Frank Merriwell’s Reward E-Book

Burt L. Standish

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Frank Merriwell has always argued that he is the best. And not one reader will be able to say something bad in the direction of the main character, as he tried when he went to his goal. As they say, labor was finally awarded. In this part, one of the emotional moments is the recognition of the hero’s work. I advise you to keep a handkerchief in your hand, as this story will hook you.

Leseprobe

Contents

CHAPTER I. A RUNAWAY AUTOMOBILE

CHAPTER II. HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED

CHAPTER III. PIKE'S LITTLE PLAN

CHAPTER IV. AT THE HOME OF WINNIE LEE

CHAPTER V. HODGE'S REPENTANCE

CHAPTER VI. READY STEADY

CHAPTER VII. FRIENDS

CHAPTER VIII. THE GUN CLUB

CHAPTER IX. SHOOTING

CHAPTER X. BADGER'S CHALLENGE

CHAPTER XI. FRANK PREVENTS TROUBLE

CHAPTER XII. AGNEW'S TRICK

CHAPTER XIII. COWARDICE OF THE CHICKERING SET

CHAPTER XIV. A WILD NIGHT

CHAPTER XV. PIKE AND BADGER

CHAPTER XVI. THE BLOW FALLS

CHAPTER XVII. BUCK AND WINNIE

CHAPTER XVIII. FUN IN THE CAMPUS

CHAPTER XIX. A CRUSHING BLOW

CHAPTER XX. INTO A TRAP

CHAPTER XXI. BAD NEWS

CHAPTER XXII. ADRIFT IN THE ATLANTIC

CHAPTER XXIII. THE MYSTERY OF THE FISHING-SLOOP

CHAPTER XXIV. INZA'S STORY

CHAPTER XXV. THE GHOST OF BARNEY MULLOY

CHAPTER XXVI. THE PHANTOM AGAIN

CHAPTER XXVII. MERRIWELL'S FRIENDS

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE MYSTERY CLEARED AWAY

CHAPTER I

A RUNAWAY AUTOMOBILE

“Li, there! Hook out!” shouted Harry Rattleton.

“Hi, there! Look out!” echoed Bart Hodge, getting the words straight which Harry had twisted.

“Get out of the way, fellows!” warned Jack Diamond.

“The juice that it’s loaded with must be bug juice!” squealed Danny Griswold. “It’s crazy drunk!”

“Tut-tut-tut-turn the cuc-crank the other way!” bellowed Joe Gamp.

“This crank,” said Bink Stubbs, giving Gamp a twist that spun him round like a top.

“I’ve always believed that more than half of these new-fangled inventions are devices of Satan, and now I know it!” grumbled Dismal Jones.

“You’ll be more certain of it than ever if you let it run over you!” Frank Merriwell warned, stepping to the sidewalk, and drawing Dismal’s lank body quickly back from the street.

“Huah! It’s worse than a cranky horse!”

Bruce Browning reached down, took Danny Griswold by the collar, and placed the little fellow behind him.

“Unselfishly trying to save your bacon at the expense of my own!” Browning suavely explained, as Danny began to fume. “Do you want that thing to step on you?”

An electric hansom, which had sailed up the street in an eminently respectable manner, had suddenly and without apparent reason begun to act in an altogether disreputable way. It had veered round, rushed over the crossing, and made a bee-line for the sidewalk, almost running down a party of Frank Merriwell’s friends, who were out for an afternoon stroll on the street in the pleasant spring sunshine.

The motorman, who occupied a grand-stand seat in the rear, seemed to have lost control of the automobile. He was excitedly fumbling with his levers, but without being able to bring the carriage to a stop.

The street was crowded with people at the time, and when the electric carriage began to cut its eccentric capers there was a rush for places of safety, while the air was filled with excited cries and exclamations.

Merriwell could see the head of a passenger, a man, through the window of the automobile.

“She’s cuc-coming this way again!” shouted Gamp. “Look out, fellows!”

The front tires struck the curbing with such force that the motorman was pitched from his high seat, landing heavily on his head in the gutter.

Bruce Browning was one of the first to reach him.

“Give him air!” Bruce commanded, lifting the man in his arms and stepping toward a drug-store on the corner.

Some of the crowd streamed after Browning, but by far the greater number remained to watch the antics of the automobile.

