EVIL INFLUENCE.
It was a pleasant dinner hour at the home of Warren Hatch when Frank met
Mrs. Hatch, who proved to be a strangely modest, motherly sort of woman.
Merry decided that she had been a country girl, and that the change in
fortune that had lifted her from humbleness to her present position as
the wife of a very wealthy man had not changed her character in the
least.
Mendoza was exceedingly agreeable at table. He was not forward, but
seemed to take just the proper interest and proper part in the flow of
conversation, and not once during the meal was he offensive in the
slightest degree. But for his first unpleasant impression of the fellow,
Merry might have fancied him quite a decent chap.
The Mexican was very frank in stating his desire to learn everything
possible about American methods of business while he remained in New
York, and he asked a few questions of Mr. Hatch, but never pressed a
point when the gentleman seemed reticent over it.
"I don't presume you are looking for a business opening here?"
questioned Hatch. "Why, Americans have their eyes on Mexico, which they
say is very rich and offers innumerable opportunities for the man of
brains, business, and capital. You have fine plantations, splendid
ranches, and some of the richest mines in the world. Are you going to
let Americans open up all your mines and work them?"
"Oh, no," laughed Carlos. "Americans have not all our mines, by any
means. Many Americans have obtained mines in my country to which they
have no legal right. For instance, there were the great Santa Maria
Mines, which were secured and operated by a syndicate of Americans. They
thought they had a claim to those mines that could not be disputed, and
they laughed at any one that suggested the possibility of trouble over
them. One day a man by the name of Casaria came along and told them that
the property was his, and that they must either pay him well for the
privilege of working them, or get out. They told him to go away. He
went. Then he began proceedings against them, and in less than a year
they were ousted and compelled to abandon every building they had
constructed, every piece of machinery they had put in, and all that.
Casaria had beaten them, and he turned round and leased his property to
another company that pays him well for the privilege of working it. The
same thing is likely to happen to other Americans in Mexico."
Frank surveyed Mendoza keenly, wondering if the boy had told this for
his benefit; but apparently the lad was wholly innocent that it might
apply to any one present.
After dinner Merry spent the evening with Mr. and Mrs. Hatch, while
Arthur and Carlos retired soon to Art's room.
Finally Mr. Hatch asked Frank if he wished to retire, and Merry
expressed a desire to do so.
It happened that Frank's room was not far from that of Arthur Hatch. As
he followed Mr. Hatch past Art's open door, Mendoza called to him.
"Going to bed so soon, Mr. Merriwell?" he inquired. "Come in for a
moment before you retire."
Having been shown to his room, Frank decided to accept Mendoza's
invitation. It was a queer feeling that impelled him to do so, for
Arthur had said nothing.
As he entered Art's room, he detected a quick movement on the part of
young Hatch, who hastily rose to his feet, asking Frank to sit down. His
face was unnaturally flushed, and there was a peculiar expression in his
eyes.
Carlos was smoking a cigarette, and the air of the room was heavy with
smoke. About him there was a certain air of suppressed satisfaction.
There seemed no particular reason why the boys should wish Frank to drop
in before going to bed. Indeed, Arthur seemed ill at ease and talked
little. He seemed to be making an effort to appear natural.
It was not long before Merry divined Mendoza's object in calling him.
The Mexican had induced Arthur to break the pledge recently made to
Frank.
Although Carlos was smoking, on a little ash receiver beneath the table
near which Hatch had been sitting lay a freshly lighted cigarette, from
which a vapory bit of blue smoke was rising.
Arthur had been smoking and drinking with Carlos.
The young Mexican had wished Frank to see that his power over the boy
was strong enough to make him break his pledge.
Having decided on this, Frank felt like seizing Mendoza and giving him a
thorough shaking up. Inwardly he was angry with the fellow, but
outwardly he was undisturbed.
Carlos took special delight in trying to induce his host to talk,
apparently hoping Hatch would make some sort of a break.
Frank knew it would do no good to talk to Arthur Hatch then. Instead, it
would almost surely anger and shame him to such an extent that he would
become resentful, announce himself as his own master, and declare his
perfect ability to look out for himself, without the advice or
assistance of any one.
"The smoke is somewhat too thick for me here, boys," said Merry. "I
think I'll turn in."
"Sorry you can't sit up with us a while longer," said Arthur, but he
could not hide his relief and satisfaction.
He was glad Frank was going, and Merry knew it.
"As in other things," smiled Carlos, "you seem to have some
old-fashioned ways about sleeping. I don't believe any man half lives
who sleeps too much at night. Ah! New York and upper Broadway is the
place! There something is doing nearly all the night."
