HAPPY JACK.
Frank’s face was very pale, but in his eyes still burned the strange
fire that had startled and quelled Starbright. He straightened up and
stood looking down steadily at Dick, for some moments remaining silent.
At last he said:
“Are you sure you have not been drinking?”
“Dead sure of it,” asserted the freshman quickly. “I known what I saw
and heard, Merriwell. Now, what do you think?”
He seemed to fancy Merry must cave in, but Frank quietly said:
“Just what I thought before.”
“Why, she——”
“She is perfectly square and upright. She has deceived nobody. She never
deceived me in all her life, and I refuse to believe any wrong of her. I
have perfect and absolute confidence in Inza Burrage.”
Again Starbright inwardly exclaimed:
“You love her—you love her! If you did not, you would not have such
perfect confidence in her. Perfect love gives perfect confidence. You
cannot fool me, Merriwell.”
Frank turned and paced the floor slowly, seemingly buried in deep
thought.
“Walter?” he muttered, as if asking himself a question. And then over
and over he repeated, “Walter, Walter?”
“That was the name,” said Dick. “And he was a tall, handsome fellow,
with dark hair and eyes. He looked as if he had been much exposed to the
weather, for his face was brown. Who is he, Merriwell? Who does she know
by the name of Walter?”
Frank shook his head.
“I can’t say,” he confessed.
“Then it is somebody of whom she has never told you,” said Dick, as if
this aided in proving her deceit. “Why didn’t she tell you about him if
you were such firm friends?”
“I don’t know.”
The freshman half-fancied Merriwell was weakening.
“What if you had seen what I saw?” he cried. “Would you not have
doubted?”
“No!” said Frank instantly. “Nothing could make me doubt Inza!”
Starbright fell back, breathing heavily.
“She has fooled him completely!” he whispered. “It is my duty to open
his eyes, for he loves her. And I—she can never be the same to me
again!”
“Why didn’t you speak to them?” asked Frank, having paused to face Dick.
“Why didn’t you make yourself known?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I was too thunderstruck to do anything. When they left the station arm
in arm, I followed slowly, and saw them get into the cab. As the cab
started off I sprang forward, but it was too late.”
“Well, you may depend on it,” said Frank, “that Inza can explain
everything.”
“You do not doubt her now?”
“Not the least, for I know her.”
“You must know where she is stopping. It will be easy to find out if she
can explain.”
“But I do not know where she is stopping. I cannot spend the time just
now to tell you everything that happened after you left for New Haven,
but it became necessary for her and her father to leave the hotel in
Brooklyn and go out on Long Island. They did so, but returned very soon.
Day before yesterday I went over to see them, but found they had left
Brooklyn once more, and I did not learn whither they had gone. So, you
see, I do not know where to find Inza.”
“Nor do I.”
“Then it is plain that we will have to let the matter rest a while. You
will say nothing about it to any one, Starbright?”
“Little danger of that.”
“You will let liquor alone?”
“I will.”
“I am certain that everything will be cleared up in time, and Inza must
never know how you doubted her. I would not have her know it for worlds,
for she likes you, Dick, and it would hurt her more than you can dream.”
Starbright felt rebuked, but Merriwell’s words did not alter his
conviction that Inza was fickle, and had deceived them both.
Only a short time before Dick had been played with and thrown over by
Rosalind Thornton. Before that time he was a big-hearted, trusting boy;
but his treatment in that case had awakened his suspicions and shattered
his absolute and unswerving faith in all girls. Now he fancied he knew
them very well, and his knowledge was not of the kind to lead him to
trust them.
Despite his physical perfections, despite his wonderful feats of
strength and skill, Starbright was still a very callow youth, greatly
given to sudden impressions, and there was much for him to learn before
he could develop into a steady, level-headed man. He was to be taught by
experience that it is always very foolish, and sometimes decidedly
dangerous, to jump at conclusions without clue and careful investigation
of all cases.
There was a step at the door, which swung open to admit Jack Diamond,
who sauntered in, dressed in the swellest possible manner and carrying a
cane.
“Hello!” exclaimed the Virginian, pausing. “Didn’t know you had a
caller, Merriwell. Am I intruding?”
“Of course not,” said Frank. “You know Starbright, Jack.”
“Starbright—of course! Why, how are you, Starbright? Glad to see you, my
boy.”
Jack shook hands heartily with Dick.
“I thought you were on the other side,” said the freshman, trying to
appear cool and composed.
“That’s where I would be if I were not a fool,” declared Jack, forcing a
short laugh.
Frank gave the Southerner a quick look, observing that Jack’s face was
flushed and his eyes filled with a light of joy.
“What’s happened, old man?” asked Merry. “You look as if you had heard
good news.”
“So I have.”
“Mind telling?”
“I guess not. I made an ass of myself, Merriwell, and I’ve just found it
out. To-day I received a letter from Juliet.”
“Really?”
“Yes; here it is.”
Diamond triumphantly drew it from a pocket near his heart.
“I’ll not let you read it,” he said, laughing, “for I think any man a
cad who permits his friends to peruse his love-letters.”
“Then it is a love-letter?” cried Frank.
Jack nodded happily.
“Decidedly so!” he said. “In it Juliet has shown me what a great big
chump I am. The man was her cousin, whom she had not seen for some time,
as he had been in India. She was offended by my manner and words, and
would not explain. That’s spirit for you, Merry! By Jove, I like it!
Isn’t she like Inza! When I continued to be a duffer she grew more and
more angry, which was perfectly natural. She was determined to punish me
by letting me think she meant never to speak to me again. But she did
not think I would jump out of London in such a hurry, and she was
appalled when she learned I had gone. Ha, ha!
