Burt L. Standish

“ Dick Starbright knew that Frank and Inza were fast friends, he knew they were almost sweethearts, he knew Inza would not be there but for Merry; yet since the day he first saw this dark-eyed, black-haired radiant queen of a girl something he could not hold in check had been growing in his breast—growing, growing, growing. He sought to tell himself that it was no more than mere admiration for an unusually handsome young lady, and he sought to believe that he could readily and easily forget her ”

“ Phil was slenderer and more like his mother, and Dick seemed to him a marvel of strength, courage, and energy. At school there had never been a fellow who could whip Dick, and whenever Phil was in trouble Dick could easily and readily be summoned to help him out.
Phil, also, was fitting for Yale. At Andover he had read with breathless interest the accounts of the Yale football-games in which Dick had taken part; and his pride swelled and grew when report after report told of the marvelous playing of the young freshman giant who was known as the protégé of Frank Merriwell. ”

“ Only fools and pugilists resort to slugging-matches to settle real or fancied wrongs. A man who is a mere bulldog fighter is only a bungler and blunderer. There are other ways, surer ways, safer ways.”
Dade had crushed the towel in his tremulous hand and was still staring at Santenel, as if the reserved and unseen power of this terrible man enchained him.
“There are two things!” Santenel droned on, dropping his shoulders and sinking lower in his chair, as he again seemed to talk to the fire. “I want to strike Charles Conrad Merriwell, and you want to even your score with Dick Starbright. ”

“ On Chapel Street the wear of travel and traffic had well-nigh dissipated the snow.
The darkness of fast-gathering night had deepened, but the streets were fairly well lighted, and the cabman found no great difficulty in keeping the sleigh in view, though he could not overtake it.
Frank’s alarm increased. There were no indications that Inza was calling to any one for help, and this strange silence could mean nothing to him but that she was unconscious and unable to call.
More and more he was convinced that Amos Belton had suddenly become a raving maniac. ”

“ In this case it is different, for Starbright is worthy of a fine girl; but he is young yet—even younger than you, Inza.”
“Not much younger. A year cannot make much difference.”
“No, not much. If I knew Starbright loved you and you cared for him more than any one else, whatever I might feel in my heart, I would do my best to bring you together, and would say, ‘Bless you, my children.’”
She laughed in her merry way.
“I believe it, Frank,” she said. “But I was jollying, that’s all. There is no danger that Starbright will ever care for me that way, and perhaps I’d not care for him if he did. ”

“ If you’re still sweet on Inza you want to be careful that your friend Richard Starbright doesn’t cut in and take her away from you. He is just the sort of fellow a dark-eyed girl like Inza is liable to get struck on.”
Again that strange pang of jealousy smote through Frank Merriwell’s heart, but he calmly said:
“I do not believe Inza could find a finer fellow in the whole wide world.” ”

“ Nobody but a white man all the way through would have done as you did, partner. You might have had me expelled from Yale in disgrace, and that would have turned my old man against me; but, instead of that, forgetting all the bad things I’d tried to do to you, you helped me get started on the right trail. I was pretty weak in those times, Merriwell; I know it now. I thought I was strong, but I was right ready to go wrong. A little push from you would have sent me wrong. And you helped me win Winnie! That was the greatest thing you ever did for anybody, partner! ”

“ I need the money. I’m broke.”
“My dear boy,” said Browning, “you’re not broke; you’re cracked. Lend you fifty dollars! I see myself!”
“I am desperate,” asserted Jack wildly. “There is no telling what a man will do when he needs money.”
“That’s so,” admitted Bruce. “Look at all the fellows who get married.”
“Ah!” sighed Dashleigh, “you know they say love is blind.”
“But as a rule,” put in Carker dolefully, “marriage is an eye-opener.”
“I,” laughed Starbright, who was sprawling on a Morris chair, “shall refuse to be mercenary when it comes to marriage, I shall marry for beauty.” ”

“ I can’t say more, Merriwell; but I mean that—I mean it! You were my best friend. I’ve had time to think the old days here at Yale all over and over a hundred times, and I allow I’ve come to see things in their right light. I was an onery coyote, but you were my friend, and you kept me from going to the dogs. You gave me Winnie,” he whispered, “the best and truest little wife a man ever had! I can never repay you for that, Frank!”
“Don’t talk about paying for anything,” said Merriwell. “I am paid a thousand times for anything I did for you by seeing your happiness, old man. ”

