"You are showing a great deal of authority for a stripling. These military schools spoil boys like you by making them think they are men before the fuzz grows on their faces."

There was no doubt in the lad's mind but he was dealing with a desperate man, and Frank fully realized that he had thoroughly aroused the stranger's anger. But Frank could not be bullied, and the man in black was very repulsive to him, for some reason.

Once more the boy started to walk away; but the man was quickly at his side, where he kept, again attempting to be persuasive, although it was plain that he longed to throttle the lad.

"What is the use of being unreasonable! I am willing to do the square thing. I have made you a magnificent offer for that ring, which I am anxious to possess."

"Far too anxious," muttered Frank.

"That is natural," declared the man, swiftly. "Did you ever collect stamps? If you have, you should know something of the mania that seizes upon a collector. It is thus with me. If I see an odd ring I cannot obtain, I feel as if I had been robbed of something that rightfully belongs to me."

He paused a moment in his talk, but Frank walked straight onward, saying nothing.

"I have offered you a ridiculous price for that ring," continued the man. "I cannot afford it, but my mind is set on having the ring.

Already I have spent a fortune in my collections, and the time has come when I cannot fling money freely to the winds. Come now, young man, have a little sympathy with me, and sell me that ring."

Under certain circ.u.mstances these words might have melted Frank, who was not a cold-blooded lad, by any means; but there was something in the stranger's villainous aspect and repulsive manner that had turned the boy against the man in black and caused him to remain obdurate.

"I told you at first that it was useless to offer me money for this ring," said the boy. "I think you will begin to understand that I meant it."

"At least, you will tell me how it came in your possession?"

Frank hesitated. Surely there could be no harm in telling this, and it might enable him to get rid of the stranger, so he said:

"It was given to me by my mother."

"And your mother--how did she obtain it?" swiftly asked the stranger.

"My father gave it to her. I do not know how it came into his possession."

"Your father and mother----"

"Are dead."

"Ha! And you prize the ring because it was a present from your mother?"

"That is one reason."

"And there is another?"

"Yes."

"What?"

It suddenly struck Frank that he was talking altogether too much, and so he answered:

"I decline to say. I have already told you enough, and I beg you to excuse me. We will part here."

"First answer one more question. What was your father's name?"

"Charles Conrad Merriwell."

The man in black put a hand to his eyes, and seemed to be thinking for a moment. Beneath his breath he muttered:

"Merriwell, Merriwell--I do not know the name."

Then, dropping his hand, he said:

"I will make you one more offer for the ring. I will give you fifty dollars for it. See--here is the money. Don't be foolish--take it!

You will never receive another such offer."

He had pulled out some bills, from which he quickly selected a fifty-dollar bank-note, which he tendered to Frank.

The boy drew away.

"You are wasting your time in offering me money for the ring. I am in earnest in declining to sell it. Good-day, sir."

He turned and walked swiftly away.

The baffled man in black stood staring after the lad, his forehead lowering and his white teeth showing a bit through his dark mustache.

"Refuse to sell the ring!" he grated, madly. "All right! I am not defeated. I will have it within a week!"

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE MYSTERY OF THE RING

Frank did not glance back till he turned onto another street, and then he saw the man in black standing quite still where they had parted.

The reddish glow of the sunset was behind the man, on which his black figure stood out like a silhouette, the cloak and cape making him slightly resemble a gigantic bat.

The boy shivered a little as he pa.s.sed beyond the view of the mysterious stranger.

"That man makes my blood cold," he murmured. "There is something decidedly awe-inspiring about him. Somehow, I do not believe I have seen the last of him."

Frank was right; he had not seen the last of the man in black.

Thinking of what had happened, Frank soon came to the conclusion that the man was mad, or else there was some mystery about the ring that was not known to the possessor.

Why had the stranger been so desirous of knowing how the ring came into Frank's possession?

True he had said that he always wished to know the history of such rings as he collected; but Frank had refused distinctly to sell the ring, and still the man had seemed very desirous of obtaining information concerning it.

Why had he asked the name of Frank's father?

These questions presented themselves to the boy for consideration, and he remembered how, on hearing the name, the stranger had confessed that it was unfamiliar to him.