The man inside was fumbling at the door and trying to get out. The misguided auto climbed the curbing and tried to butt down the wall of a store building.

“Give it some climbin’-irons!” yelled a newsboy.

The automobile, with its front wheels pressed against the wall, began to rear up like a great black bug, determined apparently to scale the perpendicular side of the building and enter through one of the open windows above. As soon as he saw the motorman pitched into the gutter, Merriwell moved toward the carriage.

“Time to take a hand in this!” was his thought. “There will be more hurt, if I don’t!”

He leaped to the step, but before he could mount to the high seat the auto was butting blindly against the wall.

“He’s goin’ ter shut off the juice!” squeaked the newsboy.

What the trouble had been with the levers Merry did not know. When he took hold of them, the hansom became manageable and obedient. He shut off the electricity, and the front wheels dropped down from the wall. The next moment he swung to the ground and opened the door.

To his surprise, the man who emerged from the carriage was Dunstan Kirk, the leader of the Yale ball-team.

“Glad to see you!” gasped Kirk. “I couldn’t get out, and I was expecting the thing to turn over! I believe I’m not hurt.”

“The motorman is, though! He has been carried into the drug-store.”

Frank looked toward the drug-store, and saw an ambulance dash up to convey the injured man to the hospital.

“Glad you’re all right!” turning again to the baseball-captain. “These things are cranky at times. I’ve had some experience with one.”

A policeman pushed forward to take possession of the automobile until the company could send another motorman.

The ambulance dashed away, and Browning, Diamond, and Rattleton came across the street hurriedly from the apothecary’s. Bink and Danny, Gamp and Dismal–other friends of his–were already crowding round Merriwell. Back of them was a pushing, excited throng.

“Which way did that carriage go?” Kirk demanded.

“Which carriage?”

“The one that was just ahead of us. I was chasing it in the automobile?”

“With a driver in a green livery and a bay horse?” asked the newsboy, who had pushed into the inner circle.

“Yes. Which way did it go?”

“Turned de first corner.”

“Let’s get a cab!” said Kirk. “Come, I want you to go with me!”

He caught Merriwell by the arm. A cab had drawn up near the curbing, and toward this they moved, Merriwell reserving his questions until later.

Dunstan hurriedly gave instructions to the driver, and climbed in after Merriwell.

“Now, what does this mean?” Frank demanded, as the cab started with a lurch. “What sort of a wild-goose chase are you on?”

“What made that auto-carriage do that way?”

“There was something the matter with it, I suppose.”

“It struck me that the motorman may have been in the pay of the fellow I was chasing.”

He lowered his voice, even though the rattling of hoofs and wheels and the noises of the street rendered it wholly improbable that the driver or any one else could hear what was spoken inside.

“Frankly, Merriwell, the chap I was chasing looked like Morton Agnew! I was in Mason & Fettig’s, five or six blocks above, when some one came into the other room and passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on the proprietor. He discovered it while the fellow was going through the door, and gave a call. I ran to the door and saw the rascal–not well, you know, but a side glance–not much more than a flash–and I thought he was Agnew. Of course, I couldn’t swear to it. I may have been mistaken. But to satisfy myself, I jumped into that automobile and gave chase. He saw I was pursuing him and he sprang into a cab. I was determined to overhaul the scamp and satisfy myself on that one point. Perhaps I ought not to mention the name, as I am so uncertain, and I shall not mention it to any one else.”

Dunstan Kirk, the athletic and capable captain of the baseball-team, had come to admire and trust Frank Merriwell. He had seen enough to know that Frank could be trusted in any way and in any place.

“What do you think of it?” he asked.

“That there is no chance now of discovering whether your suspicions were true or false. Unless”–hesitatingly–“you should cause Agnew’s arrest, and have him taken before the man who was cheated. Or you might tell the man your suspicions, and let him act in the matter.”

“I am not certain enough!” said Kirk. “It’s too bad he got away! The motorman couldn’t have been in his pay?”

“If so, he has received his pay!” said Merry meaningly. “He went out of that seat on his head and struck hard. I think the motorman simply found the hansom unmanageable, for some reason. Those carriages take freaks at times.”

“And your opinion about Agnew?”

“He isn’t too good to do such a thing, and I have had reason to believe lately that he is hard up. He used to hold himself up by his winnings at cards, but he has cheated so outrageously and boldly that the students fight pretty shy of him.”

