Inza noticed this, and in a low tone she said:
“It will be too bad, Frank, if you don’t get there in time. I know how much you want to see the game.”
“Hush!” said Merry, forcing a slight smile. “If we don’t arrive in time for the game, we’ll not let Crossgrove know how disappointed we are. He’s a fine gentleman and a thoroughbred, and I wouldn’t wish him to think for a moment that he had disappointed us through his generous hospitality.”
“I say,” cried Harry Rattleton, “isn’t it great to be on the sounding bee—I mean the bounding sea? Why, even the air out here is full of wind!”
“So are you,” grunted Browning, who was lazily sprawled on a comfortable chair and puffing away at a brierwood pipe. “The hot air you’ve been giving us for the past hour is getting a little tiresome, Rattles. Can’t you close your face and let me rest?”
“Why don’t you do your neeping slights—I mean your sleeping nights?” inquired Harry. “I don’t believe you ever wake up any more. You’ve been in a trance for the last few hours.”
“On the occasion when I last met him before our meeting in Boston yesterday morning,” said Merriwell, “he was pretty wide-awake. It was at a little railroad town down in the Southwest. Hodge, Wiley, and I were passing through that town when we saw a chap beset by a dozen burly ruffians. Evidently they were trying to lynch him. He was a big fellow, and he knocked them right and left with tremendous blows. It was Hodge who recognized him, I believe. Bruce Browning was the fellow, and he was very wide-awake on that occasion.”
“That’s right,” grunted Browning, “but you haven’t told the story quite straight, Merry. It was Barney Mulloy the ruffians were after. I sailed in to give him a hand, and then you folks chipped in just in time to help us both out. By George, Merry, I thought you’d dropped right down from the skies! Say, that’s a great country down there. Mulloy is down there now, running our mine. He’s a dandy, that Irishman! He’s the whitest, squarest, most reliable fellow I ever saw—present company excepted. We’ve not had your luck, Merriwell; but I believe we have a valuable claim down there, and we’ll make a dollar out of it some day. You and Hodge were mighty fortunate.”
“There’s no question about that,” agreed Frank instantly. “Still, we’ve had to fight for our rights. It was a hard old fight to hold the Phantom Mine, but we held it. Hodge seemed anxious to sell in case we could get the price. That’s what brought us to Chicago. The syndicate that had made us the offer balked, and the deal seemed to be as good as off. I saw the people in the syndicate fancied we were very anxious to sell. Then I let Hodge come on here, while I remained in the city and worked the wires a little. We agreed before Bart left that we would take a smaller sum than our original price, but after he departed I made up my mind that the way to work the thing was to go up on the price, instead of making a drop. Then I struck a lofty pose and let the syndicate run after me. I gave them the impression that I was on the verge of pulling out for New York to talk with other parties. They came round and attempted to do some dickering. They were willing at last to split the difference, but then I commenced to rub it in. I told them that I had decided that our original price was altogether too low. We had a hundred and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of ore on the dump. It was in plain sight. In our shaft any man could see prospects that proved the lode one of the richest in Arizona. We had decided to advance our original price just fifty thousand dollars. They could take it or leave it. We were utterly indifferent.”
Frank laughed a little over the remembrance of that transaction.