This subject was intensely interesting to Merriwell. He had thrown himself heart and soul into the task of redeeming the good name of his new chum, Ellis Darrel, and he believed that now events were forming which would bring about that result.
“Bleeker,” said Frank earnestly. “I’ve heard that about the time this forgery was committed you and Jode Lenning were pretty thick. If that’s so, then you ought to know something about the forgery.”
Bleeker was silent for a space. Leaning against the fence, he bent his head and pulled aimlessly at a sliver on one of the posts.
“You’ve hit it about right, Merriwell,” said he, at last. “Being friendly with Lenning was no credit to me, but he had money and I didn’t, and he had influence with the colonel and stood pretty high in the athletic club—and the colonel had founded the club. I knuckled under to Lenning—I reckon you’d call it toadying. If there were any favors to be passed around, Lenning saw to it that I got my share. I had a finger in every athletic pie the club cut open, and several plums came my way. This wouldn’t have happened, you see, if I hadn’t been training with Jode. I was wide of the right trail, Merriwell, but I got to know Jode as few know him. Ever since our outfit camped in the gulch I’ve done a lot of thinking about El Darrel and Jode Lenning, and I made up my mind that Jode and his influence wasn’t worth a single jab my conscience has been giving me for months. As soon as I woke up, and Jode found it out, he got mad and made me leave the camp.”
Bleeker had been talking in a shamed sort of way, with his head bowed. He now looked up, and the moonlight shone full in his face, bringing out the contrition that lurked there in strong lights and shadows.
“I’ve sneaked out of Gold Hill,” he went on, “and into Ophir, as you said a spell ago, ‘like a thief in the night,’ but I’ve done it because I’m trying to act white after acting the other way for longer than I care to think about. I want,” and the words rushed forth in a torrent of eagerness, “to help El Darrel wipe that blot from his shield. I can’t do much myself, Merriwell, but I reckon I can help you.”
A thrill ran through Merriwell. When a fellow has been traveling the wrong path, and by and by turns of his own accord into the right one, there is a pleasure in meeting him halfway and going on together. Frank grabbed the hand from the post and shook it cordially.
“Bleek,” said he, “you’re all right. You and Hotch began helping Darrel some time ago, and if we can work in double harness and show Hawtrey that he had nothing to do with that forgery, it will be one of the finest things that ever happened.”
That Bleeker was pleased by Merriwell’s attitude was plain. His form straightened, his shoulders went back, and he returned the other’s handclasp with a strong and determined grip.
“It will,” he said, “and I think you can bring it around. You will be making a star play, Merriwell, and I shall have the satisfaction of feeling that I helped. Now, about Jode. I am telling you what everybody knows when I say that his reckless, hot-headed actions come to him as a birthright. His father was a desperate character, in some ways, and was killed in a brawl up in Alaska. Colonel Hawtrey never had anything to do with Lenning’s father, and it was only when the elder Lenning died, and Mrs. Lenning married Darrel, that the colonel and his sister became reconciled. If you’re next to this, maybe you won’t blame Jode quite so much for the way he’s been acting. What a fellow inherits must have something to do with his conduct.”