw his head up in the same contemptuous manner.

“Sus-sus-sus-say,” chattered Chip Jolliby, “don’t you want a sus-sus-sus-stepladder, Darrell?”

“Get ’em down! Get ’em down!” growled Brad Buckhart.

“Keep those men still on the bench, Mr. Umpire!” cried Don Roberts, captain of the home team. “They’re breaking the rules!”

Instantly Dick was on his feet. “You broke the rules first yourself!” he declared. “You have no right to address the batter when he is in the box! If you want to coach your pitcher, coach him; but confine your remarks to proper coaching.”

Instantly there rose a cheer from the small crowd of Fardale spectators. There were others who applauded 173and others who laughed and scoffed. This made no difference to Dick, for he knew his position was right.

The umpire knew it, too, and he turned to Roberts, saying:

“If your team talks to the batter, you can’t object if the players talk from the bench.”

“All right! all right!” snapped Roberts. “We’ll see who can do the most talking to-day. I rather think they will get all they want of it.”

“That’s courtesy!” growled Brad Buckhart. “You hear me chirp! That’s politeness! That’s being used handsomely when we’re away from home!”

“Never mind, old man,” said Dick, as he sat down. “We can stand it if we run against nothing worse than that to-day. I don’t believe there is a man on the team they can rattle by their talk.”

“Darrell is rattled now. Look at him! He is fighting mad!”

“I don’t believe he is rattled, just the same. I think he will hit the ball, even if he doesn’t get a——”

Crack! Hal hit it. He hit it savagely, too, and it went out like a bullet.

Flint was running when bat and ball met, and the speed of the stocky lad as he dashed over second and tore down toward third was surprising to all who did not know his ability.

It was a clean two-bagger, and as Hal dashed down to second he saw Conway gathering up the ball. With the ball in Conway’s hands, good judgment should have stopped Darrell at second base. Flint, however, had crossed third and was trying to score. Darrell became 174ambitious to stretch his two-base hit into a three-bagger, or his anger robbed him of judgment, or perchance, he was reckless of consequences, for he kept on toward third.

Conway lined the ball into Crockett’s hands. Crockett whirled, and a single glance showed him it was too late to cut off the run.

“Third!” rang out Roberts’ clear voice. “Third it!”

On a dead line the ball sped from Crockett’s hands into those of Macon, who put it onto Hal with ease.

This made the third man out.

“Well, of all the fool tricks!” muttered Buckhart, in disgust. “What made him try that? Tubbs was squawking for him to hold second. He lost his head completely.”

Dick said nothing, but somehow a strange feeling of uncertainty came over him. As he walked out to the pitcher’s box he spoke to Hal, slowly shaking his head.

“That was a mistake, Darrell,” he said. “You had a pretty two-bagger. Should have anchored fast at second.”

“Are you beginning to kick so soon?” retorted Darrell in a low tone.

He did not wait for a reply from Dick, but turned his back and sought his position.

“Oh, well! Oh, well!” cried Crockett. “One measly little run doesn’t count in this game. Here’s where we go after a dozen.”

“Dern my picter! I hope you git um!” cried Obediah 175Tubbs derisively. “We’ll stand round and watch yer while yer do it.”

“You see he did get a hit, Bessie!” triumphantly exclaimed Zona Desmond.

“Yes, and I saw him get out at third,” returned Zona’s cousin. “That was fine playing, wasn’t it! What do you think of it, Doris?”

“I am afraid he tried for too much,” confessed Doris.

But in her heart there was another fear, of which she whispered no suspicion.

CHAPTER XVII. AT THE CRITICAL MOMENT.

“Start her up, Crock! Start her up, old boy! Start her up!” cried Roberts, as the first Fairport batter walked out.

“Show us ’ow you do it,” invited Billy Bradley.

“Dern my picter! I am afraid of that dozen runs they are going to git!” piped Obediah Tubbs.

“Put it over, captain, old boy, and see what they will do with it,” urged Bob Singleton.

“Let her sis-sis-sis-sizz!” chattered Jolliby, as he reached centre field. “We’re all watching yer!”

“Put her into the old pocket, pard!” rumbled Buckhart, holding up his big mitt behind the bat.

Dick began with a speedy one, close to Crockett’s knees.

“One ball!” called the umpire.

“What are you trying to do?” muttered Crockett. “Trying to take my props off?”

“Wee! wee!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs, prancing around like a baby elephant. “Near skinned him of his kneecaps that time!”

A high ball followed. To Crockett it seemed as if the ball would pass over the plate level with his shoulders. As he swung to meet it the ball seemed to take a singular outward and upward sweep, and he missed.

“What sort of a curve was that?” growled Anson, who had been watching closely. “Looked like a high out-rise to me.”

177“Out-rise!” sneered Warren. “Who ever heard of an out-rise?”

“Well, that’s what it looked like,” nodded Anson. “You know this fellow has some mighty odd curves.”

“Well, we’re ready for his old jump ball to-day,” retorted Warren. “We’ve practiced to hit a sharp rise, and he will find his jump ball n. g.”

“But you know he has a queer combination rise and drop,” said Milliken.

“Don’t know anything of the kind,” asserted Warren. “It’s an impossibility. The way he delivers a ball makes it seem to rise and drop, that’s all.”

“Well, anyhow, he has the reputation of throwing it,” said Milliken.

Crockett was anxious to start the thing with a hit, and Dick found himself compelled to work cautiously with the fellow, for, even though desiring a hit, the batter was one who refused to be deceived by ordinary methods.

With three balls and two strikes called, the batter and pitcher paused an instant to look hard at each other.

There was a hush.

With his toe on the very outer edge of the slab at one side of his box, Merriwell suddenly rose to his full height in the air, stretched his arm far upward as he brought it over, and the ball left his hand at the moment when he seemed reaching highest in the air. Downward from that height the sphere shot toward the outside corner of the plate, over which it passed about a foot from the ground.

It was a most deceptive ball to strike at, for it 178passed over the plate at least a foot lower than expected by the batter, who swung hard for it and missed.

Buckhart was close under the stick, and the ball plunked into his big mitt.

“You’re out!” declared the umpire.

Crockett retired to the bench, flinging aside his bat.

“Say,” he muttered, “this fellow has some new wrinkles this year. He threw one or two queer ones that time. Did you see that last ball? I don’t know how I missed it.”

“It was a drop, wasn’t it?” asked Anson.

“Drop—nothing! It was a straight ball, but he threw it with his hand stretched high, and it came down at an angle and on a line. Next time I will be watching for it.”

“Well, there’s your first batter gone, Bessie,” said Zona Desmond. “He didn’t hit the ball, did he!”

“They can’t all hit,” retorted Zona’s cousin. “But you watch Dustan! He never strikes out!”

“Oh, doesn’t he?”

“No, indeed!”

“Perhaps he will this time.”

“It will be the first time this year, if he does.”

Dustan was watching for Merriwell’s jump ball, against which all Fairport players had been warned, and for which they had practiced batting against a professional pitcher who could throw a quick rise.

Something led Dustan to fancy Merriwell had thrown the jump at the very start, for the first ball came speeding in almost shoulder high.

179The batter made an instantaneous calculation and struck above the course of the ball.

To his surprise, he swung over it by at least eight inches.

“Hang it!” he whispered to himself. “That was a straight one! If I had known, I might have knocked the cover off!”

Zona Desmond pinched her cousin.

“He didn’t hit it that time,” she said.

“That’s all right,” confidently returned Bessie. “I have seen him get a hit lots of times after two strikes were called on him. It seems to put him on his mettle to have two strikes on him.”

Dustan had a “good eye,” and he refused to wiggle his bat at the next two balls, both of which were wide. Then he saw Merriwell make the same movements as he did on delivering the first ball, and instantly Dustan calculated on another straight one. Apparently he had made no miscalculation, but the ball took a sharp drop just in time to prevent him from hitting it.

“Two strikes!” sang the umpire.

“There he goes! There he goes!” laughed Zona, giving Bessie a little shake. “What do you think about it now?”

“I think just the same,” was the confident answer. “Even if he doesn’t get a safe hit, he will hit the ball.”

“Do you believe he will hit it, Doris?” asked Zona.

Doris did not reply. In fact, she did not hear the question. Her eyes were fastened on Dick Merriwell, and she was deaf to the words of her nearby friends.

“Ye-ee-ee!” squealed Tubbs, once more prancing 180about awkwardly. “What you trying to do, captain? Why don’t you give us fellers a show? We’re all going to sleep out here!”

“Don’t worry, Fatty,” advised a Fairport spectator; “you will have all you want of it before this game is over.”

“Do tell!” grinned Obed. “Won’t that be just splendid! Anybody got a pie in his pocket? I’m hungry.”

“There is a pie in the box doing the pitching,” laughed the same spectator. “Our boys will feed off him before the game is over.”

“Dustan will get a hit now,” averred another watching youth.

Dustan was on his nerve. He set his feet firmly and gripped his bat, while he watched every move made by the Fardale pitcher. He saw Dick go through the motions of delivering a swift ball, and apparently such a ball followed. It came straight enough and seemingly just where the batter wanted it, whereupon he slashed at it. To his unspeakable surprise the ball seemed to halt and hang in the air in such a manner that he struck too soon. Too late he realized this, and his rage caused him to hurl the bat to the ground as he heard the ball strike with the usual plunk in the catcher’s big mitt.

Dustan had struck out for the first time that season.

Zona Desmond actually pounded her cousin on the shoulder.

“There, there!” she palpitated. “What do you think about it now?”

Bessie could not conceal her surprisesurprise and dismay.

181“Why, I don’t see how it happened!” she said.

“You will see lots more things just like that happen to-day,” asserted Zona, whose courage had now risen to the highest point.

“Oh, the game is young yet! Here comes Captain Roberts.”

“And Captain Roberts is third on the list,” asserted the exuberant Fardale girl. “They retire in order this inning.”

Roberts was a first-class hitter, and he connected with the first ball pitched, driving it swiftly along the ground.

Darrell got in front of the ball, but, somehow, he let it go through his hands, and it sped on over the short grass outside the diamond.

A groan came from the little bunch of Fardale boys on the bleachers.

“Wasn’t that a shame!” exclaimed Zona Desmond. “WhyWhy didn’t he stop that ball, Doris?”

Doris shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “You know such things will happen.”

But in her heart the feeling of doubt and anxiety was rapidly increasing.

Roberts, by swift running, reached second, as Darrell had not been backed up by a fielder, and there was some delay in returning the ball to the diamond.

Pausing on second, the captain of the home team shouted with laughter.

“Why didn’t you strike me out?” he derisively inquired.

“Dern your picter!” said Tubbs. “You ought to be 182out! You didn’t get a hit! You made them two bases on an error!”

“But your shortstop never touched the ball.”

“If he didn’t,” said Tubbs, “he ought ter have touched it. There wasn’t anything to prevent.”

Dick caught the fat boy’s eye and shook his head warningly. To Darrell he made no complaint.

Hal was a trifle pale, and he had turned toward Dick as if expecting a reprimand, holding himself ready to retort.

“Right after him, Conway!” cried Roberts, dancing about close to second base. “A clean hit ties the score.”

For the first time, after throwing two called balls to the next batter, Dick tried the jump ball. Of course, he was not aware that the Fairport batters had been putting in special practice at hitting a sharp rise.

This was exactly what Conway had been wishing for, and he hit the ball hard and fair. Out over the infield on a line it sped, somewhat to the right of centre field. Had it been a high fly Jolliby might have secured it. Being a liner, Chip could not get to it, and it went bounding past him. He raced after it, while Roberts came home and Conway went to second.

Conway, like Darrell, fancied he saw an opportunity to stretch the hit into a three-bagger. In fact, he fancied there was a bare possibility he might reach home on it. With this thought in his mind, he passed over second and kept on toward third.

Jolliby caught up the ball and whirled swiftly toward the diamond. He saw that the runner was making for third. To the spectators it did not seem 183that Conway could be prevented from reaching that bag.

Then Chip made one of those famous throws of his. Without losing a moment of time, he sent the ball on a line from his position far out into the field straight to third base. An ordinary thrower would have thrown it in to Tubbs, who was the nearest infielder. Had this been done, Conway must have reached third in safety, but the ball came straight into the hands of Bradley, who caught it about a foot from the ground and quickly put it onto Conway, who had made a slide, under orders from the coacher.

“Out at third!” declared the umpire.

A shout of joy arose from the little knot of Fardale boys.

The score was tied at the end of the first inning, each side having obtained a tally.

“You see, some one else can make the same kind of a mistake, Merriwell,” said Darrell, as he walked in to the bench. “I haven’t heard Roberts kicking at Conway.”

“No one is kicking at you, Darrell,” replied Dick quietly. “It’s all right. You were doing your best, and that’s all any fellow can do.”

Still Hal did not seem satisfied. In truth, strange though it is, he might have been better satisfied had Dick condemned his carelessness in getting put out in the first inning.

Jolliby picked out his pet bat and was ready to take his place at the plate.

“Don’t try any slugging, Chip,” advised Dick in a 184low tone. “Just go after a clean single, or be contented to take a base if you can get it.”

The lanky boy walked into the batter’s box and was ready as Warren crouched behind the stick and gave the signal.

Ware threw three balls in succession without tempting Jolliby to swing at one of them.

“Got him in a hole, Chip!” exclaimed Barron Black. “Make him put it over!”

Chip stood and watched two straight ones cut the plate.

“I wonder if you will dud-dud-dud-do that again!” he stuttered, as he gripped his bat.

“I can try it,” retorted Ware.

Apparently the pitcher threw another straight one, but it was a sharp drop, and Chip missed.

“That’s what a fuf-fuf-fuf-feller gits fer waiting!” he chattered, as he retired in deep disgust to the bench.

“That’s playing the game,” asserted Dick. “Any batter who will swing at the ball after having three balls called by the umpire without any strikes doesn’t know his business.”

“Well, if you’re sus-sus-satisfied,” said Chip, “I don’t sus-sus-sus-suppose I got any kuk-kuk-kuk-kick coming.”

Bessie Dale was laughing.

“You see how easy that was for Jack Ware,” she said. “He is just beginning to pitch now.”

“Oh, he won’t keep that up,” said Zona. “He was careless. See those clouds in the west? I am afraid we’re going to have a shower before this game is over.”

185“Better pray for it to come before five innings are finished,” said Bessie. “If it doesn’t you will lose the game.”

“You’re not ahead of us now.”

“We will be pretty soon.”

Ware did his best to deceive big Bob Singleton, but Bob got in one of his lucky cracks and lined out a beautiful three-bagger. He would have tried to make it a homer, but Dick was on hand at the coach line back of third base and stopped him there.

There was a shout of derisive laughter from the Fairport boys as Obediah Tubbs waddled out to strike.

“Laff! Dern your picters!” shrilled the fat boy indignantly. “Mebbe you will laff out t’other corner of your mouth pritty soon!”

Then, in a desperate endeavor to hit the first ball pitched, Obed swung with such violence that he was thrown off his feet, for he missed entirely. The bat flew out of his hands and sailed into the middle of the diamond, while he fell flat on his back, with a great grunt, as if the breath had been jarred from his body.

At this there was another shout of laughter.

“Pick up the poor little thing!” cried one.

“Hit it where you missed it, Fatty,” advised another.

“Look out for his bat!” shrieked a third. “He’ll kill somebody with it!”

“Ding your old ground!” squeaked Obediah, as he rolled over and awkwardly rose to his feet. “It ain’t solid nohow! It wiggles!”

Roberts gravely brought the bat to Tubbs, presenting it to him with a profound bow.

186“You may not need it,” he said. “It may not do you any good, but here it is.”

“Oh, you think I won’t need it, do you?” piped the corpulent lad indignantly. “Well, I’ll show you!”

When Roberts was again in position,position, Ware once more whistled a ball over, and a second time Obediah struck, missed, and threw his bat. This time it went spinning down toward third, and Macon made a comedy run to get out of the way.

“It’s a plot!” shouted Roberts. “He is trying to kill our team or maim us so we can’t play the game.”

“Drat that bat!” said Obediah. “This is the golldingedest, slipperyest thing I ever got holt of!”

Once more it was returned to him.

Ware was laughing. He regarded the fat boy with derision, fancying Obediah could not hit effectively unless by a blundering chance. This led the pitcher to use a swift straight ball, over the centre of the plate, and what followed caused him to come near collapsing, for this time Tubbs’ bat fell on the ball with a sharp report, and the liner that was driven out could not be caught by any one.

“Laff! Dern your picters—laff!” squealed Obed, as he wildly ran down to first, his short arms held out at an angle from his shoulders and his hands pawing at the air as if seeking to assist in propelling him along.

If any one fancied Obediah would be satisfied to stop at first he was mistaken, for the fat boy streaked on over the bag, darted promptly to the left, and made for second. Conway secured the ball and threw it swiftly to Crockett.

Crockett fancied he would have plenty of time to 187tag Tubbs, for he did not conceive that the fat boy would attempt to slide. Such an attempt, however, Tubbs made, and Crockett tagged him a moment too late, for Tubbs lay with his hand on the bag as he was touched with the ball.

Then the little Fardale crowd rose and cheered in earnest, shouting Obediah’s name.

Singleton had scored on the hit.

When the ball was tossed to Ware he angrily threw it on the ground at his feet and walked around it.

“Talk about your horseshoes!” he growled. “That was the worst accident that ever happened!”

“He! he!” exclaimed Obediah, as he rose to his feet. “Fooled you that time, Mr. Pitcher! You’re pretty slick yourself, but you can be fooled!”

Buckhart was the next batter.

Apparently Ware continued to be very angry, and he did not seem to give much attention to Tubbs. This being the case, Obediah edged off from second, elated over his success and feeling a strong desire to create further enthusiasm by stealing to third.

Suddenly Warren put his hand up to his mask, as if to change it as he crouched under the bat.

Instantly Ware whirled and snapped the ball into the hands of Roberts, who had darted past Tubbs and was in position to receive the throw and tag Obediah before the fat boy could get back to the bag.

The coacher had uttered a cry of warning, but it came too late.

“Out at second!” announced the umpire.

Then the Fairport crowd had a chance to cheer.

188Tubbs looked ashamed and disgusted as he walked from the field.

“Dern my picter!” he kept muttering over and over to himself, paying no attention whatever to the derisive laughter and words of the spectators.

“Carelessness, Tubbs,” said Dick. “You haven’t been trapped that way before this year.”

“And I won’t be ag’in,” promised Obediah.

Buckhart was disgusted by what had happened, but, nevertheless, he hit the ball hard and fair, lifting it far into left field.

After a sharp run, Milliken caught it, and Fardale’s last chance in the second inning had vanished.

In her half of this inning Fairport made a strong bid for a run, getting a man safe on third; but Dick’s pitching proved too much for them, and Ware, the last hitter, went out on a weak pop fly.

“There!” said Zona Desmond, nudging her cousin. “You see we’re one score ahead on even innings! Let the shower come! If it doesn’t hurry too much, I fancy we will be ahead when the game stops. How many innings make a game?”

“Why, five, of course,” said Bessie.

“Then they will have to play three more, or it will be no game. My, I don’t believe they will have time! That shower is coming, and it is coming fast.”

“Your side had a lot of luck that time,” declared Bessie, who was still confident; “but you can’t always make runs by luck.”

“What do you call luck?” asked Zona.

“Why, wasn’t it luck when that big fat boy hit the ball?”

189“I guess not! He’s a good batter!”

“He looks it!” tittered Bessie.

“He is, isn’t he, Doris?”

“What did you say?” asked Doris.

“My goodness! You haven’t opened your lips since the game began! And you don’t even seem to know we’re here! What’s the matter with you?”

“Nothing,” answered the girl questioned. But both her companions could see that there was something the matter.

In the third inning Dick led off with a clean hit. Black sacrificed him to second. Bradley tried hard to line the ball out, but finally fanned.

Ware was of the opinion that Dave Flint was dangerous, and in trying to fool the boy with the scar he finally gave Flint a pass to first.

Again Darrell came up.

Doris Templeton caught her breath.

“Hit it, Hal!” she murmured.

“Oh, he won’t get a hit!” declared Bessie Dale. “He’s a nice fellow, but he can’t hit Jack Ware.”

Hal slashed at the ball in a reckless manner without seeming to use judgment. He missed the first three pitched and was out in such short order that every one was surprised for a moment.

Flint and Merriwell had been left on the bases.

“That’s the time you handed ’em hot, Jack, old man!” cried Roberts.

The home team once more started with the head of the batting order. Crockett refused to be fooled as he had been in the first inning, and finally caught a good one on the end of his bat, lifting it over the infield.

190Tubbs ran back for it, but caught his heel and fell down just as the ball would have struck his hands. Crockett crossed first and saw Obediah wildly pawing around in the grass at his feet in search of the ball. Immediately the runner turned and scudded toward second.

Obed had one eye rolled up toward first, and, as soon as Crockett was well down toward second, which had been covered by Darrell, the fat boy picked up the ball and gave it a snap toward the base without rising to his feet.

Crockett was trapped and would have been in a bad place, but the ball struck on the end of Hal’s fingers and bounded off.

