BIRDS OF A FEATHER.
In a little back room of a saloon three young men were sitting. They
were talking earnestly, for all that two of the three showed they had
taken altogether too much liquor to be entirely sober.
"We're glad to see you, Sport," one of the drinkers declared.
"Well, I am glad to see you, Harlow, old man, and you, too, Hartwick,
although we were never friendly before you left Yale so suddenly."
"That was my fault," admitted Hartwick, huskily. "I didn't know enough
to pick out the right sort of pals. I trusted too much to Ditson. He's
no good!"
"Now there is where you make a mistake," asserted Sport Harris, quickly.
"I know Ditson has no nerve, but he hates the same fellow we hate, and
he is good to do the dirty work. We can make use of him, Hartwick."
"I don't know anything about him," confessed Harlow.
"No, he hasn't the nerve to play poker, and so you did not get
acquainted with him when you were here."
"I don't know that he hates Merriwell so much," growled Hartwick. "You
remember that Ditson blowed everything to Merriwell, and that is why I
was forced to skip. Oh, I'd like the satisfaction of punching the face
off the dirty little traitor!"
"But what caused Ditson to blow? He says you misused him."
"I choked the cad a little, that is all."
"But there was something back of that," declared Harris. "What led you
to choke him?"
"Oh, we had a little trouble. He was trying to squeeze me too hard, and
I wouldn't stand for it."
"Trying to squeeze you?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Well, I don't mind telling you. You know I tried to mark Merriwell for
life by punching my foil through the mask that protected his face while
we were engaged in a fencing bout. I had prepared my foil for that in
advance by fixing the button so I could remove it, and by sharpening the
point of the foil. I wanted to spoil the fellow's pretty face!"
The most malignant hatred was expressed in Hartwick's words and manner.
He went on:
"I tried the trick, but did not succeed. Ditson carried off the foil,
and kept it. He would not give it up, although he promised to a hundred
times. He used it to aid in blackmailing me. When he asked me for money,
I did not feel like refusing him, for he could throw me down hard by
turning the foil over to Merriwell. But he carried the thing too far.
"One night when I was in a bad mood he tried to squeeze more money out
of me. He had been living in luxury for some time, while I was broke
almost continually. I kicked and refused to give up. Then he had the
insolence to threaten me with exposure. I lost my head and choked him.
Directly after that he turned like a viper and blowed everything to
Merriwell. That was my downfall. I had to skip. Is there any reason why
I should not hate the sneak?"
"No, I do not wonder that you are sore on him; but he did not make
anything out of the trick."
"Didn't make anything! Why, he forced me out of college!"
"That was not the main thing he was looking for."
"Then what was?"
"He hoped to get in with Merriwell, and he fancied Merriwell would think
him a fine fellow for blowing."
"Well?"
"Well, he made a mistake in Frank Merriwell, for Merriwell despised him
all the more, although he did nothing to injure Ditson. He does not
recognize Ditson at all, and now Ditson is more eager than before to do
Merriwell an injury."
"All the same, Ditson can't be trusted."
"Not unless he is so deep in the game that it means ruin for him to
blow. Then he is caught. As I said in the first place, he is a good man
to do the dirty work that we do not want to touch."
"I think Harris is right," nodded Harlow, "and you may get a chance to
even up with Ditson by throwing him down when we have fixed Merriwell
nicely."
"But you want to remember you are going up against a bad man in Frank
Merriwell," warned Sport. "I do not care to be forced out of Yale."
"Of course not," said Hartwick and Harlow.
"You fellows have not so much to look out for. You can do things that
would be beyond me."
"We made a bluff at doing something to-day," growled Hartwick. "We were
out for a drive, and we came upon Merriwell. He was on his new horse,
and we tried to run him down, but he got out of the way."
"I don't know but it is a good thing he did," confessed Harlow. "If we
had struck him there'd been a general smashup. I was driving, and we
were making the old nag hit a hot pace. We came near going bottom up as
it was."
"You must have been badly rattled," exclaimed Harris.
"Oh, I don't know," laughed Hartwick, harshly. "We've been up against it
for the past three days. Eh, Harlow?"
