It was plain to Merry that Haley entertained a strong feeling of hatred for Julian King and his organization.
“You see, King treated Mr. Haley very shabbily,” explained Havener.
“Shabbily is not the word—not the word,” spluttered the manager. “He robbed me! We were in Wisconsin. Had been having a hard run. He was my partner in the venture. We were playing ‘Uncle Tom.’ It became necessary to raise money somehow to recover our trunks, which the venial keeper of a third-rate hotel refused to give up till his beastly bill was liquidated. We were compelled to sell the donkey and some other property. King secured the money thus obtained, and skipped with it, leaving us worse off than before. I have never met him face to face since that day, although we have been in close proximity several times. Now he has induced my advance man to quit me and go with his miserable old show.”
“I don’t see just what he wants of Collins,” said Havener, “for he has had Delvin Riddle in advance, and Riddle is one of the best men in the business. Riddle may have left him.”
“Left him—of course!” nodded Haley. “That’s what’s happened. King couldn’t keep a man like Riddle. Now, if we could get hold of him——But I suppose that’s out of the question. We don’t know where he is. We’ll have to send Merriwell out. It’s the best we can do.”
It was plain he was not quite satisfied with the idea of putting Merry ahead of the show, but accepted it as the only resort.
Hawkins was silent. He was a man who said very little on any occasion.
“It is barely possible that King hasn’t engaged Collins for advance agent,” said Havener.
“What else could he want him for?” asked Haley.
“You know Collins can fill a part, if necessary. He is pretty good on old men. King may have taken him to fill in a vacancy.”