Frank Merriwell's brother

by Burt L. Standish

That message gave Merriwell the greatest surprise of his life, for it told how Charles Conrad Merriwell, Frank’s father, after his first wife’s death, had married another woman, whom he met in the West. And it told how, by his second wife, Mr. Merriwell had had one son, Richard, who was thus a half-brother to Frank. But Mr. Merriwell had been hunted by his bitter enemy, Dion Santenel, and never had his life been anything but one of trouble and fear. It was not such a life as would make a wife happy and contented. Fearing Santenel might find his wife and strike him, through her, Mr. Merriwell had hidden her away in a safe retreat. But she was frail and delicate, and she had not survived.

The second Mrs. Merriwell was a sister to the wife of the man known as Juan Delores, and so to Juan Charles Merriwell took the motherless boy, Richard. Juan had raised Richard there in that hidden valley as if the boy were his own son, and there he had been happy and contented, with Felicia, his cousin, for his only playmate.

When fate had brought Charles Merriwell and his first son together once more, the lips of the man remained sealed concerning a portion of his life. Thus it happened that Frank Merriwell had never suspected the existence of a half-brother.

But, when the end came, Charles Merriwell summoned strength to write a full confession. As he wrote it, he knew he had been followed about by men who sought to wrest from him in some manner his great fortune, or a portion of it, and it was his fear that they might succeed after he was dead.

He sent Delores to Denver for a reliable messenger to take the precious document to Frank. The messenger employed was a detective belonging to an agency in the city, and he executed his trust faithfully, for all that Anton Mescal, aware of his purpose, followed him all the way to the Atlantic coast, seeking to get possession of the precious document in the oilskin envelope.

In the confession Charles Merriwell charged his son Frank to take care of Richard, bring him up properly, be both brother and father to him.

“He is a frail lad in some ways,” wrote the dying man, “and he should be trained and built up until he possesses a marvelous physique, like your own, Frank. I give him into your hands for this task. He is your brother, and I charge you to make a man of him—such a man as you yourself have become. I am proud of you, Frank, for you are a son to make any father proud. Dick is like you in some ways, but he is unlike you in many. He is wild, impulsive, passionate, and hard to govern; but I believe you can mold him into a splendid man.

“You know I am rich, and I leave all my wealth to be divided between you and Richard, in case you carry out my instructions faithfully. The will, which Juan Delores will give to you when you come to him with the word, will make everything clear. He will also turn over into your care your brother, Richard. I think there is no danger but you will be faithful to this duty I have left you, but, should you fail to take charge of Richard and care for him, you will see by the will that you are cut off from ever receiving a dollar of my wealth.”

Frank felt a twinge of pain as he read this.

“Why did he have to write that?” he thought regretfully. “Ah! he did not know me well, or he would have been certain I would do everything in my power to carry out his instructions.”