ON THE CAMPUS.
The excitement of the moment was intense, for Merriwell was crossing the
campus toward the fence, coming from Vanderbilt Hall.
Alone and unheralded, he had arrived. It had been his fortune to reach
his room without attracting attention, and now he had come forth to look
for his friends and acquaintances.
When he was seen there was commotion at the fence. The gathering gave a
sudden surge, a shout, a dissolving, and then the men went tearing
toward him, shouting.
And Bruce Browning—big, lazy, useless Bruce—was at their head!
“Hooray!” he roared.
Then he caught Frank in his arms and gave him a regular bear-hug, while
the crowd gathered and pressed around.
“Oh, Betsey!” shouted the giant senior, as he held Frank off and looked
at him; “but you may bet your sweet life we are glad to see you, old
man!”
They grasped his hands and shook them, coming forward one after another,
even if they had to fight to reach him. They laughed and shouted and
rejoiced.
“He’s here!” they told each other, gleefully, and when they could not
shake hands with Frank they shook hands with each other. “Now we’re all
right!” they declared. “Just see if he does not stir things up!”
From somewhere Jack Ready bobbed up and wormed his way into the crowd
till he reached Frank, loudly commanding all to stand back and make room
for him.
“I salute you!” he cried, making some grotesque movements with his
hands. “Oh, great and mighty potentate, we have missed you, yes, we’ve
missed you! In sooth, we have been getting into a very bad way without
you. Give us a wag of your fin, salubrious one. Ah-ha! ‘Richard is
himself again!’”
Then he smote himself violently on the chest with his clenched fist and
immediately fell to coughing.
“The same old Jack!” laughed Merry.
“Yes, the same old jackass,” said somebody on the outskirts of the
crowd.
Ready straightened up stiffly and glared around.
“Who made yonder insolent remark?” he fiercely demanded. “Bring him away
from me, else I may be tempted to do him a severe kindness! It is more
than mortal flesh can bear!”
“Somebody is onto you, Jack,” smiled Frank.
“Isn’t it sad?” sighed the queer fellow, pretending to wipe away a tear.
“Just when I attempt to assume a little dignity some blame chump has to
spoil everything. ’Tis envy, kind sir. They envy me my radiant beauty
and my graceful demeanor. Base churls! Common clods! I scorn them all!”
He flung out one hand with a gesture of lofty pride and scorn, his chin
high in the air and his eyes closed for a moment.
“That will do,” said Browning. “You’re nothing but the low comedian. Get
off the center of the stage.”
“Refuse me!” murmured Jack, as the big fellow pushed him aside.
And now Starbright appeared. At first he was inclined to hold back,
being only a freshman, but Frank caught sight of him and stepped toward
him.
Dick’s face was flushed with pride and pleasure when, before them all,
the great senior, the greatest man in his eyes that had ever attended
Yale, grasped his hand and shook it warmly, saying:
“I’m glad to see you, Dick, and I hope you are getting into form for the
nine.”
Frank longed to say more, but that was no time nor place for it. He
realized that Starbright had opened his eyes to the fact that Inza
Burrage really and truly loved him as she had in the old days, if not
more intensely, and, regarding himself as an interloper, Dick had
withdrawn and left the field to Frank, with the result that Merry had
proposed and was accepted.
No time had been set for the marriage, but over the gate of the old home
in Fardale they had plighted their troth, and it seemed certain that the
happy day must come at last.
Looking into Frank’s eyes, Dick fancied he read the truth there. Despite
himself, despite his nobleness in withdrawing, he felt a pang of pain.
Inza was lost to him!
“That’s it, Merriwell!” cried Irving Nash. “You’re needed here to wake
the men up. They say the prospects for a winning ball-team this season
are decidedly dark.”
Merry looked serious.
“We’ll have to see how that is,” he said.
Chickering’s set had not rushed to greet him, and now they were moving
away, seeking to escape without attracting attention. Rupert had
expressed a desire to go over and shake hands with Frank, but Skelding
had prevented it.
