During the greater part of the evening Frank and Mabel were together,
while Bessie seemed to cling to Hodge, who appeared very well satisfied.
Several of the fellows Frank and Bart had met at the club were present,
and it was natural that all should drift together after a time, and fall
to discussing the affair between Merriwell and Hegner.
The boys were almost universal in positively declaring that Hegner was
entirely in the wrong, and Frank was glad to know he was not blamed for
what he had done.
While they were talking Hegner drifted past, but seeing Merriwell in the
group did not pause.
A little later, however, Frank and his foe came face to face. Hegner
turned as if to walk away, but whirled back swiftly, saying:
"You have had your turn; mine comes next. I won't do a thing to you!
I'll make you sorry you ever saw the inside of the Fairmount Athletic
Club!"
Then without waiting for Frank to speak he hastened away.
"That fellow is full of threats," thought Merry; "and I fancy he means
to make them good if he gets a chance. I must keep my eyes open, for he
would strike a fellow behind his back."
He found Bart talking to Bessie and Mabel, and they all went over to a
distant part of the grounds, where there were to be fireworks on the
lawn.
There was music, laughter and song. It was a night for youth and
happiness. It was a night when a hand touch, the perfume of a breath, a
half-understood whisper, the rustle of the leaves caused the blood to
flow swift and warm in youthful veins.
The fireworks consisted mainly of mines, Roman candles and red fire.
There were a few pinwheels, but no rockets.
Wallace Hegner and Fanny Darling were together again. With her usual
daring, the girl was touching off Roman candles and laughing merrily.
She seemed to be enjoying herself thoroughly, but it seemed certain that
she had avoided Frank since he had overheard her talking with Hegner the
first of the evening.
The musicians played a lively air as the candles burned, the mines
exploded, the pinwheels buzzed, and the red fire glared. Fanny Darling
ran across the lawn swinging a Roman candle and letting the fireballs
pop into the air. Hegner was close behind her, with a glowing stick of
fire in either hand.
Suddenly there was a scream of terror, followed by a chorus of shrieks
and hoarse cries. Then it was seen that Fanny's dress was blazing.
The girls scattered and fled from her, while the boys stood still for
the moment and stared at her stupidly. Hegner dropped both sticks of red
fire, but fell back, calling for water.
Through the circle burst a youth who stripped off his coat as he ran. He
leaped straight toward the imperiled girl, who was vainly trying to beat
out the flames with her hands, a look of terror pitiful to see upon her
face.
"Steady, Miss Darling!" called the voice of Frank Merriwell. "Don't
resist me and I will save you!"
He flung the coat about her, lifted her, dropped her upon the grass,
knelt over her, rolled her, smothered the flames and beat them out with
his hands.
It was all over in a moment. He had extinguished the fire before others
could think to move. As they gathered around he lifted her to her feet,
anxiously asking:
"Are you severely burned, Miss Darling? I sincerely hope you are not. I
reached you as soon as possible."
She tried to speak, and her eyes met his. She choked, her chin quivered,
and she burst into tears, sobbing:
"Oh, Mr. Merriwell!"
It was all she could say, but there was a world of self-reproach, shame
and remorse in that exclamation.
It was found that Fanny Darling had been burned, but her injuries were
not severe. In beating out the flames Frank had burned his hands, but
there was a doctor present who attended to the girl and her rescuer.
Frank's hands were covered with a coating of creamy stuff and bound up
with handkerchiefs.
"I think that will prevent them from blistering," said the doctor. "I
always take a small case with me wherever I go, and it is fortunate I
was here to-night."
"Oh, I am all right!" laughed Merry; "but I sincerely hope Miss Darling
was not injured much. I reached her as soon as possible."
"It is almost certain you saved her life, and I am sure you prevented
her from being disfigured as long as she lives," declared the physician.
"She has much to thank you for."
In another room, with her girl friends hovering about her, Fanny Darling
distinctly heard what the doctor said, for there was an open door
between the two rooms.
Her face was very pale, and she bit her lip till the blood started,
while her hands were tightly clinched.
"Is the pain so terrible, Fanny?" tenderly asked Mabel Creighton.
"Pain? What pain?"
"Why, the pain of your burns."
"That's nothing. It was another pain that I felt."
She covered her face with her hands, and they saw a tear steal down
between her fingers, although she made no sound.
"Mr. Hegner wishes to see you," said Bessie Blossom. "He is at the door,
and he is very anxious to learn from your lips just how you are."
