Burt L. Standish

“ Against the clear, bright sky a man on a mule stood out in clean-cut prominence. The man was tall and angular, while the mule was long and equally angular. The mule was at a standstill, his long ears laid back, and the rider was pounding his bony sides desperately in an attempt to get him to move.
“Holy smoke!” chuckled Clancy; “why, that’s Professor Phineas Borrodaile, our tutor, and he’s trying to make Pophagan’s mule, Uncle Sam, carry him on to the clubhouse.”
“Uncle Sam appears to be an obstinate brute,” laughed Burke.
“He’s worse than that,” grinned Merriwell. ”

“ Lenning jumped at Shoup with clenched fists.
“What do you mean by that sort of talk?” he demanded chokingly.
“Don’t think you can scare me, Jode. You can’t. If you want a tussle, don’t think for a minute that you’d have the easy end of it. I know you better than anybody else does—better even than your fool of an uncle, who let you pull the wool over his eyes for so long. You’re a coward. When you saw the money in that old woman’s hand bag, you wanted it just as much as I did, only you didn’t have the nerve to take it. ”

“ It opened up the old, tantalizing question of heredity—the very thing which Merriwell had called a “handicap.” His father could pitch better than he could paddle, could he? If that was the case, then by winning that contest he might prove that what he had learned about canoes had come to him in his own right.
“Good old Merry!” cried one of the Gold Hill crowd, by way of tempering the unwise rooting of his camp-mate. “You’re the stuff! Never say die is your slogan—and that’s all that came down to you from the champion in Bloomfield.”
A thrill raced along Frank’s nerves. ”

“ Merriwell answered, “but would luck favor Lenning? Is he a good enough player so that he could confront an issue like that and make good?”
“Jode? Why, he’s one of the best ball players in this part of Arizona. An all-around player, Jode is. I’ve known him to pitch a no-hit game, to put up one of the smoothest performances as backstop that I’ve ever seen, to play first, and short, and all around the diamond in a way that made everybody sit up and stare. He knew that baseball was the colonel’s favorite game, and he studied and worked to perfect himself in it.” ”

“ What made the situation all the funnier to Merry, Clancy, and Burke were the very serious expressions worn by Ballard, Blunt, and Woo Sing—especially Woo Sing. If there had been a joke about coaxing the pig to town with an ear of corn, it had long since passed out of the consciousness of those with the pig.
“Whoop!” shouted Clancy. “You fellows ought to have a drum corps along. What show do you fellows belong to, anyhow?”
“Chip,” said Ballard sadly, “you handed Blunt and me a hard job when you sent us with Woo Sing to get back that pesky porker. ”

“ Bleeker and Hotchkiss were working like Trojans. Foot by foot they drew ahead of the other canoe.
“Dig, you Farnham Hall fellows!” bellowed Ballard from the bank. “What do you think this is—a picnic excursion? Dig, I tell you! If you’re last at the finish, don’t you ever speak to me again.”
“Come on, you Bleek!” shouted the Gold Hillers.
“Come on, Hotch!”
“Keep it up, Gold Hill! You’ve got ’em beaten.”
“Oh, you Bleeker! We’re slow at football, but I reckon we’re there with the goods on the water.”
“It isn’t Jode Lenning you’re up against now, Merriwell!” ”

“ Shoup laughed.
“Fine!” said he. “I didn’t know, Jode, that there was so much maudlin sentiment wrapped up in you. How do you know the old lady is so poor, eh? You can’t always judge from appearances. The biggest miser I ever knew—an old curmudgeon that looked like a tramp, had more than a hundred thousand in the bank. There’s two hundred in this roll, and it will stake us until luck begins coming our way.”
The first shock of disgust had passed and Lenning began to take a little interest in his friend’s recent achievement. ”

“ What’s more, he’s too good a sportsman to be much of a partisan. Naturally, he likes to see the Gold Hill fellows win; but to-morrow, if an Ophir chap makes a star play, you’ll find the colonel cheering himself blue in the face. Simmer the thing right down, and it’s the game itself he loves—the man in the box with the clever ‘wing,’ the chap who makes a running catch with all the odds against him, the fellow who steals and slides to the bag, keeping the base on a close decision. You understand what I mean, Chip, a heap better than I can tell it. That’s what gets under the colonel’s skin. ”

