As Frank came down the aisle, Fowler arose.
“I want to speak to you, Mr. Merriwell,” he said.
“All right,” nodded Frank. “Go ahead.”
“I have heard that you are making new engagements with the members of the company.”
“Well?”
“You haven’t said anything to me.”
“No.”
“I suppose it is because I made some foolish talk to you this morning. Well, I apologized, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I presume you will give me a chance when you take the play out again?”
“No, sir.”
Frank said it quietly, looking Fowler full in the face.
“So you are going to turn me down because I made that talk? Well, I have heard considerable about your generosity, but this does not seem very generous.”
“Ever since joining the company and starting to rehearse, Mr. Fowler, you have been a source of discord. Once or twice you came near flatly refusing to do some piece of business the way I suggested. Once you insolently informed me that I was not the stage manager. You completely forgot that I was the author of the piece. I have heard that you told others not to do things as I suggested, but to do them in their own way. Several times before we started out I was on the verge of releasing you, which I should have done had there been time to fill your place properly. Last night you were intoxicated when the hour arrived for the curtain to go up. You went onto the stage in an intoxicated condition. You did not do certain pieces of business as you had been instructed to do them, but as you thought they should be done, therefore ruining a number of scenes. You were insolent, and would have been fined a good round sum for it had we gone on. In a number of ways you have shown that you are a man I do not want in my company, so I shall let you go, after paying you two weeks salary. I believe I have given the best of reasons for pursuing such a course.”
Then Frank stepped past Fowler and sat down with Hodge.
The actor took his seat beside Harper, who said:
“I hope you are satisfied now!”
“Satisfied!” muttered Fowler. “I’d like to punch his head off!”
“Very likely,” nodded Harper; “but you can’t do it, you know. He is a holy terror, and you are not in his class.”
Behind them was a man who seemed to be reading a newspaper. He was holding the paper very high, so that his face could not be seen, and he was not reading at all. He was listening with the keenest interest to everything.
As Frank sat down beside Hodge he observed a look of great satisfaction on Bart’s face.
“Well, Merriwell,” said the dark-faced youth, with something like the shadow of a smile, “you have done yourself proud.”
“Let’s go forward,” suggested Merry. “The smoke is pretty thick here, and some of it from those pipes is rank. I want to talk with you.”
So they got up and left the car.
As they went out, Fowler glared at Merriwell’s back, hissing:
“Oh, I’d like to get even with you!”
Instantly the man behind lowered his paper, leaned forward, and said:
“I see you do not like Mr. Merriwell much. If you want to get even with him, I may be able to show you how to do it.”
With startled exclamations, both Harper and Fowler turned round. The man behind was looking at them over the edge of his paper.
“Who are you?” demanded Fowler.
“I think you know me,” said the man, lowering his paper.
Lawrence sat there!
In Denver Frank was accompanied to the bank by Mr. Hobson. It happened that Kent Carson, a well-known rancher whom Frank had met, was making a deposit at the bank.
“Hello, young man!” cried the rancher, in surprise. “I thought you were on the road with your show?”
“I was,” smiled Frank, “but met disaster at the very start, and did not get further than Puelbo.”
“Well, that’s tough!” said Carson, sympathetically. “What was the matter?”
“A number of things,” confessed Frank. “The play was not strong enough without sensational features. I have found it necessary to introduce a mechanical effect, besides rewriting a part of the play. I shall start out again with it as soon as I can get it into shape.”
“Then your backer is all right? He’s standing by you?”
“On the contrary,” smiled Merry, “he skipped out from Puelbo yesterday morning, leaving me and the company in the lurch.”
“Well, that was ornery!” said Carson. “What are you going to do without a backer?”
“Back myself. I have the money now to do so. I am here to make a deposit.”
Then it came about that he told Mr. Carson of his good fortune, and the rancher congratulated him most heartily.
Frank presented his check for deposit, asking for a check book. The eyes of the receiving teller bulged when he saw the amount of the check. He looked Frank over critically.
Mr. Hobson had introduced Frank, and the teller asked him if he could vouch for the identity of the young man.
“I can,” was the answer.
“So can I,” spoke up Kent Carson. “I reckon my word is good here. I’ll stand behind this young man.”
“Are you willing to put your name on the back of this check, Mr. Carson?” asked the teller.
“Hand it over,” directed the rancher.
He took the check and endorsed it with his name.
“There,” he said, “I reckon you know it’s good now.”
“Yes,” said the teller. “There will be no delay now. Mr. Merriwell can draw on us at once.”
Frank thanked Mr. Carson heartily.
“That’s all right,” said the cattleman, in an offhand way. “I allow that a chap who will defend a ragged boy as you did is pretty apt to be all right. How long will it take to get your play in shape again?”
“Well, I may be three or four days rewriting it. I don’t know how long the other work will be.”
“Three or four days. Well, say, why can’t you come out to my ranch and do the work?”
“Really, I don’t see how I can do that,” declared Frank. “I must be here to see that the mechanical arrangement is put up right.”
“Now you must come,” declared Carson. “I won’t take no for your answer. You can give instructions for that business. I suppose you have a plan of it?”
“Not yet, but I shall have before night.”
“Can you get your business here done to-day?”
“I may be able to, but I am not sure.”
“Then you’re going with me to-morrow.”
“I can’t leave my friends who are – ”
“Bring them right along. It doesn’t make a bit of difference if there are twenty of them. I’ll find places for them, and they shall have the best the Twin Star affords. Now, if you refuse that offer, you and I are enemies.”
The man said this laughingly, but he placed Frank in an awkward position. He had just done a great favor for Merriwell, and Frank felt that he could not refuse.
“Very well, Mr. Carson,”