“If I have anything I wish to say you may be sure I shall say it, for all of your threat,” he declared; “but I do not consider the fellow worth discussing.”
“It’s a good thing for you that you do not!”
Skelding and Ives took to mumbling to each other again, and Jim Hooker asked Bart:
“Then you are dead certain Merriwell is coming back? Nothing has happened to cause him to fail to return?”
“I know he’ll be here,” was the declaration, “else he would have communicated with his friends. Something has happened to keep him away longer than he intended to stay, but he’ll show up before long, and I’ll bet my life on it.”
“There he is!” shrieked a voice. “Look, fellows—he’s coming now! Hooray!”
CHAPTER II.
ON THE CAMPUS.
The excitement of the moment was intense, for Merriwell was crossing the campus toward the fence, coming from Vanderbilt Hall.
Alone and unheralded, he had arrived. It had been his fortune to reach his room without attracting attention, and now he had come forth to look for his friends and acquaintances.
When he was seen there was commotion at the fence. The gathering gave a sudden surge, a shout, a dissolving, and then the men went tearing toward him, shouting.