The runner laughed with derisive relief as he reached the bag.

“Why didn’t you take your time, Tubbs?” demanded Darrell. “You had an hour. You snapped that ball so quick I wasn’t ready for the throw.”

Not a word did Obediah retort, but the look on his face expressed a great deal.

Dustan now came up and attempted to sacrifice Crockett to third. In trying to do this the batter made a little slow bunt that rolled along the first base line.

Singleton ran in for the ball, but fancied it would roll foul and paused, letting Dustan go to first. The ball struck a slight rise and rolled over the chalk mark into the diamond, where it finally stopped.

It was a fair hit.

“Well! well! well!” laughed Roberts. “We’re doing it this time!”

191“Talk about ’orseshoes!” exclaimed Billy Bradley. “You must ’ave your pockets full!”

“Pitch the ball! pitch the ball!” cried Roberts, who had observed the rising cloud and feared the shower would break before five innings had been played. “Make him pitch the ball, Mr. Umpire!”

When Dick did pitch the ball Dustan started for second, Crockett having reached third.

Unhesitatingly Buckhart lined the sphere down to Tubbs.

Crockett jumped off third, as if determined to make a dash for the home plate.

Tubbs did not wait for Dustan, who had paused, but returned the ball to Buckhart.

Crockett had whirled and plunged back toward third.

Dustan reached second.

Seeing this, Buckhart snapped the ball to Bradley, who put it onto Crockett, but the umpire declared the man safe.

“There you are!” laughed Roberts. “That was all right, boys!”

There was a muttering of thunder in the west.

Roberts managed to hit a sharp grounder that went out between second and third. It was a clean hit, and on it both Crockett and Dustan scored.

Not one of the home team was out.

“That wasn’t my fault,” said Darrell. “He hit you that time, Captain Merriwell.”

Dick used speed for Conway, who, pretending to make an effort to avoid a close one, permitted himself 192to be hit. Although this seemed apparent, the umpire allowed him to take first.

Macon tried hard for a hit, but Dick was too much for the fellow, and he struck out.

“They’ve sus-sus-sus-stopped right here!” yelled Jolliby.

Milliken slashed away twice without finding anything more than the empty air, which led Roberts to growl at him. The fellow swung by guess at the very next ball, without using the least judgment and really seeming to shut his eyes. What followed was one of those rare accidental hits that are made by incompetent batters. Had the fellow sought to met Dick’s sharp curve, using his best judgment in doing so, it is likely he would have missed cleanly. As it was, he hit the ball and drove it out on a line for two bases, which was as much a surprise to himself as to any one else. Two more scores came in, making four in the third inning for Fairport.

The thunder rumbled nearer.

“Hustle this thing, fellows!” panted Roberts. “We’ve got this game nailed! You can hold them down, can’t you, Ware?”

“Sure!” answered Ware.

“Fan, Anson—fan!” hissed the captain of the home team.

Immediately Anson struck out, and Warren followed his example.

Believing they had the game safely in hand, the home players were doing their best to hurry through five innings.

The visitors saw their design, and Dick urged his 193men to go after the ball earnestly at the beginning of the fourth. Jolliby did his best, but was thrown out at first. Singleton lifted a fly that was captured. Tubbs reached first on an error, and Buckhart lifted a foul back of third that was secured by Macon. Fardale’s chance in the fourth was passed.

The clouds were hanging black overhead now, and a few sprinkles of rain came pattering down.

“What shall I do, captain?” asked Ware of Roberts, as he picked up his bat.

“Fan,” answered Roberts. “Get out just as quick as you can.”

Ware obeyed, and both Crockett and Dustan did the same thing, much to Buckhart’s disgust.

“Waugh!” exploded the Texan. “What sort of an old baseball game is this yere? Are you chaps playing a kids’ game? Why don’t you play ball?”

“That will be all right!” laughed Roberts. “Just you fellows play one more inning. That’s all we want.”

Then, as his team took the field, he again urged them to hold Fardale down.

Merriwell again led off with a handsome clean drive for one bag. Black strained every nerve to get a hit, but popped up an infield fly, on which Dick stuck to first and Barron was declared out.

The raindrops came thicker. There was a flash of lightning, and the thunder rumbled more nearly overhead. Still the spectators lingered, wishing to see that inning through.

Bradley finally got a safe hit, and Flint worked Ware for a pass to first, which filled the bases.

194At this critical point Darrell again came up.

A long hit might tie the score.

Would Darrell make it?

Dick was watching him closely and anxiously. Twice Hal struck, seeming to try hard to hit the ball, but when he swung the third time Dick felt certain he made an effort to miss. He was out.

It depended on Jolliby now. Chip was rather pale as he gripped his bat and took his position. The second ball pitched he hit hard and fair.

At the same moment there was another flash of lightning, and the thunder followed it quickly.

The men on bases ran without stopping to see the result, for with two out there was no reason why they should hesitate.

Conway ran hard to get under the ball, and, as it was coming down, leaped high into the air and caught it.

A great shout of joy arose from the Fairport crowd, for in Fardale’s half of the fifth inning she had made no scores, and Fairport was three ahead.

If the final half could be played out before the rain fell heavily Fairport would win the game.

Roberts shouted for his men to hurry in, and Buckhart rushed to Dick, urging him to delay as much as possible.

“We’re beaten if you don’t, for she’s going to rain in a minute. Hold her up, if you can.”

Then the Texan himself fumbled and fooled with his body protector in adjusting it until Roberts angrily called the umpire’s attention and demanded that Fardale be made to play.

195“Trot out your batter!” said Dick. “We will play.”

“He is waiting,” said Roberts. “Why don’t you go ahead and pitch?”

“Yes, go ahead and pitch!” palpitated Buckhart, suddenly getting under the bat, as he saw Conway in position to strike.

Conway was not the right hitter. Roberts was the man, and Buckhart knew it.

At this point the scorer for the home team discovered the mistake and invited Roberts to hasten into the batters’ box.

Even as he did so, the heavens seemed to open and the rain came down in torrents.

“Time!” called the umpire, and the players scudded for shelter, while the crowd on the bleachers followed their example.

“Now,” said Buckhart, “let her rain thirty minutes! That’s all we ask!”

It did rain thirty minutes. In fact, it rained an hour before stopping, and the umpire declared it no game.

CHAPTER XVIII. CHARGE AND CONFESSION.

Among themselves the Fardale boys confessed that the rain had come just in time to save them from defeat. Of course, many of them were confident they would have won out had it held off until nine innings were played. But had it delayed until the close of the fifth inning the score would have been five to two in favor of Fairport.

“Talk about luck!” growled Don Roberts, as he accompanied Merriwell to the hotel after the rain had ceased. “You fellows certainly had it in that shower. Why, we had the game clinched!”

“You had a five-inning game clinched,” confessed Dick. “You certainly worked hard, Roberts, old man, to play five innings before the rain fell.”

“But, between you and me,” said Don, taking Dick’s arm, “we gained a lap on you through the bad playing of one man on your team. You know whom I mean.”

“I don’t put it onto any one man,” retorted the Fardale captain. “The simple truth is that I was not pitching my game to-day.”

Roberts laughed.

“Our fellows were hitting well, Merriwell; but your shortstop made several bad breaks. The only thing he did during the game was to get that first two-bagger. And he spoiled it by trying to make three bases. I don’t know how it looked to you, but, by 197George! it actually seemed to me that he was trying to throw you fellows down.”

Dick shook his head.

“Darrell isn’t that kind of a chap,” he asserted. “He has always been loyal to Fardale, and there is no reason why he should wish to see us defeated.”

“All right,” said Roberts. “You know best.”

“I had to put him into the game to fill a gap. Our regular shortstop, Gardner, was taken ill.”

“Well, take my advice, don’t fill any more gaps with Darrell. When are we going to play this game off? Of course, we will have to do it some time. We’re confident we can beat you this year, and we don’t want to let the chance slip.”

“Why, I don’t know,” answered Dick. “Our dates are pretty well filled.”

“Then you had better make a date,” grinned Don. “Of course, if you’re afraid——”

“You know better!” retorted Dick quickly. “Let me run over the schedule. Let’s see!”

Then Dick mentioned the games Fardale had to play, and Roberts confessed that for the rest of the season the cadets had their time pretty well taken up.

“We might play you Wednesday,” said Merriwell.

“Next Wednesday?”

“Yes.”

“But we have a game for Wednesday. It is not very important, but we have it arranged. We play a country team from Charlesford.”

“I am afraid that’s the only time we can meet you. If you’re so very anxious to play us, isn’t it possible for you to cancel this engagement with Charlesford?”

198“Of course, we can do that,” admitted Roberts. “It won’t be much of a game, anyhow, for those fellows are not in our class. We made a date with them simply to fill in.”

“Then it looks like an easy matter to cut it out. What do you say, Roberts?”

“I will cut it out, Merriwell, if you fellows will come herehere Wednesday.”

“How about expenses?”

“We will give you the same guarantee as to-day.”

Dick shook his head.

“It won’t do, old man. This rain cut our guarantee in two. According to arrangements made, we can’t afford the expense. If you’re so anxious to play us, you will have to give us a regular guarantee under any circumstances, rain or no rain. We will do this by you if you will come to Fardale.”

“By Jing, Merriwell! we can’t do it! We can’t afford it. We’re running behind now. I am worrying about our bills. You see we had to give rain checks to-day because the game was not finished.”

“Well, if you can’t pay us what we want to come Wednesday, why don’t you accept my offer and take a like amount to come to Fardale? You know you will be treated right there.”

“But the umpire——”

“Bring your umpire, if you want to,” said Dick. “This chap we had to-day was all right. We’re satisfied with him. We will pay his bills, too. It shan’t cost you a cent to bring him.”

Roberts clapped Dick on the shoulder.

“That’s generous, Merriwell!” he exclaimed.

199“That’s a good, square offer! I think we’ll do it. I will try to let you know before you leave. You can’t get a train for an hour. I will see Hoffmore, our manager, and talk it over with him.”

“Do,” urged Dick.

At the hotel the Fardale boys spent the time while waiting for the train in talking over the game.

One of the silent but interested spectators of the game had been Chester Arlington. For once, at least, Chet made himself conspicuous by his retirement. As Dick reached the hotel, however, Arlington stepped out and came face to face with him on the steps.

To the surprise of the Fardale captain Chester said:

“See here, Merriwell, I suppose you’re onto this business to-day? You must have your eyes opened by this time?”

“What do you mean?” asked Dick, unable to repress his surprise.

“Why, it was plain enough to everybody,” declared Chet. “That game was thrown away, or would have been thrown away if it had been played out. You have an idea that I am the only fellow in the school who has ever done anything to injure you. But this very day the fellow you had playing at short did his best to throw you down. I mean Darrell. He wanted to see you beaten.”

“Stop, Arlington!” exclaimed Dick sharply. “You’re not the fellow to make such a charge against any one.”

“It’s the truth,” declared Chet. “Don’t you believe it? Why, you ought to see it’s the truth! You’re not blind!”

“Better not let Darrell hear you,” warned Dick.

200“You refuse to believe?”

“Yes, I refuse to believe any clean, upright fellow like Hal Darrell would stoop to such a trick. There is no reason in the world why he should do it. What was his object? What could he gain by it? Don’t talk to me like that, Arlington! Better keep your mouth shut!”

Chester stared at Dick a moment, then exclaimed:

“You do believe it! I can see you believe it! You just don’t want to acknowledge it! You refuse to acknowledge anything bad about Darrell!”

“Get away from me, Arlington!” commanded the dark-eyed lad. “Don’t come to me with any of your accusations! As I just told you, you are not the chap to accuse any one. I wish to hear no more from you.”

With which Dick passed Chester and entered the hotel.

Now it happened Hal Darrell was sitting at an open window directly above, and he had heard every word that passed between the two boys beneath. At first his face turned pale, and he trembled with rage at Arlington’s charge against him. When Merriwell refused to believe, and defended him vigorously, his face softened and the look of anger turned to one of shame. He drew back a little in order that he might not be seen, yet listened until Dick entered the hotel, leaving Chester on the steps.

Springing to his feet, Hal paced the floor, his hands clinched and his appearance one of intense excitement.

“Arlington was right!” he muttered. “I did try to do it! Merriwell refuses to believe it of me. I ought to be kicked! No matter what he has said about me, 201I had no right to seek revenge in such a manner. I was an idiot! No matter what he has said—how do I know he ever said it? I can’t prove it. I can’t go to him and ask him. I’d like to get away from every one! I am ashamed to look any of the fellows in the face!”

He had changed his clothes, and at the first opportunity he sought to slip out of the hotel, thinking that he would wander off and stay by himself until the time came to take the train. At the outer door he suddenly paused, for on the steps was Chester Arlington, talking to Doris, Zona, and Bessie.

“There wasn’t any luck about it,” laughed Chet. “With proper support Merriwell would have won the game hands down.”

“With proper support!” cried Bessie Dale. “Didn’t he get proper support?”

“Not by a good deal!” retorted Arlington. “One fellow on our team tried to give the game away, and he succeeded pretty well, too. You know him. Miss Templeton—you know him very well. I don’t have to call any names.”

“I don’t want you to call any names!” flashed Doris. “I don’t want to listen to any of your insinuations, sir!”

“Oh, that’s all right,” chuckled Chet. “But I fancy you know enough about baseball so you can see through it, when you think it over. Just take my advice and think it over. Whose bad playing gave Fairport several runs? Who might have won that game with a hit, and didn’t try to hit the ball?”

202Instantly Darrell stepped out, his face livid with rage.

“I presume you mean me, Arlington?” he grated. “Why don’t you make your talk to me? Come out here where we are alone and repeat it!”

Instantly Doris seized his arm.

“No, no, Hal!” she exclaimed. “You shall not fight with him!”

“There’s no way out of it!” declared Hal fiercely. “I’ve got to thrash him!”

“Not now! Not here, Hal! Please come with me! Please walk with me!”

She clung fast to his arm.

Arlington stood with his hands in his pockets, regarding Darrell with a sneering smile. He seemed cool and indifferent.

Doris continued to urge Hal to accompany her, and he finally consented.

“Why should you pay any attention to him?” she asked, as they walked down the street side by side. “No one will believe him.”

“It’s not that,” retorted Hal. “No fellow can stand for such talk about him. Of course, I couldn’t hit him then, with you three girls present, but I’ll get at him.”

“No one will believe it,” persisted Doris. “Let him go ahead and tell it as much as he likes. It can’t hurt you.”

“He told Merriwell something a short time ago. I heard him.”

“But Dick won’t take any stock in it. Dick knows you too well, Hal. He knows you were out of practice. He knows Arlington told an untruth.”

203Hal shook his head.

“Doris!” he suddenly and fiercely declared, “the worst part of it is that Arlington told the truth! I am ashamed of myself! I never did such a thing before. You will despise me now, but I can’t help it. I did try to throw that game!”

She shrank from him, and he saw her face pale.

“That’s right,” he said. “Hate me! Despise me! I deserve it! I don’t suppose you will ever speak to me again?”

“Hal, how could you?” she murmured in distress. “No one else could have made me believe it! I was full of doubts and fears, but I decided it could not be possible.”

“Then even you suspected me? If you did, Doris, certainly all the rest of the fellows must. They will think me a fine sort of chap now! They will put me in the class with Chet Arlington! Any boy who will go back on his school team is a mighty cheap sort of a duffer! Are you going back to the hotel?”

“Not now, Hal,” she gently answered, as she took his arm. “I am going to walk with you. You must tell me just why you did it.”

For some time they walked in silence along the street, coming at length to the outskirts of the village, where they paused opposite an old gate, upon which they leaned. Everything was fresh and green after the shower, and the sweet breath of spring was in the balmy air.

“You know you can trust me, Hal,” said Doris. “And I know you didn’t seek to betray your own team without cause.”

204“But I can’t tell you the reason,” he protested. “It’s better that I should not tell you. It will simply annoy you and hurt your feelings.”

“Instead of that, Hal, I feel confident that it would justify you in some degree in my eyes. How could it annoy me?”

“Because you are concerned.”

“I?” she exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes.”

“How is that possible? Now, you must tell me. I will never be contented until you do.”

Suddenly he turned and faced her, and in his eyes she saw the old-time look of admiration, which he could not conceal.

“Doris, it would have been better for us had we never known Dick Merriwell. You liked me before you met him.”

Quickly her hand fell on his arm.

“I liked you then, Hal, and I like you still.”

“But you are changed.”

“I don’t think so. You can’t seem to understand me, Hal. Frankly I confess to you that I admire Dick, but I like you none the less.”

“Then why have you treated me in such a——”

“Hal, haven’t you any pride of your own? Certainly you have! Do you fancy your father and my father patching up a match between us, just as if we were creatures of wood and stone, and had no minds of our own? That’s what I resented. If that had never happened——”

“And just because of that you are going to treat me as if you detested me?”

205“That is something I have never done. Far from detesting you, Hal—far from disliking you in the least, I have never liked you better than now.”

His face flushed and the eager light in his eyes grew.

“Do you mean it, Doris?” he whispered, bending nearer.

“I mean it, Hal.”

“Then he lied—he lied!” cried Darrell. “You never said it!”

“Never said what?”

“You haven’t heard the gossip at the academy. I didn’t mean for you to hear it. They say this Merriwell boasted of cutting me out with you. They said he told his friends you were glad to be rid of me—you were tired of me. He told them you said so yourself. It was a lie, Doris?”

Her face was a trifle pale now, but she restrained herself and demanded:

“So that was the reason for your doing as you did to-day, Hal? Was that all the reason?”

“No; he said more. He said that he was tired of you. That you couldn’t hold a candle to June Arlington, and he wished to be rid of you. When I heard it I would have fought him, but the one who told me pledged me to secrecy. I have betrayed the secret now to you. I was looking for some excuse to pick up trouble with Merriwell—something that would not involve you. I was ready to do anything to quarrel with him without bringing you into trouble. I fancied he would be furious with me to-day and would take me out of the game. I didn’t believe he would leave 206me in long enough, after seeing me play as I did, to let me lose the game. That would have given me the excuse I sought.”

After a moment’s silence Doris said:

“Hal, I believe you made a serious mistake. Who told you that?”

“I can’t tell.”

“Can’t you tell me?”

“No, not even you, Doris, for I gave my promise I would never breathe the person’s name.”

“Why should you believe such things of Dick Merriwell? You ought to see it is not like him.”

“But you, Doris—don’t you fancy some of these things may be true?”

She turned her head away in order that he might not read the truth in her face. She did not tell him that she had heard the same things, and had been placed in such an embarrassing position that it was impossible for her to learn the truth without sacrificing her pride. She did not confess that her own mind had been filled with doubts and misgivings.

“We should not believe them, Hal, until we know beyond dispute that they are true.”

“If they are—if they are, I will kill Dick Merriwell!” panted Darrell.

She well understood his passionate and revengeful disposition, and felt that he might be led hastily into something he would ever after regret in case he afterward found that the gossip of the school had no real foundation of truth in it. She believed it her duty to prevent him from any rash action and to hold him in check.

207“Hal,” she said, “you must promise me you will have no trouble with Dick—for my sake. I am not blind. I can see through some things. If I have treated you shabbily, it was because of my pride. Let’s forget it. Let’s let things be as they were long ago before we came to Fardale.”

“Do you mean it?” he cried eagerly.

“I mean it, Hal. We will be friends, just as we were of old. If there is a shadow of truth in this gossiping talk, which I don’t wish to believe, Dick Merriwell will soon see that he has made a mistake in thinking I care—I will not speak to him. Promise me—promise me you will not quarrel!”

“I promise, Doris,” he said earnestly. “We must walk back now, for we cannot miss our train.”

When they arrived at the station, however, it was nearly train time, and the Fardale boys were there, while the Fairport lads had come down to see them off. There was a great crowd on the platform.

“Oh, here you are, Doris!” exclaimed Zona Desmond, as with Bessie Dale she hastened to meet her friend. “We have been worrying about you.”

“No need of worrying about me,” laughed Doris. “Hal can take care of me; can’t you, Hal?”

“I think I can,” he declared. And the light in his eyes and the look on his face made such a change in him that Zona was astonished. Not only was she astonished, but suddenly she grew worried; and, at the first opportunity, while Doris was speaking with Bessie, she drew Hal a little to one side and whispered anxiously:

“What have you been telling her? I hope you 208didn’t breathe a word of what I told you. If you did she will never forgive me.”

“Don’t worry,” he retorted. “Whatever I have said, I have not mentioned your name.”

“You mustn’t,” said Zona. “If you do I will never tell you anything else as long as I live, Hal Darrell!”

“It is all right,” he again assured her. “Here comes the train.”

The train drew up at the station, and the Fardale crowd boarded the cars, while the Fairport boys merrily bade them “so-long!”

“We will see you again Wednesday, Merriwell!” cried Don Roberts. “We will finish the game then.”

“And we will give you the handsome trimming you so narrowly missed to-day!” asserted Jack Ware.

“Anticipation is sometimes more satisfactory than realization!” laughingly retorted Dick. “Look out that you are not disappointed Wednesday!”