“ A few moments later, Merry stepped out among his players, gathered them around him, and calmly scrutinized their flushed and eager faces.
“We’ve had two days of practice, fellows,” said he, “and we’re going up against a team that has been in harness for weeks. But don’t let that bother you. It’s the spirit you put into your work that counts. Be on your toes every minute. Come on!”
He flung open the gym door, bounded through it, and started at a trot toward the ball field. The backstop was at his side, and close at his heels trailed Clancy and Ballard. After them came the rest of the team. ”

“ Merriwell, Clancy, and Ballard, crouching in the sterns of their frail craft, had worked easily but steadily from the start. They knew from experience that swiftness in the get-away and a wild expenditure of energy at the beginning caused the loss of many a race—not only on the water but on the cinder track, as well. ”

“ When a fellow makes his bed, he’s got to lie in it.”
“If it doesn’t suit him he can get up and make it over.”
“You’ve always been at the top of the heap, Merriwell, so it’s easy for you to give advice. Try to be the under dog once, and maybe you’ll change your mind about what a fellow can or can’t do.”
Without another word, Lenning turned the horse’s head up the slope. Hatless as he was, and with his wet clothing clinging to his limbs, he was a melancholy figure as he rode to the top of the bank and then vanished from the gaze of the lads below.
“Well, I’ll be hanged!” exclaimed Bleeker. ”

“ A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with the rest of the world.
These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.
They have the splendid quality of firing a boy’s ambition to become a good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous, right-thinking man. ”

“ Utterly oblivious of danger to himself, Jode Lenning had crouched beside the rails and then leaped recklessly at the flying car. Fortune favored him. Although cruelly buffeted by his landing on the loaded ore, Lenning gained the car and laid hands on the brake. Then, to Merriwell, Jode’s purpose became clear. Jode would put on the brakes, thus slackening the car’s speed and giving Merriwell time to throw the switch. ”

“ At the place where the trail forked to lead to the clubhouse, Frank drew to a halt.
“We can’t all of us go on and help Sing, fellows,” said he. “There’s work for us at the golf links, and we can’t waste time getting there. Ballard, you and Blunt go on and help recapture the pig. Clan and I will hunt up Mr. Bradlaugh and Colonel Hawtrey and see what we can do for Lenning.”
“There’s your chance, Pink,” laughed Clancy. “Go ahead and stir yourself. But I’d advise you not to get too much in the pig’s way. If he makes a dead set at you, just swing around, get on his back, and ride. ”

“ That something of an unusual nature had brought the colonel from Gold Hill that afternoon Merriwell was positive. And that it might prove as interesting as it was unusual was evident from the colonel’s manner.
“What’s in the wind, colonel?” queried Ballard curiously. “Clancy, here, is feeling like a castaway on a two-by-four island. If he can’t have a little healthy excitement before long, his pranks will probably get us all into trouble.”
“I’ve got everybody in a sweat around this hotel,” said Clancy; “that is,” he added, “with the kind assistance of Chip and Pink.” ”

“ Burke, from the mine,” added Clancy, smothering his enjoyment as he picked up the professor’s hat. “I guess you know Mr. Burke?”
“I believe we have met,” was the reply. “I was in a hurry to get from Ophir to the clubhouse, and so I borrowed Pophagan’s mule. That was a mistake,” he added ruefully, taking his hat from Clancy and carefully settling it on his head, “a very great mistake. If any one is in a hurry to transport himself from one place to another, about the worst thing he can do is to take Uncle Sam. A most perverse brute, young gentlemen! ”

“ It was the only place in that part of the State where the twin sports of bathing and boating could be indulged in.
“The course, fellows,” announced Bleeker, “is one that was marked out by the late-lamented Lenning, when he was king bee in the Gold Hill crowd. Look up the gulch, will you? See Apache Point, over there?”
Frank and Clancy followed Bleeker’s pointing finger with their eyes. A little more than a quarter of a mile away, the left-hand bank of the gulch rose into a sheer wall, some fifty feet high, with the water laving its base. ”

“ He was as hot at you, for a spell, as Lenning is now; but, right at this minute, he’d fight for you till he dropped. It’s plumb humorous—to any one that knows Barzy Blunt. You must be a wizard to change an enemy into a friend, like that.”
“Everybody said that Blunt was rantankerous, and that his disposition was born in him and couldn’t be changed,” said Frank, “but I knew better. That cowboy is one of the finest fellows that ever breathed. All you have to do to make sure of that is to see the way he takes care of Mrs. Boorland. Come on, Bleek, if we’re going to hunt for that canoe.” ”

