“Oh, Frank!” she murmured; “I believe you are braver and nobler than you used to be—if possible.”
“And you, Elsie—why, I didn’t dream you could become prettier than you were, but you have!”
Light-hearted, whistling on his way, Frank returned to the hotel at Blue Cove.
Kent Spencer, who was seated in a bamboo chair on the veranda, smiled on him as he approached.
“Well, Mr. Merriwell,” he called, “I should say by your face that you have found the friend I told you about?”
Frank laughed and nodded, blushing a bit.
“You are right,” he confessed; “and it was the surprise of my life. But it was lucky I went over, for I was just in time to protect her from Rolf Harlow. By the way, have you seen Harlow within a short time?”
“I have,” nodded Spencer; “and I rather fancy I know the spy you saw with him. Something had happened to Harlow when he showed up at the hotel a short time ago, for his clothes were very wet, and he looked wretched and disgusted. A fellow by the name of Berlin Radford was with him.”
Frank laughed heartily.
“I’ll tell you what happened to Harlow,” he said, and then proceeded to describe the fight, and the climax when Mrs. Barnaby struck Rolf over the head with the basket of eggs.