"That's what," nodded the card sharp. "Hartwick is a hard man to follow.
He can kill more stuff than anybody I ever saw."
"Well," said Harris, "I have asked Ditson to come in here this evening.
I took a chance on it, for I thought we could get rid of him easily
enough if we didn't want him. He is liable to be along at any moment."
Harlow looked at a handsome watch.
"A quarter to ten," he said. "He ought to be around soon if he is coming
at all."
"He will be. Where'd you get that ticker, old man?"
"Oh, I took it off a sucker in a game. I'll have to soak it if I don't
strike some sort of graft pretty soon. I'm getting down to hard pan."
"I suppose you are all right, Hartwick?" questioned Harris. "You can
call on your old man and make him give up any time."
"Well, I guess not! I haven't been able to get a dollar out of the old
duffer since I left college. He is icy toward me, and he says I can go
it for myself and be hanged."
"That's pleasant! What have you been doing to gather in the coin?"
"Why, confound it! haven't I formed a partnership with Harlow! I don't
know anything about card tricks, but he works all of that, and I win the
money. He gives me the hands to do it on, you see. If there is
suspicion aroused, the poor suckers take to watching me, and they are
unable to catch me at anything crooked. Our only trouble is to find the
right sort of fruit for plucking. We generally pretend we are strangers
to each other. Sometimes we have a little disagreement over the table,
just to fool the fools all the more."
"That's first-rate," laughed Harris. "I wish the gang here was not onto
Harlow. I could get you some ripe plums."
"And that's what made me so sore on Merriwell," growled Harlow. "But for
that fellow we'd be right in it now. Oh, I want to soak him some way,
and soak him hard!"
"And we'll find a way to soak him, too!" growled Hartwick. "Let's have
another round, fellows."
He pushed a button and a waiter appeared. Drinks were ordered. When they
were brought, Ditson came in with the waiter.
"Hello, Roll!" called Harris. "Glad you came along. Mr. Ditson, Mr.
Harlow. I think you have met the other gentleman."
Ditson started and turned pale when he saw Hartwick, who was glowering
at him.
"Oh, yes! Mr. Ditson has met me!" said Evan, significantly. "We do not
need an introduction!"
Ditson seemed on the point of getting out in a hurry, but Harris arose
and took him by the arm.
"It's all right," he assured. "Sit down, Roll."
"What sort of a game is this?" hesitatingly asked Ditson, keeping his
eyes on Hartwick. "Have you fellows got me in here to do me up?"
"Nothing of the sort."
"Not but I'd like to do you, and do you good," confessed Hartwick, "but
Harris won't have it."
"No," said Sport; "I hold that we are all united by our hatred for a
common foe, and we cannot afford to be anything but friends."
"All the same, it was a dirty deal you gave me, Ditson," growled Evan,
who seemed to be longing to pick a row with the newcomer.
"You forced me into it," declared Ditson, weakly.
"Forced you?"
"Yes."
"How was that?"
"You know well enough. You set on me like a mad tiger, and I'll bet you
would have choked me to death in your room if you hadn't been seized
with one of your attacks of heart trouble. I was afraid of you, and I
had to do something to protect myself."
"So you blew the whole thing to Merriwell! That was a brave trick. But I
understand Merriwell has turned you down in great shape since that."
"Well, he hasn't used me right," admitted Ditson. "Sometimes I think I'd
like to kick the wind out of him, but I know I can't do it."
"You may have the chance to take the wind out of him," said Harris. "Sit
down, old man, and we will talk matters over. What are you drinking?"
"Bring me a sherry flip, waiter," ordered Ditson, seeing the waiter had
paused outside.
Then he sat down in a chair offered him, saying:
"If there's any sure way of doing Merriwell up, I'm in for it; but I
give it to you straight that I am sick of trying to do him and having
him come out on top. It's got to be a sure thing this time, or I don't
touch it."
Beyond a thin partition in a room next to the one occupied by the four
plotters sat a man who had a cut and bruised face and a pair of swollen
black eyes.
This man had been drinking heavily. A bottle of whiskey and a glass sat
on the little table before him. He was alone in the room.