As the train pulled out the Fairport boys gave a lusty cheer, which was answered from the open windows of the cars.

“Well, by juj-juj-juj-jingoes!” said Chip Jolliby. “I am gug-gug-gug-glad of one thing: We’re not going home bub-bub-bub-bub-beaten.”

“But we did come within a hair of it,” said Barron Black. “If we had not lost Gardner——”

“’Ush, there is Darrell!” cautioned Bradley.

“I don’t care if he hears me!” said Black. “He came as near doing us up to-day as possible, and I don’t believe he wanted us to win.”

“’E’ll fight hif ’e ’ears you,” said the cockney youth.

209“He is too interested in Doris Templeton to hear anything,” asserted Barron. “See how he is laughing and talking with her. Why, I haven’t seen him that way for months! He has been sullen, and sour, and grouchy all the time. What’s come over him so suddenly?”

“Fellers!” piped Obediah Tubbs, rising and waving his fat hands in the air, “I perpose a little music; let’s sing—let’s all sing! Let’s sing some classic air by some great composer!”

Up popped Ted Smart, who had been remarkably quiet.

“What composer is most noted of modern times?” he propounded.

“Give it up,” said some one. “What composer is the most noted?”

“Chloroform!” cried Ted, and promptly sat down.

“Somebody ought to give him a medal, by Jim!” squeaked the fat boy. “Why does your mouth make me think of a tavern door? Give it up? He! he! Because it’s always open.”

“That’s funny!” sneered Ted. “That’s dreadful funny, but you will have to write it out for us. Wait until you have had a square meal. Why isn’t it best to write on an empty stomach?”

“You tell,” invited Tubbs. “You’re so all-fired bright, go ahead and tell why it isn’t best to write on an empty stomach.”

“Because there is plenty of paper to write on,” said Ted serenely.

“Hello, Darrell!” called Dick, “what is the best land for girls?”

210“America,” answered Darrell promptly. “The girls of America beat the world. You couldn’t tell of a better land for them.”

“Oh, yes, I can,” was the reply.

“Name it.”

“Lapland.”

There was a little burst of applause and laughter.laughter. When it subsided Billy Bradley gravely asked:

“’Ow his that? Hi never ’eard there were prettier girls in Lapland than hanywhere else.”

This caused another shout of laughter, and Billy scratched his head in a puzzled manner, trying to discover the cause of the merriment.

Ted Smart looked sad and disgusted.

“See here, Dick Merriwell, you ought to be put in jail for that! That’s stealing! I own the copyright on that conundrum! But I bet you can’t tell the difference between a jeweler and a jailer.”

“One sells watches and the other watches cells,” answered Dick, laughing. “Give us something new.”

“Confound you!” snapped Ted. “If I had a gun I’d use it on you! But, speaking of guns, what does a seventy-four-gun ship and her crew weigh with all on board?”

“What’s the answer?” laughed Dick. “What does she weigh?”

“She weighs anchor,” smiled Ted, satisfied at last.last.

“Great Cæsar!” exclaimed Jolliby. “These are coming fuf-fuf-fuf-fast!”

Immediately Smart bobbed up again.

“Speaking of Cæsar,” he said, “what proof have we that he was acquainted with the Irish?”

211“Hacquainted with the Hirish!” said Bradley. “’Ow was ’e? ’E couldn’t ’ave been!”

“History proves it,” asserted Ted.

“Hi don’t believe hit,” declared Billy. “What’s there in ’istory that proves Cæsar was hacquainted with the Hirish?”

“Why,” grinned Smart, “after he crossed the Rhine, didn’t he come back to bridge it?”

“What ’as that got to do with hit?” snorted the Cockney youth.

“Why, don’t you see, Sir William, he came back to Bridget.”

Again Billy was puzzled and confused. The fact that the boys were laughing simply added to his bewilderment.

“Hi’d like to see one hof your blooming Hamerican jokes that ever had a point to it!” he shouted. “Now, hif you want to get something really funny you hought to read Punch, don’t y’ ’now.”

“I always read a copy just before attending a funeral!” said Smart. “It makes me cry! It makes me sad for a whole day!”

Some one started a song, and the boys took it up. Earl Gardner was the only fellow on the train who did not seem to be enjoying himself. Earl was still ill, and he showed it plainly.

Suddenly, without the least warning, there came a jarring sensation and a succession of crashes. The cars bumped and rocked, and then the entire train left the track and plunged down a low embankment.

It had been derailed!

CHAPTER XIX. THE OUTCOME OF THE WRECK.

Confusion and chaos followed. Dick Merriwell was hurled against the roof of the car as it plunged over into the ditch, and, although he was partly stunned, and lay still, when the crashing was followed by some moments of appalling silence, his wits were not benumbed, and his mind was actively at work. Wondering how badly he was hurt, he sought to drag himself from beneath some of the broken timbers. This was not a very difficult job, and, to his intense relief, he discovered that he seemed to have no broken limbs and apparently had escaped serious injury.

Then all around him suddenly rose screams and shouts of pain and fear. The horror of it was intense, for it seemed certain that many of that gay party had been maimed and killed in the wreck. Dick’s second thought was of the girls. They had been seated a short distance ahead of him on the opposite side of the car, and now he endeavored to find them. He saw before him a muscular youth, who had found the tools always kept for use in such cases, and was already wielding an axe in an endeavor to cut and smash a hole through the side of the car.

It was Buckhart. For once Brad uttered no whoop, spoke no word, but bent every nerve to the task before him.

“Brad!” cried Dick.

213“Hey, pard!” was the retort. “Thank the Lord you’re alive!”

“Doris?” was Dick’s next word. And the sturdy Texan answered:

“She must be right here somewhere, partner. Look for her while I am making a hole to freedom.”

All around them were excited and bruised lads. Some had been cut by broken glass or timbers, and two or three were so frantic that they interfered with Buckhart as he swung the axe.

“Keep them back a moment, Black!” cried Dick. “Brad will open her up and you can all get out.”

Then he continued to search for Doris.

Buckhart was not long in making an opening large enough for the boys to crawl forth. One by one they crawled out at that point, while the Texan turned to look for Dick amid the wreck of the smashed car.

Merriwell found the girl he sought. She had been pinned down by a seat. In the dim light her face showed deathly pale and her eyes were closed. His first thought was that she was dead. But even as he stooped over her with a cry, her eyes unclosed and looked into his.

“Doris!” he exclaimed.

“Dick—oh, Dick!” was her only answer.

In a moment he was doing everything in his power to drag her free. Her skirt was caught somewhere and seemed to hold her fast. He seized hold of it with his hands and gave a mighty pull that ripped her free. Then swiftly, yet with strange gentleness, under such circumstances, he drew her from beneath the seat and lifted her in his arms.

214“Doris, are you badly hurt?”

“I don’t know, Dick. I think I fainted.”

He asked no further questions, for at that moment he found Brad Buckhart with Zona Desmond near at hand. The Texan aided Zona over the débris and enabled her to creep out by the opening he had made. He followed and assisted Doris, Dick coming last.

When they were outside a scene of terrible confusion met their gaze. All around them were excited boys and appalled men and women. A few cool-headed ones were working steadily to rescue from the wreck those who still remained in it. At a little distance lay several who had been injured.

From the overturned engine a cloud of steam and smoke arose. The express and baggage car were piled on top of the locomotive.

As he gazed on the spectacle, Dick found himself wondering that so many had escaped. He thought of his friends, and near at hand he saw Chip Jolliby with a bloody cheek, yet apparently otherwise unharmed.

Dave Flint had a blood-stained handkerchief tied about his wrist, while Obediah Tubbs sat on the ground and tenderly clung to his fat stomach, complaining that some “dern fool” had kicked all the wind out of him.

Doris clung to Dick.

“Isn’t it awful?” she shuddered.

“Who is missing?” was Merriwell’s question.

“Hi believe almost everybody got out, don’t y’ ’now,” answered the familiar voice of Billy Bradley.

“Hal!” exclaimed Doris—"where is Hal?"

215“Has anybody seen Hal?” Dick demanded.

No one had seen him.

“Great tarantulas!” burst from Buckhart. “I opine he must be in there now, pard!”

Even as the Texan uttered these words, Dick thrust Doris Templeton upon him and plunged back into the wreck, though the express car was afire and the flames were spreading rapidly.

“I’m with yer, partner!” shouted the Texan; but Dick paused long enough to order him to remain and look after the girls.

To those waiting Merriwell’s reappearance every minute seemed an hour. When he could stand it no longer, Brad surrendered the girls into other hands and started to crawl back into the car. He had not entirely disappeared from the view of those outside before he found Dick, who was assisting Hal to get out. Darrell had been shocked senseless, and there was a bad scalp wound on his head, from which blood trickled down one side of his face.

“There you are, pard!” exultantly cried Buckhart. “Let me give you a lift.”

“Clear the way!” answered Dick. “You can help us move. We’re all right, aren’t we, Darrell?”

“Yes, yes,” muttered Hal thickly. “Where is Doris?”

“She’s all right. I took good care to look after her. She’s outside.”

“Hurt?”

“I don’t think she is hurt a bit.”

“Thank God!” said Hal.

When Doris saw him, as he crept forth with his 216face blood-stained, she uttered a scream and hastened to him.

“Hal! Hal!”

He looked at her and smiled.

“Well, you are all right!” he exclaimed thankfully. “Dick told me the truth.”

“But you—you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing but a scratch. Don’t worry about me.”

“I am so glad, Hal—so glad!” she sobbed joyfully. “Isn’t it just marvelous we escaped?”

“It’s a wonder every one on the train wasn’t killed.”

It was, indeed, a wonder. Still, among them all, the fireman was the only one who lost his life. The engineer escaped with scarcely a scratch. The expressman had a broken leg, and others were injured, yet none very seriously. The marvelous escape of so many from such a terrible disaster caused no end of newspaper comment and wonderment.

There was plenty of excitement at Fardale when news of the catastrophe reached that place. A special train had been made up and sent to the relief of the victims, and this train took the Fardale passengers back to town some three hours behind time.

As it drew up at the station, those on board looked out on a vast crowd packed on the platform and banked back beyond it, until swallowed by the darkness. It seemed that, besides the academy boys, every man, woman, and child in the village was there.

When the train stopped Dick Merriwell was almost the first person to appear on the platform of the car. At sight of him a wild roar of joy went up from 217the cadets. The lights fell on their upturned faces, and he saw them fling their hands into the air as they hoarsely shouted his name. It gave him an indescribable thrill.

“There he is, boys!” howled one of the cadets, with a powerful voice. “There’s Dick Merriwell! He’s all right!”

“Merriwell! Merriwell! Merriwell!” they shrieked.

Dick lifted his hand, and in a few moments their shouting died away.

“Fellows,” he cried, in that clear, musical voice of his, “it gives me unspeakable happiness to inform you that we are all all right. Not one of our party was seriously injured.”

This set them wild again, and they cheered each person who emerged from the car. As the fortunate ones descended the steps to the platform they were seized and hugged, one after another. Some of those excited boys actually shed tears. It seemed that their emotions must quite exhaust them when Hal Darrell made his appearance, a blood-stained handkerchief about his head and Doris clinging to his arm. The yell that went up then was even louder than anything yet.

Somehow, in a slight lull, Ted Smart made his shrill voice heard.

“There’s our mascot!” he shrieked. “She gave us luck! ’Rah for Doris Templeton, the mascot of Fardale! All ready!” he cried, dragging himself up the car steps and lifting his arms. “All together now!”

For the first time the cadets cheered in unison, guided by Ted’s jerking arms.

218“’Rah! ’rah! ’rah! ’Rah! ’rah! ’rah! ’Rah! ’rah! ’rah! Doris Templeton! Doris Templeton! Doris Templeton!”

Then Zona was seen, and they cheered for her.

Mrs. Arlington and June had been sitting in a carriage close to the platform, with a great crowd packed around them. The face of the woman was pale and anxious, but it brightened as she saw her son, apparently unscathed, descend from the train.

Without pausing to say anything to her mother, June left the carriage, and the boys made a passage for her so that she reached her brother.

“Chester, you’re not hurt?”

“Not a bit, sis,” he answered.

“Then go quickly to mother. She is in the carriage there, and she is almost distracted.”

Leaving him, June turned and flung her arms about Doris.

“Oh, I’m so glad!” she panted. “Even after the message came that no one from Fardale had been seriously injured we were in doubt, and almost died from anxiety. Weren’t you hurt a bit, Doris?”

“I think my side was bruised a little, that’s all.”

“And Zona?”

“She says she was not hurt.”

“Come, both of you—come to the carriage.”

Mrs. Arlington was urging Chester to get into the carriage.

“My poor boy!” she said, her hands trembling. “It was a terrible shock to me when I heard about that wreck. But it didn’t seem right that my boy could be killed if any one else escaped. Get in, Chester.”

219“Oh, say, mom, don’t drag me off in this old turnout! I want to stay with the gang. They will march back to the academy, and I want to march with them.”

“You have changed so! You are so different, Chester! Why, you even seem to enjoy the company of these common boys!”

“That’s all right, mom. After a narrow squeak like this there is bound to be things doing, and I propose to keep with the push.”

By this time June, with Doris and Zona, returned to the carriage.

“What are you doing, child?” asked Mrs. Arlington grimly. “Have you completely forgotten your brother?”

“Not by any means, mother. I found he was unhurt, and then I thought of some one else. I wish to take my friends home with me.”

“That’s the talk!” exclaimed Chet. “Get right in, girls! Take them right along, mom!”

Mrs. Arlington said nothing more, and Chester almost lifted each one of the girls into the carriage. They lingered a few moments to witness the joyous demonstration on the platform and listen to the cheering of the cadets.

“If we’d known you were all in such good shape,” said Anson Day, “we would have brought the band.”

At length, when the confusion had subsided somewhat, the cadets formed near the station, with the ball players at the head of the procession, and away they marched, followed by the immense crowd. One of the leaders struck up “Fair Fardale,” and every boy 220in the ranks took up the song. Singing thus, and followed by the laughing villagers, scores of whom found their eyes dimmed with blurring mists, the boys paraded the main street of the village and finally turned toward the academy.

CHAPTER XX. DICK’S CONFIDENCE.

The following day Earl Gardner was ill in bed. Among the others, although more serious results had been anticipated, no one was laid up. True, some of them were stiff and lame, but all were up and about.

Late in the afternoon, while Dick was alone in his room, there came a knock on his door, and Darrell entered.

“Hello, Hal!” cried Dick. “Sit down, old man.”

Darrell seemed strangely awkward and ill at ease.

“They tell me Gardner is in bed,” he said.

Dick nodded.

“Yes; I am afraid he is in for a sick spell. It’s lucky none of the rest of us are in bed. How’s your head, old man?”

“Oh, I’d hardly know anything had happened to it. Just cut my scalp a little, that’s all.”

“It looked pretty serious for you when I found you covered with blood in that mess, Hal.”

“I came to speak about that, Merriwell. They tell me you crawled back into that wreck after every one save me was out of it. You did that for me, and yet you must have known——”

He stopped, biting his lip.

“Go ahead, Hal,” urged Dick. “I must have known—what?”

“Well, you know what happened in that baseball 222game. You saw the kind of a game I put up, didn’t you?”

“Of course.”

“What did you think of it?”

“You were out of practice.”

“Oh, you know I didn’t play like that just because I was out of practice. See here, Merriwell, I am disgusted with myself! You’re a white man, and I feel like a cur!”

“That’s a bad way to feel, Darrell,” said Dick.

“But that’s just the way I do feel. You must know that it is a blamed hard thing for me to come here and tell you this, but I have thought it all over, and I made up my mind to do it, no matter how hard it was. Merriwell, I was sore on you Saturday. I can’t explain just why, but I was dead sore. I didn’t expect to stay in that game long enough to lose it for you. I thought you would take me out. Frankly and squarely, I was looking for trouble. Had you put me out of the game it would have given me the excuse I sought.”

“I am sorry to hear you say this, Darrell. Why should you have to pick up trouble with me? There was a time when we did not pull together very well, but I fancied that time was passed.”

“So did I.”

“But now——”

“I tell you I can’t explain it, for certain reasons,” said Hal; “but I frankly confess I acted the part of a cheap duffer. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself, and that’s why I came to you to ask your pardon. But for that shower I would have lost the game for 223Fardale. And to-day I’d be in the depths of remorse. I am conscience-stricken as it is. What can they think of me? I know the fellows are not all fools. They must have seen through my wretched work. I am certain they did, for some of them have given me the scornful eye. They have no confidence in me. You can have no confidence in me.”

Dick arose and advanced to Hal’s side. The latter was sitting now, with his elbows on the table and his head on his hand.

“You’re mistaken, old man,” said Dick gently. “I still have confidence in you.”

Darrell looked up quickly.

“Is it possible?” he asked.

“Why shouldn’t I?” exclaimed Dick. “A fellow who has manhood enough to confess a mistake or a fault is just the sort to win my confidence. You come here like a man and acknowledge your mistake. I suspected you before that, and yet I hated to believe.”

“I knew you couldn’t help suspecting me. I am always doing some confoundedly foolish thing! I have a miserable disposition, Merriwell. I can’t seem to control it at times.”

“A chap who recognizes his own weaknesses and fights against them stands a good chance to win. The one who can’t see his failings, or refuses to see them, is the fellow who fails.”

“Perhaps that is right.”

“I know it is right, Darrell.”

“Still, even now you wouldn’t give me another show? You say you have confidence in me; but, 224knowing as much as you do, would you dare put me into the game against Fairport?”

Dick stood squarely before his visitor.

“Darrell, you can play baseball, and I know it. I was sorry when you refused to come out with the others this spring. We lost a good man in you. Gardner is ill, and it seems likely now he will not be able to play Wednesday. Do you want to fill his place?”

Instantly Hal sprang to his feet.

“Do I?” he exclaimed. “You bet your life I do! But you won’t use me? It isn’t possible.”

“Come out for practice to-morrow,” urged Dick. “We will have Monday and Tuesday to practice, and you may be able to improve some in that time. If you can get into your old form you will be all right.”

“And Wednesday?” questioned Hal.

“If Gardner is not in condition to play Wednesday you shall fill his place.”

Hal seized Dick’s hand.

“Merriwell,” he chokingly exclaimed, “you’re the whitest fellow in the world! I will never again believe any gossiping lies about you.”

“So you have been hearing gossip of some sort, have you?” questioned Dick. “Well, never mind; I don’t wish to hear it myself. The quickest way to kill gossip is to scorn it.”

“Not always,” asserted Hal. “In some cases a fellow has to find where it started and choke it off there.”

There was no small surprise among the cadets when Darrell appeared on the field the following afternoon 225in a baseball suit. Already it had been whispered about that, through his deliberate crookedness, Fardale had nearly lost the game at Fairport. If Darrell observed the indignant glances bestowed upon him he made no sign.

That night Anson Day stopped Dick near the gymnasium.

“See here, Captain Merriwell,” said the chairman of the athletic committee, “I have a question to ask you.”

“All right,” smiled Dick. “Ask away.”

“You used Darrell in practice to-day, I observed.”

“Yes.”

“Do you trust him?”

“Yes.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“But, great Scott! you’re not blind, and the boys are saying that Darrell tried to throw the game at Fairport. Didn’t you see anything suspicious?”

“No matter what I saw, Day, I am satisfied that Hal Darrell is loyal to Fardale and will do his level best to win if he plays Wednesday.”

“Then you mean to play him, do you?”

“Some one must fill Gardner’s place.”

“There are others.”

“No other man as good as Darrell.”

“I am afraid you’re making a mistake, Merriwell,” said Day, seriously shaking his head. “I am not the only one who thinks so.”

“Wait. Wednesday you shall see that I am making no mistake. Darrell will prove it.”

CHAPTER XXI. DARRELL REDEEMS HIMSELF.

Never had any visiting team been more confident of success on Fardale field than was Fairport when she faced the cadets on Wednesday. The assurance of her supporters was demonstrated by the large number of rooters who came with the team.

Both sides lined up for the contest just as they had on Saturday. For Fardale, Darrell was again at short, in spite of suspicions and doubts.

Fairport went first to bat.

“No shower to-day!” laughed Roberts, as Crockett walked out to the plate, his bat on his shoulder. “There will be no such good luck for poor old Fardale!”

“Dern your picter!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs. “Mebbe you will be wishing for a shower before this game is over.”

Dick was in the pitcher’s box.

“Right off—start right off, captain!” cried Black, from left field.

“Put hit hover!” urged Billy. “’E can’t ’it hanything!”

“Try his eye, old boy—try his eye!” urged Darrell.

“He is a mark,” averred Singleton.

“Right there, pard—right there!” said Buckhart, holding up his mitt.

227Chester Arlington and Mel Fraser were sitting side by side. Chester smiled derisively, and observed:

“For a dead cold fact, Merriwell beats anything I ever saw. I reckoned he would be furious with Darrell, but he is letting the fellow into this game. Wouldn’t that give you chilblains?”

“Do you suppose he knows what Darrell tried to do?” asked Mel Fraser.

“Oh, he has sense enough to know that!”