“ Merriwell wouldn’t wipe his feet on me, I reckon, and you can bet your last sou I wouldn’t give him a chance to try. He knows the sort of father I had, and that I’m headed wrong as a birthright, and will go wrong in spite of fate.”
“What a fellow inherits he can’t get away from,” declared Shoup. “Merriwell, it seems, understands that. When you know a thing’s true, what’s the use of trying to buck against it? We’re all born with a handicap of some sort in the race of life; we’ve got to win by doing the thing that comes easiest.” ”

“ Darrel spoke earnestly, almost eagerly.
“Do you mean to say, Curly,” asked Merriwell, “that you’d like to see him play against Gold Hill?”
“I’d like to see him give a good account of himself on the diamond. He has squared away, and is trying to make something of himself. I think it would help him to brush up against fellows who used to be his friends, and corral a little of the good feeling that breaks out in a snappy, well-fought game of ball.”
“Well, I’ll be darned!” muttered Merriwell. “What would the colonel say if he heard you talk like that?” ”

“ When the horses had been taken care of, and the three chums started on foot for the hotel, Clancy’s loyalty to Merry got the better of his wrathful feelings.
“Oh, well, hang this Lenning business, anyhow!” he exclaimed. “You never go very far wrong, Chip, and if you think you’ve done right, why, that’s enough for me.”
“Same here,” said Ballard, but rather gloomily. “Whenever I think of Apache Point and that falling rock, I’m mad enough to fight. You’re generous to a fault, but it’s your own fault, and why the blazes should we take it out on you? ”

“ He threw a defiant glance at Clancy and Ballard, a look of gratitude at Merriwell, then turned on his heel and started south. Slowly Frank put Borak in motion the other way.
Clancy and Ballard rode on either side of Merriwell, and both preserved a glum silence. They were displeased, but Merry had done what he thought was right, and the attitude of his chums did not worry him.
“Have you hooked up with that crook, Chip?” asked Ballard, as they rode into town and headed for the corral.
“I’m trying to help a fellow who doesn’t seem to have a friend in the world,” was the answer. ”

“ A night watchman, moving about among those dark tanks, would certainly carry a lantern. Frank had been stumbling blindly around the tanks, hunting for Lenning, when, if he had considered the matter thoroughly, he need only have looked for a bobbing light.
“I must be getting ‘dippy’ over this Lenning business,” he reflected. “I’m making mysteries where there are only commonplace, every-night events. Probably I’ll find Lenning sitting in a chair in front of the laboratory, guarding the bullion as comfortably as possible.” ”

“ The fact that he was found with the mail bags would be enough to land him in jail. Say, he’s up against it for fair.”
“He’s playing in the hardest kind of luck, Barzy, and no mistake,” Frank agreed.
“He’s got a fight on his hands if he ever clears his record.”
“That’s the fight he’s been making ever since he broke with Billy Shoup. Whenever he takes a step forward and begins to hope he’ll win out, something happens to make him slip back. Everybody’s so darned anxious to believe the worst of him.” ”

“ Bradlaugh, but I’ll be dinged if I call on dad to fork over the six thousand. I’ll go out and find a mine, or something, and pay it all myself.”
“That’s the spirit. Anyhow, don’t go looking for the mine until we make sure the bullion can’t be recovered. The thieves haven’t got very much the start of us, and Hawkins is a regular terror when he cuts loose on the track of a lawbreaker. Pin your faith to Hawkins, boy, and hope for the best.”
“Maybe,” said Frank, after a little hard thinking, “Lenning isn’t mixed up in the robbery, after all.” ”

“ I’ve got a job on my hands if ever a fellow had. But Shoup’s crazy, plain crazy. I’m glad I’m rid of him. I—I guess that’s about all.” He got up from the bowlder where he had been sitting. “You’ve done more for me than my own uncle would do. I’ll not forget it, Merriwell. You have less reason to help me than the colonel had. I say you’ve acted white, and you can bet I’m going to see to it that you never have any reason to be sorry for it.”
“Let it go at that, Lenning. I guess the best of us make mistakes. You’re to be night watchman at the cyanide plant?” ”