“Well, she kept still just as long as she could, and then she wrote me
this letter. She says she tried hard not to write it, and that she was
determined to burn it after it was written; but she posted it instead of
burning it, and now all the clouds are cleared away. I’ve just written a
long reply, asking her forgiveness and begging permission to resume my
suit. Gentlemen, I’m going back to London, and I’ll marry that girl just
as soon as she’ll have me! I’m going to hurry up about it, too, before I
make a fool of myself again and lose her for good.”
“Old man, I congratulate you!” cried Frank, as he grasped Jack’s hand.
“But let this be a warning to you never again to entertain doubts of her
without positive, absolute, and incontrovertible proof.”
As Merry said this he looked at Starbright, who flushed slightly and
turned away.
Diamond was happy indeed. From the depths he had been lifted to the
heights, and he felt that he was a very lucky fellow. He freely
expressed himself to that effect.
“It’s more than I deserve,” he declared. “She would have treated me
right if she’d refused ever again to have anything to do with me. I
don’t know how I am going to set myself right in her eyes, and I shall
feel guilty when I meet her. Merry, you must be the best man when we are
married.”
“If it is possible, it will be a great pleasure,” smiled Frank.
“Oh, you’ll have to make it possible. But for you I’d never met her, you
know. You have brought me all my good fortune, just the same as you
bring good fortune to every one of your friends.”
Starbright had resumed his seat. There was a look of bitterness on his
handsome, boyish face, but the happy Virginian did not observe it.
Frank, however, could read Dick’s thoughts, and he knew the freshman had
told himself that the Inza matter could not turn out after the manner of
the misunderstanding between Jack and Juliet.
To Merry it seemed that this reconciliation between the Virginian and
the English girl had happened at just the right time to serve as an
object-lesson. Diamond had been foolishly jealous, had not trusted
Juliet, and now he realized the full extent of his folly.
“Boys!” cried Jack, “I’ll blow you to dinner to-night! Why, I want to do
something to make others happy, I am so happy myself! Where’ll we
go—Del’s?”
Starbright shook his head.
“I can’t go,” he said. “I’m in training, you know, and it won’t do.”
“Training!” cried Diamond. “What, this early? Yes, I remember. But how
happens it you are here?”
Dick did not feel like making an explanation just then.
“Business—er—business, you know,” he faltered.
“Well, a square feed will do you good, now that you are away from the
training-table. Oh, that training-table! It gives every man a great
appetite.”
But Starbright had no appetite.
“We’ll let you blow us at another time, Jack,” smiled Frank. “I don’t
feel like stuffing myself to-night.”
“You never feel like stuffing yourself,” said the Virginian resentfully.
“Ever since I can remember, you have been eating coarse bread, dodging
pastry, eschewing pork and veal, and living like a dyspeptic.”
“With the result that I am as little like a dyspeptic as a man can
possibly be. I eat coarse bread because there is little nutriment in
white bread—all the important food-elements having been removed with the
bran. The man who bolts his food is digging his own grave.”
“Hear, hear!” cried Diamond. “A lecture on diet by the great expert,
Frank Merriwell! Look at him! Behold him! He is a perfect man, and all
because he never ate improper food. Go thou and do likewise.”
Frank laughed a little.
“You are putting it pretty strong,” he said. “Merely eating the proper
food will not make any man an athlete or give him perfect health. He
must conform to other rules and regulations; he must take proper
exercise, and he must not disregard the natural laws of health. A fellow
who fancies he can indulge in excesses and retain his health is fooling
himself in the worst way.”
“My dear fellow,” smiled Jack, “down in my country we are hospitable. We
fling open our doors and invite our friends. Tables are loaded with the
fat of the land, and every guest is supposed to take hold and eat his
fill. You would find yourself out of order down there, with your rules
and regulations.”
“Not at all. I should eat with the others, but I’d take care to eat
slowly and not overload myself. That’s all. I have no use for cranks,
but a man may stick to what he knows is right, and avoid what he knows
is wrong, without giving anybody the right to dub him a crank.”
“Oh, I suppose that’s so, Merry. We all know you’re all right. But not
every fellow can take care of himself and build himself up as you have
done, though I reckon you were cut out for an athlete at the start.”
“That’s where you suppose wrong. I was a weak boy, with poor health and
an imperfect body. When I realized that such was the case, I set about
trying to find out what to do to build myself up. It was slow work at
first, for sometimes I went wrong. Even after I got on the right track
my progress was so slow that it was disheartening. Sometimes I fancied I
was not advancing at all; but I stuck to it and won out in the end.”
“Well, we’re willing to give you all the credit you deserve,” said Jack;
“but when a fellow has a stomach like an ostrich, what’s the use of
dieting? When one can eat any old thing without having it hurt him, why
should he deprive himself of the things he likes, and settle down on a
coarse-food diet?”
“When a chap is growing, he demands more food than when he arrives at
maturity, but that food should be of the nature best calculated to make
a perfect man of him. I am certain that it would be a better thing for
the boys of this country if they were aware of this.”
Starbright was paying little attention to Merry’s words, for his
thoughts were all of a dark-eyed, beautiful girl whom he believed fickle
and false.
Merriwell had seemed to welcome the opportunity to talk of something far
removed from the subject of his conversation with the freshman. However,
he noted the moody look on the unusually good-natured face of Dick, and
he rattled on with his talk to prevent Diamond from observing and
commenting.
“Why don’t you start out lecturing to the boys and young men of the
country, Merry?” smiled Jack. “I know they would turn out in multitudes
to hear you speak, and I think you might do much good.”
“Perhaps you are right,” acknowledged Frank. “A man might spend his time
in a less profitable manner.”
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