“We’re just wasting our time, I’m afraid!” Kirk grumbled, as the cab rattled on down the street.

“Hold on!” said Merriwell, looking through the window. “There is your green-liveried driver and your bay horse!”

Though the cab in question was standing by a curbing, Frank saw at a glance that the horse was sweaty and showed other signs of recent fast driving.

“Empty, and the bird has flown!” he observed, as the cab they were in stopped and they got out. “Whoever he was–Agnew, or another man–he has had time to escape!”

The green-liveried driver was questioned, but no information of value was obtained, and when it was seen that there was no chance of settling the question which had moved Dunstan Kirk to the pursuit, Kirk settled with the driver of the cab that had brought them thus far, and he and Merriwell went into the nearest restaurant.

“I understand you don’t smoke, or I might be tempted to order cigars,” he said, as a waiter came forward for their orders, after they had taken seats at a table in one of the small side rooms. “I wanted to have a talk with you about certain matters. Not about Agnew, but concerning Buck Badger!”

When the waiter had gone he continued:

“I am interested in Badger’s pitching. The fellow has good pitching ability. But he is erratic. Sometimes he pitches wonderfully. Then the very next time he will fall away down. I am convinced that what he needs as much as anything else is the right kind of encouragement.”

“I consider him one of the very best of the new men who have come up with pitching ambitions,” said Merriwell. “I have noticed the things you say.”

“You were kind enough some time ago to recommend him to my notice,” Kirk went on, as if feeling his way. “You would be glad to help him, perhaps.”

“I shall be very glad to help him, if I can, and to serve you in any way, Kirk. But you know he doesn’t like me very well. There must be a willingness on both sides, you see–just as it takes two to make a quarrel!”

“I haven’t sounded him, but I fancy he would be willing. He isn’t doing any good lately. You may have noticed that, too?”

“Yes.”

The waiter brought the things ordered, and went away again.

“That Crested Foam affair is the cause, I fancy,” Dunstan Kirk went on, breaking a cracker and helping himself to some cheese.

Frank Merriwell had thought the same, but he did not wish to say so.

“He hasn’t acted right since then. And by right, I mean natural, you understand! I suppose it grinds him to know that such a fellow as Barney Lynn could drug and rob him in that way.”

Merriwell flashed Dunstan Kirk a quick look. It was evident that the captain of the Yale baseball-team did not know that Buck Badger was intoxicated when he was lured aboard the excursion steamer, Crested Foam.

A similar imperfect knowledge of the true condition of affairs at that time had been noticed by Merriwell in the conversation of others. The newspapers in the notices of the burning of the steamer had given attention chiefly to Lynn, merely stating briefly that Badger had been drugged and robbed by the ex-boat-keeper.

“I shouldn’t think it would be a pleasant reflection,” Frank answered.

“Very humiliating to a man of Badger’s character. And it has just taken the heart out of him. Until that time he was one of the most promising of the new pitchers at Yale. I was expecting good things from him. Now he seems to be nothing but a blighted ‘has-been!’”

Merriwell smiled.

"And of all the sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’” “Just so,” assented Kirk. “It’s too bad to see a capable fellow go to the bone pile! I don’t like it. I talked with him and tried to encourage him, but it had no permanent effect. He braced up for a little while, and then slumped again.”

“At heart, Badger is very proud!” Frank explained. “He wouldn’t admit it, perhaps, even to himself. He craves popularity, too, though he affects not to care at all for the opinions of others. It has been his misfortune not to be popular. His disposition is against it. This has made him very sore at times, though he has tried to conceal the fact. Now you can see that to a man of his disposition the things that happened on the Crested Foam would be tremendously depressing.”

The captain of the ball-team would have seen even more clearly how depressing they were if he had known all that Merriwell knew.

“Somehow, he seems to me like a man who is under the impression that he has lost all of his friends,” said Kirk. “He needs to be assured that such is not the case–that his friends and acquaintances have no desire to cut him. I think if that could be done he would come out of the slough of despond and be worth something. We may need him this summer; or a man who has his pitching ability ought to develop into something worth while.”

Frank saw that Dunstan Kirk was edging toward some kind of a request.

“If there is anything I can do!” he invited.

