“Oh, ye did? What made ye think not, hey?”
“You are not just the sort of man I expected to meet. Do you know Mr. Gaddis?”
“Do I? Some!”
“Isn’t he here?”
“I reckon not.”
“Where is he?”
“Ask me!”
Although the manner of the big fellow was openly insolent, Merry did not seem to notice it.
The motley crowd accompanying this man were grinning or scowling at Merriwell and his friends, while some of them made half-audible comments of an unflattering sort. They were tall, short, stout, and thin, but one and all they carried the atmosphere of tough characters.
“It’s rather odd, Bart,” said Frank, speaking to Hodge, who was surveying the crowd with dark disapproval, “that Gaddis should fail to keep his appointment to meet us here.”