"You're a brick!" he cried. "And I'll lay myself out to get that ring. I haven't begun to try the schemes I have in my head. I will meet you here to-morrow night at about this time, and I'll do my best to have the ring. Only, if I haven't got it, I want you to promise not to jump on me and grab me the way you did to-night."
"Don't be afraid. I won't harm you."
"Well, you can scare a fellow out of his boots, and I don't like to be scared."
"I am afraid you are something of a coward," said the man, a trace of contempt in his tone.
But little more passed between them before the man in black turned away toward Fardale village, and Wat descended the road in the direction of the academy.
Frank hugged the ground at one side of the road, and he was not seen by Snell.
But, by the time Wat had gone so far that there was little danger of discovery if Frank moved from the locality, the man in black had vanished in the night.
Still, Frank sprang up and went scurrying lightly up the hill, keeping to the grass at the side of the road, so his feet made scarcely a sound.
He hurried along the road till Fardale village was almost reached, but he saw nothing more of the man in black. The mysterious stranger had vanished as completely as if swallowed up by the earth.
Frank had hoped to trace the man to the place where he was stopping, but he was forced to give this up and hurry back to the academy.