“Don’t give that fellow Hodge another chance to call you down,” he
advised. “Besides that, you know Merriwell does not think much of you.”
“It is not right that I should permit his feelings to make any
difference in my treatment of him,” murmured Rupert. “If he hates me I
am sorry for him, that’s all. He does not know what he is missing by not
having me for a friend.”
“Let’s all keep away,” said Ives. “The entire college will go foolish
over Merriwell now, see if it doesn’t; I did hope the fellow would never
show his head here again.”
“Tho did I,” chirped Veazie. “I think he’th a wegular wuffian! If I
could do tho jutht ath well ath not I’d never become tho beathtly stwong
ath he ith. I wegard thuth stwength as thimply bwutal.”
“Brutal is the word, chummie,” agreed Ollie Lord. “There ought to be a
law to prevent any man from training till he is so much stronger than
other men. It isn’t fair to the other men.”
“Don’t talk like asses!” growled Skelding. “You know that either one of
you would gladly be as strong as Merriwell if you could; but he’s not
the only athlete in the world—or in Yale, for that matter. It’s this
bowing down and worshiping him that gives me a pain! Why, I could be
just as strong and skilful as he is if I’d deny myself drinks and smokes
and good things to eat and keep working away every day to put myself in
form. But I like a little booze, I enjoy a cigarette, I like to stuff my
stomach full of good things, and I won’t pelt away with dumb-bells,
clubs, chest-weights, and such things every moment I get from my
studies. What’s life good for if a fellow has got to be a regular
slave!”
“I with you wath ath thmart ath Merriwell,” lisped Lew.
“Well, I thought I was once,” confessed Gene; “but I found it was no use
for me to try to buck against a fellow like him who kept at his very
best all the time. I’m not fool enough now to try to fight him with my
fists. If I found another good way to get in a lick at him I might try
it.”
“That’s the only way to jar him,” said Tilton Hull, his high collar
holding his chin very high in the air. “Let’s go up to Rupert’s room and
talk it over.”
“Yeth, yeth!” urged Veazie. “I feel the need of a thigawette and a dwink
of wine thince Gene had that wow with that low fellow Hodge. That
dithturbed my nerveth.”
So they passed from the campus, and the sun seemed to shine more
brightly when they were gone.
Bart Hodge had shaken hands with Frank during the rush and crush of the
students to reach Merriwell, but he did so silently and withdrew at
once. He had been ready enough to defend Merry from his defamers a short
time before, but he was not among those who made the greatest hurrah
over Frank’s return to college.
After a while Merry looked round for Hodge and saw him standing quite by
himself on the outskirts of the throng. The expression on Bart’s face
was not one of happiness; indeed, he seemed sad and depressed.
It is possible that an inkling of the thoughts passing through Bart’s
mind came to Merry then.
The dark-eyed lad knew nothing of what had taken place while Frank was
away from college. He knew only that he cared for Elsie Bellwood with
all the intensity of his passionate nature and that she had repeatedly
told him she would never marry at all.
Why had she made that assertion? Was it not because she still loved
Frank Merriwell? Bart believed so, and it was his conviction that in the
end Frank must win her, for had not he a way of winning anything he
greatly desired!
Still, he would not give up. He had told Frank squarely and honestly
that he would never cease his efforts to obtain Elsie till he knew
beyond the shadow of a doubt that there was no hope for him.
Then, what? Who could tell? For Bart had a peculiar disposition, and a
disappointment of this sort might wreak havoc with his sensitive
organization.
Merriwell’s hand had lifted him from the path of temptation and ruin in
the past and set his feet upon the highway leading to splendid
achievements, but this disappointment might undo all the good that had
been done and turn him back along the downward course.
Frank thought of this, and he was eager to let his friend know what had
happened, revealing to him that the road to Elsie’s heart was open and
undisputed.
“Hodge!”
Frank spoke Bart’s name and started toward him. Then one of his many
friends caught hold of him and asked him a question, which he paused to
answer.
When he looked for Bart again he looked in vain, for Hodge had hastened
away.