“That voice!” gasped Hawtrey, recoiling. “That——”
He suddenly ceased speaking. His face hardened and his eyes became two glowing points of white-hot steel.
“I know you!” went on the colonel savagely. “You couldn’t get into the game by fair means, and so you disguised yourself, smearing your face with some kind of stain to make you look like a Mexican. You double-dealing scoundrel! You——”
Just at this point Darrel stepped to the front and thrust an arm affectionately through that of his half brother.
“Don’t blame Jode for it, colonel,” said Darrel. “I’m the one who engineered the scheme.”
“And I’m the one who helped you,” said Merry, moving up on Lenning’s other side.
Colonel Hawtrey passed a dazed hand across his forehead.
“Do you mean to say, Ellis,” he muttered, “that you—you admit having deceived me?”
“I admit persuading Jode to fix himself up as Mexican Joe,” answered Darrel. “It was his only chance to get into the game, you see. He had to come in as Merriwell’s substitute, although posing at the same time as Mexican Joe.”
“Why did you want him in the game?” demanded the colonel.