Badger had tried to hold himself in check, but Merriwell's straightforward manner of speaking had proved altogether too much for him, and now he was excited. He walked up and down, finally stopping in front of Frank.
"You have applied adjectives to me that I don't like any whatever," he grated. "You have called me selfish, mean, ugly, dirty! Why, blame your insolence! I'd like to thump you good and hard for it! I'd like to make you swallow it all!"
"That's impossible," declared Frank, unruffled. "I believe I've also said some things that were rather complimentary."
"Bah! You called me honest. What of that? Any fellow that his the least self-respect is honest."
"There was a time, Badger, when I was not at all sure that you had the least self-respect."
"What do I care! I don't care whether you think me honest or not! I'm not honest because I want to win your re- spect, and you call stake your dust on that. But I'm just as honest in my dislike for you as in other things."
"That's what makes you interesting, Badger. You are quite different from the other snobs who hate me because I'll have nothing to do with them, and who would crawl round after me quick enough if I'd pick them up. Those chaps are sickening."
Badger nodded.
"They are," he agreed. "I reckon I know some of them. Don't put me on the list."
"I never have."
Badger showed grim pleasure.
"Glad to know it. All the same, you've put me in a mighty bad box."
"How?"
"Well, you've made me seem all in the blame, While you posed as injured innocence. I hate a fellow that'll do that!"
Frank laughed.
"You exaggerate, my dear man,"
"Don't 'dear man me,' Merriwell! Don't patronize me! I won't have it! I'm as good as you!"
"At least, you think so.
"I know it!"
"Very well, let it go at that,"
"But, in your crafty manner, you've made it seem that I'm cheap. You've put me all in the wrong."
"And you're none to blame? Did you ever take boxing lessons of Buster Kelley?"
"Yes."
"And did he teach you a certain little trick whereby you might break an enemy's neck in a clench?"
"What of it?"
"I don't suppose you were thinking of me when you learned that trick?"
"I never used it."
"Because I was on, and I warned you to go slow."
"Bah! Nothing of the sort! It was because I did not care to use it. I learned it--"
"And I knew it long before you learned it. It would have been dangerous for you had you tried it on me."
"Do you think I was scared?"
Frank shrugged his shoulders, which caused Badger to grind his teeth with anger.
"You never saw the day you could frighten me, Merriwell! The reason why I never tried it on you is because it was trick-an underhand trick."
"Thanks."
"I confess that I--"
"Don't confess. I know enough about you. If you keep on, I'll begin to think I was wrong in fancying you such a honest fellow."
"And I don't care for that any whatever. Think what you like. I confess did have an idea of trying it on you when I learned the trick. After I thought I over, I said no. It was not the kind of game I wanted to play."
"Great relief!"
"If I downed you at all, I wanted to down you on the level in a way that everybody could see was fair and square."
"That would give you far more glory."
"You beat me at the shooting match by a split shot. I made the split, and you scored the same number of shots, but without the split. If I had not made the split-if that had been a fair bull's-eye--"
"I'd made one more bull's-eye than I did. Don't you know that I threw away two shots, Badger?"
"That was what galled me most. You seem to think yourself infallible. You seem to think you cannot fail at anything!"
"That's better for any man than it is for him to think he may fail."
"Rot! It is incipient swelled-head."
"It may be, but did you ever notice any further indications of the disease in me?"
"That's just it, that's where I don't understand you. I allowed you must have swelled head, but you seem to hide it most successfully. How do you do it?"
Badger was not talking as bluntly as he had intended; somehow, he couldn't bring himself round to it.
"My dear fellow," said Frank, "I hope I haven't got it. It's the one thing I have guarded against, for I've seen it spoil plenty of chaps who were all right till they caught the affliction, I confess that it has attacked me several times, but I hope I've held it in check. You were going to say something to me. What?"
"It's this: I've found out that you've done me some good turns.
"Is that all?"
"It's enough! Why should you do me a good turn? I never did you one."
"Save the time in the car, when you kept two bruisers from jumping on me, while I knocked a few corners off their companions."
"I had to do that."
"Why?"
"You were a Yale man, and those chaps were ordinary ruffians. I'd done the same for any other Yale mail."
"All right. That is settled. Go on."
"On the other hand, when Chickering's gang jumped on me one night that I was dopey, you sailed in and walloped the whole of them."
"Um!"
"That was just after Winnie Lee threw me down because she thought I'd been doing you a crooked turn."
"Ah!"
"That was her throw-down that drove me to fill up with red-eye, I don't like the stuff! I hate it!"
"Glad to hear that, Badger, 'Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging.'"
"I'm in earnest; I hate it. But I had to do something that night. I felt that you were the cause of all my trouble. That was the night when I cut clear of Chickering's set."
"A commendable move."
"Let up. I told the whole gang what I thought of them, and then I stowed away more red-eye. I don't remember much about anything after that."
"You would have made an excellent 'horrible example' at a temperance lecture."
Badger scowled. He did not like to be told this, and he felt heartily ashamed.
"I don't allow that it makes a fellow any more manly to get drunk," he snapped.
"There are lots of chaps who seem to think it does."
"Well, I'm not one of 'em. Next morning after quitting Chickering's gang, I woke up and found I'd been thumped. When I thought it over, it seemed to me that you did the job. I seemed to remember that you and your gang jumped me."
"When you were loaded? 0h, Badger! And that after our little bout when both were sober."
"Don't tell me you could have done it alone! I know you got the best of me in that scrap. What's the use to speak of it?"
"I didn't."
"You