He had seemed to suddenly lose all interest in the whiskey, and he was
leaning against the board partition with his ear close to a crack,
intently listening to the talk of the four lads in the next room.
The man had heard Frank Merriwell's name spoken, and that was the first
thing to attract his attention to what the occupants of the next room
were saying.
"That's the fellow!" muttered the man, hoarsely. "He's the one what gave
me these beautiful peepers and pretty mug! I'll give him something worse
than this before long."
Then he decided to listen.
"Wonder if them chaps is his friends? I'll jest see what they're sayin'
about him."
It was not long before the man was able to hear enough to satisfy him
that the lads in the next room were anything but friends of Frank
Merriwell, and he listened with fresh eagerness.
He heard Ditson come in with the waiter, and caught much of the
conversation that followed. Then Ditson sat down, and the plotters
lowered their voices.
"That settles it!" exclaimed the man. "I'm goin' right in there and see
if they don't want to take me inter the gang. Them college ducks will be
jest the fellers to help me in gettin' back at Frank Merriwell."
He got up, left the little room, and went around to the door of the
other room. Without stopping to knock, he opened the door and walked in.
"H'waryer," he saluted, as the four lads stared at him in amazement. "My
name's Mike Hogan, and I want ter join in with ther push."
"Get out of here, you bum!" cried Hartwick, fiercely. "You are intruding
on a private party."
"Hold hard, young feller!" returned the fellow who had given his name as
Mike Hogan. "Don't call me a bum! I'm onto your curves, and there ain't
no reason why you and me shouldn't be friends."
"Friends!" exclaimed Hartwick--"friends! Well, I prefer to choose my
friends."
"And you didn't make much of a success when you chose a young gent here
what is named Ditson. Keep yer seat!"
"Press the button, Harlow, and we'll have this fellow thrown out!" came
savagely from Hartwick's lips.
"Wait a minute before you press the button," urged Mike Hogan. "Do you
see this face?"
"Yes."
"It's a peach, now, ain't it?"
"You can consider yourself lucky if it isn't worse than that when you
get out of here, my man."
"Don't 'my man' me, young feller! I don't like it! Do yer know who give
me this face and these two beautiful eyes?"
"No, and we----"
"Well, I'll tell yer who it was. It was a feller what goes by the name
of Frank Merriwell."
"Well, he did a first-class job," commented Harris. "That really looks
like some of Merriwell's work."
"He done it," nodded Mike. "Nacherlly I ain't got no love to speak of
for him. Well, I was in the room next to this just now, and as I was
leanin' against the partition I happened to overhear what you chaps was
sayin' in here. From what I heard, I judged you didn't love this
Merriwell none to brag about, and I says to myself, 'Mike, if you want
to get even, them is the boys to hitch fast to.' Then I got right up and
came in here without bein' invited. I hope you'll excuse me, gents, but
I couldn't help it under the circumstances. I had a sort of
feller-feelin' for you chaps, and I thought mebbe we might arrange some
sort of a deal together that would do this Merriwell, and do him for
keeps. I'm not a chap with much education, but I'll bet anything I can
hate just as hard as you fellers, and if there's anybody I hate on the
earth, it's Frank Merriwell.
"There, now, gents, you have heard what I have ter say, and I hope
you'll tumble ter ther fact that I am on the level. This is no case of
stringing. I want ter pay back that feller for these two black eyes and
this mug. Mebbe you can help me to do it, and I can help you to square
yerselves with him at the same time. If that is right, why shouldn't we
kinder go into partnerships for a short period? I put the question to
yer, and you can do as ye please."
The quartet at the table looked at one another inquiringly and
doubtingly. They seemed to hesitate.
"If this man tells the truth, and I should judge that he does, he may be
of service to us and we to him," said Sport Harris.
"That's right," nodded Harlow. "If Merriwell gave him that mug and those
beautiful eyes, I don't wonder that he wants to get square."
Hartwick was silent. He was looking Mike Hogan over, and he was
thinking:
"Is it possible I have fallen to the point where I have to take such a
fellow as a comrade? No! It will not be as a comrade. We can use him as
a tool, perhaps, and that is what we will do, if we use him at all."