“Well, as your picked nine is to play Abernathy’s nine, of Hartford, on the ball-grounds here next Saturday, I wondered if you would be willing to let Badger pitch. It is an unheard-of sort of request to make, I know, and it leaves me under the suspicion of wanting to see you beaten by the Hartford fellows. But I hope you know me well enough to understand that such cannot be the case.”

“Sure! I’d never thought of it, if you hadn’t!”

“I’ve thought of asking this of you for a day or two. You see, if you, who are not particularly Badger’s friend, show such a disposition to recognize and honor his pitching abilities, it ought to brace him up!”

Merriwell drummed thoughtfully on the table.

“Perhaps it can be done! If it will brace him up any and put him on his feet, I shall be glad to show Badger all the consideration I can.”

“I was almost afraid to mention it,” explained Kirk, “for I know that he has not felt just right toward you. But if you will?”

“I intended to pitch that game myself, for Abernathy’s men are not the easiest things on the planet. Of course, if Badger falls down, I should be compelled to go into the box and do my best to save the day. And with a fellow like Badger, that might not work well. It would be just like him to think that I did it to humiliate him and show myself the better pitcher! You see the possibility?”

“Yes, I see it!”

There were other considerations, which Frank did not desire at the moment to mention.

“I’ll have a talk with Badger, and see what I can do!” Kirk went on. “When he was so wildly ambitious, a little while back, a word from me might have settled it; but I suppose I shall have to show him by argument that he ought to accept your friendly offer. You authorize me to make that as an offer?”

“Yes. I’m willing to try to help Badger. He has good stuff in him, and, as you say, it would be too bad for him to get into the dumps and neglect to develop it. I can arrange it, I think, and, if he will pitch for us Saturday, he may. With the clear understanding that I am at liberty without question to take the pitcher’s box at any time I see fit!”

“Of course!”

The captain’s face had brightened. He was not a partisan of Buck Badger, nor of any man. He cared only for the recognition and development of the best Yale players and the triumph of the Yale nine. And because he recognized in Frank Merriwell these same unselfish qualities he had come to him with this request.

“I doubt much if Badger will accept the offer,” said Frank.

“I shall take the offer to him, anyway. I believe it will brighten him to receive it, even if he refuses it. That desire for popularity which you mentioned will, I think, make him accept. He may tell himself and all his friends that he doesn’t care for your opinion, but he does, just the same! He can’t help caring for the opinion of any man who is a gentleman. I shall approach him carefully!”

CHAPTER II

HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED

“Huah!” grunted Browning, opening his eyes a trifle in surprise, “don’t that jar you?”

“What will Bart say?” gasped Rattleton.

“Merriwell doesn’t have to take his orders from Hodge!” snapped Diamond. “But, just the same, I think it’s a fool sort of agreement!”

Merriwell was in his room talking to some of his friends of the request of the baseball-captain.

“Hodge will be cot under the holler!” sputtered Rattleton.

“My dear Rattles, don’t worry about Hodge!” Diamond begged.

“If you had only said to that captain, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan!’” grumbled Dismal Jones. “But, of course, you could not resist such a temptation! When evil makes itself seem to us good, we’re sure to give way. ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!’”

Merriwell smiled. He liked to get the opinions of his friends, though usually he acted on his own.

“So you think it was a temptation instead of an opportunity?”

“What is a temptation?” chirped Bink Stubbs.

“Why, every time you grin at me that way I want to hit you in the mouth,” explained Danny. “It’s a temptation I can hardly resist!”

“Crush it!” yelled Bink, feinting with his fists. “If you don’t, I’ll have to!”

“Somebody throw those idiots out of the window!” growled Bruce, seeking solace in his pipe.

“Somebody give me a light for this cigarette first,” begged Danny. “If I must fall I want help to alight!”

“Shouldn’t think you’d need it!” Browning declared. “You have a light head. It would hold you up like a balloon!”

“Of course, if the captain wanted you to take on Badger and you’ve promised to do it, you’ll have to go ahead. I’ll band sty you–I mean I’ll stand by you! I’ll do my best to hold down third, no matter who is pitching.”

Frank gave Rattleton a grateful look.

“You’re always loyal, Harry!”

“Oh, I suppose that all of us will have to accept it, and do the best we can,” Diamond admitted, “but I don’t like it, and that’s flat. None of us has fallen in love with Buck Badger!”

“We’ll be bub-bub-bub-beat worse than any old drum!” grunted Gamp.

