"This is no time for hard feelings between any of us," said Frank. "As I said a few minutes ago, I have called you together for a council of war."
"Vot did I mean ven you said dot?" asked Hans Dunnerwust. "Berhaps you don'd understood me as vell as I might. Vot for haf dot gouncil uf var peen caldt?"
"Yes," said Bart Hodge, "just what are you driving at, Merriwell?"
"Fellows, we have struck a mystery."
"I thought you had solved the mystery of the monster of Devil Island."
"I solved the mystery of the monster's identity and discovered the creature was the hunchback, Put Wiley, in disguise."
"But he came near ending your career."
"With the aid of the cock-eyed man, whose name, I have learned, since returning to Green's Landing, is Dan Hicks. I could have handled Wiley alone, but Hicks came to his aid and caught me by the throat, grasping me from behind. Together they knocked me out and tied me to the old railroad on the island. But for Browning's wonderful efforts in ripping up the rails, they would have succeeded in their attempt to send a flat car loaded with granite down the track, and I must have been cut in two. I tell you, fellows, it was a wonderful sight to see Bruce pry up those rails and send that car, granite and all, into the water. Ah, Browning!" exclaimed Merriwell, his voice betraying his feeling despite his effort to keep it under control, "it prolonged my life when you were born strong."
"Oh, it wasn't much work to rip up those rails," said the big fellow, with an air of modesty. "You see, the spikes that held them were planted in rotten wood, for the ties are very old."