“Well, it’s just as well,” said Frank. “I’ve had enough of these blood-thirsty Spaniards.”
“By gum! so hev I,” came from the Vermont boy. “Let’s git out, an’ to some spot where a feller kin talk English, by gosh!”
To avoid trouble, they went to the depot in a round-about way. No enemies were encountered, and soon they were speeding northward.
Three days later found Frank and his friends in London. They took lodging at St. John’s Wood, and proceeded to see the sights without delay.
Ephraim felt more at home here than in either Paris or Madrid, and the boys proceeded to enjoy themselves hugely until one day Ephraim was summoned to come home.
The parting was keenly felt by both.
But a day later something happened that upset Frank a good deal more.
What that was is best told in this notice, which appeared immediately afterward in a leading English paper:
“It is feared that the dynamite outrages of a dozen years ago are about to be renewed in London. Although an effort has been made to suppress the facts, it is now known that an attempt was made last Saturday to wreck the Houses of Parliament, and it might have been successful but for the suspicions of a young American tourist, who gave his name as Frank Merriwell, and who saw a mysterious old man deliberately abandon a satchel on the stairs leading up into Westminster Hall. Mr. Merriwell heard a singular ticking sound that seemed to come from the satchel, and he directed the attention of a policeman to it. The satchel was immediately removed and opened, when it was found to contain an infernal machine that was on the point of exploding. By his prompt action in notifying the officer, Mr. Merriwell undoubtedly prevented a frightful explosion, that must have wrecked the houses and killed scores of persons, as Saturday was ‘visiting day,’ and the place was thronged. The mysterious old man who left the satchel has not been found, but the police are industriously working on the case.”
And thus it came about that, much to his disgust, before he had been a week in London, Frank found himself under the close surveillance of the English police. Wherever he went, there always seemed to be an officer in uniform or in plain clothes who was watching him.