But the fellow did not fancy being looked at, and he made another lunge to break from Dick, although he would have found it difficult to escape from the room had he succeeded in that plunge.
"No, you don’t!" exclaimed young Merriwell. "Be still, sneak!"
"Don’t you call me ‘sneak’!" panted the spy, as he succeeded in hitting Dick a glancing blow on the cheek.
That was where he made a mistake. It was like a flint striking steel in a powder-mill. Quick as a flash, Dick hit the spy a blow under the ear, lifting him and dropping him prostrate at the upper end of an aisle.
Frank Merriwell caught the chap by the collar and stood him up, at the same time thrusting back with a sweep of the arm Brad Buckhart, who was trying to get in a blow.
"Steady down!" commanded Merry. "Let’s inspect him and hear what he has to say for himself."
Then he pinned the fellow against the wall, and they crowded around.
"He’s not a Fardale man," said Steve Nunn.
"Who knows him?" demanded Frank.
"He’s a stranger," said Burrows. "Doesn’t belong here."