“ There will be an added pleasure in fighting him with his own money. The battle isn’t lost, Dade; the fighting has only begun!”
He felt in an inner pocket, and taking out a roll of bills, threw it to Dade.
“That’s a good deal more than I obtained from Merriwell. But take it. We can’t afford to count the cost. Spend it like water. A thousand dollars will buy half the thugs in New York. Get the right men on that New London polo-team, and do what you please with Starbright; just so you secure for me a clear field here in New Haven. We’ll have money enough after we have won out!” ”

“ To be twice defeated in one afternoon by Starbright might bring about the enthronement of the big freshman as the undeniable leader of the freshmen athletic forces.
“I will beat him!” he hissed. “He shall not defeat me again!”
“I’m not afraid!” Rosalind encouraged, feeling also the sting of defeat. “Go as fast as you can!”
Thus urged, Dade swept forward on the home-stretch with all his might. He saw that an advantage could be gained by pressing nearer the dangerous ice, and to get that advantage he swung inward.
“We’re going so fast that there isn’t the least danger!” he told himself. ”

“ When Seldon had gone, Pike sat talking with Morgan for some time, trying to fan into fiercer energy the anger which Dade again felt toward the big freshman. Starbright was Merriwell’s friend, and Pike had come to hate Merriwell so much that he wanted to injure whomever Merriwell liked, though Frank had never done anything to win such enmity from Donald Pike. There are some natures, however, which increasingly hate the man they try to injure, and their hate grows more and more bitter with each failure. ”

“ Morgan is such a capable fellow that if he could be brought round right, he would make a man worthy of Yale. With, possibly, the exception of Starbright, he is the most promising freshman here. If I’m lenient with him, it may bring him to realize just how he stands. He may turn short about and make a man of himself. While, on the other hand, if I should brand him with the disgrace of an expulsion from the college, he might go headlong to the bad. ”

“ That afternoon Dick challenged Frank to a game of billiards, and the party assembled in the billiard-room to witness the match.
“Oh, Richard, my boy, you are up against the real thing now,” chirped Ready. “Going to play a hundred points, eight-inch balk? He’ll beat you fifty points, or I’ll eat my hat! But you should see me play! I’m the bird at that game. Why, I’ve often run two points without stopping.”
“I’ll tell you what,” laughed Starbright, his eyes flashing, “let’s play for something to make it interesting. Will you do it?” ”

“ Dade anxiously and tremulously asked, for he was, at the moment, more interested in the overthrow of Starbright than of Merriwell.
“A polo-game is a rough game, and a polo-stick may be a dangerous weapon in the hands of the right man. If there is not a man on the New London team who will do the work for you, scheme some way to get a man on that team who will. I have heard of men having their arms broken in such games. I see no reason why a man mightn’t be killed in such a game!” ”

“ It broke out again as they sped away, and was renewed as the racers neared the half-way point.
“Merriwell is fooling again!” growled Hodge, who was standing with Inza.
The skaters neared the half-mile turn, with Simmons slightly in the lead.
“He will win, you may be sure,” said Inza. “Frank always wins!”
“Well, I’ve known him to fail, and often to come near failing by being altogether too generous. It’s not my way!”
Inza smiled sweetly and serenely.
“Oh, I know it isn’t, you fire-eater! You want to murder everybody who comes against you in a contest!” ”

“ There was nothing in the man’s appearance to indicate to Merriwell that he was Brandon Drood, alias Dion Santenel, his old and bitter enemy, from whose power he had escaped so short a time before, through the aid of Frank. “Fisher Stokes,” who was evidently past middle age, was almost Frenchy in appearance, with well-waxed mustache and imperial that hid the lines of his thin lips and cold, cruel mouth. His thin, straight form was encased in a dark-gray business suit. ”

“ Dade’s face was again flushing.
“There was Buck Badger! I’ve told you of him before. He was the bitterest enemy Frank Merriwell had for a while, and he ended by becoming a Merriwell maniac. He thinks now that there never was another such man on earth. Why, I’ve been told that even Browning and Hodge, two fellows who can’t think unless Merriwell first gives them license, were once his enemies! You’re traveling the same road. I was Badger’s chum and saw how he went over to Frank Merriwell, and you’re struck with the same symptoms. What in thunder is the matter with all you fellows, anyway?” ”

