TURNING A NEW LEAF.
When Mike returned he was accompanied by Duncan Ditson and Mel Dagett.
The moment they were in the room and the door was closed, Dunc turned
fiercely on Mel.
“Confound you!” he cried. “I tell you I haven’t any money! I tell you I
can’t pay! I’m broke—dead broke! You know it! You know what happened at
Providence. I raked up every dollar I could raise to bet against
Umpty-ten, and lost.”
“Oh, yes, I know that,” sneered Dagett. “I let you have part of the
money. Didn’t I lose, too? That’s why I want you to pay me. I need it.
I’m strapped.”
“Tell that to your grandmother,” sneered Dunc. “You’re not strapped.
Why, you’ve been loaning money at twenty per cent a month for the last
five months. You’ve bled everybody you could.”
“But I’ve been unfortunate,” whined Mel. “I took your advice on that
Brown game, and you see what happened. You agreed to pay me a week ago.
I’ve been putting it off to give you time. You said you’d have money
to-day.”
“Because I thought I’d get some from home. It hasn’t come. Do you know
how I’ve managed to scrub along the past week? Well, I’ll tell you: I’ve
borrowed from my sister. Yes, borrowed from my sister, and she gets what
little money she has by teaching music. It comes hard enough, and she
needs every dollar.”
“I’ve got to have ten,” hissed Mel, wagging his head from side to side.
“I won’t wait any longer. Can’t you borrow that of her?”
“Say, I’d like to choke you! No, I can’t; see?”
“Well, then, there’s only one thing for me to do,” said Mel, with a
shrug of his shoulders and an upward toss of his hand.
“What’s that?”
“I’ll have to raise money on the securities you let me have. That was
according to the agreement. I’ll have to find out what they’ll bring.”
“If you sell my stuff, I’ll knock the head off you!” shouted Duncan.
“Don’t yell like that in this room,” remonstrated Lynch. “I can’t have
it, Ditson.”
“But look at that cursed Shylock!” panted Dunc, pointing at Mel. “He’d
steal coppers off a dead man’s eyes.”
“You have no right to say that,” complained Dagett. “Simply because I do
business in a businesslike fashion you insult me. I suppose you think I
ought to let you have the money for nothing. I suppose you think I ought
to give it to you. Mike has paid me what he owes me.”
“Has he?” exclaimed Ditson, in surprise. “Why, I didn’t know——”
“Sit down, both of you fellows,” directed Lynch. “Sit down, I say.
That’s right, Dagett, back yourself into that chair. Now, look here,
Dunc, how much do you owe Mel?”
“I agreed to pay him ten dollars this week.”
“How much is the full amount that you owe him?”
“Forty-five dollars.”
“What security has he?”
“Two rings, a watch, and my scarfpin.”
“Worth how much?”
“Oh, the rings are worth thirty or forty dollars. The pin is worth about
ten. I don’t suppose I could get more than fifteen or eighteen on the
watch, but to me it’s worth twice that, as it was a present.”
“Can you get those things and bring them here right away, Dagett?” asked
Mike.
“Why, yes, if——”
“Then hustle—hustle, I say! Get them! Go ahead now!”
“But what’s the use if he can’t pay?”
Lynch smote the table with his huge fist.
“If he can’t pay, I can!” he roared.
Duncan Ditson gasped with astonishment, for this was the last thing he
had expected from Mike.
“If he can’t pay, I can,” repeated Lynch. “We have been friendly, and
I’m going to get him out of your greedy clutches, Dagett.”
“Oh, you needn’t pay the whole of it,” said Mel quickly. “I only want
what’s due this week.”
“You only want to keep him indebted to you, so you can continue to
squeeze him. If he can’t pay what’s due next week, then you’ll threaten
to sell his stuff. I know your game, Dagett, and it’s a mighty dirty
one.”
“Now, don’t you start to preach to me,” sneered Mel. “I guess you’ve
been in some dirty jobs yourself.”
“I have,” acknowledged Lynch instantly. “I’ve been in a number of them,
but that’s past now, and I’m done with it. Understand, I say I’m done
with it. I’ve turned over a new leaf, and in future I’m going to conduct
myself differently. Don’t grin, Dagett; I mean business. Your warped and
distorted mind may not be able to comprehend me, but I mean just what I
say. Heretofore I’ve carried around a grouch that has made me ugly and
disagreeable even toward my own friends. I haven’t enjoyed life. I’ve
been getting little satisfaction out of it. From now on I’m going to
follow a different plan. I begin here and now by helping one chap to get
out of your clutches, Dagett, even though it leaves me practically
broke. Now get those things and bring them here just as quick as you
can.”
Ditson and Wolfe exchanged wondering glances. When Mel had left the
room, Duncan started to express his thanks, but Mike cut him short.
“Why shouldn’t I do it?” he said. “Haven’t we been on friendly terms?
What’s a friend good for if he won’t help another out in a time of
need?”
“Gee! is this Mike Lynch?” muttered Wolfe. “Say, Dunc, what do you think
I caught him doing? You can’t guess, so don’t try. I caught him writing
a letter to Dick Merriwell, and he induced me to hitch on my name as a
witness to his signature.”
“What were you doing, Lynch?” grinned Ditson. “Telling Merriwell to go
to the dickens?”
“No,” was the answer. “I was telling him something entirely different.
You heard me inform Dagett that I have turned over a new leaf. I wasn’t
talking to hear the sound of my own voice. Did you ever hear me admit
that I consider Merriwell the whitest man in college? You never did, but
I admit it now. I’m through trying to throw him down.”
Both Ditson and Wolfe seemed thunderstruck. At first Duncan was inclined
to ridicule Lynch, but he quickly discovered that Mike would not endure
ridicule on that point.
By the time Dagett returned with the valuables belonging to Duncan,
Ditson was satisfied that some remarkable change had taken place in
Lynch.
Mike paid the money due Dagett. With his own hands he destroyed the
agreement held by Mel and signed by Ditson, by which Duncan was bound to
meet the extortioner’s demands or suffer the penalty of having his
valuables disposed of to raise the cash.
This done, Mike took Mel by the collar, led him to the door, and ejected
him from the room.