CHAPTER XI. DEADLY PERIL.
Frank squirmed, and Harris laughed.
"That hits you hard," said the fellow. "We'll soon put you out of business as a professional magician."
"You shall pay dearly for every bit of property you destroy!" vowed Frank.
"That's all right. You'll not worry anybody by talking like that. You'll have to catch your hare, and we'll be far away from here to-morrow."
"I was too easy with you in the past, Harris," said Frank. "I can see that now."
"Oh, yes, you were easy with me!" snarled the fellow. "You didn't do a thing but disgrace me in college! You——"
"I simply exposed your tricks when you were fleecing my friends by playing crooked at poker. You brought it on yourself."
"It's a lie! I didn't play crooked. I——"
"You acted as the decoy to draw them into the game, while Rolf Harlow robbed them with his slick tricks. You can't deny that. You deserved worse than you received."
"That's what you think. Anyhow, I'll have my revenge now. Go ahead, Mazarin; smash up the stuff."
"He may shout."
"If he does, it will be his last chirp, for I swear I'll use the knife on him!"
Frank fully believed the fellow would do just as he threatened. Besides that, it was extremely doubtful if anyone could hear him in case he shouted, as the theater was a detached building, in which there were no offices or stores.
So Merriwell was forced to sit there, bound and helpless, and witness the destruction of his property, the intricate and costly apparatus for performing his wonderful feats of magic.
With savage frenzy the little man battered and hammered and smashed the apparatus which had cost many hundreds of dollars. He laughed while he was doing it.
Harris lighted a cigarette and sat astride a chair near Frank, whom he continued to taunt.
"This is the finish of the career of Merriwell, the wonderful magician," he sneered. "He'll never be heard of again. Smash the stuff, Mazarin, old man! That's the way to do it! How do you like it, Merriwell? Doesn't it make you feel real happy to see him break up the furniture? Ha! ha! ha!"
Now, not a word came from Frank, but his jaws were set and his eyes gleaming. It was plain enough that he had vowed within his heart that some day he would square the account with his enemies.
Piece after piece of the apparatus was destroyed by the vengeful little man, while Harris sat and smoked, puffing the vile-smelling stuff into the face of the helpless youth.
Since starting out to fill Zolverein's engagements on the road, Frank had been remarkably successful, but he could not go on without the apparatus, and it would take a long time for him to replace the articles thus maliciously ruined. Some of them he knew he would never be able to replace.
With the wrecking of his property one of his dearest dreams vanished. He had thought it possible that he might make enough money during vacations to carry him through Yale, so he could complete his course in college, which he had been forced to leave because of financial losses.
He knew this was purely a speculation, as it was not certain he would continue to do a good business, especially when he got off Zolverein's route; but that had been his dream, and now it was over.
Surely fate was giving him some hard blows, but still he did not quail, and he was ready, like a man, to meet whatever came.
He had tasted of the glamour of the footlights, and there was bitter with the sweet. He had learned that the life of the traveling showman is far from being as pleasant and easy as it seems.
But Frank had not started out in the world looking for soft snaps. He was prepared to meet adversity when it came and not be crushed. He felt that the young man who is looking for a soft snap very seldom amounts to anything in the world, while the one who is ready to work and push and struggle and strive with all his strength, asking no favors of anybody, is the one who is pretty sure to succeed in the end.
Whenever fate landed a knockout blow on Frank he refused to be knocked out, but invariably came up smiling at the call of "time."
It was plain that his enemies believed they would floor him this time and leave him stranded.
Harris was watching Frank's face by the light of the lamp.
"Oh, this is better than a circus!" chuckled the fellow, evilly. "Every blow reaches you, and I am settling my score."
"Instead of settling it," said Merry, grimly, "you are running up a big account that I shall call for you to settle in the future."
"You'll have a fine time collecting."
"But I always collect once I start out to do so."
"Bah! Your threats make me laugh!"
"Because I was easy with you in the past, you fancy I may be if my chance comes in the future. You are wrong!"
"All bluff!"
"Time will show that I am not bluffing now. I have given you more chances than you deserved. I shall give you no more. When next my turn comes, I shall have no mercy."
Somehow Harris shivered a bit despite himself, for he knew that Frank Merriwell was not given to idle words. True, Frank had been easy with his enemies at college, but he must have changed since leaving Yale and going out into the world to fight the great battle of life. He had seen that the world gave him no favors, and now it was likely he would retort in the same manner.
"Perhaps I may have no mercy now," said Harris. "You are in my power, and I can do with you as I choose. I am a stranger in this town. No one knows I am here. What if you were found in this old building with your throat cut? How could the deed be traced to me? Better spare your threats, Merriwell, for if I really thought there was danger that you would bother me in the future, I swear I'd finish you here and now!"
Mazarin had finished his work of destruction. All the costly apparatus was broken and ruined, and the little man was standing amid the shattered wreck, wringing his hands and sobbing like a child that is filled with remorse after shattering a toy in a fit of anger.
"All done!" he moaned; "all done!"
Harris looked around, annoyed.
"What's the matter with you?" he fiercely demanded. "What are you whimpering about?"
"I have broken everything!"
"Well, now is your time to laugh."
"Now is my time to cry! All those things should have been mine."
"But were not."
"No one can ever replace them."
"And that knocks out Mr. Frank Merriwell. Wasn't that what you were after?"
"But to have to smash all those beautiful things! I have broken my own heart!"
"You're a fool!"
Harris turned from his repentant companion, his disgust and anger redoubled.
Frank, for all of the bitter rage in his heart, could see that Mazarin was not entirely bad. The little man's conscience was troubling him now.
"I hate fools!" grated Harris. "I hate sentiment! A man with sentiment is a fool! You're a fool, Merriwell; you always were sentimental."
"As far as you are concerned," spoke the captive, "I shall put sentiment behind me in the future. I am satisfied that you are irreclaimably bad, and you have the best chance in the world of ending your career on the gallows."
"I don't care what you think."
"I didn't suppose you would care. You are too low and degraded to care. In the past I spared you when you should have been exposed and punished. Why? Because I hoped you would reform. Now I know there is no chance of that. For your own sake I spared you in the past; in the future, if my turn comes, for the sake of those with whom you will mingle and injure and disgrace, I shall have no mercy."
These words, for some reason, seemed to burn Harris like a hot iron. His eyes glowed evilly, and he quivered in every limb. He leaned toward Merriwell, panting:
"Your turn will not come! I might have let you go, but now——"
He glanced down at the knife in his hand.
Frank watched him closely, feeling all at once that the desperate wretch had formed a murderous resolve.
Harris was hesitating. It was plain he longed to strike, and still his blood was too cold to enable him to bring himself to that point without further provocation.
So he began to lash himself into fury, raving at Merriwell, striking Frank with his open hand, and repeating over and over how much he hated him. So savage did he become that Mazarin stopped his sobbing and stared at him in wonder.
"You ruined my college career!" panted Harris. "You made me an outcast! You are the cause of all of my ill-fortune! And now you threaten to drag me down still further. You never shall! I'll see to that now!"
He clutched Frank's shoulder and lifted the knife!