His eyes went back to the scrap of paper, and for a few minutes there was silence. When he looked up at Buckhart, his face was set and his eyes stern.

“Listen, Brad,” he said rapidly. “On this paper there are four questions and one answer. The questions were written by an illiterate person; the answer—was not. It is evidently part of a conversation between this dumb fellow and some one else. Hanlon first informs this person that his sister had been run over and killed. How he got the idea I don’t know, unless she had fainted when he went into the room, and he did not wait long enough to find out the truth. Then he proceeds to inform whoever he is talking with that he will kill the man who ran the child down. Then he writes: ‘What’s the name of the fellow that came, with three others, in that car?’ Do you make any sense out of that, Brad?”

The Texan shook his head.

“I sure don’t,” he said decidedly.

“Well, I don’t know as I blame you,” Merriwell returned. “The next sentence is apparently the answer to a question by the other man. It is: ‘He killed Amy.’ Meaning that the man in a car with three others ran over his sister, which, of course, we know isn’t so. There was only one, according to her statement. Then follows the line in another hand which you read: ‘His name is Dick Merriwell.’ Don’t you see now, Brad?”

“Afraid I’m awful thick——”

“Why, it’s clear as day,” Merriwell interrupted. “This Hanlon has somehow got the idea that I ran over the little girl. He doesn’t know my name and proceeds to ask this unknown person what it is, giving at the same time the reason why he wants to know. He gets the answer without a word of denial or explanation, and goes away with the firm belief that I am a murderer. That accounts for the look he gave me when he passed the veranda a little while ago.”

“The miserable snake!” exploded the irate Westerner. “Wait till I put my blinkers on him!”

“He isn’t to blame,” Dick asserted quickly. “He thinks he’s right. It’s the other man I’d like to get my hands on—the fellow that let him go on believing a lie.”

He paused and looked significantly at Buckhart.