“Everlastingly thumped!” wailed Danny.

“I don’t know that I can get up enough interest to do much good on first,” grumbled Bruce, who was as little pleased as any one.

“What’s the use of going to the trouble of playing when you know at the start that you’re to be defeated?”

“Look here, Bruce!” said Merriwell firmly. “I don’t want to hear you talk that way! We are not going to be beaten. We will wallop Abernathy’s men, and don’t you worry. We can do it all right!”

“Isn’t that the crack team of Hartford?” demanded Diamond.

“Yes. Nothing better over there, I think.”

“Then there will be no dead-easy business about it. They’re not going to lie down and let us walk over them, just for the purpose of stiffening the spine of that Kansan!”

Jack Diamond was disgusted with the outlook.

“Have I said that they are easy?” Merriwell asked. “I only said I felt sure we could defeat them. And we can. Badger is a good pitcher. You know that. And if he loses his nerve, I shall very promptly take his place. There will be no monkeying. You are the fellows that seem to be in the notion of lying down.”

“Oh, well play!” grunted Bruce. “We’re just airing our little opinions. I expected to see you in the box Saturday, and I’m disappointed. I suppose that’s all!”

He gave a tug at his pipe and rolled over lazily on the lounge, as if that settled it.

“Of course we’ll play,” agreed Diamond. “But I don’t like to go into the game with Badger in the box. I don’t like him. The fellow has made himself an insufferable nuisance. I don’t agree with you that he is such a wonder. He’s a very ordinary fellow, with a rich father and a swelled head. Out West, where he came from, everybody got down on their knees to him, and here at Yale that sort of business don’t go. Nobody cares whether his father is a cattleman or a cow-puncher. He wants to be worshiped, and Yale isn’t in the worshiping business. Consequently, he’s sore all the time!”

Jack forgot that, when he arrived at Yale a few years ago, he expected homage on account of his family and pedigree.

“And I don’t forget that he went aboard the Crested Foam blind drunk, and made an ass of himself generally!” said Bruce, rousing again.

“That’s one reason Merry wants to give him a show!” said Rattleton. “Badger has an idea that everybody who knows about it feels just as you do, and Frank wants to show him that they don’t. See?”

“Oh, we’ll play, of course!” Bruce grumbled, rolling back again.

“Sus-sure!” declared Gamp. “Whatever Mum-Merry says, gug-gug-gug-gug––”

“Are you trying to say goshfry?” Danny mildly asked, wetting the end of an unlighted cigarette.

“Gug-goes!” sputtered Gamp, giving Danny a kick that fairly lifted him from the floor. “You mum-mum-mum-measly runt, I’ll kuk-kill you!”

“Because he’s a joker, Danny thinks he is the only card in the pack!” said Dismal.

“If Merry says we can go into that game next Saturday with Badger in the box and earth the wipe–I mean wipe the earth with those fellows from Hartford, we can do it!” Rattleton declared emphatically. “You know he wouldn’t say such a thing if he wasn’t sure of it.”

“There are only two absolutely sure things, death and taxes,” said Merriwell soberly. “If I put too much emphasis on my belief, I’ll have to withdraw it. I mean to say that I believe we can.”

“And that’s about the same as saying that we can!” Rattleton asserted.

“I’m only doubtful about Bart,” said Dismal, like a prophet of evil.

“He will never catch for Badger!” Diamond declared.

“I think he will!” sputtered Rattleton. “He will see it just as we do, after Merry talks with him. Of course, we don’t any of us love Badger, but what’s the difference?”

“Let ‘er go!” cried Bink, holding up his hands as if they gripped a bat. “Of course, we’ll play ball!”

“Of course!” said Dismal. “We’ll pitch Bart out of the camp if he makes a kick. The fellow that balks on that, when he understands it, is ‘fit for treason, stratagem, and spoil!’”

Shortly after, Merriwell met Hodge on the campus, coming from the fence. He saw at once that Bart was “steaming.”

“Look here, Merriwell,” said Hodge, bristling with indignation. “It surely can’t be true that you’re going to put Badger into the pitcher’s box next Saturday?”

Frank took him by the arm and turned with him away from the crowd.

“Yes,” he answered, “I have promised to do that.”

Hodge’s face grew black with wrath.