“ It had seemed like weakness, after all Morgan had tried to do to him; but now Merry was happy in the knowledge that he had given Morgan another opportunity and had not thrust him down.
“I’ve learned one thing,” said Badger, who seemed determined to reveal to Frank all that his heart had taught him since the happy day of his union with Winnie. “It’s the coward who tries to kill his enemies; the brave, strong man turns his enemies into friends. That’s whatever!”
In the meantime, in ways peculiar to budding young womanhood, Inza and Winnie were expressing their delight over the meeting. ”

“ Santenel answered somewhat tartly. “You lost your temper and made an ass of yourself. How long do you suppose you can hold your influence in Yale by acting in that way? A man who would be a master of others must learn first to master himself. That is the very primer of the whole thing—the first lesson.”
“Oh, well!” Dade snarled. “That stuff made me sick!”
He was about to say more, but ceased when he observed that they were being followed.
“That’s a student, sure! Yes, and it’s Dick Starbright!”
“Let’s move on!” said Santenel. ”

“ Ready gasped and dropped with a crash upon a chair.
“Fan me!” he said faintly. “Merriwell takes his place at the head of the class. I think I’ll have to touch him for the cold cash.”
“Why is it,” questioned Carker, “that people always speak of money as cold cash?”
“I suppose,” said Merry, laughing softly, “it’s because so many human beings have a way of freezing to it.”
“What—again?” howled Ready, popping bolt upright and staring at Frank. “How do you dare, sir! In my presence, too! I am the only one who has a right to do such things. ”

“ When the train came and stopped at the wreck Inza found her faith in Merriwell justified. He was in the caboose of the wrecking-train; and, leaping down the clay embankment, he extended his hands to her, climbing at once into the automobile.
“I knew you’d be waiting for me!” he said, starting the machine.
“And I knew that you would come, even though the men at the wreck told me you couldn’t. You always do the things that other men can’t do, or are too timid to do, and I knew it would be so this time.”
“It was very simple,” Frank answered. ”

“ With Don Pike, they formed a trio who seemed to live on hate of Merriwell. They were no sooner seated than they began to talk of the snowball fight of the morning, and of the blow which Morgan had received.
“It was Starbright who did that,” said Skelding. “I know, because I saw it. I was standing near one of the monuments where I had a good view of all that was going on. I thought, when I saw him lift his hand to throw, that he was aiming at the sophomores, but when I saw you drop as if you were hit by a rifle-bullet, I knew whom he had aimed at.” ”

“ Sometimes I wake up nights now, yelling, ‘Three yards more and Harvard’ll have a touch-down! Hold ’em, boys—hold ’em!’”
“That was Bart’s constant cry,” said Browning. “He begged us separately and collectively to hold ’em, but the only thing that saved the day was Merry’s appearance on the field at the close of the game. They had us going all right in that half, and they’d have scored in another minute.”
“But you made a gallant fight,” said Frank, his eyes flashing—“a fight to be remembered always. I am proud of every man on the team.”
“Yah!” muttered Hodge sourly. ”

“ The fierceness of the New London men seemed to increase when the play began again, and within two minutes they had caged the ball, catching Browning off his guard and shooting the sphere between his legs.
Then how the friends of Dade Morgan cheered, in spite of the fact that the goal had been won from Yale!
“They’re fools!” Morgan snarled to himself. “I warned them against making such a show of themselves; but lots of fellows haven’t any more tact than to exhibit themselves in that way.” ”

“ Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight—only two points to make.
“I told you!” whispered Winnie to Buck, in disappointment. “He has beaten Frank!”
“Not yet!” returned the unshaken Kansan. “If he beats Merry, he’ll be the first galoot to do the trick in a long time. He won’t!”
Ninety-nine!
One point more to be made!
“Nobody can beat Frank Merriwell!” huskily whispered Buck to his wife. “He’ll miss this shot, and Merry will win.”
The silence was so great that Starbright heard Badger’s words just as he was on the point of trying to score the final button. ”

“ Frank, you must find her—you must bring her to me. She is somewhere in New Haven. Find her to-night. Just because we happened to be speaking of the past, which is gone forever, is no reason why we should make Elsie unhappy. I’ll give her cause for happiness, Frank. Bring her to me.”
“I will!” he exclaimed, with suppressed earnestness. “I’ll make my excuses and leave as soon as dinner is over.”
Badger was on his feet, making a speech in his blunt, straightforward way. He extolled Yale and Frank Merriwell. He spoke of the grand victories of the eleven under command of Merry. ”