“Then why has he given him another show?”

“Ask me! I will never tell. There they go!”

Dick delivered the first ball and Crockett fouled it.

“That’s touching him!” chuckled Roberts. “You’ll hit it on the trade-mark next time, Crock!”

The batter did hit the next ball, but it was one of those exasperating pop flies which fell into Bradley’s hands, and Crockett retired to the bench.

“Start us off, Dustan!” urged Roberts. “Give us a hit here! Let’s clinch the game in the first inning.”

Up popped Ted Smart on the bleachers.

“Please don’t make too many runs in the first inning!” he entreated. “Please don’t make more than ten or fifteen runs in this inning! Just give us a little show! Don’t bury us at the very start! It isn’t fair.”

Dustan proved to be a good waiter and finally compelled Dick to put the ball over. He then sent a swift one skimming along the ground, and Tubbs failed to stop it. It was a safe hit.

“Here we go!” yelled Milliken, as he capered down to the coaching line. “We’re off! We’re off!”

“Don’t mind that, captain,” said Darrell. “It doesn’t amount to anything!”

228Roberts was ready to strike.

“I wish he’d drive a hot one down to Darrell!” muttered Arlington. “You’d see Darrell let it go. I will bet my life on that.”

Even as he spoke he had his wish. Roberts hit a savage grounder in Darrell’s direction. It was not straight at Hal, but some distance to one side. Apparently it could not be touched, although Darrell made a spring for it.

“Clean hit!” burst from Arlington.

A second later he gasped in astonishment, for Darrell had flung himself at full length on the ground, with one hand outstretched, and stopped the ball. Not only did he stop it, but it stuck fast in his fingers, and he sat up instantly with it in his possession.

Without making an attempt to rise, Darrell snapped the ball to Tubbs, who had covered second.

Dustan was off first and away toward second even before bat and ball met. Nevertheless, Darrell’s astonishingastonishing stop and snap throw to Tubbs was so rapidly performed that Dustan was out “on a force.” He saw this and remained on his feet in an endeavor to bother Tubbs so he could not throw to first; but Tubbs sent the ball whistling past the fellow’s ear so close that Dustan felt the wind from it.

Straight into Singleton’s big mitt sped the ball, and then the umpire was heard crying:

“Out at second! Out at first!”

Darrell’s astounding stop of that hot grounder had enabled him to take part in a most brilliant double play. Those who had expected to see Darrell do something quite different were electrified. Instantly 229the cadets burst forth into a cheer over this sensational piece of work.

“Well, what do you think of that?” gasped Mel Fraser, nudging Arlington.

Chester sat still a moment without replying, but finally said:

“He’s got a long head on him. He did it to fool them. Just wait and see if he doesn’t do something to lose this game before it is over. He will if he has a chance.”

Zona, Doris, and June were together in the grand stand, and apparently Hal’s play had filled them all with the greatest enthusiasm and admiration.

“Wasn’t it splendid!” breathed Doris, her eyes shining.

“I didn’t think he could stop it,” confessed Zona.

“I don’t see how he did stop it,” asserted June. “I thought it was past him before he flung himself on the ground.”

“And then the way he threw it without getting up!” laughed Doris. “Oh, Hal! I am proud of you!”

“I wish we had Bessie here,” said Zona. “We’d show her to-day!”

Fardale came in to the bench, and Dick walked at Hal’s side.

“That was one of the finest stops I ever saw, Darrell,” he said.

“Thank you,” answered Hal. “I was afraid I couldn’t get it.”

“And I never had an idea you could touch it; but you did, and that double play was a fancy one.”

At first Don Roberts had seemed too astounded to 230say anything; but now, as he took his position on the field, he cried:

“That’s all right, fellows! They can’t have that rabbit’s-foot luck all through the game. Just get right after them now!”

Jack Ware threw a few swift ones to Anson to limber up his arm. As Black reached the plate and took his position, Ware whirled and delivered the ball.

It was a swift, high one, and Barron did his best to meet it, but failed.

“One strike!”

Behind Ware the visitors chattered away like a flock of magpies.

“Keep him fanning, old boy!”

“Put ’em right over!”

“He can’t touch you!”

“He’s fruit! He’s fruit!”

“Got your speed to-day, Jack!”

“Oh, what fancy work!”

Ware worked carefully with Black until three balls and two strikes were called. Suddenly he delivered that big out-rise, and, believing it was a straight ball, Barron made the mistake of swinging for it.

“You’re out!” declared the umpire, as the ball plunked into Warren’s mitt.

“That’s the first one, Jack!”

“Got him easy.”

“The others are just as easy!”

“Keep ’em going.”

“They will never touch you to-day.”

“Let’s see ’ow ’e does hit!” muttered Bradley, as he 231got into position. “Let’s see hif ’e can do the same trick with me!”

It began to seem that Ware would repeat the performance with Bradley, for Billy slashed at the first ball and missed it, then let the second one pass, only to hear a strike declared.

“Got him in a hole!” shouted Roberts. “Got him foul, Jack, old boy!”

As two strikes and no balls were called, the Fairport pitcher immediately began to try to “work” Billy. Bradley was wise, and, although he pretended to be eager to get a hit, he let the bad ones pass. In this manner three balls were called in succession.

“Make him put it over this time, Bradley!” cried Dick.

Ware faced the alternative of putting the ball over the plate or letting Billy “walk.” Knowing this, he endeavored to get one over; but, as often happens with the best of pitchers, he failed. Bradley declined to swing and was given a “pass.”

Flint strode out to the plate.

“Dern their picters!” squealed Obediah Tubbs, prancing up and down on the coach line back of first. “We’ve got ’em guessing now! Get a lead, Bradley. Let him throw it over. He can’t catch you in a year.”

In order to hold the runner close to first, Ware snapped the ball over to Anson twice before delivering it to the batter. When he did deliver it he tried a drop.

Now Flint was a bad man to deceive with a drop. 232When he got under one and hit it, he always lifted it a wonderfully long distance.

Knowing the batter’s ability for heavy hitting, the fielders had fallen back as soon as he came to the plate. Flint smashed the first ball a fearful crack, and away it slid toward the outfield.

“A fence ball!” shrieked Tubbs, in delight. “Git up and git, Bradley!”

Fearing the ball might be caught, Billy lingered near first; but now he fancied there was no chance that the fielder would capture it, and away he scooted.

Running in the same direction as the ball, Conway turned at the critical moment, looked over his shoulder, and saw it coming. He leaped high in the air and caught it. By this time Bradley had crossed second, and he was astonished when he heard Jolliby yelling at him from the coaching line near third.

“Gug-gug-gug-go back! Tut-tut-tut-turn round! He’s gug-gug-gug-got it!”

Stopping as quickly as possible, Bradley turned and saw Conway preparing to throw the ball into the diamond. Although Billy literally tore up the chalk along the base line in his endeavor to get back to first, he did not succeed, for the ball reached Anson’s hands ahead of him, and three men were out.

Neither side had scored in the first inning.

The five innings following were quite as exciting, and still neither side was able to get a man around the bases and across the rubber. It was not entirely a pitchers’ battle. At times both teams hit the ball, but the fast playing kept either Fardale or Fairport from scoring a tally. In critical moments Dick rose 233to the occasion, and his masterly pitching prevented the enemy from obtaining their object.

Jack Ware was also doing clever work. The home players came up time after time with determination in their eyes, resolved to bat out a victory. And time after time Ware, by his clever headwork, prevented them from accomplishing their purpose.

Hal Darrell had a remarkable number of “chances,” and he accepted them all. Indeed, his playing was one of the features of the game.

This remarkable work by Hal disturbed Arlington’s nerves and aroused his resentment.

“Well, look at the lobster! I believe he is actually trying to redeem himself for his rotten playing at Fairport.”

“He is not only trying,” said Fraser, “but he is doing it. The boys were all against him at the beginning of the game, and now they are all with him.”

Doris Templeton’s heart was beating with keenest satisfaction and joy. To her ears the cheers for Darrell were sweetest music.

“Just see, Zona!” she finally exclaimed. “Isn’t he doing splendid to-day?”

“Who? Brad?” asked Zona, who had been watching the clever work of the sturdy backstop from Texas.

“No! I mean Hal.”

“Oh, yes,” answered Zona. “He is playing a great game to-day. Don’t you think so, June?”

“I don’t believe I ever saw him pitch better,” said June.

234“Pitch?” cried both girls. “Why, he isn’t pitching! He is playing shortstop.”

“Oh!” exclaimed June, getting quite red. “I—I mean—I mean I never saw him play better.”

But she did not deceive her companions. Both knew who had chained her attention.

In the seventh inning, after striking out Conway, the first batter, Dick saw Macon drive a hot grounder through Bradley and make two bags on the cockney youth’s error.

Immediately the Fairport rooters rose to their feet.

“This is the fatal seventh!” shouted one. “Here’s where we do the trick!”

This was followed by the Fairport cheer, and Milliken, the tall left-fielder, managed to connect with one of Dick’s drops, lifting it over the infield.

It was a safe hit, but should have carried Macon no farther than third base. Tubbs secured the ball and made a quick throw in an endeavor to nip Macon at third. Bradley was not expecting the throw, and did not see the ball until it was close upon him. He put up his hands, but misjudged it, and it struck his fingers without being stopped.

Billy was after the ball in a twinkling, but Macon saw his opening and scudded for the home plate. When Bradley caught the ball he made a desperate effort to shut the run off, but threw low, and on a bad bounce the sphere got past Buckhart.

Already Milliken had raced down to second, and now he pranced on to third, amid the wild cheering of the visitors.

235“Blocked ball! Blocked ball!” was the shout. “Come home, Macon!”

The runner had paused at third, and now Buckhart whistled the ball to Dick, who remained in the box. At the same time Brad rushed back to the plate. Milliken fancied he saw his chance to score before Merriwell could return the ball to Buckhart, and he did his best to add another run to the one already obtained.

The Texan flew over the ground with giant strides. He got into position behind the bat and received the swift one that Merriwell sent humming into his mitt.

Macon threw himself forward in a desperate and beautiful slide for the rubber. At the same moment the stalwart catcher made a headlong dive at the runner and tagged him a moment before his hand reached the plate.

Merriwell had made no mistake in permitting Fairport to bring her umpire to Fardale. This fellow knew his business, and he was within eight feet of the plate when Brad tagged the sliding runner.

“You’re out!” he shouted.

Although the decision was rather close, there was no question about its justness, and the surprising success of this quick work brought a sharp cheer from the relieved cadets.

“Splendid work, Brad, old man!” laughed Dick, who had also dashed forward.

“Splendid work!” growled the Texan. “What were those crazy galoots shooting at? The way they threw the ball round was a howling shame! They simply presented Fairport with a run!”

236“That can’t be helped, Brad.”

“Mebbe not, pard; but this is the kind of a game that one run may win.”

“We haven’t had our turn yet.”

“You will never get it to-day,” chuckled Anson, who was at bat.

“That’s what you think,” smiled Dick. “Fardale always has a show sometime during the game.”

Obediah Tubbs was walking round and round second base, a look of unspeakable disgust on his fat face.

“Be careful about careless throwing, boys,” was all Dick said in the way of a reprimand.

“Well,” said Mel Fraser, nudging Arlington, “they have scored at last.”

“Yes,” retorted Chester sourly; “but it wasn’t Merriwell’s fault, and it wasn’t Darrell’s fault.”

Encouraged by what had happened, Anson tried hard for a hit; but now Dick used both speed and curves, and Fairport’s lusty first baseman vainly fanned the air. The visitors were compelled to be content with one run in the seventh.

“Hold ’em down, Ware, my boy!” urged Roberts. “Let every man play for his life! We have them where we want them.”

In truth it seemed that Ware meant to hold Fardale down, for in the last half of the seventh he permitted only three hitters to face him, and only one of them connected with the ball. This fellow drove a weak grounder into the diamond and was thrown out before he could get much more than halfway to first. 237In the eighth Fairport again made a strong bid for a run; but, although one of the visitors reached second on a scratch hit and an error, he got no farther.

Jolliby was the first batter in the last half, and he brought the home crowd up in a twinkling with a beautiful line drive for two bags.

With his massive “slugger” in his hand, big Bob Singleton followed Chip to the plate.

Singleton hit the second ball pitched, and it went straight up into the air a most astounding distance. As it came down Warren found the task of judging it a most perplexing one. The ball twisted off to one side, and all fancied the Fairport catcher could not touch it. He made a sidelong spring, however, and it plunked into his big mitt. Singleton was out.

“Dern my picter! It’s up to me!” squeaked Tubbs, as he waddled out.

Ware knew Obediah was one of those erratic hitters who did the most surprising things at the most unexpected times, and now he tried hard to strike the fat boy out. Obed saw what the pitcher was endeavoring to accomplish, and wisely held back until Ware was forced to put the ball over. Then Tubbs fell on one of the swift ones, and away it flew into left field.

Milliken’s long legs carried him in front of the ball, and he held it. Without delay he lined it to Macon, and Jolliby was compelled to remain at second.

“That’s where you do it!” triumphantly shouted one of the Fairport crowd. “That’s where you surprise us!”

“’Old hon!” said Billy. “We ain’t done yet, don’t y’ hunderstand!”

238Never in his life had Buckhart been more anxious for a hit. The very fact that he was so keenly anxious caused him to be deceived on the third strike by Ware, and he swung at a bad one. When he realized what had happened the Texan hurled down his bat in chagrin.

Fairport now had her last opportunity at bat, but her best hitters were easy for Merriwell, who was in his finest form. They were quickly retired, and the home team came to the bench.

Dick was the first hitter.

“Tap it out, captain,” urged Black, “and I will sacrifice you to second.”

Merriwell made no reply, but walked to the plate and dropped a clean hit over the infield.

On the instant the cadets were all up, cheering madly.

Black “made good” and cleverly sacrificed Dick to second.

“They are working hard for a run, Jack, my boy!” laughed Roberts, “but they will never get it off you! This game ends one to nothing!”

“Dern my picter!” cried Obediah Tubbs. “I wisht I thought it!”

But when Bradley failed to touch the ball in three efforts, and was out, all knew the situation was more than serious for Fardale.

The hopes of the cadets now centred on Flint.

Dave cracked a fierce one along the ground at Roberts. The captain of the visiting team made a dive for it, got his hands on it, but did not stop it cleanly. In fact, it got through him a distance of four or five 239feet before he could pick it up. Flint was on first and Merriwell had safely reached third.

“Darrell!” was the shout, as Hal walked out. He was almost deathly pale, but his hands were firm as iron as they gripped the bat.

His pallor was no more intense than Chester Arlington’s, who stood watching him near the grand stand.

Hal let the first ball pass, although it was straight over. He did it that Flint might get down to second, and Dave improved the opportunity. Warren made a bluff of throwing to Crockett, but simply returned the ball to Ware.

“A clean hit wins this game, Arlington,” said Mel Fraser.

“And this is Darrell’s time to throw Merriwell down,” returned Chester. “He will do it, too.”

When Hal swung and missed the next ball Chester was more confident than ever that the result he predicted would follow.

With two balls and two strikes called Hal went after one of Ware’s high straight ones. He met it full and fair and drove it on a line into the outfield. No fielder could reach it, and pandemonium followed, for Merriwell and Flint came home, and Darrell had won the game with a handsome two-bagger.

When the shouting cadets poured onto the field and made a rush toward the players they found Dick Merriwell at Darrell’s side. Dick was patting Hal on the shoulder and softly saying in his ear:

“Well done, old man! You redeemed yourself nobly to-day!”

CHAPTER XXII. AN INQUISITIVE STRANGER.

In a train, bound for Fardale, sat a peculiar-looking man and a hunchback boy. The man was “Cap’n” Wiley, sometimes known as the marine marvel, an eccentric individual who claimed to be a sailor. Wiley had met Frank Merriwell, while the latter and his friends had been playing baseball in the West.

The boy was known only as Abe. He had been reared amid wild and reckless men, in a Western mining camp, where Frank had first seen him. The boy’s helplessness, and his apparent superiority to his surroundings, had interested Merriwell, who, learning that he had absolutely no relatives, so far as he knew, assumed charge of the boy, and started to bring him East with him.

Wiley, for years a world-rover, had decided to visit his old home in Maine, and had joined Frank on his eastward journey. On reaching Kansas City, Frank had been called to St. Joseph on business, and had left the boy in charge of the sailor; and to explain their presence on the Fardale train, and the events which followed, it will be necessary to follow them from the West.

As soon as Frank left, Wiley at once set out to show his young friend the sights, and they finally drifted into one of the best restaurants in Kansas City, where Wiley proceeded to order a lavish meal. When 241the food was set before them the sailor, in his breezy and characteristic manner, summoned the waiter.

“What!” he exclaimed, gazing suspiciously at the meal; “is this the smell of cheese I hear? Waiter, where are those humming birds’ tongues on toast? Don’t be reluctant about spreading before me a copious display of the culinary art. I have a delicate appetite, and when I eat I eat like a prince. This bill of fare seems crude, and limited, and unfinished. The list upon it might suit ordinary mortals, but what I yearn for are a few pickled eels’ feet.”

“I am afraid, sir, we cannot satisfy you!” returned the waiter haughtily. “Unless you can discover what suits your taste upon our bill of fare, you will have to go elsewhere.”

“Look here, William,” cried the sailor, “don’t look at me in that tone of voice. I don’t approve of it. You should be obsequious and attentive to one of my lofty station and high caste, for I am liable to press into your palm, as a small token, a gold doubloon, when I depart. It pays, William, to bow and scrape a little to me. I like it. Now here is my friend Abe—gaze at him, Sir William. You may not be aware of it, but Abe is a genius. He is the musical wonder of the century. Behold at his side his wonderful violin, from which he draws the most excruciating melodies. When he greases his bow and lets it slide over the quivering strings, the sounds which emanate from that instrument are sufficient to appal every one with admiration. You will observe that Abe is delicate. I couldn’t think of offending him by ordering a common sole-leather steak for him to masticate. The soul 242of a genius cannot survive on steak. It lives mainly on inspiration. Were you ever inspired, William? My boy, I have, on various occasions, devoured whole quarters of inspiration at a single sitting. Suppose you bring us a quart of inspiration? Make it Mumm’s extra dry.”

In spite of his dignity, the waiter could not help smiling at the marine marvel’s words and eccentric manner.

“Do you wish champagne, sir?” he inquired.

Wiley gently touched his lips with the corner of his napkin.

“Champagne! There is but one fault to find with it; whoever indulges to his full limit in the sparkling fluid invariably has real pain the following morning. No, William, on second thought, having with me my unsophisticated young friend, I will remain on the water wagon. Should I set a bad example for him, my quivering conscience would smite me a painful smote. As long as this place cannot provide the little delicacies I have mentioned, Abe and I will plow into this spread before us and do our best to calm our ravenous appetites. Stand behind my chair, William, and endeavor to anticipate my slightest want. When I depart I will look over my counterfeit money and find a hundred-dollar bill for you.”

There were a number of persons dining in the restaurantrestaurant, and Wiley had attracted considerable attention. One of the guests now rose from his table and advanced toward the sailor and the boy. As Abe saw this man he gave a little gasp, and whispered to his companion:

243“Look, cap’n—look! There is a man who has been following me about. He is coming!”

“I behold him advancing,” said the marine marvel, also in a low tone. “Paragorically speaking, his eyes are gimlets and his nose is an interrogation point. I think he intends to ask questions.”

The person who approached was a slim man in black, with his coat buttoned tightly across his breast. He was smooth-shaven, keen-eyed, and about forty years of age.

“Excuse me,” he said, as he paused at the table. “I believe I have heard of you before.”

“No doubt of it—no doubt whatever,” instantly retorted Wiley. “I am notorious from the equator to the Arctic circle. My face is spread broadcast from Kalamazoo to Hongkong.”

“You are a baseball player?”

“I am; I confess it. I am one of the finest baseball players this great and glorious country has ever produced. I am lingering here a day or two before proceeding East to take charge of the New York Nationals. Once or twice I have suspected that I would never again prance forth upon the diamond and toy with the leather sphere; but I am unable to restrain my natural inclination, and the ozone of this gorgeous spring atmosphere has set the baseball fever throbbing once more in my pulmonary artery. Are you interested in the great American game, sir?”

“I am what is called a fan,” answered the stranger, with a faint smile. “I presume that is how it happens that I have heard of you. If I remember right, you were with Frank Merriwell’s team last season?”

244“On one glorious occasion I delivered the goods for that organization. I presume you read an account of it in the newspapers? The press of the entire country literally palpitated with it.”

“I saw an account of it somewhere. Who is your young friend?”

The man nodded toward the hunchback.

“Whom?” said Wiley. “Why, he is Master Abe, the wizard violinist. He’s one of the greatest musicians of modern times. His playing would draw tears from eyes of stone. You should hear him, sir. He has thrilled the hearts of thousands. Why, when we were abroad together he played before the crowned heads of the foreign countries.”

Abe looked surprised.

“Then he has traveled abroad?” questioned the stranger.