“You’ve made a fool of yourself!” he roughly declared. “I wouldn’t believe it. I said it was a lie, and I threatened to thump the face off of Donald Pike because he told it. Say, Merry, you don’t really mean it?”

Frank had dropped Bart’s arm, but they still walked on together. It was easy to see that he did not like Hodge’s tone and manner.

“I must say you are outspoken and far from complimentary,” he observed.

“I know I don’t talk like this to you often.”

“That’s right. If you did, I’m afraid we might not be such good friends.”

“But I must talk straight now, Merry!”

“I’m willing that you shall drive ahead, but I want you to hold in your temper. Don’t let it run away with you.”

“Great Scott! how can I hold in my temper under such provocation?”

“Simply by holding it in.”

“But you know how I hate Badger? You know that we’re bitter enemies! You know what I think of him!”

“I think I’ve heard you express some sentiments along that line.”

“You know that he was drunk when he went aboard that excursion steamer! And he can’t pitch!”

“You are wrong there!” Frank declared positively. “He can pitch.”

“Why, Merry, those Hartford fellows will just put it all over us. I tell you it won’t do! You must give it up!”

“I suppose you know why I promised to let him pitch?”

“Well, I haven’t heard, but I can guess. After you’d saved him from drowning himself, and he came to realize what everything meant, he came licking round you, professing gratitude and friendship, and all that sort of stuff. And you––”

“See here, Hodge!” said Frank, with uncommon sternness. “I won’t stand talk like that, and you ought to know it. I’m your friend, as I’ve proved many times, but I can’t remain your friend if you treat me that way. I’m ready to hear your opinions, but I won’t stand abuse from you or any other man!”

“I told you a good while ago that whenever you and Badger ceased to be enemies you would become friends!” Bart declared, somewhat softened. “And now it has come true. You are wanting to befriend and help him now, just as I knew you would. And after all the dirt he has done you! Why, he’s put dirt all over you a dozen times!”

The memory of it caused Bart to lose his head again.

“Badger is my enemy! A man who is his friend is no friend of mine! That is flat! I don’t think I can make it plainer.”

“You can’t; it’s plain enough. Badger is not my friend, but I am not his enemy.”

“Don’t tell me, Merriwell! You are his friend. You wouldn’t ask such a thing, if you weren’t. You must know that every one of the fellows will kick. What did you make such a fool promise for?”

Merriwell’s face was flushed.

“You are making reckless talk, just because you are badly excited, old man! I am sure you will be sorry as soon as you cool off. If I didn’t think so, I’d say some things that would be hot enough to take the skin off your face! Now, listen here! I have promised Dunstan Kirk to let Badger pitch next Saturday in that game against Hartford. Kirk thinks it will brace Badger up a little, and perhaps it will. I am willing to help Badger. He can pitch. We need good pitchers. Besides, I have given Kirk my promise. I mean to keep it.”

Up to that moment, angry and unreasonable as he was, Bart had half-believed that Merriwell might yet back out of his position, and refuse to let Buck go into the box. He saw now how mistaken he had been.

“And you expect me to catch for that scoundrel?” he demanded, shaking with rage. “I tell you, Merriwell, I won’t do it! I’ll do any reasonable thing you want me to do, but I won’t do that! I draw the line there, short and sharp! I won’t play in a nine with Buck Badger!”

“Very well, then, we’ll have to get along without you!”

“Do you mean it, Merry?” Hodge gasped. “Do you mean that you will choose him before me?”

“Nothing of the kind, and you ought to know it. You would know it, if you were not just blind with anger and prejudice. I am not choosing Badger in preference to any of my friends!”

“Why aren’t you?”

“Because I am not. There is no choosing of friends in this. I have said Badger shall pitch in that game. That does not make him my friend, and it ought not to drive any of my friends away. I am manager of the picked nine, and I supposed that my friends who had known me so long would be willing that I should have some privileges.”

“But when I declare I won’t catch?”

“You have no right to make any such declaration.”

“Why haven’t I?”

“Simply because, as my friend, you ought to be willing to aid me in this matter. I shall not put it on any other ground.”

“I’ll do anything for you, Merry, but that. I can’t do that!”

“You mean you will not do it!”

“I won’t do it!”

“Then I shall get another catcher!”

“Do you mean it?”

“I mean it!”

Hodge seemed stunned for a moment. Then his rage boiled over.

