"Wait!" advised the timid professor. "Perhaps they will kill each other, and then our part will be easy."
Frank was not for waiting, but, at that moment, something happened that caused him to change his plan immediately.
The fighting ruffians were using knives in a deadly way, and one man, bleeding from many wounds, fell exhausted to the ground. Another, who seemed to be this one's comrade, tore himself from the other three, leaped to the girl, caught her in his arms, and held her in front of him, so that her body shielded his. Then, pointing a revolver over her shoulder, he snarled:
"Come on, and I'll bore the three of ye! You can't shoot me, Gage, unless you kill ther gal!"
The youngest one of the party, a mere boy, but a fellow with the air of a desperado, stepped to the front, saying swiftly:
"If you don't drop that girl, Jaggers, you'll leave your carcass in this swamp! That is business, my hearty."
Frank clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from uttering a great shout of amazement. The next moment he panted:
"This is fate! Look, Barney! by the eternal skies, that is Leslie Gage, my worst enemy at Fardale Academy, and the fellow who ran away to keep from being expelled. It was reported that he had gone to sea."
"Ye're roight, Frankie," agreed the no less excited Irish lad. "It's thot skunk, an' no mistake!"
"It is Leslie Gage," agreed the professor. "He was ever a bad boy, but I did not think he would come to this."