“Has he?” cried the sailor. “You may wager your coin without parsimony upon it. We traveled together through Europe, Oorup, Eerup, slid through Greece, and knocked the stuffing out of Turkey. His greatest triumph was when he played before Emperor William, of Germany. The emperor was spellbound. In his excitement the ends of his mustache became entangled in his eyebrows, and it required fourteen attendants with currycombs and brushes to clear them out. At the close of the performance, when the last throbbing note of music had died away, and Abe had lowered his violin, the emperor sprang to his feet and shouted:

”‘Ich liebe dich! Gott in Himmel! Frankfurters and harncase! Likewise pumpernickle!’ Then he fell 245on Abe’s neck, weeping as if his heart would break. We were entertained at the royal palace, where we dined in state. That night I slept in a beautiful bed with rustling silken curtains, and then—I woke up."

“Why, cap’n!” gasped Abe.

“Hush!” said Wiley, behind his hand. “You may have forgotten it, but I remember it just as well as I remember our trip abroad.”

“Who is the instructor of this wonderful young musician?” asked the stranger.

“Instructor?” exclaimed the marine marvel. “Why, such a prodigious prodigy needs no instructor save his own intuition. Nature has been his instructor. He has listened to the singing of the brook, the wind, the trees, the birds, and the grasshoppers. All those palpitating melodies he has incorporated into his wonderful curriculum of music.”

“What did you say the boy’s name was?” asked the inquisitive stranger.

“It is Abe—Master Abe.”

“But his name in full?”

“His name in full, sir? He has never been full!”

“I mean his complete name.”

“That’s it; that’s the whole of it.”

“But what is his history?”

“My dear inquisitorial friend,” said the sailor, “you are projecting yourself into our repast and retiring mastication. Speaking about names, it occurs to me that I have never been introduced to you.”

“I beg your pardon. My name is Nathan Callgaul.”

“Thanks for the information, Mr. Allgaul.”

246“Callgaul, Cap’n Wiley—Callgaul!”

“Well, you may call it gaul or anything you choose, but it occurs to me that your intense curiosity in regard to us is becoming exasperatingly annoying. You had better retire and permit us to persue the even tenor eleven of our ways.”

“Oh! very well,” said Nathan Callgaul, shrugging his shoulders. “I have no desire to annoy you.”

“You can’t gnaw me,” retorted the sailor. “I wouldn’t permit such familiarity. So long, Mr. Tallgaul. See you later—I don’t think.”

As the stranger retired Wiley fell upon the food with an air of ravenous greediness.

“Cold!” he muttered. “Cold as Mr. Somegaul’s nerve. William, will you kindly present the check to the gentleman and explain that he has ruined this meal and therefore should pay the bill? It will save me the price, and that will be nice. My! my! there is another poetic accident!”

“Cap’n,” said Abe, who seemed strangely agitated, “somehow I am afraid of that man. I know he has been watching me. He was on the train when we came here to this city. I have seen him a number of times since. Something tells me to look out for him.”

“My boy, you are troubled with the hallucinations of genius. I am quite sure Mr. Barrel-of-gaul is entirely harmless. He is simply one of those exasperatingly inquisitive persons who desire to know every one’s business better than their own. Fly at the hash, Abe, and satisfy the cravings of the inner man.”

Although he tried to eat, the boy found little satisfaction 247in it, and his relief seemed intense when the man in black finally left the restaurant.

“Is he gone?” said Wiley. “Why, William, you failed to present him with the check! He has departed without settling, William! That was a terrible oversight on your part, and I fear you will regret it.”

Having paid the bill, Wiley paused ere leaving and looked the expectant waiter in the eye.

“William,” he said, “it was my intention to give you a large tip. You have been very faithful and attentive, William. I have no fault to find with you on that account; but you are expensive. You permitted Mr. Too-much-gaul to ruin my repast, and then you failed to present him with the check. That being the case, I shall deduct the amount of the check from the tip I contemplated making you, which leaves you exactly seventy-five cents indebted to me. Do you wish to pay it now, or shall I let it stand against you?”

The waiter was too astonished to reply, and before he could recover Wiley had teetered out with Abe at his side.

CHAPTER XXIII. WHAT HAPPENED TO ABE.

“Abe,” said the sailor, as they reached the street, “I entertain palpitating fears that I shall never place my lily-white hands on the balance due me from William. I am afraid he will not settle. I shall have to charge it up to profit and loss.”

“Why, cap’n,” said the boy wonderingly, “I believe he expected you to give him something. I think he was disappointed.”

"Haven’t a doubt of it, my boy; but this world is full of bitter disappointments. I have encountered a number of them in my time. A person gets used to it after a while. Disappointments roll from me like water off a duck’s back. Once on a time they filled me with bitterness, and heartburning, and other painful emotions too numerous to mention. Once on a time I had a girl who threw me down for a homelier chap. Abe, it then seemed that for me the sun had eternally set and Stygian night lay spread before me for all time. I even thought of taking a shotgun and discharging it into that vacuum where my brains are supposed to be. I longed to rest in my cold, cold grave, where all would be peace, and silence, and relief. In my mind’s eye I saw above me a little mound of earth, with daisies, forget-me-nots, hollyhocks, cowslips, and other aristocratic flowers growing all 249over it. I saw the cruel, cruel girl weeping above that mound, and it gave me untold satisfaction.

“The only thing that saved me from destruction was my thirst. I was seized by an awful thirst, and when I had quenched it I felt a great deal better. What I drank helped me to forget my sorrows, and the next day I had another girl. As I inspected this other girl with my critical eye, I arrived at the conclusion that she just about knocked the spots off number one. And ever since that time I have faced disappointments with philosophical complaisance, firm in my belief that every disappointment and fizzle I made is simply a blessing in disguise. That’s why I stroll through life with such serene urbanity. That’s why I smile in the face of the finger of scorn and the tongue of gossip. Excuse me if my metaphor is slightly mixed.”

“What are you talking about, anyway, captain?”

“I don’t know, Abe. I often wonder what I am talking about. At one time I engaged a cultured person to translate my language for me. But when he explainedexplained it to me, some of the things I said so shocked me that I immediately discharged him. I concluded that it was better for me to pass through life in blissful ignorance of the real meaning of my own fluent conversation. But stay, Abe, stay! Methinks I have forgotten something. Even so, I have left my hundred-dollar meerschaum pipe in that restaurant. I placed it on the table at my elbow, and came away without it. It’s ten chances to one that the waiter has already gathered it unto his person, and is now chortling with glee over his good fortune. Pause here a 250moment, while I hasten back to recover my property. I will return before any elongated amount of time has evaporated.” Saying which, Wiley quickly dashed back into the restaurant, leaving the boy waiting upon the sidewalk.

Barely had the sailor disappeared when a closed cab stopped at the curb, and from it sprang two black-bearded men, whose slouch hats were pulled low down over their eyes. Before Abe could dream that he was in the slightest danger, these men seized him. One of them clapped a broad hand over his mouth, to prevent him from making an outcry, and in a most astonishing manner he was snapped up, carried to the cab, and lifted into it. If passing pedestrians observed this daring piece of work it was completed before one of them thought of interfering. The cab door closed with a bang. The driver whipped up his horses, and the astonished and frightened hunchback was borne swiftly away.

“Keep still, boy!” growled one of the bearded men. “If you raise a yell you’ll be sorry. We’re not going to hurt you.”

Abe had managed to cling to his fiddle, which was a habit of his at all times. He was terrified, shocked, and almost smothered.

“Don’t!” he begged. “What have I done to you? Let me go, please! Let me go!”

“We’ll let you go,” was the retort. “We’re just going to give you a little ride. You will enjoy it.”

“Look out for him,” cautioned the other man. “He may set up a whoop.”

251“I know he won’t, because I’ll choke the gizzard out of him if he does. Don’t you even peep, kid!”

“I never hurt you,” whispered the agitated boy. “Let me get out. Cap’n Wiley will miss me. He told me to wait.”

“You didn’t have time to wait, kid. You was in a hurry. You met some very dear friends, who took a great interest in you, and you couldn’t linger for Cap’n Wiley.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Oh, we will take you to a nice place, where there are lots of pretty things, and you will enjoy yourself. Eh, Sam?”

“Sure, Bill!” agreed Sam.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Oh! yes, you do; yes, you do. Perhaps you think you don’t want to go, but you do. You will have a nice time—eh, Sam?”

“Sure, Bill! He will enjoy himself immensely.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Oh, it’s just a little joke—a fine little joke on Cap’n Wiley. Ha! ha! He will be all fussed up when he comes out and finds you gone. To-morrow morning you can go back to him. The joke will be all over then—eh, Sam?”

“Sure, Bill; it will be all over as far as we are concerned. We won’t have anything further to do with it.”

Then the two ruffians laughed in a manner that made the unfortunate boy’s blood run cold. He felt sure they were scoundrels, yet why they should seek to hurt him was beyond his understanding. Once before 252he had been kidnapped in a similar manner, and the experience through which he passed was so terrible that the memory haunted his waking hours and troubled his dreams. He was now terrified by the thought that he must again pass through a similar experience. Yet, somehow, the suddenness of what had happened robbed him of strength to struggle, and convinced him it would be folly for him to shout for aid.

The cab rolled on, turning corner after corner, and to the boy the ride seemed almost interminable. Finally it came to an end, and one of the men flung the door open as soon as the cab stopped. He sprang out and looked around.

“All right,” he said. “Chuck the kid out, Sam. No one near.”

The boy was thrust out by Sam, and instantly Bill caught him up, turned like a flash, and ran up the steps of a house. Even as he reached the door it opened for him, and then, for the first time, Abe uttered a cry which rang sharp and shrill, and full of unspeakable terror, along the dark block. He attempted to struggle, but his puny strength was of no avail, and a moment later the door closed heavily behind him.

In the darkness of that house the boy was carried up a flight of stairs and thrustthrust into a room. The door closed upon him, and he was alone. For some moments he stood shaking like a leaf, his legs seeming almost too weak to bear him.

“What does it mean?” he breathed. “It must mean that Frank’s enemies have done this. What good could it do them to hurt me?”

253His only satisfaction lay in the fact that his dear fiddle was still in his possession.

After a time he felt for the door and found it; but, as he expected, it remained immovable beneath his touch. There seemed to be no window to the room.

“I can’t get away!” he sobbed. “I will never get away any more unless Frank finds me. He found me once and saved me. He can’t find me now!”

Until he met Frank Merriwell, Abe had never heard the name of God save as an oath. He had known absolutely nothing of religion.

Frank himself, a firm believer in all things good, had found time to teach the lad, and now little Abe knelt in that dark room and prayed. It was a simple prayer, but who can say it was not heard by the One to whom it was addressed?

“Dear God,” he sobbed, “I am alone, a poor little hunchback boy. I never hurt nobody in my life. I wouldn’t hurt nobody if I could. Dear God, Frank says you know everything, see everything, and are good and kind to every one. I know what Frank says is true, for he couldn’t say anything that is not true. Please, God, don’t let the bad men take me away from Frank. If they do I shall die! Frank is the only one in the whole world who has ever been kind to me. I love him, dear God, and so won’t you please, please let him find me again! Amen!”

Even as he uttered the final word there came a sound at the door. He leaped to his feet, shaking with excitement, his heart filled with the belief that somehow his prayer had been answered thus quickly.

The door opened. Abe fell back with a little gasp 254of disappointment, for into the room stepped a masked man who carried a lighted lamp in his hand. This man closed the door behind him and stood with his back against it, the lamp held high, while he stared through the twin holes of the mask at the cowering hunchback.

There were some moments of silence. The man with the lamp was first to speak.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“It’s Abe, sir—only Abe.”

“Is that all the name you know?” came the harsh, cold voice from beyond the mask.

“That’s all, sir.”

“Don’t lie to me, boy! Tell me the truth!”

“I am not lying. Frank says it is wicked to lie.”

“Where were you born?”

“I don’t know.”

“See here, boy, I want you to tell me all you know about yourself. It’s the best thing you can do. If you don’t know where you were born, at least you do know where you have lived.”

“Always, until Frank found me, I lived down in Camp Broncho.”

“That’s in Arizona, is it?”

“I think so.”

“How did you come to be in Camp Broncho? Who left you there?”

“Oh, I can’t remember much about it. Once there was a man named Black Dorson, and I used to play the fiddle for him and get money for him, and he beat me; but one night he was shot, and after that I lived the best way I could.”

255The masked man advanced into the room and placed the lamp on a small table.

“You don’t remember anything about yourself before you lived with Black Dorson?”

“I don’t seem to remember much. Sometimes I almost remember, but it is like a dream.”

“What is it you almost remember?”

“Oh, I can’t tell! I can’t tell! It is all confused! I think it must be a dream, for I know it cannot be true. It seems that once I had a home and was not a little miserable hunchback that everybody kicked and cursed.”

Again the man stood still some moments, staring at the boy.

“What are you going to do with me?” asked Abe. “Are you going to kill me?”

“It may be true!” he muttered. “I believe he looks like her!”

Then he suddenly commanded:

“Boy, take off your coat!”

“What for?” panted Abe. “What are you going to do?”

“Take off your coat! Don’t be scared. I am not going to hurt you.”

Realizing the folly of refusing to obey, the boy pulled off his coat as directed.

“Shove up your right sleeve above the elbow,” ordered the man.

With shaking fingers the lad obeyed.

The wearer of the mask then gripped Abe’s wrist with his left hand, still keeping his right behind him, 256as he had done almost constantly since entering the room. He drew the boy nearer to the light and seemed gazing eagerly and excitedly at the thin, bared arm.

“Push your sleeve higher,” he directed.

Abe did so.

Suddenly a low, savage exclamation came from the hidden lips of the man.

“There it is!” he almost panted. “There is the mark!”

On the lad’s arm, just above the elbow, were the faint outlines of a blue star, as if it had been tattooed in the flesh years before. Hundreds of times Abe had gazed at this mark upon his arm and wondered over it. To him it was a mystery and one he fancied would never be solved.

Suddenly the man threw the boy’s wrist aside, and through the eyeholes of the mask Abe fancied he caught a reddish gleam. And now suddenly upon him fell a feeling of hopeless fear more intense than any he had yet experienced.

“He will kill me now!” he whispered. “I know he will!”

“It is her brat!” muttered the man. “Shawmut lied to me. The kid still lives!”

He turned as if to depart, and for a moment the hand he had so persistently held behind his back dropped at his side. In a twinkling Abe seized it, as he began wildly pleading for mercy. Only a few words escaped his lips, for the touch of that hand, cold, and clammy, and deathlike, silenced him. It was 257as if he had grasped the fingers of a corpse, and he saw that the hand, scarcely larger than a child’s, was white as chalk.

With a terrible oath the masked man lifted his other hand and struck the boy down. Then he caught up the lamp and hurried out of the room, the door closing with a click behind him.

CHAPTER XXIV. AN APPEAL TO BIAL KEENE.

“There is the house, Frank,” declared Wiley. “I am dead sure of it. I saw them shanghai Abe. I saw them chuck him into the cab. I was too late to render assistance, but like a bloodhound on the trail I followed that cab.”

Frank Merriwell and Wiley were standing in the dark shadow of a building almost directly across the street from the house into which the hunchback lad had been taken. Having completed his business in St. Joseph sooner than he thought he could, Merry returned to his hotel in Kansas City and found Wiley almost tearing his hair in despair. Overjoyed by Frank’s appearance, the sailor lost no time in telling how he had dined with Abe in the restaurant, had left the boy outside to return for his pipe, and, on again leaving the restaurant, had seen the unfortunate lad bundled into the cab and carried off. Fleet of foot as a deer, Wiley had followed the cab, but had found no opportunity to rescue the captured boy. Nevertheless, he had spotted the house into which Abe was taken, had obtained its number, and the name of the street, and was contemplating the advisability of appealing to the police when Frank showed up.

Merry commanded the sailor to take him to the house.

“Unless he was taken out as soon as they brought him here,” asserted Wiley, “he is still there.”

259“An obvious fact, if you have made no error. Cap’n, I am afraid I will never be able to trust you again. Whenever I do you fail me. I warned you to look out for Abe.”

“Crush not my sensitive spirits with incrimination,” entreated the marine marvel. “Why should I have anticipated trouble for Abe at such a time? Your enemies seemed beaten to a white froth, and before you I fancied there was nothing but peace and salubrity.”

“Whenever I crush one enemy,” muttered Frank, “it seems that another rises to take his place.”

“You are certain this is a plot of your enemies?”

“What else can it be? Why should any one kidnap that boy unless they did it to injure me in some manner?”

“Ask me a question upon which I can expatiate astutely. This one is too much for me, Frank. What are you going to do?”

“I am going to find Abe.”

“How? How are you going to get into that house? If you demand admission it will be refused.”

“I can appeal to the police.”

“Yes, but——”

“But first I shall see Bial Keene.”

“Who is Bial Keene?”

“One of the cleverest private detectives in the country. I have employed him before, and I know his ability.”

“Then it’s up to you, Frank, to put your mud hooks onto him at once, and get him into the game. Time is valuable. Some gazaboo once observed that time 260is money, but I notice that I have a great deal more time than money.”

“Wiley,” said Merry, “I want you to stay right here and shadow this house. Don’t take your eyes off it for a moment. I am going to find Bial Keene, if possible.”

“Yours to command. I will stick to that house like glue. Depend on me for that, Frank.”

“If you see anything that leads you to believe Abe is being removed from the house, follow him.”

“Ay, ay, sir. When it comes to that little trick, Wind-jammer Wiley is the boy!”

Having left Wiley there, Merry hastened to the nearest point where a cab could be found, and was soon being carried toward the office of Scott & Keene, Kansas City’s two famous private detectives.

His one fear was that Bial Keene would not be at his office and could not be found. He knew Keene’s house address, yet it was possible the man would be engaged in some piece of work, so that he would be neither at the office nor the house. Having reached the office building, Merry instructed the cab driver to wait. As it was after hours, the place seemed almost deserted. The watchman was on hand, however, and promptly stopped Frank.

“I must see Mr. Keene,” explained Frank.

“Mr. Keene is probably at home.”

“Are you certain?”

“It makes no difference. You can’t see him here at this hour.”

“Not if I have an appointment with him?”

261“He has said nothing to me about an appointment with any one.”

“See here, watchman, don’t you remember me? I am Frank Merriwell. It was not many months ago that I was here, and upon that occasion a man fell down the elevator shaft and was killed. I think you should recall the affair.”

“I do,” confessed the watchman.

“Then you know that Mr. Keene was in my employ at that time. I must see him again on a most important affair. Here, watchman, is something for you. I shall consider it a favor if you permit me to proceed to Mr. Keene’s office.”

As Merry spoke he pressed some money into the Watchman’s hand. The man seemed to hesitate, but finally said:

“It’s against orders, but I will chance it. I may get into trouble.”

“You will not,” assured Frank.

The watchman escorted Merry up several flights of Stairs and finally paused before the door of the detective’s rooms. There he gave a peculiar knock, with the result that the outer door was finally opened.

The man who opened it was neither Scott nor Keene, but the watchman knew him, and said:

“Jones, here is a gentleman to see Mr. Keene on important business. It’s all right, I am sure.”

“I don’t know about that,” returned Jones. “If he wishes to see Mr. Keene he can do so in the morning.”

“My business cannot wait until morning,” declared Merry. “I must find him to-night.”

262“What’s your name?”

“Merriwell.”

“Frank Merriwell?”

“That’s right.”

“If you will wait a moment right where you are I will see about the matter. I am not certain Mr. Keene is in his private office, but I can telephone him if he is not. Excuse me.”

The door was closed, leaving Merry outside with the watchman, who whispered:

“Keene is in there. He will see you, all right.”

This proved to be true, for, a few moments later, the door was again thrown open and Jones invited Merry to enter.

“Mr. Keene was studying over a very perplexing matter, sir,” he said, in explanation, “and I was doubtful if he would care to be interrupted; but immediately on hearing your name he told me to bring you in. He is in his private office.”

The door of this private office was opened and Frank entered. A tall, dark-eyed, clean-shaven, keen-faced man arose from before a desk and held out his hand.

“Mr. Merriwell,” he said, “I am glad to see you again. It is something of a surprise, as that little Alaskan business you wished looked after has fallen through.”

“Yes,” said Frank, “there is no necessity for following it up. Milton Sukes is dead and will trouble me no further; but I have other enemies who are giving me trouble.”

263“Not this man, Macklyn Morgan? Why, I understand that he lost a leg recently, and it hardly seems that he will be very energetic and troublesome to you in the future.”

“How did you know that he lost a leg?”

Keene smiled the least bit.

“I have been keeping track of you, Merriwell, and know all about your desperate fight to hold your mines. I thought you might need my services again, and for that reason I decided to keep fully informed of all that transpired.”

“Well, Keene, I do need you and need you bad. I hope the matter on which you are engaged this evening may be put aside for a short time, at least, as it is of the greatest importance that you give me assistance without delay.”

“I will do anything I can, Merriwell. I think this affair may rest until to-morrow. It was by a bare chance that you found me here at this hour. I wished to be alone to study over a case which I had on hand, which is decidedly bothersome, and so I chose to come here when everything was quiet. Sit down, sir, and tell me what you desire.”

