"Sah, there seems to be some mistake, sah," fluttered Colonel Vallier, turning pale.
"You made the mistake!" thundered Scotch, leaping to his feet like a jumping jack. "Get up here, and let me knock you down!"
"I decline to be struck, sah."
"You don't dare to get up!" howled the excited little man, growing still worse, as the colonel seemed to shrink and falter. "Why, I can lick you in a fraction of no time! You've been making lots of fighting talk, and now it's my turn. Get up and put up your fists."
"Will somebody kindly hold this lunatic?" palpitated Colonel Vallier. "I am no prize-fightah, gentlemen."
"That isn't my lookout," said the professor, who was forcing things while they ran his way. "Get up and take off your coat! We'll settle this affair without delay."
"With pistols, sah?"
"Yes, with pistols, if you want to!" cried the professor, to the amazement of the boys. "I am ready, sir. We will settle it with pistols, at once, in this room."
"But this is no place foh a duel, sah; yo' should know that, sah."
"This is just the place."
"The one who survives will be arrested, sah."
"There won't be a survivor, so you needn't fear arrest."
"No survivah, sah?"
"No."
"How is that?"
"I'll tell you how it is. You are such a blamed coward that you won't fight me with your fists, for fear I will give you the thumping you deserve; but you know you are a good pistol shot, and you think I am not, so you hope to shoot me, and escape without harm to yourself. Well, I am no pistol shot, but I am not going to miss you. We'll shoot across that center table, and the width of the table is the distance that will divide us. In that way, I'll stand as good a show as you do, and I'll agree to shoot you through the body very near to the heart, so you'll not linger long in agony. Come, sir, get ready."
Colonel Vallier actually staggered.
"Sah—sah!" he fluttered; "you're shorely crazy!"
"Not a bit of it. Come, get ready!"
"This is murder, sah!"
"It is a square deal. One has as good show as the other."
"But I—I never heard of such a duel—never!"
"There are many things you have never heard about, Colonel Vallier."
"But, sah, I can't fight that way! You'll have to excuse me, sah."
"What's that!" howled the little professor, dancing about in his night robe. "Do you refuse to give me satisfaction?"
"I refuse to be murdered."
"Then you'll apologize?"
The colonel gasped.
"Apologize! Why, I can't——"
"Then I'm going to give you those black eyes just as sure as my name is Scotch! Put up your fists!"
The colonel retreated, holding up his hands helplessly, while the professor pranced after him like a fighting cock.
"This is disgraceful!" snapped Rolf Raymond, taking a step, as if to interfere. "It must be stopped at once!"
"Hold on!" came sternly from Frank. "Don't chip in where you're not wanted, Mr. Raymond. Let them settle this matter themselves."
"Thot's roight, me laddybuck," said Barney Mulloy. "If you bother thim, it's a pair av black oies ye may own yersilf."
"We did not come here to be bullied."
"No," said Frank; "you came to play the bullies, and the tables have been turned on you. Take it easy."
The two boys placed themselves in such a position that they could prevent Raymond from interfering between the colonel and the professor.
"Don't strike me, sah!" gasped Vallier, holding up his open hands, with the palms toward the bantam-like professor.
"Then do you apologize?"
"You will strike me if I do not apologize?"
"You may bet your life that I will, colonel."
"Then I—ah—I'll have to apologize, sah."
"And this settles the entire affair between us?"
"Eh—I don't know about that."
"Well, you had better know. Does this settle the entire affair?"
"I suppose so, sah."
"You apologize most humbly?"
"I do."
"And you state of your own free will that this settles all trouble between us?"
The colonel hesitated, and Scotch lifted his fists menacingly.
"I do, sah—I do!" Vallier hastened to say.
"Then that's right," said Professor Scotch, airily. "You have escaped the worst thumping you ever received in all your life, and you should congratulate yourself."
Frank felt like cheering with delight. Surely Professor Scotch had done himself proud, and the termination of the affair had been quite unexpected by the boys.
CHAPTER XX.
THE PROFESSOR'S COURAGE
Colonel Vallier seemed utterly crestfallen and subdued, but Rolf Raymond's face was dark with anger, as he harshly said:
"Now that this foolishness is over, we will proceed to business."
"That's right," bowed Frank. "The quicker you proceed the better satisfied we will be. Go ahead."
Rolf turned fiercely on Frank, almost snarling:
"You must have been at the bottom of it all! Where is she?"
Frank was astonished, as his face plainly showed.
"Where is she?" he repeated.
"Whom do you mean, sir?"
"It is useless to pretend that you do not know. You must have found an opportunity to communicate with her somehow, although how you accomplished it is more than I understand."
"You are speaking in riddles. Say what you mean, man."
"I will. If you do not immediately tell us where she is, you will find yourself in serious trouble. Is that plain enough?"
A light came to Frank.
"Do you mean the Queen of Flowers?" he eagerly asked.
"You know I mean the Queen of Flowers."
"And you do not know what has become of her?"
"How can we? She disappeared mysteriously from the ballroom. No one saw her leave, but she went."
"She must have returned to her home."
"That will not go with us, Merriwell, for we hastened to the place where she is stopping with her father, and she was not there, nor had he seen her. He cannot live long, and this blow will hasten the end. You will be responsible. Take my advice and give her up at once, unless you wish to get into trouble of a most serious nature."
Frank saw that Raymond actually believed he knew what had become of the Flower Queen.
"Look here," came swiftly from the boy's lips, "it is plain this is no time to waste words. I do not know what has become of the Flower Queen, that is straight.