“He has shown me my failings without once mentioning them to me. Never has he told me I was mean, and fretful, and a poor comrade, yet I know I have been. I know lots of fellows would have sickened of me, but Frank Merriwell has not. He has seemed to understand me, and to know all my petulance and ill temper would pass away in time. He has shown me how to be master of myself, and the task of conquering myself has been, at times, the hardest thing I ever attempted. I don’t think I’ve always succeeded in my efforts, but I am sure I have at times, and I have felt better for it.
“And now, to think that such a fellow should be in danger of losing his life at any moment, although he is in perfect health, and has the brightest prospects before him! It is awful! He has made all plans to go back to Yale in the fall, and, goodness knows, Old Eli needs him badly enough! Why, I believe the fellows would mob us if we permitted him to be assassinated here in Paris!
“Think of Frank Merriwell, the darling of Yale, murdered by a lot of cowardly wretches, who are fighting to keep an innocent man in a living tomb! And his peril is something awful! Those dastards are powerful, and it is folly to defy them. Frank must leave France at once! But how may he be induced to go?”
That was a question for Diamond to study over, and he spent more than an hour trying to answer it. Once he muttered:
“I must put up a job with Browning and Rattleton, and carry him away! It’s a desperate plan, but it must be done. Can I get them to join me? How will I work it?”
He pondered on various plans, but remembered that he had given Frank a promise to say nothing to Bruce and Harry about the terrible danger by which Merry was beset.
“I was a fool to make such a promise!” he exclaimed.
The temptation to break it was strong, but Diamond was a fellow of veracity, and he was forced to decide that he would not follow that course. If he did not, how could he induce Rattleton and Browning to join him in his wild project to carry Merry bodily from France?
After a time, he decided that it would be impossible. They would think him crazy if he proposed such a thing. Then he began to plan other schemes. At last, he decided to telegraph the whole facts to Dolph Reynolds. He would ask Dolph to send a despatch, stating that Elsie Bellwood was seriously ill.
“I’ll do it!” the Virginian exclaimed. “He may never forgive me, but I’ll stand it! It is for his good, and it shall be done! To-morrow, I’ll lose no time in sending the message to Reynolds. Frank will be hustling out of France in a few hours. Heaven grant that he may get out before the Black Brothers do their dastardly work!”