“Sure,” nodded Gooch, with something like a whimper in his voice. “I wouldn’t dare tell anything about Merriwell now, even if I knew I would be protected by the faculty.”
“Oh, this Merriwell has such beastly luck!” snarled Billings. “Now, if the fool of a proctor had drowned in the river——”
“That would have been great!” chuckled Gooch, fiendishly. “Then we would have been forced to tell, and Merriwell and his gang of pals would have gone to prison. Why didn’t the proctor drown!”
“Well, I guess we may as well drop it. There is a charmed circle about Frank Merriwell, and no harm can come to him.”
“I’m not so sure of that,” said Sidney, showing his white teeth. “There may be a way to cover him with disgrace.”
“The fellows seem to have forgotten the watch incident.”
“They have not. When something else in the same line comes up, they will remember it. Poor Harris was a good fellow, but Merriwell hounded him from college. The tables will turn at last. Before summer vacation you will see Frank Merriwell driven in disgrace from Yale.”
“You may think so, but I doubt it.”
“Wait,” said Sidney. “I am not going to blow on Merriwell, but there may be another way to pull him down from his lofty position.”
As Browning and Rattleton were walking away, the latter looked back and saw Gooch and Billings talking excitedly.