“All right, Merry!” he flashed. “If you want to favor a scoundrel like Badger instead of me, you can do it. But I will not catch in that game. I refuse to play on any nine with Badger! I––”

“I remember to have heard you say those things before!” said Frank, turning short about. “We will not discuss it any further, Bart. You are a free man. You may do as you please. I shall not argue the matter with you. Badger is going to pitch for me Saturday forenoon. Good day!”

Hodge stopped and looked after him, all white and shaky, as Merriwell walked away.

Then the hot blood rushed in a tide into his dark face, and he, too, turned and walked off, filled with smothered exclamations and raging like a volcano.

CHAPTER III

PIKE’S LITTLE PLAN

Donald Pike was in a nagging mood. He walked up and down the room a few times, finally stopping in front of his chum, Buck Badger. They had been talking about the Saturday ball-game, and both were in bad humor.

“I don’t know what’s the matter with you, Badger! I’m disgusted with you!”

The Westerner shifted his feet nervously, but said nothing.

“Perhaps you consider it an honor to receive that invitation from Merriwell? I don’t! I am surprised that he sent it.”

Badger shifted his feet again, and shrugged his thick shoulders. His face was flushed and his eyes looked troubled.

“I am, too!”

“He had a motive, of course!”

Badger tossed a leg over the arm of his chair, and looked out of the window.

“It has been his boast all along that he would have you in his flock by and by! You have always sworn by all that’s good and bad that you would never become a friend of his!”

“I’m not a friend of his!”

Pike laughed sneeringly.

“What do you call it? If I say a word against Frank Merriwell you want to eat me up. It’s come to that! You were ready to fight him any minute, at first; now you’re ready to lick the polish off his shoes, just like the rest of those fellows.”

“Nothing of the kind!” Badger hotly declared.

“Well, you’re going to pitch for his picked team Saturday!”

“Kirk asked me to.”

“And Merriwell sent him?”

“Yes!”

“And they have become such friends that they’re almost chums. The fellows are beginning to say that Dunstan Kirk manages the Yale ball-team, and Frank Merriwell manages Dunstan Kirk. They are about right, I guess!”

“I allow that I’m no nearer being Merriwell’s chum than I ever was. We could never be chums. But I’m not going to forget what he did for me on the Crested Foam. He saved my life, then, Pike!”

“And proposes to wind you round his fingers and drag you at his heels to make you pay for it!”

“So, when he sent me that invitation, and I talked it over with Kirk, I thought I ought to accept it.”

“Don’t you know that Hodge will refuse to catch?”

“Don’t talk about him!” Badger hissed.

“He has already said that he will not catch for such a scoundrel as you!”

“Did he say that?”

“He says you will lose them the game; that it’s an outrage to put you into the box, and he won’t be a party to it. He says you can’t pitch.”

“Can’t I? He says that, does he?”

“He says that if Frank Merriwell takes up with you, he will never speak to him again. Anyhow, what good will it do you to pitch for Merriwell? You’ll be no nearer getting a show on the regular nine.”

Badger shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and showed his broad white teeth unpleasantly. Pike was again walking up and down the room.

“I’d almost be willing to become a member of Merriwell’s flock just to spite Bart Hodge. My hands just naturally go up, and I want to fight whenever I see him. That’s whatever!”

“Oh, you two will be as chummy as the Siamese twins in less than a month.”

“Never! I hate him too badly.”

“That’s the way you were talking of Merriwell a month ago. You will come round to it!”

“Not on your life! Hodge is a different sort of fellow from Merriwell, I allow.”

“And you are going to accept that invitation?”

“I told you, Pike, that I have already accepted it. I’m not Merriwell’s friend, and I despise Bart Hodge; but I’m not ungrateful. Whatever other things we learn out West, we learn to pay back favor for favor. I’d be a dirty coyote if I refused to accept that invitation after what Merriwell did for me. That’s the way I look at it. I know that I can pitch ball. You know it, too. I can twirl a ball just as good as Frank Merriwell, or any other fellow in Yale, and you know that, too. I reckon I’m able to ride my bronco alone, without Merriwell’s help. I am not asking favors–none whatever! I’m simply returning a favor already given! You can see through that, can’t you? If you can’t, you’re as chuckle-headed as a prairie-dog!”

“I can see that you are becoming Frank Merriwell’s friend just as fast as you can!”