"Sit down," invited Hartwick, suddenly rising and offering Mike his
chair. "I'll get another. I want to hear just how you came by those
eyes."
Hogan sat down at the table and Hartwick brought a chair from a corner.
"We are all anxious to hear how you came by those eyes," declared
Harlow.
"Some gent order drinks, and I will tell ye. Never mind," he cried, as
he saw them look at each other knowingly, as if they thought he was
trying to work them for liquor, "I'll order, myself! Don't you think
for a second that I'm broke!"
Then he flung a small roll of bills on the table before them, reached
past Harlow, and pressed the button. When the waiter appeared, he said:
"Give these gents anything they want, Pete."
"Wot if they orders champagne?" grinned Pete, winking at the boys.
"Then bring it, dern ye!" snarled Hogan, as he grabbed up the roll of
money and thrust it at the waiter. "Take the pay out of that and gimme
the change."
Drinks were ordered and quickly brought. Hogan paid for them and gave
the waiter a quarter as a tip.
"How about it, Pete?" he asked. "Am I all right?"
"Ye're all right, Mike," declared the waiter, promptly; "and the young
gents will find that anything you says sticks."
Then he went out.
"Now," said Hogan, "before I begin I want to tell you chaps this: I'm on
the make. That is how I happened to get up against this chap Merriwell.
I heard that he paid a cool thousand for that horse of his, and I kinder
admitted that a boy who could pay that sum for a horse must be in
circumstances that would permit him to burn money in an open grate. Such
a chap was worth my attention. I know horses from their hoofs to the
tips of their ears. There ain't much of anything I don't know about 'em.
And I knew Merriwell must be stuck on the horse for which he paid a
thousand plunks.
"Well, gents, I'll tell ye my scheme. I kinder thought it would be easy
to play the horse doctor, and work Merriwell for a good pot. All that
was necessary was to make something ail the horse. Then I went round to
the stable where he keeps the critter, after I had first learned the
name of one of Merriwell's friends. I wanted to get at the horse, and I
knew it wouldn't be easy unless I appeared to be on the inside track
with Merriwell. I went round and said I was this friend of Merriwell,
and in that way I got into the stall with the horse.
"Don't you care what I done to make that horse lame, but I done it all
right. When Merriwell rode out this afternoon the critter went to
limpin' under him. When he came back to the stable I was there, but I
had changed my clothes and I wore a beard. I introduced myself as a
horse doctor, and offered to cure his horse, or not to charge him a
dollar. If I cured the critter, which I could do easy, I meant to charge
him a hundred dollars, and I thought he'd be fool enough to pay it
without a kick."
"That shows you didn't know the kind of a fellow you were trying to
fool," said Harris.
"I found that out all right. He wouldn't make any talk with me. Then
when I got hot and was going away he suddenly took a notion to stop me.
The first thing I knew he had snatched off my hat and beard, and the
hostler recognized me as the same chap as was in to see the horse this
afternoon.
"I didn't feel alarmed then," Mike went on, "for Merriwell is a young
chap, and I know something about fighting. That is, I thought I knew
something about it. I'm not sure about that now. I told him to get out
of the way, or I would do him up. I saw my scheme was bu'sted, but I
felt sure it'd be some time before he'd find out what ailed his horse.
"That young fool didn't seem at all scared of me. He wouldn't get out of
the way and let me go, but he put himself in my way, and then we had it.
When we got through I found that I had it, and I had it bad. There
ain't no need to tell just what happened. Take a look at my mug and
you'll see for yourself. That young cuss can fight like a tiger!
"But now I'm goin' to get level with him, and don't you fergit it! I'll
make him sorry that he ever gave Mike Hogan a pair of black eyes! I'll
never be satisfied till I have done him the worst kind of a turn.
"I heard you chaps talkin', and it struck me that we might pull together
to do him dirt. That's why I came right in. What do you say to it?"
The boys looked at each other, and then they nodded approval.
"You'll do," said Harris. "You may prove a very valuable man for us."