In a short time Merriwell had related the facts of the affair, explaining in a few words how on a former occasion his enemies had tried to strike at him through the hunchback boy, and how he had followed the trail of Abe’s kidnappers to Camp Nowhar, at last succeeding in rescuing the little cripple.

Keene frowned and tapped his desk with his knuckles as he sat in silence after hearing of this. When a few moments had passed he observed:

264“It seems rather singular that your enemies should try the same trick over. Besides that, it is a weak method of striking at you. I can see how Sukes did it in order to divert your attention at the time when you were exerting yourself to ruin his illegal business. But is there any reason now why any one should wish to bother you to prevent you from accomplishing any purpose you have in mind?”

“I know of no reason, Keene.”

“Merriwell, there is a mystery behind this that you have not penetrated. I don’t know why I think so, but in some cases I depend on intuition. In this case intuition tells me that this second kidnapping of the hunchback means something entirely different than the first affair. What it means I am not now prepared to say. You say the house to which the boy was taken is on Euclid Avenue?”

“Yes, sir.”

“This fellow, Wiley, in whose charge the boy was left, has told you so?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is Wiley reliable? Can you trust him in everything?”

“He is a strange character, Mr. Keene; but I believe he would not deceive me. In fact, I am positive he would not. I even became convinced by his own actions that he was false to me, yet in the end he proved himself true as steel, and he saved my life. I am satisfied he spoke the truth when he told me how Abe was captured, and how he followed the kidnappers to that house. I have left him there to watch 265the house. On you I must depend for aid in rescuing the boy.”

“You shall have it,” declared Bial Keene, as he rose to his feet. “We will lose no time.”

He flung open the door to the outer room and called:

“Jones!”

“Yes, sir,” was the answer, as the man outside appeared.

“Jones, go to police headquarters and tell them that I need six of their best men in plain clothes. Tell them the department shall have the entire credit of an important piece of work, if those six men are sent without delay to the corner of Euclid Avenue and Tenth Street. Not a moment must be lost. Accompany the officers to the same corner. That’s all.”

“Yes, sir.”

Instantly Jones wheeled and hastened from the office.

“Are you armed, Mr. Merriwell?” asked Keene quietly.

“I am not. I do not habitually carry a weapon.”

The detective opened a drawer and picked out a business-like revolver.

“Slip this into your pocket,” he directed. “You may need it.”

Frank took the pistol, and Keene then armed himself with two revolvers, after which he slipped on his topcoat and clapped on his head a hat with a wide, slouching brim.

“Come, Mr. Merriwell,” he said. “We’re off to see what we can do.”

CHAPTER XXV. THE SIGNAL WHISTLE.

The door of the shadowed house on Euclid Avenue opened and two bearded men came out. As they descended the steps theythey mumbled in low tones to each other. Neither of them saw certain shadowy figures lurking in the dark places, nor suspected the fact that the house was under surveillance. Nor did they become aware of the fact that they were followed as they walked away. These men were the ruffians, Sam and Bill, who had kidnapped the hunchback boy. From the house they proceeded to a saloon several blocks away. Entering this saloon, they sat down at a table in a little back room and ordered drinks.

“Well, pal,” growled Bill, “we’ve got our coin.”

“Yes, we’ve got it,” returned the other, “and I suppose we ought to be satisfied.”

“Are you satisfied?”

“I call it a measly, bum price for the job we done.”

They drank the liquor placed before them and ordered cigars.

“At the very least,” declared Sam, “the gent should have paid us a hundred apiece.”

Bill nodded.

“You’re right about that, pal. He was right eager to git his paws on that kid. I wonder just what he wanted hunchy for?”

“No telling. I dunno; but I do know he wanted him a heap bad.”

267“Lemme whisper something to yer, pal. I have heard a little something that aroused my suspicions. I reckon the kid is some lost heir, or something of that sort, and the gentleman what wants him is the individual who will profit by it if hunchy disappears from the face of the earth. That being the case, it is dead certain we might have squeezed the old guy for twice the money he paid us.”

At this both the men growled, and one of them struck the table with his clinched fist.

“Dern these false whiskers!” grated Sam, as he gave a jerk at them. “I am going to take mine off.”

“Don’t do it here, pal,” cautioned Bill. “Somebody may see yer. What will they think if ye do? You came in here wearing whiskers, and you can’t go out clean-shaved without attracting attention.”

“All right,” said Sam; “I’ll keep the things on till we mosey out of here, but I’m going to get rid of them at the first opportunity.”

“I’ve been thinking of something, pal,” nodded Bill. “I’ve been thinking we got out altogether too easy. We should have hit the bloke up for another fifty. I opine we might have frightened him into coughing up.”

“Did you ring, gents?” inquired one of the bartenders, thrusting his head into the room.

“Naw, we didn’t ring,” said Sam.

“We didn’t,” agreed Bill; “but you may bring us two more whiskies.”

“Got ter talk kinder low and quiet-like here,” said Sam. “They are nosey around this place. Notice how that chap looked at us?”

268“Mebbe he didn’t like the cut of our whiskers.”

The bartender soon returned with the drinks, which were promptly paid for, and he departed.

“Sam,” said Bill, having dashed off his drink at a single gulp, “have you the nerve to stand by me?”

“Nerve? What do you want? What do you mean?”

“I mean that I am just about ready to go back there, and light on that gent all spraddled out, and squeeze him hard. If you back me up we’ll go, and I’ll bet we will make him cough up fifty plunks to each of us.”

Sam’s eyes gleamed a little.

“Do you think it can be done, Bill?”

“We can make our bluff. I’ll threaten him if I have to.”

“That might be dangerous.”

“Go on! He has only one other chap and that old woman there in the house with him. What if we go back and tell him we will peach if he doesn’t crack down the extra coin? What if I tell him I know something about the kid?”

“The game might work, Bill.”

“Well, if it doesn’t work, it is worth playing. Are you with me?”

“Sure thing! Let’s have another drink and I’ll be ready.”

Again they ordered drinks, which they disposed of.

“Wait here a minute for me, pal,” said Sam. “I will be right back.”

He then left the room, and Bill sat puffing a cigar, while he revolved in his mind the scheme of getting 269more money from the man who had employed them to kidnap the hunchback. At length Bill grew impatient because of Sam’s delay in returning.

“What’s the matter with him?” he growled. “He acts as if we had time to burn. If we’re going back there, the sooner we go the better it will be.”

Still his companion delayed about reappearing, and finally Bill rose to his feet in a huff.

“Let him go!” he growled. “I’ll go back alone! I’ll get the whole of it!”

But as he started toward the door the other man reappeared.

“Well, where yer been?” Bill angrily demanded. “Did yer think we had a month to do this little trick in?”

“Oh. that’s all right, Bill,” was the husky reply. “I ran into Sheeny Joe out here and had hard work to shake him.”

“Well, come, Sam; if yer going to stick by me through this thing, let’s get a move on!”

Together they left the saloon and turned their steps toward the house on Euclid Avenue.

As they reached the steps of the house Sam huskily whispered:

“Mebbe we can’t git in, pal.”

“I will get in,” vowed Bill. “I know the signal. If he refuses to answer I’ll kick the door down.”

But the signal was answered directly by an old woman, who peered out suspiciously from the partly open door. The sound of a chain told the two ruffians that it would be useless for them to attempt to force the door open.

270“Who is it?” demanded the woman.

“Let us in, Mag,” said Bill. “We’ve important business with the boss.”

“Go ’way from here!” rasped the old hag. “He can’t be disturbed any more to-night.”

“Well, he better be disturbed!” said Bill. “If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll see us! We’re dead onto something that means a heap to him. The police——”

“The police?” hissed the woman.

“There’s something doing, Mag, and the boss should know about it. It’s for his good we’ve come back here. You know he trusts us, so unhook that chain and let us in quick before we are seen here.”

After a little pause the chain rattled again, and then the door swung open.

“If you know anything the boss better know, why, all right,” mumbled the old woman; “but if you’re lying, look out! That’s all!”

“Take us to him!” ordered Bill.

A few moments later the two ruffians stood in the presence of a man with iron-gray hair and mustache and deeply furrowed features. The eyes of this man were sharp and restless, while his right hand was small as that of a woman and white as snow.

“What’s this stuff Mag tells me?” he demanded, in a cold, hard voice. “Why are you two back here?”

“We come back here for your own good, Mr. Jarvis,” declared Bill. “Eh, Sam?”

“Sure, Bill,” nodded the second ruffian.

“For my own good? You said something about the police.”

271“That’s what we did, Mr. Jarvis.”

“What did you mean?”

“You tell him, Bill,” urged Sam, backing off a little and standing in the doorway of the room.

“What ails yer?” growled Bill in disgust. “Are you afraid? Well, I’m not afraid of the Old Boy himself.”

Instantly the suspicions of the man with the corpse-like hand were aroused.

“What are you two rascals up to?” he demanded harshly. “Speak up, both of you!”

“Look here, Mr. Jarvis,” said Bill, wagging his head. “We opine we’ve done a good turn for you to-night.”

“You were paid for it.”

“Paid!” snarled the disguised desperado. “Paid for that job! Well, I should say not! Why, Mr. Jarvis, we know a thing or two—eh, Sam?”

“Sure, Bill,” agreed Sam from the doorway.

“We know that kid is a heap valuable to you. We know he is a lost heir and he can make you a lot of trouble.”

The face of the man called Jarvis hardened and his eyes grew dangerous.

“You fools!” he said in a low tone. “What are you trying to do? What do you want?”

“We want more money,” asserted Bill gruffly. “And we’re going to get it, too!”

“Are you?”

“You bet your boots we are! We wasn’t half paid for that job, and you have to crack down as much more coin!”

272“So you’re trying to intimidate me, are you? I am a bad man to try that trick on. I made a bargain with you, and stood by it. You have been paid, and that ends it!”

“Not by a blamed sight!” cried Bill. “Either you pay us what we ask, or else——”

“Or else—what? What will you do? Be careful!”

“Well, we were speaking of the police. It’s a right easy matter to put them onto your track. It’s a right easy matter to tell Mr. Frank Merriwell where the kid is. He is some dangerous, and you know it. Let him get started after you and he will give you a whole lot of trouble.”

“So you threaten me?” said Jarvis in a voice that was now soft and smooth. “So you come back here for the purpose of forcing me to give up more money to you? I am afraid you don’t quite know me. You fool! Do you think I am alone in this house—alone with old Mag? Not by any means! There are others who will answer the call if I press that button.”

“But you won’t press it,” asserted Bill. “Will he, Sam?”

There was no answer, for Sam had retreated and disappeared into the adjoining room.

Jarvis laughed softly.

“You are a great bluffer, Bill, but Sam hasn’t the nerve. The chances are that he is already on his ways to the street. He knows better than to try to carry this thing through with me.”

“Here, Sam!” savagely called Bill. “Come back here!”

Still there was no answer.

273“Go!” commanded Jarvis in a sudden terrible tone, pointing toward the door. “Go at once, and never trouble me again! If you do, I’ll put you where the dogs will not disturb you!”

But Bill was a stayer, and he declined to be baffled in such a manner.

“I have come for more money, and I’ll stay here till I get it,” he declared.

Jarvis took a step toward the push button.

“Don’t touch it!” grated Bill, also stepping forward, and at the same time thrusting one hand into his bosom. “If you do I’ll cut your heart out!”

Jarvis seemed to hesitate, and the ruffian fancied he was intimidated.

“I mean business,” Bill asserted. “You cough up, or I will carve you!”

“Oh, very well,” Jarvis finally said. “I presume it’s the easiest way to get rid of you. Sam gets nothing, but I will pay you. I have the money here.”

He thrust his hand into his pocket, but when he drew it forth a revolver gleamed in his fingers and the muzzle was turned on the disguised desperado.

“Put up that knife, you dog!” he commanded; “or I will blow a hole in you! You threatened to betray me to the police! Why, you idiot! You would not dare show your face to the police of this city! They want you, and they would nab you the moment you appeared before them! You can’t bluff me!”

Bill uttered an oath.

“Here, Sam, you infernal coward!” he called. “Where are you?”

“I am here,” was the answer, and Bill’s companion 274once more appeared in the doorway. His eyes surveyed the scene.

“What did you sneak for?” hissed Bill. “You gave him a chance to pull a gun on me! Had you remained here——”

“It would have made no difference,” asserted Jarvis.

“Perhaps not,” said Sam, as he lifted his fingers to his lips.

From those lips suddenly came a clear, shrill, peculiar whistle that caused Bill and Jarvis to start in astonishment.

“What the devil does that mean?” Jarvis demanded.

“The boy knows,” laughed Sam in a singularly changed voice. “He heard the whistle, and he is not the only one. Mr. Jarvis, the police are at your door. Listen! They are in this house now.”

“A thousand furies!” snarled the astonished man. “What have you done?”

“I opened the door for them!them!”

“You—you opened the door? Why, you fool! You will go to prison yourself—you and your dog of a pal here!”

“Perhaps he will go,” said Sam; “but not I. They are not looking for me.”

“Not looking for you? Who are you?”

Like a flash the false beard was torn from the face of the man who had given the signal whistle, and at the same time he cried:

“I am Frank Merriwell! Surrender, both of you, for you are trapped and cannot escape!”

Even as he uttered these words, mingled with the distant wailing of the violin came the sound of rushing 275feet. Behind him appeared several men, one of them wearing a long, dark overcoat and a wide-brimmed hat.

“Ah!” cried Bial Keene. “I see you have your birds, Merriwell.”

CHAPTER XXVI. BOUND FOR FARDALE.

“Well, Abe,” said Captain Wiley, as the train on which they were traveling approached Fardale, “it strikes my acute perception that we must be drawing near our goal. This gang of salubrious young bloods in the car are evidently going to Fardale. However, by their appearance to my optical vision and from the conversation that is trickling from their lips, and tickling the tympanum of my ears, I am led to infer that they are members of a baseball team, together with a number of enthusiastic rooters. It strikes me that there will be a little baseball doing in Fardale this afternoon, on which occasion we will take in the sport, my boy—we will take in the sport. There will be but one drawback. Little Walter will have to sit still and see others perambulate over the diamond and swat the ball on the trade-mark.”

“Fardale!” exclaimed the hunchback, his eyes glowing. “I have heard so much about it! And Dick is there!”

“Yes, beyond question we shall encounter Richard Merriwell at Fardale. It will be a surprise to him, Abe. I know that he will palpitate with joy when he beholds our beaming countenances.”

“And Frank is coming soon?”

“As soon as he can. He said it was possible he might arrive almost as soon as we did. I have in a 277secret chamber of my cranium a conviction that Frank Merriwell himself will soon again be seen upon the baseball field. Abe, he is a wiz! He is the greatest pitcher this grand and glorious country has ever produced. When he sends the sphere whirling through the atmosphere and causes it to cut curious capers, the batter who faces him invariably hits nothing solider than the empty ozone.”

“Frank has been kind to me,” murmured Abe. “But I did fear I might never see him again when those men seized me and carried me away in Kansas City.”

“There was where Little Walter got in his fine work. I trailed them to their lair and then sicked Merry on them. It was a fine piece of business he did. There was but one fizzle to the affair. The gent named Jarvis, who was at the bottom of the infamous plot, managed to escape. Either he or one of his tools in the house turned off the lights. In the darkness he shot Bill; but when the lights flared again luminously, he had vanished like a spook into thin air. With the assistance of Bial Keene, Frank is doing his best to again get track of Mr. Jarvis and to learn why you were kidnapped. He will do it, too, my boy; mark that!”

“It’s so different here in this part of the country,” said the hunchback, as he gazed from the car window at the flying landscape. “It doesn’t seem like the country I know. There are such fine houses and such big towns! I am afraid in the cities, cap’n. There are so many, many people. I didn’t think there could be half so many people in the whole world.”

“And I don’t think you have seen half the people 278there are in this little old world,” said Wiley with a smile.

In the car with them the youthful members of the baseball team joked, and laughed, and sang. Just ahead of them sat two young chaps, who were earnestly discussing baseball; and now Wiley became interested in their conversation.

“If we win to-day,” said one, “it will be the first time Fardale has been defeated this season by a school team.”

“Oh, we are going to trim them to-day, Andy!” confidently asserted the other. “It’s all settled.”

“You think it is all settled, Paul,” said Andy. “But the game is not so easily settled with Dick Merriwell against us.”

“My dear fellow,” chuckled Paul, “we have everything on our side this day. Even the umpire will be with us; but keep it quiet—keep it quiet!”

Wiley pricked up his ears and listened more intently.

“How do you know the umpire will be with us?”

“That’s all right. Nort Madison is out for Fardale’s scalp on this occasion, and he has left no stone unturned to accomplish the trick. We even know Merriwell’s system of signals from the box.”

“Do you mean to tell me that Madison has things fixed with the umpire?”

“Oh, Nort is too clever to fix things himself; but he has arranged it all right. If that old game is close toward the end, we will get the favors, and don’t you forget it!”

“Merriwell’s signals?”

279“Why, he has had it fixed so every member of his team knows the kind of a ball he will pitch from his movements, or from the position he assumes. For instance, if he intends to throw that nasty combination ball of his, he gives a hitch at his trousers with both hands. When he is going to throw a drop, just before toeing the slab he stands for a moment with his feet both planted squarely together. When he lifts both hands above his head with the ball hidden in them, he is going to throw an outcurve. For an inshoot he settles on his right foot with a little jerking movement. And so on.”

“How did Madison find out all those signals?”

“That’s all right, my boy. Merriwell has a great many friends at Fardale Academy, but he likewise has an enemy or two. His enemies would dearly love to see him batted out of the box.”

“One of his enemies gave away those signals, eh?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

Wiley settled back in his seat. The look on his face was one of deep disgust.

“Is that the way they play baseball in these parts?” he muttered. “I have done a few questionable things myself in my abbreviated span of life, but a chap who will give away the signals of his own team ought to be presented with a nice, beautiful coat of tar and feathers.”

“If they know those signs they will be able to beat Fardale to-day, won’t they?” anxiously whispered Abe.

“Not on your tintype!” retorted the sailor. “Little 280Walter will lose no precious moments in putting Richard Merriwell wise on what’s doing.”

The two lads in front of them continued their conversation.

“Merriwell has always had enemies in this school, hasn’t he?” said Andy.

“The same as any fellow who is unusually successful,” nodded Paul. “But he has one now who is more powerful and determined than his former enemies.”

“Do you mean Chester Arlington?”

“That’s his name.”

“Arlington!” whispered Wiley. “Jot it down in your memory, Abe. He is the crooked duck we have to keep our optics on.”

Ahead of them, at a little distance, a flush youngster was offering to give odds that Franklin would defeat Fardale that day.

“You must have money to burn, Tommy,” laughed a friend.

“I have,” declared the one called Tommy, as he flourished a small roll of bills. “I will bet two to one we beat Fardale for fair!”

Immediately Wiley popped up.

“Tom, I will provide you with a match, as long as you have legal tender to combusticate. I have a few germ-infested dollars which I am willing to risk on the result of this baseball game.”

Tom seemed surprised.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Me! I am nobody but a rover of the briny deep. I am a sailor, and to me baseball is an unknown quantity. I never saw a game in my life, but I am willing 281to take any kind of a bet—almost—when the odds are two to one. So, Tommy, my dear, pick out the honorable gent who will hold the stakes and stick up as much cash as you like. I will cover it with half as much, and my bet goes that Fardale beats you to a crisp to-day.”

Wiley’s words and manner seemed to amuse the boys in the car, for they laughed uproariously and urged Tom to get after the money.

Tommy was not really anxious to bet, but thus encouraged by his comrades, he placed his money in the hands of his companion.

“Now make good!” he cried, nodding at Wiley. “I don’t believe you have ten dollars in your clothes.”

“It’s plain you are of a skeptical disposition,” said the sailor. “However, I will soon alleviate your skepticism.”

Saying which, he plunged a hand into his pocket, and drew forth a wad of bills.

“How much have you ventured, Tom?” he asked.

“Thirty dollars,” boldly retorted Tom.

“Only thirty? Dear me! I was looking for a hundred or so from you. Why, fifteen dollars doesn’t begin to make a hole in my pile. Here it is, and just gaze on this package I have remaining. Now, my sporty young gentlemen, if there are others among you who wish to help along the good cause by similar bets, I will be delighted to take everything offered as long as my money lasts. Smoke up, youngsters—smoke up!”

He stood laughing at them in a manner that was most provoking.

282“Is it possible?” he exclaimed. “Can it be that the betting is all over and I am to win only a measly thirty plunks! It is a shame! I had fancied you fellows had more nerve. Can’t you scrape up a few coppers among you?”

Thus challenged, the boys felt their pride assailed, and straightway they began forming a pool. By doing this they raised nearly fifty dollars, which was placed in the hands of the stakeholder, and Wiley put up an amount equal to half of it.

“This is assuredly a snap!” he declared. “To-morrow I will celebrate on my winnings. I will open a bottle of sarsaparilla and buy a pint of peanuts.”

