“Great jumping Jingoes! I’ll bet two hundred thousand dollars that something has happened to Frank Merriwell! I’ll bet that was a trick to get him out of the way! I’m goin’ to find out, and if he’s in any trouble he can rely on me! I’ll stand by him to the death!”
Hurrah for King Jimmy, the loyal!
CHAPTER XVI.
HODGE AND DITSON.
Bart and Elsie were quite alone at last. He had seen Mrs. Parker and chatted with her a few moments, after which, making some excuse, she retired from the airy sitting-room and left them there. The doors were open, but the house was quiet, and there seemed to be no one near to overhear what might pass between them.
Then Bart hesitated. He had come there with the determination of again assaulting the fortress and making a desperate attempt to carry it by storm, but now his heart was filled with forebodings of defeat.
Elsie was looking downward, tapping the carpet lightly with one small foot. He gazed at her with his heart seeming to pound madly in his throat.
Surely she was the sweetest and most beautiful of all girls! He could not doubt it. He thought of other girls, and to him the fairest of them were as common clay beside her.
“I love her!” he told himself. “I must win her—I will!”
How could he begin to say what he wished to express? With sudden determination, he rose and walked over to the window near her.
“This is a beautiful place, Elsie,” he said, looking out of the window.