"If the occasion demands," said Merriwell, "I can stay up with any of
them; but just now I feel like bottling up a little sleep, as the
expression goes."
"I hope you may enjoy your rest," said Carlos. "I hope nothing may
disturb you. Good night, senor."
"Good night," said Frank. "Good night, Arthur."
In his room Merry fell to thinking of the two boys as he undressed.
"Carlos Mendoza is Arthur's evil genius," he decided. "The influence of
the fellow on Hatch is wholly bad. What is the best course for me to
pursue? Had I better warn his father? Is there not some other way to
open Arthur's eyes? If I go to Warren Hatch, the man may become angry,
and give his son a raking down that will do more harm than good."
After getting into bed, Merry continued to meditate on the matter,
finding it was not easy to decide on a course.
He thought of many other things. The memory of his recent encounters
with Porfias del Norte haunted him. He thought of the manner in which
he had been trapped by Del Norte up in the Adirondacks, and thanked his
lucky stars that O'Toole, the Irishman, out of gratitude, had aided him
to escape from the murderous Mexican.
"Poor O'Toole!" he murmured. "When he became my friend he was faithful
unto death."
The memory of his own desperation and distress on learning that Inza
Burrage had fallen into the power of Del Norte caused him to twist and
turn on the bed. Only for O'Toole, he might have been baffled in
following Inza's captors. Through the acquaintance and friendship of
O'Toole with Red Ben, Del Norte's Indian guide, had come the rescue of
Inza.
Once more Frank seemed to be standing in the depths of the Adirondack
wilderness at the foot of the mountain, and again he seemed to hear the
shriek of terror which escaped the lips of the Irishman as he fell from
the precipice, and came crashing through the treetops to strike the
ground a short distance away. Then Merry lived over once more his knife
duel with Del Norte on the cliff, the escape from the cave, and the
struggle to get away from the landslide, when, with superhuman efforts,
he had carried Inza in his arms to a place of safety.
"Del Norte is dead," he muttered; "but he seems to be reincarnated in
Felipe Jalisco. I have not seen the last of Jalisco. That man Hagan is
dangerous, too. Without the backing Hagan will try to give, Jalisco
would give me little trouble in regard to the mine. His claim is a
forgery beyond doubt; but he seems to think it genuine. Were it not for
Hagan, I might do something for the boy, if his demands were anywhere
near reasonable. Hagan is determined to get his finger into the pie, and
he'll want a large slice. He'll get nothing."
Finally Frank slept; but he was awakened by something that pressed
sudden and hard across his throat. He tried to start up, but that thing
across his throat held him helpless.
Besides that, there was a sudden weight on his breast, as of a hand that
thrust him back.
Through the window of his room came a dim light, by which he discerned a
dark figure that seemed crouching on the edge of the bed.
He knew instantly that some person was there. Through the gloom a pair
of gleaming eyes, like those of an animal, seemed to look into his.
"Be still!" came a hissing whisper. "Make a sound and you shall die!"
By this time Frank was wide-awake, with every sense aroused.
He wondered if it was a burglar.
"Don't cry out!" again commanded his assailant. "One little cry from you
will be your last! Do you feel this?"
Something keen pricked Merriwell's throat.
"It is my knife," declared the unknown. "With a single stroke I can open
the vein in your throat, and nothing in all the world can save you."
The situation was one to send a thrill through the strongest nerves.
"What do you want?" asked Merry, in a low tone.
"Softer than that!" hissed the fellow with the knife. "Don't speak
louder than a whisper if your life to you has any value."
"What do you want?" whispered Merry.
"Ha! That is right! Now let me warn you further. There is a stout cord
across your neck, and you cannot lift your head if you attempt it so
much as your strength will admit. The cord is made fast to both sides of
the bed beneath you. You are perfectly helpless. First it is that I want
you to know. Even if the cord should not be there, with my knife I could
kill you when you tried to struggle. Now should you with your hands
grasp me you would be like a child to destroy."
"Having made all this plain, go ahead and tell me what you are after,"
urged Merriwell.
"Are you not afraid? I expected to hear your teeth chattering together
like castanets. I expected to feel your body shaking, as if with a great
chill."
There was disappointment in these whispered words.
"What good would it do me to be afraid?"
"Can you reason like that in a moment when your life is in the most
terrible danger? Have you ice in your veins?"
"Why should you do me an injury? If you are here to rob me----"
"I am not! I am here to make you stop from robbing me. I told you I
would have my right or kill you. You laughed at me. Now you do not
laugh!"
"Felipe Jalisco!"
"It is my name," was the bold confession.
Frank was amazed.
"How did you get into this house?"