“You must be a dead-game sport!” sneered one of the boys. “Where do you hail from?”

“I hailed, rained, or snowed from any old place. Of late I have been out into the wild and untrammeled West, hobnobbing with cowboys, redskins, and rattlesnakes. Indeed, I acquired a habit of sleeping with two or three rattlesnakes in my bed every night. That’s a handy habit to have, for it gives a chap an excuse to absorb whisky. It was a dull and uneventful day that passed without my being bitten two or three times by a rattlesnake. I am a temperance man by principle and it became extremely worrisome to me to be compelled to thus often fill my system with alcohol. I was troubled with the fear that I might acquire the habit, and outside a rattlesnake country no person has ever seen me under the influence of liquor. Down in dear old Camden, Maine, I am worthy chief of the Good Templars.”

By this time every one in the car seemed interested 283in Wiley, and soon he was relating some of his marvelous yarns, to which they listened with amusement and wonder. He kept this up until the train whistled for Fardale.

“Here we are, cap’n!” excitedly whispered Abe, seizing his sleeve and pulling him down into the seat. “We’re almost there!”

As the train drew up at the station they looked out and saw on the platform a great crowd of cadets, who promptly began to cheer. The Franklin boys piled off in a hurry and were received with demonstrations of enthusiasm.

In the midst of this excitement Wiley and Little Abe were unnoticed.

CHAPTER XXVII. A CHANGE OF SIGNALS.

Franklin had various reasons for her self-confidence. Principal among these was the fact that her team was stronger than ever before. It was also known that since Dick’s unfortunate injury of his side he had found it impossible to use the highest speed and the most difficult curves to any great extent in any game. He was compelled to depend on headwork rather than curves and speed. But that was not all. Some traitor in the Fardale camp had betrayed Dick’s signals to the enemy. With the aid of these signals Merriwell kept his whole team posted on the kind of balls he was pitching; but now the enemy would be equally well posted. The batter would know just what was coming, and Franklin felt sure she would biff the ball all over the field. Still another thing added to the confidence of the visitors. It had been secretly whispered about that Nort Madison had fixed things with the umpire. In case the game was close near the finish, Franklin would get all the favors.

No wonder the visitors marched confidently to Fardale Field. No wonder those among them who had bet on their team were already planning how they would spend their winnings.

Never was there a more beautiful day. The air was soft and balmy, and the sunshine was full of mellowness. All the world was fresh and green. It was just 285the day to bring out a great crowd of spectators to witness a baseball game, and a crowd was present at Fardale Field.

At two o’clock the Franklin players, in their dark-blue suits and red caps and stockings, entered the inclosure and marched across to their bench.

Immediately the faithful ones who had accompanied them from Franklin to Fardale rose and gave them a hearty cheer.

Bat bags were opened, and bats brought forth and arranged in a line on the ground, in front of the visitors’ bench. These bats were guarded by a colored boy, who was the mascot of the team. Within three minutes after entering the inclosure the Franklin players were engaged in desultory practice.

“Here, Tipton, Knealy,” called Captain Madison; “you fellows get some batting practice. Take your time about warming up, Westcott. You know just how much throwing you want to do before the game. How’s that ankle, Gannon? All right? That support stiffens it, does it? I see you have fixed your mitt, Dickson. What did you do, take some of the wadding out of it? Well, you have a fine little pocket in it now. You will never drop a ball to-day. Here, Colter, go over there and pitch for those fellows to bat. You know the kind of ball to throw for them. You know what we’re laying to hit to-day. Is your arm all right, Dustan? Well, work the stiffness out of it.”

From one to another he went, talking to them and giving them snap and ginger so that, although, regular practice was not commenced for at least ten minnues 286after their appearance on the ground, they went at their individual efforts with an air of earnestness, which indicated their vim and determination to leave the field winners.

After a little time, the Fardale players appeared, following at the heels of their captain. They were greeted with the Fardale cheer.

As the cadets stopped cheering, the leader of the Franklin crowd gave a signal and the Franklin rooters generously saluted the home team.

Almost instantly the cadets responded with a cheer for Franklin.

“Now one for Merriwell!” said the leader of the Franklin cheerers, and their ringing salute was finished with Dick’s name thrice repeated.

Even as this was taking place the cadets prepared for a response, and Nort Madison was given a similar ovation. The enthusiasm and cheering was something to set the blood dancing, and make all present feel the unbounded joy and delight of youth. In after years, when time and fortune had separated them from their schoolfellows, scores of those boys would think of that day and long again to feel their blood thrill with the old-time ardent ecstasy.

Happy is the man who bears with him the memory of happy schooldays! Happy and fortune-favored is the boy who finds himself surrounded with congenial schoolmates, who takes keen delight in honest sports and games.

Of course, on this beautiful day a large number of girls from Lakeside Academy were present in the 287grand stand. Zona and Doris were there, and June was with them.

The field practice of the visiting team was of the highest order. In fact, if anything, Franklin made a better showing than Fardale in practice. Gardner, who had recovered from his illness, was again in his old position at short. Obediah Tubbs had a split finger, and, therefore, his position at second was filled by Hal Darrell. Obed sat on the bench and looked very sad and downcast because he was not in the game.

Franklin’s team was made up mainly of old players. The battery, however, was new to Fardale, Westcott, the pitcher, being a handsome, ruddy-cheeked fellow, with dark eyes and wavy hair. The two teams lined up as follows:

The time for the game to be called came, and the umpire walked onto the field. Franklin went first to bat, and the home team trotted into their positions.

Just as the game was about to begin a jolly-faced chap in a new golf suit, closely followed by a hunchback boy, came onto the ground, and, regardless of restrictions, proceeded directly to the bench of the home 288team. Springing onto this bench, he stood upright and cried:

“I will wager eleventeen thousand dollars on the home team!”

Immediately one of the ground officials hastened toward him and notified him that he would have to retire from that bench and take his seat on the bleachers.

“What, me?” exclaimed the chap in a golf suit. “You can’t mean me! Haven’t you made a mistake? I am Cap’n Wiley, and Richard Merriwell is an old side partner of mine.”

Immediately Dick called to the official and told him to let the sailor and his companion remain on the bench.

Standing with his hands on his hips, Brad Buckhart surveyed Wiley and Abe with unspeakable astonishment.

“Is this yere a dream?” he exclaimed. “Or do my eyes behold the only and original marine marvel?”

“Ahoy, there, Buck, you magnificent son of the Lone Star State!” cried the captain, as he made a salute. “It gives my optics a sensation of delectation to once more behold your sturdy form. Go ahead, boys, and cut your capers. You will excuse me if I occasionally indulge in a hornpipe around the bench here.”

“Play ball!” cried the umpire.

“They’re off!” shouted Wiley. “Let the excitement sizzle!”

Dick gave a sudden hitch at his trousers with one hand and then pitched the ball.

It was a rise.

289Dustan was prepared for it, and the bat met the ball with a resounding crack.

“Ah!” cried the Franklin spectators.

It was a clean two-bagger.

“Here we go!” laughed Nort Madison, dancing round on the coaching line. “Get a lead, Dustan! We’ll jump into this game and win it at the start!”

Gibbs, a stocky-looking chap, was the next hitter.

Dick settled his right foot on the ground with a jerking movement and delivered a sharp inshoot.

Almost before the ball left Merriwell’s hands Gibbs fell back a little from the plate, and he, like Dustan, met it fairly and squarely.

It was a single to right field, and Dustan, having a good lead off second, literally flew over third on his way toward the home plate.

Dave Flint secured the ball and did his best to stop a score. On that throw to the plate Gibbs took second.

Dustan made a beautiful slide and was safe.

How the Franklin crowd did cheer! This was the sort of work to delight them. Only two men had faced Merriwell. Only two balls had been pitched, yet two clean hits and a score was the result.

“Got ’em on the run! Got ’em on the run!” cried Madison. “Keep it going, Gannon! We might as well make a hundred in the first inning!”

To confess the truth, Dick had been surprised by the manner in which the visitors started off. He knew Gannon was a clever hitter, and there seemed every prospect that another score, at least, would be made by the enemy before Fardale could check them.

290“It’s all right, Merriwell!” declared big Bob Singleton. “Accidents will happen!”

“Bet they don’t know ’ow they did hit!” said Billy Bradley.

There was on Dick’s face a grim look of determination. He was determined to prevent Gannon from following up the hitting. Giving a sudden hitch at his waistband with both hands, he whistled the combination ball over the plate.

Gannon fouled it.

“You touched him, Gan, old boy!” cried Madison. “Let him try that again!”

Young Merriwell lifted both hands above his head and then seemed to throw one that was bound to pass over the very centre of the plate.

Gannon stood without moving his bat, and the ball took a sudden outcurve.

“One ball!” was the umpire’s decision.

“Make him put ’em over, Gan!” urged Madison.

The batter nodded.

An inshoot followed, but it was too close to be a strike, and Gannon simply let it pass, falling back slightly from the plate.

“Two balls!”

“He can’t fool you that way!” declared the Franklin captain laughingly. “Your eye is peeled to-day, old man.”

A high ball followed, and once more Gannon refused to go after it.

“Got him in a hole!” was the cry.

Naturally Gannon would not strike at the next one, and Dick knew it, therefore he used a speedy one, 291sending it straight over the plate. The batter hit it, and the ball went zipping along the ground, Darrell failing to touch it by scarcely more than an inch.

Gibbs landed on third.

Nort Madison himself was the next batter.

“Well! well! well!” shouted Dickson, who was near third. “We win this game right here!”

Little Abe sat with his hands clasped, his face showing his intense anxiety and excitement.

“What’s the matter, cap’n?” he asked. “Are they really winning the game?”

“Well, if there’s not a change in things pretty quick, it looks as if they might,” confessed the sailor. “I expected to arrive here before this old game started. Had I done so, I would have warned Richard Merriwell to cut out those signals. Every batter knows just what he is going to throw. That’s why they are hitting him this way.”

Madison missed the first ball. The next one was wide, and he let it pass. The third was a drop, and he drove it far into the outfield.

Jolliby made a desperate run and a wonderful one-hand catch.

Knowing the ability of Fardale’s centre-fielder, Gibbs had stuck close by third. When the ball fell into Jolliby’s hands Gibbs scooted for the plate.

Chip made a magnificent throw into Buckhart’s hands, but failed to stop the score.

“Rah! rah! rah!” cheered the Franklin crowd.

“Well, brand me good and deep if this doesn’t beat anything I ever saw!” growled Buckhart, in deep disgust.

292Dick advanced to the plate and the Texan met him in front of it.

“We’ve got to stop this hitting streak right away, Brad,” said the Fardale captain. “There’s something wrong.”

“Sure thing, pard,” nodded Buckhart; “but whatever it is I can’t make out.”

“The signs of the times are altogether too apparent!” shouted Cap’n Wiley.

Dick gave a slight start as he heard these words.

“You signal, Brad,” he instantly said. “No matter what sort of a signal I make, I will take your sign for the ball.”

Then they returned to their positions.

Dick received a sign for a drop from the Texan, but gave a hitch at his trousers with his hand, which meant under ordinary circumstances that he would use a rise.

He threw a drop.

Jarley struck over it at least eighteen inches and looked surprised.

“The signs of the times are not so apparent!” chirped Wiley from the bench, a grin of delight overspreading his swarthy face.

When the ball was returned to Dick, he held it with both hands and lifted it above his head, which was his usual signal for an outcurve.

At the same time Brad gave him a sign calling for a straight ball.

Dick threw a straight one.

Jarley leaned forward and swung at it, expecting it would curve over the outside corner. Instead the ball struck the bat close to his fingers and went bounding 293slowly and weakly down to Merriwell, who easily picked it up and tossed it over to Singleton for an “out.”

“The tempest has abated,” chuckled Wiley. “It is growing calmer.”

Knealy, the next hitter, watched Dick’s signals closely, and, to his surprise, every ball delivered took a curve he did not anticipate. The result was that he struck out in short order, and Franklin was retired with two runs in the first inning.

CHAPTER XXVIII. AGAINST TEN MEN.

“Ah! ha! Richard Merriwell,” exclaimed Wiley, as he grasped Dick’s hand. “It thrills my palpitating organism to again press your perspiring palm.”

“How does it happen that you are here, Wiley?” Dick asked.

“The tale is one too long to unfold under such agitating circumstances. Suffice it to say that men with evil ways have looked with covetous eyes on my friend Abe, and your brother decided that it was expedient that we should waft ourselves thitherward to a region of safety. He will follow. It’s possible that he may arrive to-morrow, or even to-night.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Dick delightedly. “Frank coming so soon?”

“Do you doubt my veracity? The mere thought that any one could suspect me of a falsehood pains me keenly. Truth—I love it! Truth—I adore it! This is easily understood, for you know familiarity breeds contempt.”

“What did you mean a few moments ago when you spoke of the signs of the times?” asked Dick.

“By chance this day I took passage on the craft by which your opponents made this port. I heard them discussing, among themselves, certain things. I heard them talking over the fact that you habitually gave your signals from the box when pitching. It seems 295that here at Fardale you have a traitor whose name is Arlington. This chap has betrayed you to Franklin. He has given away your signals. That was why those first batters hit you so expertly. They knew exactly what was coming, and, therefore, they placed the stick against the sphere with firmness and precision. Had you continued to use those signs there is no telling how many runs they would have made.”

“Did you hear them say Arlington was the traitor?” asked Dick.

“I heard his name mentioned.”

“That’s enough, pard!” growled Buckhart savagely. “You can see what sort of a reformer he is. There’s not a decent bone in his whole onery body! You hear me warble!”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” admitted Dick.

Although Fardale made a strong bid for a run in the first inning, Darrell leading off with a hit, and finally reaching third, the pitching of Westcott was of such a puzzling nature that the following batters could not drive Hal home. Bradley was the third man out, being retired on an easy pop fly to the infield.

While this was taking place Dick had informed his players that he would continue to signal from the box, but that his signals would mean nothing, as it was his intention to follow the signs made by Buckhart.

This plan proved most baffling to Franklin in the second inning, for when a batter expected a drop he was certain to get a rise, an outcurve, or something entirely different than he anticipated. Only one man of the three who faced Merriwell touched the ball at all. This was Dickson, who fouled by accident.

296As Merriwell easily struck out Westcott, the cadets rose and cheered.

Chester Arlington was with them, and he seemed to join heartily in this cheering. Apparently no one was more delighted than he. In case he was the traitor, he was playing the hypocrite well.

“What’s the matter, captain?” asked Westcott, as Franklin took the field. “We’re not touching Merriwell now.”

“There’s something wrong,” answered Nort Madison. “He has changed his signals.”

“Why do you suppose he did it?”

“He must have tumbled to the fact that we were onto them. There’s no other explanation. This is going to be a hard game, but we are two runs to the good. We must hold Fardale down. Pitch for your life, old man!”

Never had Westcott pitched more cleverly. Jolliby lifted a foul back of first base, and Madison gathered it in.

“One!” counted the visiting spectators, in unison.

Singleton did his best to get a hit, but finally struck out on a high drop that fell past his shoulders.

“Two!” chorused the Franklin crowd.

“Let me get at him!” muttered Buckhart. “Let’s see if he can fan me that way!”

“Don’t swing your head off,” advised Dick. “Try for a safe single.”

In attempting to follow this advice, Brad missed twice. The delight of the visitors over this annoyed him. He set his teeth, and his eyes took on a steely gleam.

297With all his strength the Texan cracked out a long high liner to left field, but it was caught.

“Three!” roared the Franklin crowd.

Buckhart had reached first, and he walked back, growling his disgust.

“This is now a most salubrious little game!” chuckled Wiley. “Why, these youngsters know how to play baseball! What’s the matter with you, Abe? What are you staring that way for?”

The hunchback drew closer to his companion on the bench.

“There’s a man over there who is watching me,” he answered.

“Over where?”

“Over there in that crowd. I saw him in front of the hotel.”

“Point him out.”

“I can’t now. He has disappeared.”

“What did he look like?”

“He has a sandy beard, and is dressed in a brown suit.”

“Abe, my boy, you’re dreaming. You’re nervous. Forget it, Abe. Your enemies are far away. We have fooled them handsomely.”

“Perhaps so; but I am afraid, cap’n, they are near. Something tells me they are near.”

“Well, just you linger by my side, and you will be all right. Have no fear of the minions of iniquity, for my good right arm will defend you to the extremest extremity. I have vowed to Frank that never again shall harm befall you while you are in my charge. And Little Walter always makes good.”

298Although the boy tried to throw off the feeling of apprehension that weighed heavily upon him, he was unable to do so.

The head of Franklin’s batting list again came up in the third inning. Dustan had started off at first with a beautiful hit, and he tried to repeat the performance. This time, however, he, like those before him, was handsomely fooled by Merriwell’s curves, and he cast down his bat in disgust, on striking out.

“This is getting monotonous for us, captain!” cried Darrell. “You’re not giving us anything to do. Do let them hit it once in a while.”

“Don’t worry!” retorted Nort Madison. “We’ll get after him again before long.”

“Pay no attention to his signals, Gibbs,” advised Dustan in a low tone, as the second batter walked out to the plate.

Gibbs did not find this easy to do, but he finally succeeded in hitting a furious grounder past Dick. Darrell went for it and made one of his phenomenal pick-ups, electrifying the cadets and bringing a shout of joy from their lips as he tossed the ball to Singleton and put Gibbs out.

Gannon was desperate after having two strikes called on him, and he managed to throw out his elbow at an inshoot so that it was hit by the ball.

“What do you think of that, Mr. Umpire?” exclaimed Dick. “You saw him do it!”

The umpire paid no attention to Dick, but motioned for Gannon to take first.

“You can see what you’re up against!” cried Wiley.

299By this time Madison had lost his jovial humor, and at once he exclaimed:

“Keep that man still on the bench, or have him put off, Mr. Umpire!”

“You will have to keep still there!” said the umpire, with a motion toward the sailor.

“For me that will be a most difficult task,” muttered Wiley. “I am afraid I shall explode if I try it.”

Madison fouled the second ball pitched and followed this up by driving the third one straight at Gardner. The ball was twisting fiercely when it struck Earl’s hands, and he failed to hold it. By the time he had recovered it Gannon was on second and Madison close to first. Earl did not throw to Singleton.

“Rotten!” he muttered, his face flushing.

“That’s all right, old man,” assured Dick. “Don’t worry about that.”

Madison hopped about near first, slapping his knee and laughing.

“Got ’em going again, fellows!” he cried. “Keep it up, Jarley, my boy! They are rattled!”

“I wish I thought it!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs from the bench.

Dick worked carefully with Jarley, getting two strikes on him, while two balls had also been called. He then put a speedy one over the inside corner, but the umpire declared it a ball.

Buckhart signaled for a drop. Dick threw the ball so it seemed as if it must pass the plate higher than Jarley’s head. It was a magnificent sharp drop, and cut down across the batter’s shoulders.

Jarley let it pass.

300“Take your base!” directed the umpire.

“Robbery!” whooped Wiley. “That was a beaut!”

The umpire gave him a look.

“Forget it! Forget it!” growled the sailor in a low tone. “I am onto your tricks!”

The bases were now filled, and Knealy was at the bat.

“A little single, Knealy, old huckleberry!” cried Madison from second. “That’s all you want!”

“Dern his picter! he will never get it!” squealed Obediah Tubbs.

In a few moments, however, it began to look as if a run might be forced in. Although Dick “cut the corners,” the umpire refused to call strikes, and three balls in succession were declared.

This was too much for Dick, who turned on the umpire, asking in a low tone:

“What’s your price for this job?”

“What’s that?” fiercely demanded the fellow. “Are you offering to buy me?”

“On the contrary, I am wondering how much you get.”

“You play ball!” was the angry command. “You’re getting all that’s coming to you!”

“Look here, Madison,” said Dick; “you’re in a position where you can see. I want you to watch this business.”

“Oh, don’t insinuate!” retorted Madison. “Isn’t this your own umpire?”

“Selected at your special request,” reminded Dick. “I don’t forget that!”

“You play ball!” again commanded the umpire. 301“You’re delaying the game, and I shall call strikes on you.”

Immediately Dick sent a straight speedy one over the plate, about waist high. The umpire was compelled to declare it a strike. Merriwell followed it by another in the same place.

“Two strikes!” said the umpire, after a moment’s hesitation.

“Strike him out, Merriwell!” shouted the cadets.

Dick whistled the next ball straight over, just a little lower than the batter’s shoulders. The batter crouched and let it pass.

“Four balls; take your base!” directed the umpire, and Gannon was forced home.

“What do you think about that, Madison?” asked Dick.

“It was high,” instantly asserted the captain of the visiting team, as he trotted up to third base.

“We’re up against ten men, pard!” shouted Buckhart.

The cadets on the bleachers expressed their feelings by groans and hisses for the umpire.

“Dern his picter! he better be keerful!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs. “This is a putty bad place for him to try them tricks!”

“That’s right!” sneered Madison, nodding toward the Fardale crowd. “Do your best to intimidate the umpire! That’s the way to play baseball! That’s a fine sort of a game!”

