“By Jove!” Merriwell muttered, as he went back to the stage. “I’ve got to do it now!”
A moment later he was sitting beside Miss Gray in a cab, being borne rapidly toward the hotel. The girl did not say much, but she seemed to have recovered her self-control, and was rejoiced when Dick told her of the splendid audience they would have to play to.
Entering the hotel, they went directly to the dining room. As he passed the desk, Merriwell saw a tall, dark, rather imposing-looking man start suddenly, and glare at the Yale man with open mouth and swiftly paling face, as if he could not believe the evidence of his eyes. At the same moment he heard the girl beside him draw her breath quickly, and in that instant he felt intuitively that the man must be Ralph Bryton. No wonder the manager was astounded to see Demarest here, if, as the latter supposed, he was responsible for the actor’s detention in New York.
Dick raised his head, and sent a taunting, irritating smile toward the fellow. Then he passed on into the dining room.
From that moment things went with such a rush and dash that there was no time at all to grow nervous. The meal was hurried along at breakneck speed. The actors were all more or less nervous, for any first night is an ordeal, and this one particularly so.
Dick did his best to cheer them up, as he knew Demarest would have done. He told them of the sold-out house, and kept up a continual string of whimsical, amusing comment all the time they were at table.
Dinner over, they returned to the theatre again, and at once dressed for the first act.
Presently the doors opened, and the house began to fill. Dick had finished dressing, and was strolling about the stage, resolutely trying to keep his thoughts from what was coming. Seat after seat in the auditorium without banged down. The low murmur of conversation gradually grew louder as the house filled. Presently he heard the sound of tramping, followed swiftly by jest and laughter, as a crowd of college fellows made their way to the front.
He shivered a little. They would do their best to break him up, he knew. They always did. Then suddenly a wave of obstinate determination swept over him. He would not let them guy him. He would spite them all, and play the part so well that they would have no time for that.
Presently the musicians began to tune up, and a little later the first bars of a popular air crashed out. Demarest had had the forethought to secure an especially fine orchestra, and he was wise. The boys would have hooted into silence anything less good. As it was, they contented themselves with keeping time with their feet, and when the chorus of the song began, they joined in, singing the words.