Morgan lifted his clinched hand and placed his arm across his eyes for a moment, the att.i.tude being one of intense humiliation and shame.

"What made you bring him?" he muttered huskily. "I--I didn't want any one but you to--to know anything about----"

Frank grasped the hand of the humiliated youth.

"You know I'm your friend, Morgan," he said earnestly. "I urged d.i.c.k to bring me along. What if you have been up against hard luck? Every fellow is pretty certain to face it sooner or later."

"But I--I----"

Morgan choked and was unable to go on. It was a terrible ordeal for him.

Merry understood, and the few words he uttered were deeply sympathetic and earnest. Then, in a moment, his manner changed. He seized Morgan by both shoulders, gave him a shake, and laughed in a manner that was both encouraging and soothing.

"Why, it's a good thing for a fellow to get a taste of genuine hard luck. It softens him, mellows him, and makes him more sympathetic for other unfortunates--that is, if he's made of the right stuff. Let a chap slip through the world without ever encountering misfortune and he cannot sympathize with those who have to struggle hard to keep their heads above the surface. Besides that, it stiffens and braces the right sort of a fellow to overcome misfortune and rise in the world through his own efforts. I know, Morgan, for I've seen my share of bad luck."

The flickering gaslight revealed the fact that a bit of color came into Morgan's cheeks.

"I--I suppose that's right," he confessed. "But I never dreamed I'd come to--this! It was the suddenness of the fall that took the sand out of me, too. I ought to be ashamed--I am ashamed--for I actually thought of suicide! You see, Merry, no one but d.i.c.k here knew I had gone to the bottom like this. I've been writing home, telling all about my good fortune and success. The thought of any one ever finding out what a wretched failure I had made was more than I could endure. I tell you, Merriwell, this town is a bad place for a fellow who happens to fall in with the swift set. It was a fast bunch I dropped into, and I--well, I made a confounded fool of myself. Result, I blew all my money, acquired a taste for champagne, went broke, and I've been drinking beer and whisky since to keep my courage up. Might as well make a clean breast of it. d.i.c.k's been staking me lately, and I've been trying to hit it lucky with the ponies in order to get a start. To-day I decided that luck had set in to run against me for fair, and I felt like ending it by cashing in my chips for good."

Morgan seemed to feel a little better after making this confession.

"Glad I had a streak of luck that brought me along at this point,"

smiled Frank. "You're going to get such foolish thoughts out of your head right away. What you need is a change of air and scene. I can make use of you."

"You can?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Let's sit down a moment. I'll tell you about it."

There was one broken chair in the room. This Morgan hastily placed for Merriwell, after which he and Starbright sat on the bed.

Frank made plain the events which had brought him to New York in connection with the Central Sonora railroad scheme.

"Now that the business is practically settled, I have a little scheme that I propose to carry out," he said. "I am going to organize an athletic team, made up of my friends and comrades and make a tour."

"Great!" cried Starbright.

"It's a splendid scheme," nodded Morgan. "Can you get the fellows together?"

"I think so. Hodge, Browning, and Rattleton are right here in New York.

Jack Ready and Joe Gamp are in Chicago. That makes six. With you and Starbright I shall have eight, and----"

"Not me!" cried Morgan.

"Yes, you."

"Impossible! I'm out of condition. Besides that, I'm broke, and I couldn't----"

"Don't worry about the money question, Dade. You know I have made several athletic and sporting tours, and never yet has it cost me, or any man connected with me, a dollar of our own money. I count on taking enough gate money to pay all expenses and more. I don't think there is a possibility of failure in this respect. I want you, Morgan, and you must agree to become one of my new athletic team."

"But my condition----"

"We'll see about that. We'll see what you can do in the way of getting into condition. You used to be hard as iron and supple as a willow. I think I can take hold of you, and put you into fairly good condition in a short time. As for Starbright, if I'm not mistaken, he is in the very pink of condition."

"I am," agreed d.i.c.k; "but I--I'd have to give up my work, and----"

"You told me all about your poor success thus far. You've been drilling at it through the summer months, and it's time to have a change. I don't believe you'll lose anything. In fact, I happen to have some influence with one or two Western papers, and I'll see that you get a chance to show what you can do out there any time you wish to go back to the work.

Unless you think it will be a positive injury to you to let up here, I'll not take no as an answer."

"I'm with you!" exclaimed d.i.c.k suddenly. "You may count on me."

"Then it is all settled, for----"

"Not yet--at least, not as far as I'm concerned," interrupted Morgan. "I wouldn't be worth a rap to you, Merry. I must confess that I have acquired some bad habits in recent years, and I--well, I'm afraid I haven't enough backbone to make one of your crowd, even if I could get into shape for it, which is doubtful."

"Let me be the judge in regard to that last point," smiled Frank.

"You're going to come with me, Morgan. There is talk about an all-American football team playing the best college teams of the country. I'd enjoy pitting my boys against this all-American team, even if we were defeated. Don't say another word, Morgan. Let's get out of here. I want you to buy some clothes and----"

"I have the p.a.w.n tickets for my own clothes," said Dade, in a low tone.

"Good! We'll have your wardrobe out of hock in a hurry. We'll have you looking like yourself in short order. Day after to-morrow we'll start for Chicago, stopping off a day at Niagara, as Inza Burrage and Elsie Bellwood will accompany us as far as St. Louis, and both wish to visit the falls. Fellows, it will be great sport! Makes me feel sort of bubbly and flushed all over."

"You've mentioned only eight fellows in all," reminded d.i.c.k Starbright.

"Eight will not make a football team."

"That's all right," a.s.sured Frank. "Received a message from Buck Badger this morning. He'll join us at St. Louis, and he thinks Berlin Carson will be with him. If Carson is with Badger when we get there, we'll have ten men. I expect to hear from two or three more of the old gang at any time. Don't you worry, for I'll have eleven men and three or four subst.i.tutes. Leave it to me, fellows--leave it to me."

"I'm perfectly willing to do that," nodded Starbright, beaming in antic.i.p.ation of the pleasures to come.

"So am I," said Morgan, who had cast off his despondency and now seemed much like his old self. "But I wish one of you would stick me with a pin or something. I want to make sure I'm not dreaming. It's too good to be true."

"It's true, Dade," laughed Merry. "The troubles I've been through in the last few weeks have been enough to make me feel the need of a little relaxation. Why, it will be old times over again!"

Dade suddenly stared upward over Frank's head at the transom above the door. His manner caused Merry to glance up quickly.

The transom was open, leaving an aperture of about three inches.

Through this aperture could be dimly seen the upper part of a face, with a pair of coal-black eyes, which were fixed with an ominous and steady stare upon Merry.

In those midnight eyes there was a gleam of unspeakable hatred, savage malevolence, and deadly rancor. They were the eyes of one who longed to do murder.

The awful look in those terrible eyes seemed to freeze both Morgan and Starbright and turn them to stone. For some moments they remained motionless and breathless.

As for Frank, he met that look squarely, and between him and the eavesdropper at the transom a silent battle took place.

Dade and d.i.c.k suddenly knew this battle was occurring. They felt the strain and intensity of it, and they seemed to realize that the master mind would conquer. Neither of them moved, fearing to break the spell.