“You are from the West?”
“That’s right, partner. Come down here.”
They moved aside on the walk, where they took pains to avoid the groups of hilarious men who were circulating in that vicinity.
“You do not like Merriwell,” said the man who called himself Mescal. “You refused to cheer for him, even when that man drew a gun on you.”
“I didn’t suppose the howling chump was crazy enough to shoot.”
“Still you refused to cheer for Merriwell, and everybody else is howling for him.”
“What of that?” asked Packard suspiciously. “Haven’t I got a right to refuse?”
“Of course. The very fact that you did refuse convinced me that I had made no mistake in my man. You dislike Merriwell, when everybody else seems wild about him. You seem to be his only enemy here.”
“That’s right. There were enough of them once, but I’m the only one left.”
“What has become of them all?”