"I find the way. When I told you that, night or day, asleep or awake,
there would never be one moment that you would not be free from the
peril of death at my hand, you laughed. You do not laugh now!"
"This isn't my time to laugh," confessed Frank. "Only fools laugh at the
wrong moment."
"You were a fool when you defied me. You did not know me. You did not
know the blood of the Jaliscos in me. To-night you thought yourself safe
from harm. You did not dream it possible that Felipe Jalisco might
strike his knife into your heart while you slept. When I told you that
not one moment would you be safe, you thought it the foolish talk of a
boy. Now you see."
"It is too dark for me to see very well."
"I am here to make you swear to give me what is mine. If you do it not,
then you die!"
"And you will go to the electric chair at Sing Sing. Should you kill me
to-night, Jalisco, you would be executed for murder."
"Paugh! I fear it not."
"Do you fancy you could escape?"
"I could."
"How little you reckon on the power of the law in this country. For you
there would be no escape. You threatened my life, and that threat was
heard before many witnesses. Those witnesses are all rich and powerful
men. Should I be killed here and now, the first thing those men would do
would be to bring all their combined influence to bear on having you
arrested immediately, and convicted of that murder. Even if you were not
guilty, and by some chance an unknown party should murder me, you would
find it almost impossible to escape punishment for the crime. All those
men would believe you did it, and they would bend every energy and the
influence of their great wealth to carry you to the death chair. Did you
attempt to prove an alibi, with all their influence and their wealth
they would overthrow the proof, and show your witnesses were liars and
perjurers. You cannot harm me without bringing destruction on yourself."
In this manner Frank forced the belief that he spoke the truth upon
Felipe. Although he could not see the dark face of the Mexican, he felt
that Jalisco had received his check.
"I have not come to kill you now," confessed the boy. "I want you to
know I can do it. I want you to feel the constant danger. I want you to
understand that when I am ready to strike I can do so, and strike to
destroy. Perhaps not in New York or any great city like this shall I do
it. I will follow you like a shadow. Where you go, there I will be.
Unless you give me what I demand, I will some day kill you, having
chosen the spot and time. Then I will escape, and no power may stop me.
Fool of a gringo, you must give me my own! I will leave you in
possession of the mine, but you must pay me one-half of all the money
you make from it. It is the only thing that will save you. Senor Hagan
asked for a big sum all at once, as he thought thus to get his share
right away. I would have had him accept half the profit. Swear now that
I shall have it! Swear you will pay----"
"Not a cent!" answered Merry grimly. "You have taken the wrong method of
getting anything from a Merriwell. Not a cent shall you ever have!"
Felipe swore in Spanish.
"Then you are doomed!" he panted.
Suddenly he paused and lifted his head. A sound had reached his ears
from some distant part of the house. It seemed that some one was
stirring.
"Lie still!" he hissed. "If you try to follow, at the door you shall
die!"
He sprang away with the soft step of a cat, and darted out at the door.
In a twinkling Merry slipped from beneath the cord, leaped from the bed,
and made the house echo with the shout he uttered.
Unmindful of Jalisco's threat, he was out of that room and after the
fellow in an amazing hurry. It must have been amazing for Jalisco, for
the fellow was overtaken by Merry at the head of the stairs. He whirled
and struck at Frank's breast, but the strong arm of the young American
swept the blow aside.
Merry seized his foe, and together they went bounding and rolling the
full length of the stairs.
When they landed at the bottom, Frank was on top, and the Mexican was
pinned to the floor.
By this time the whole house was in commotion. Voices were calling, and
lights were beginning to gleam.
"This way!" cried Frank. "I have him!"
He heard a sound on the stairs behind him, and supposed some one was
rushing to his assistance. There was a patter of feet, and then the
smothering folds of a blanket were flung over his head, and he was
dragged backward to the floor, his hold on Felipe Jalisco being broken.
When Merry succeeded in flinging off the blanket, he found some one had
turned on all the lights of the house. He saw Mr. Hatch, Arthur, Carlos
Mendoza, and one or two servants near at hand. The front door stood wide
open.
"A thousand pardons!" cried Mendoza, in apparent consternation and
distress. "It was a sad mistake I made!"
"You flung that blanket over my head and dragged me off the fellow!"
said Merry. "You permitted him to escape!"
"A thousand pardons! I thought you were the other. I thought he had you
down. It was dark. I could not see."
"You deliberately aided him to escape."
"No, no; I swear I made a sad mistake--I swear it!"
"And lie when you take the oath!" retorted Frank, unable longer to
restrain his feelings toward the fellow. "Mr. Hatch, you have a snake in
your house, and there he is!"