Fanny's hands dropped, and her face grew crimson.
"Tell Mr. Hegner that I do not care to see him!" she exclaimed.
So Wallace Hegner was turned from the door, much to his rage and
chagrin.
"I suppose she wouldn't see me because I didn't happen to be the one to
put out the fire," he grated, as he left the house. "What could I do? My
coat was too thin. It was just that Merriwell's confounded luck to jump
in there and do the trick. Oh, but I'm going to settle with him!"
After a time the most of the girls left the room, and Fanny was alone
with Mabel and Bessie. Then it was that she burst into tears, sobbing as
if her heart were breaking.
Both girls tried to comfort her.
"What is the matter, Fanny, dear?" asked Bessie, kneeling beside her. "I
suppose your nerves are all shaken."
"She is almost hysterical, poor girl!" said Mabel. "And I do not wonder
a bit."
"Who wouldn't be, after such a narrow escape?"
"It--it's--not--that!" sobbed Fanny.
"Not that?"
"No."
"Then what can be the matter with you, dear?"
"Oh, girls--I'm--I'm just the meanest creature in the--whole world--and
I just--just hate and despise myself! So there!"
Mabel and Bessie looked at each other in astonishment.
"You must be silly, Fanny! You are nothing of the sort!" cried Mabel.
"Yes, I am!" sharply declared Fanny, using a handkerchief to dry her
tears. "I am just as mean and hateful as I can be, and I wish I were
dead! It would have been a good thing if I'd burned!"
Mabel and Bessie looked horrified.
"It's dreadful!" they exclaimed.
"I don't care, it's true!" cried Fanny. "Just think of the mean, hateful
things I said to Frank Merriwell, and then think what he did for me! And
I did not mean those things at all! Oh, I'm wicked, and I know it!"
"Why, Fanny! Mr. Merriwell did not mind what you said," assured Mabel,
hoping to pacify her in that manner.
"He heard them, and he must think me the meanest, hatefulest creature
alive. I shall never dare to look him in the face again--never!"
After a long time her agitation subsided, and then, of a sudden, she
exclaimed:
"Girls, do you know what I am going to do?"
"No; of course not."
"I am going to ask Frank Merriwell's pardon on my knees! I will do it
now!"
Both Mabel and Bessie were so astonished that they could hardly speak.
The idea of Fanny Darling getting on her knees to any one was utterly
preposterous. But there seemed a most astonishing change in her, and now
she started to find Frank.
But Frank was gone. Charlie Creighton came in and told the girls that
Frank and Bart had departed to their hotel.
"Oh, it's too bad!" cried Fanny. "I should have gone to him at once, but
truly I was so ashamed that I could not face him. Tell me, Charlie, was
he burned much?"
"Well, the doctor could not tell just how severe the burns on his hands
might prove to be."
"Well, the very next time I see him I'll do my best to let him know I
appreciate his heroism," said Fanny.
In the meantime Frank and Bart had taken a car and were on their way to
the Continental. Bart showed considerable agitation concerning Merry's
hands.
"I hope you will not be knocked out so you'll be unable to go in for
athletics the same as usual this fall, Merry," said Hodge. "What would
the Yale eleven do without you?"
"They would get some other man equally as good," smiled Frank.
"They couldn't!" cried Hodge, loyally. "That would be an impossibility!"
"It can't be you really mean that, old man?"
"Of course I do."
"Then you are foolish. Why, Hodge, there are hundreds of men just as
good as yours truly. I know I am a good player, but I also know there
are others."
It was nearly midnight when they left the car and started to walk the
short distance to the hotel. Frank led the way by a short cut through a
narrow street, which was rather dark and deserted.
"There are not many fellows who would have done what you did to-night
for a girl who had treated them as Miss Darling treated you," said Bart.
"Oh, I don't know! It seems to me that almost any fellow would have done
that."
"Hegner was with her, but he did not lift a hand to save her."
"It is plain he did not know what to do. He did not think quickly
enough."
"That is just it, Merry. In any emergency you think of just the right
thing to do, and that is what makes you such a good man. I say Yale
can't afford to lose you from her eleven, and I hope you will not be
damaged so it will knock you out."
At that instant five or six dark forms suddenly darted out from both
sides of the street and surrounded the boys. A voice snarled:
"When we are through with him he'll be damaged so he won't play football
this season!"