"What! A sea captain?" asked Hartwick.
"No, a bank cashier. He skipped to Canada."
"Wow!" whooped Tad Horner. "How that hurt! Don't do it again!"
"You fellows have things twisted," asserted Parker, with apparent seriousness. "I have private advices that Merriwell's father is a poor dentist."
"A poor dentist, eh?"
"Yes, rather poor, but he manages to pull out."
Tad Horner fell off the back of his chair and struck sprawling on the floor.
"Water!" he gasped.
"You wouldn't know it if you saw it," grinned Parker.
"Without a doubt and without any fooling, Merriwell's father is dead," said Hod Chadwick.