Dick now decided to take all chances of being hit and use a straight ball. This he did with splendid control, sending it over the very heart of the plate.

302The disapprobation of the cadets had caused the umpire to look a trifle nervous, and he declared the first two balls pitched to be strikes, although Tipton let both pass.

“Now, are you satisfied?” demanded Madison. “You have bulldozed the umpire so he is giving you everything.”

Dick made no response, but whistled over another straight one. Tipton hit it, and the ball rose high into the air.

Gardner ran back for it; while Darrell also seemed determined to get under it.

“Gardner! Gardner!” called Dick sharply. “Take it, Earl!”

The ball fell into Earl’s hands, while Hal crouched low close behind him.

Earl muffed the ball.

“Ah!” burst from the Franklin crowd.

The ball fell into Darrell’s hands, and he held it.

“Ah!” roared the Fardale crowd.

Up in the grand stand Doris Templeton embraced June, giving her a hug of joy.

“Hal did it!” she breathed.

“That was splendid!” agreed June.

“Oh, I don’t think it was such a wonderful thing!” declared Zona. “It just fell right into his hands, and he couldn’t help holding it.”

Doris gave her a resentful look.

Dick waited for Hal and walked in to the bench with him.

CHAPTER XXIX. FARDALE’S FIRST RUN.

“You saved us that time, old man,” smiled Merriwell, with his hand on Darrell’s arm. “That was clever backing up.”

Darrell flushed and looked pleased over this compliment.

As Dick reached the bench, Wiley rose and said:

“Mate Richard, if you wish to put yonder perfidious rogue out of the game, and thus give yourself a fair chance with an honest umpire, I stand ready to take my solemn oath that I know he is crooked. While on the train to-day I heard some of those fellows saying they had the umpire fixed. If you permit him to continue his sinuous course you are destined to lose this game.”

“Are you telling me the truth when you say you heard such a thing on the train?” asked Dick.

Wiley gave a little sob.

“How can you doubt my veracity?” he murmured. “Here is Abe. He heard it also. Am I not speaking the unadulterated and undefiled truth, Abe?”

“It is true,” declared the hunchback.

Immediately Dick called Captain Madison.

“Look here, Madison,” he said grimly, “we want another umpire.”

“Oh, do you?” sneered the captain of the visiting 304team. “You want everything your own way I presume. Well, we are satisfied with this umpire.”

“I am not.”

“That makes no difference to me. He will stay in there until the game is finished.”

“I don’t think so,” retorted Dick quietly. “I have evidence that there is a double deal in this affair. I have the proof, Madison. Some of your players were heard saying that the umpire was fixed.”

“Who said so?”

“Come up here to the bench.”

Madison followed Dick to the bench.

“Here is the man who says so,” said Merriwell, indicating Wiley, who bowed gracefully and smiled serenely into Madison’s face.

“That chap?” sneered the Franklin captain. “Why, who would believe him?”

“He is not the only one who heard it,” asserted Dick. “We want no trouble here, Madison; but we’re looking for a square deal and we propose to have it. You named this chap as umpire, and we agreed to him, even though we were not fully satisfied. It was my desire to please you fellows. Are you here to win a square game? or are you here to steal one?”

Madison flushed and looked furious.

“I don’t like that sort of talk, Merriwell!” he exclaimed.

“I presume you don’t. All Fardale asks is a square deal. You know as well as I do that I didn’t get a square deal in the last inning. I know as well as you do that there has been monkey business with that umpire.”

305“An umpire can’t be taken out of a game after it begins.”

“He can, if both captains agree on his removal.”

“If you don’t like the way this game is going, I can take my team and go home,” declared Madison threateningly.

“If you do so, Nort, you know Fardale will refuse to have any dealings whatever with you in the future. You have a good lead in the game now, and you may win it. If you wish to quit under such circumstances, why—go ahead.”

“What will you do if I don’t quit? What will you do if I simply decline to change umpires, and continue the game?”

“I shall step out onto the field and make an announcement. I shall state for all to hear just what I know in regard to that umpire.”

“Oh, well, we won’t have any fuss over it!” exclaimed Nort, suddenly weakening. “I don’t want to keep a fellow in there that you’re kicking about. Go ahead and take him out?”

“Who shall we put in his place?”

“Any one you please. I don’t care. Where is your regular umpire?”

“Tell you what we will do,” said Dick. “We will take a man from the bench and you take one of your men, and we will let the two finish umpiring the game. That will make it perfectly satisfactory on both sides. What do you say to that?”

“All right; I’m agreeable,” nodded Madison.

The umpire was greatly astonished when he was 306called to leave the field. He walked off in high indignation, expressing his feelings in mutterings.

The approval of this act on the part of the two captains came from the cadets and the spectators in a burst of applause.

The game continued with two of the substitutes acting as umpires, Obediah Tubbs being one of these, while Franklin furnished the other. These fellows alternated with every inning in deciding on the balls and strikes, so that both sides were given a fair show.

Merriwell was the first batter up for Fardale in the third inning, and, after having two strikes called on him, he hit a grounder past Gibbs, secured first on it, turned toward second, and drew the ball from Jarley, to whom it had been returned by Gannon. Jarley snapped the ball over so quickly in order to catch Dick that he made a bad throw.

Madison stretched himself for it, but barely touched it with the end of his mitt.

Dick danced down to second.

“Now that’s too bad!” piped the voice of Ted Smart. “I’m just as sorry as I can be! I am afraid we’re going to get some scores!”

“Don’t be afraid, little fellow,” said Gibbs mockingly. “There is not the least danger of it.”

“Oh, I am so anxious!” said Ted. “I am so nervous and excited! Why, I should just hate to see us getting any scores now!”

As Darrell walked out to bat he glanced toward Dick, who was on second, and received a signal to bunt.

Although Darrell longed to swing hard at the ball, 307he obeyed the signal, and bunted toward first base, doing his best to outrun the ball.

Dick was off for third almost before Hal bunted toward first base, and he secured it easily. In the confusion Darrell reached first safely.

Black knew his businessbusiness, and refused to go after the first ball pitched to him, although it was a good one. This gave Hal a chance to try to steal second, and he improved it. Dickson snapped the ball to Westcott, who turned like a flash and threw it to Tipton. Although this was done swiftly, Hal slid under Tipton and lay with his hand on the bag as the ball came into the second baseman’s hand. Dick made a fake dash off third, so that Tipton did not attempt to tag Darrell. Instead he threw the ball to Gibbs, but threw it so high that Gibbs was compelled to spring into the air for it.

Immediately Madison’s voice was heard ordering his players to stop throwing the ball around in such a manner. Tipton’s high throw had frightened him, for Dick would have scored easily had Gibbs failed to catch it.

The cadets now had an opportunity to cheer their team on, and they began singing “Fardale’s Way.”

Chester Arlington joined earnestlyjoined earnestly in this song:

308Wiley sat on the bench, and smiled serenely as his ears drank in this song.

“Surely this is salubrious,” he murmured. “This is the real stuff. Reminds me of my college days when I used to warble the songs of my dear old alma mater.”

Black also glanced toward Dick, who again gave a signal to bunt. Black bunted the first ball pitched, dropping it down about eight feet in front of the plate and off to one side toward third.

Dick was on his way for the home plate even before the bat touched the ball. He had taken chances on Black’s success in bunting safely and started as soon as Westcott swung his arm.

Westcott caught up the ball and snapped it to Dickson, but was too late. Dick had scored. At the same time Darrell had moved up to third, and Black reached first in safety.

“I am willing to admit the kids know how to play the game,” chuckled Wiley. "This would not please Frank Wilbur. He believes in beefing it out. He has a delectable little habit of sitting on the bleachers and youping persistently: ‘Beef it! beef it! beef it!’ That may have been the style of playing in his day, but modern baseball is somewhat different."

Dave Flint was not a first-class bunter. For this reason Dick gave Dave a signal to hit the ball.

Flint did hit it. He met it full and fair, and sent it onto a dead line into the hands of Jarley, who was almost lifted off his feet.

Nevertheless the Franklin shortstop clung to the ball 309and snapped it over to third so quickly that Darrell was caught off the bag and put out.

This brought a yell of joy from the Franklin crowd.

“Hard luck, Dave,” said Dick, as Flint returned to the bench.

“Bad judgment!” declared Flint. “I tried to drive it ten feet to the right of him, and I put it straight into his hands.”

“Well, you did your best,” said Dick, “and that’s all any one can do. Angels can do no better, you know.”

“It’s a shame!” declared the boy with the scarred cheek, as he sat down on the bench. “We had a chance to win this game right there!”

“The chance will come again,” asserted young Merriwell confidently. “It is not over yet. Black is on second and Gardner has a crack. A single to right field may score Black.”

But now Westcott aroused himself, and, although Gardner tried his level best to make a hit, it was no use. He finally struck out, and at the close of the third inning the score stood three to one in Franklin’s favor.

“Why, this is a fine little game!” nodded Wiley. “This is the sort of a game to provide undiluted amusement for the numerous visitors assembled to observe the seething conflict.”

Suddenly Abe clutched the sailor nervously, as he exclaimed:

“There! there! That umpire is talking to the sandy man who watched me! Look at him!”

“There must be a hazy cloud over my optics,” said 310Wiley, “for I assure you I fail to see the parties in question. Where are they?”

“Over there in the crowd,” declared the boy, pointing. “They saw me! The sandy man has gone again!”

“Abe, what you need is something for your nerves. When I get that way I take a little spirits fermenti.”

Although Abe declared he was certain he was being watched, Wiley fancied it a case of nervousness and gave little attention to anything save the game.

CHAPTER XXX. THE LAST EFFORT.

The three innings which followed were exciting enough to keep the spectators nerved to the highest pitch. In each inning the contesting teams struggled hard for more scores, but good work and fast fielding prevented either side from obtaining a tally.

Franklin came up into the first half of the seventh with Jarley at bat. The clever little shortstop of the visitors bunted the first ball pitched, and managed to reach first ahead of it. Knealy followed with a bunt and was out at first, but Jarley went down to second.

“Lace it, Tipton—good old Tip!” sang the Franklin crowd.

Tipton smashed a hot one down to the first-base line, and Jarley stretched himself for third.

The ball carromed off Singleton’s mitt, and by the time he had secured it and reached first Tipton had crossed the bag, while Jarley was safe on third.

“This is our inning!” shouted Madison. “Push ’em hard, fellows! Don’t let up!”

Dick sent the first ball to Dickson straight over the centre of the plate, and Dickson flourished his bat at it without trying to hit it.

Tipton improved the opportunity to dash down toward second.

With a runner on third, it was dangerous for Buckhart to throw the ball to second, but Brad did not 312hesitate. Quick as a flash, with a short-arm movement, he lined it down.

Tipton stopped before reaching second, with the idea of throwing Darrell off in an effort to run him down.

At the same time Jarley scudded for the home plate.

Darrell did not even glance toward Tipton, but immediately lined the ball back to Buckhart.

Brad was in position and caught it.

Jarley slid, but the Texan pinned him fast to the ground before his hand could reach the plate, and he was out on a close decision.

The disappointment of the Franklin crowd was only exceeded by the delight of the cadets. Nort Madison attempted to dispute the umpire’s decision. He claimed that Jarley was safe, but those who had watched the plate closely knew this was not so.

Wiley hugged himself.

“Beyond question,” he murmured, “I shall have to get into gear and take to the diamond. This arouses me to the limit.”

After two strikes and two balls were called, Dickson managed to catch one of Merriwell’s shoots and drop it over the infield. On this safe hit Tipton ran as if his life depended upon it, and the coacher near third sent him home.

Darrell secured the ball and tried to stop the run at the plate, but was a moment too late to do so.

“That clinches it!” laughed Madison. “We win a scalp to-day, boys!”

“Oh, has Fardale lost the game, cap’n?” anxiously asked little Abe.

313“Not yet,” declared Wiley. “Strange things may happen before this game ends.”

Westcott was the weakest hitter on the visiting team, and Dick had little trouble in striking him out.

“Now, fellows,” said the Fardale captain, as his players gathered around him at the bench, “it’s up to us to cut loose. We haven’t made a run since the third inning.”

“Here’s where we turn the trick, pard,” declared Buckhart.

But again Fardale was unable to accomplish the feat. The best she could do was to get a man to second, where he “died.”

The visitors danced in to the bench, cheered by their admirers.

In the grand stand Doris and June were worrying over the probable outcome of the game.

“I’m afraid they can’t win!” said Doris, almost in tears. “That horrid umpire defeated them at the first of the game!”

“There are two more innings to play,” reminded June. “At least, Doris, you should be satisfied with the game Hal Darrell has put up to-day.”

“Yes, indeed!” laughed Zona. “He has outdone himself. He can play almost as well as Chester.”

Doris opened her lips to make some retort, but closed them at once.

The eighth was fast and furious. Dustan smashed a whistling liner at Gardner, who muffed it, but caught it up in time to throw the runner out at first. Gibbs hit a twister into the air, and Bradley got under it.

314When the ball struck in Billy’s hands, it twisted out before he could close his fingers on it, and Gibbs reached first in safety.

Gannon followed with a two-bagger to left field, but Gibbs was held on third by the coacher.

“Now, what do you think?” shouted Nort Madison.

“We think you’re the next victim!” growled big Bob Singleton, as Madison stepped out to strike.

“You’ve got another think coming to you,” Nort confidently retorted. “This is my turn to get a hit.”

Brad signaled for a drop, but Dick shook his head and continued to shake his head until the Texan asked for the combination ball. With this ball Merriwell made Madison swing twice ineffectively.

Then Dick tried a rise.

Madison let it pass, and it was pronounced a ball.

“Get ’em down, Merriwell—get ’em down!” exclaimed the batter. “I can’t reach those!”

“Try this,” invited Dick.

Then he threw one of his high ones, which dropped like a flash and shot down past the batter’s shoulders. Madison fancied it would pass higher than his head and made no move to strike at it.

“You’re out!” squealed Obediah Tubbs, whose turn it was to umpire behind the pitcher.

“What’s the matter with you?” burst from Madison. “That was higher than my head! Give us a show, will you?”

“Dern your picter, you’re out!” piped Obed excitedly.

“Do you see that?” demanded Madison, shaking his 315finger at the Franklin umpire. “Now you want to even up for that! Your turn comes the next inning!”

At this the cadets uttered a derisive groan.

Madison was filled with rage as he took his seat on the bench.

Jarley quickly put an end to Franklin’s chance in the eighth inning by swinging at the first ball and lifting it into the air for Merriwell to capture when it came down. The score remained unchanged.

“Get after them, Black,” urged Dick, in a low tone, as Barron walked out.

Black said not a word, but picked out a good one and hit it hard, but Tipton made a marvelous stop and threw Black out at first.

“Only five more men, Westcott!” called Madison. “They will all be easy!”

Flint was determined, and he secured a clean single.

Gardner followed with a grounder that Jarley fumbled long enough to let Gardner reach first and Flint get safely to second.

“Dear me!” muttered Billy Bradley, who was deathly pale, as he picked up his bat. “’Ow Hi wish somebody helse ’ad to ’it in my place!”

Nevertheless, Billy made a handsome single, and Flint scored on it.

“Abe, my boy,” said Wiley, “Fardale wins right here.”

Jolliby, however, lifted a long fly to right field and was out, although Gardner advanced from second to third on it.

Big Bob Singleton had not made a safe hit for the 316day. He redeemed himself now by cracking out a beautiful drive, on which Gardner scored.

Buckhart did his best to get a hit, but Westcott revived again, and the Texan fell a victim to his curves, and made the third out for Fardale, which left the home team one run behind the visitors.

In the first half of the ninth inning, with the Franklin umpire at work behind him, Dick quickly discovered that he was receiving no favors. Having made this discovery, he used the jump ball a great deal, leading the batter into thinking, whenever possible, that he was throwing straight ones. Through this he succeeded in striking out two of them and causing the third to put up an easy fly.

Fardale came up in the ninth with Merriwell first at bat.

Dick looked determined to try for a home run as he strode up to the plate, gripping the end of his bat. When Westcott delivered the ball, however, Merriwell suddenly shortened his hold and bunted. He was off like a flash, and by great running succeeded in crossing first ahead of the ball.

As Darrell came out to strike, Dick made a signal that Hal understood. Darrell let the first one pass. On the second ball pitched Merriwell, who had been watching Westcott’s feet, scudded for second base.

Dickson lined the ball down to Tipton, but Dick slid under handsomely and was again declared safe.

“He will stay right there,” asserted Madison.

Nort was mistaken, however, for on the very next ball pitched, which proved to be a little wild, Dick, having secured a good lead off second, made a dash 317for third, and again was declared safe after a sensational slide.

The cadets rose and cheered wildly.

A moment later Darrell put up a weak foul and was out.

Dick was crouching near third, every nerve strained, as Westcott pitched the first ball to Black.

Barron missed it.

Dickson tossed the ball back to Westcott. Then, as Dickson made that tossing movement, when it was too late for him to retain the ball, Dick electrified every beholder by starting for the home plate at astonishing speed. By the time the ball reached Westcott’s hands Merriwell was at least halfway home. In his eagerness to return it to Dickson, Westcott made a poor throw. Dickson fumbled the ball, and Merriwell slid home safely in a cloud of dust, while the Fardale boys split their throats with a great cheer.

By his daring base-running Dick had tied the score.

Madison was furious. In the midst of the excitement he said something to the umpire, and, following this, Black was declared out on three strikes, although but one of them had passed over the plate. Flint was now the hitter, and he had his eye peeled for a good one. The first ball was at least a foot beyond the plate, yet the umpire declared it a strike. The next one was too high, but another strike was called.

The watching cadets roared their disapprobation.

“Robbery!” they shouted.

Having discovered what the umpire was trying to do, Flint went for the next ball, even though it was 318above his shoulders. He met it full and fair, and sent it sailing far over the fence for a home run; and the uproar that followed as the boy with the scarred cheek trotted around the bases was simply indescribable. Down onto the field poured the rejoicing cadets, and, forgetting everything else, Wiley plunged into their midst, eager to shake hands with the winners.

Barely had Wiley left little Abe, when the sandy man the hunchback had seen watching him appeared at the bench. Immediately Abe rose and fled in great fear. He ran toward the crowd, but could see nothing of Wiley. Then he turned for the gate, through which he dashed. In doing so he plunged straight into the arms of a man who seemed waiting for him. Instantly he was caught up and carried toward a closed carriage.

“Help!” he faintly cried.

“Shut up, you brat!” hissed the voice of Jarvis, for Abe’s captor was the man with the icy hand.

The carriage door was flung open, and, in another moment, Abe would have been thrustthrust in. Just then an athletic lad dashed at Jarvis and struck him a heavy blow behind the ear, causing him to stagger.

“Drop that boy, you whelp!” rang out a clear voice. “What are you trying to do?”

Jarvis clung to Abe, but managed to draw a pistol.

“Interfere with me, will you, you fool!” he snarled.

Then the pistol spoke, and Chester Arlington, who had attempted to save Abe, dropped to the ground.

But Arlington was not alone. Several other boys had witnessed the encounter, and with shouts they charged on the man. Somehow Abe managed to 319struggle from Jarvis’ hands and plunge beneath the carriage. The sound of the pistol had caused the horses to begin prancing, and with a fierce oath Jarvis yelled at the driver and leaped into the carriage, slamming the door behind him.

The driver cracked his whip, and away went the horses.

The wheels did not pass over the hunchback, for he was between them, and he seemed unhurt when the cadets picked him up.

Not so Chester Arlington. The bullet had grazed his head and rendered him unconscious. Blood was flowing down the side of his face, and the horrified boys believed he had been killed. When a doctor examined the injury, however, it was found that the bullet had grazed Chester’s skull, but there was no reason why the wound should be serious. Indeed, Arlington recovered rapidly, and among the first to congratulate him on his bravery in attacking Abe’s enemy single-handed was Dick Merriwell.

Although a number of the cadets had attempted to follow the closed carriage, it dashed away at a furious pace and the boys were distanced.

The sheriff in Fardale was notified and requested to secure Abe’s assailant, if possible. Although the officer did his best to comply, Jarvis managed to hide until nightfall, when he escaped from Fardale.

On the following day Frank Merriwell arrived. When he heard what had taken place, Merry shook his head and expressed great regret that Abe’s enemies had not been captured.

“I am afraid we have not seen the last of them,” 320he declared. “If what Bial Keene tells me is true, they are almost certain to give Abe further trouble.”

“Why should they?” innocently questioned the hunchback. “I have never done anything to them. Why should they hurt me?”

“My dear boy, Keene has discovered that you are the rightful heir to a rich estate. He expects soon to clear up the entire mystery. He is now certain that this man Jarvis, the man with the ice-cold hand, is your own uncle, who long years ago had you kidnapped from your home by scoundrels, and he supposed that you had been put out of the way forever. Leave everything to me, Abe, and to Bial Keene. We will baffle your enemies, and some day you shall possess the riches that are rightfully yours.”

THE END.

No. 110 of the Merriwell Series, by Burt L. Standish, is entitled “Dick Merriwell’s Long Slide.” It is a story rich in fun and thrills, teeming with intense vigor.

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