"Are dead."
"Ha! And you prize the ring because it was a present from your mother?"
"That is one reason."
"And there is another?"
"Yes."
"What?"
It suddenly struck Frank that he was talking altogether too much, and so he answered:
"I decline to say. I have already told you enough, and I beg you to excuse me. We will part here."
"First answer one more question. What was your father's name?"
"Charles Conrad Merriwell."