From where he sat, Merry could see through one of the open stage entrances at the opposite side. Several times he saw some of the actors pause there and watch what was taking place on the stage. It happened that he was looking through that entrance when one of them stopped there, glanced quickly around, and produced a bottle from one of his pockets. The man quickly uncorked the bottle and took a long drink from it.
He was the one who played the part of “Legree.”
When the man next appeared on the stage, Merry saw he was drunk. Frank watched him closely.
“That fellow acts to me as if he is out for trouble,” he thought. “I believe he is well cast in the piece, for he seems to be a ruffian by nature.”
Frank sat so near the stage that he was able to see bits of by-play that the audience did not catch. Thus it happened that he saw “Legree” give “Uncle Tom” a look of genuine hatred and make a menacing gesture toward him.
Merry instantly “tumbled.”
“Trouble between them,” he decided.
A little later, when both these characters were off the stage, Frank saw “Legree” again prepare to take a drink in the wings. Just as he tipped the bottle to his lips, a hand reached out and caught it from his grasp.
Crash!—it was smashed on the floor.
“Uncle Tom” was there, and he started in to remonstrate with the intoxicated actor.