“I am not kidding,” assured Merry. “I have been in one of the hottest scraps of my life.”
Then he told them about it, and they listened with growing amazement. When he told them of the appearance of Brattle, both lads leaped to their feet.
“That fellow here?” shouted the Virginian.
“Poly hoker!” panted Rattleton. “Have you been having a pipe-dream, Merry?”
“It’s no dream. Mart Brattle is in Paris. He has followed me here, thinking to get hold of Elsie Bellwood.”
“But Elsie is in London.”
“He didn’t know it. He thought she came to Paris at the same time we came.”
“Well, it was a most unfortunate thing when that thug escaped being killed in London!” cried Diamond.
“It would have been no great loss to the world,” confessed Frank; “but he did escape, and he is here. But for Mr. Noname, Brattle’s gang must have downed me in the end. That man appeared at just the right moment to pull me out of the scrape.”
“And stood the ruffians off with a bomb?” said Rattleton.