“Don’t defile the word honor with your lips!” said Merry, without lifting his voice in the least, yet with such deep scorn in his low tone that Snodgrass shrank before it.
Still the fellow kept his eyes from meeting Frank’s, and thus he was able to speak.
“You can’t deny it! You played the sneak and the spy!”
Arnold was wondering how his companion dared utter such words to Merriwell. But the fact that Snodgrass did dare seemed to give Orson back some of the courage that had been shocked out of his body by the sudden and astonishing appearance of the man about whom they had been talking a short time before.
Arnold knew he was well built; he knew he was rather muscular; he knew he ought to be independent and fearless; but it took a man with nerve to be independent and fearless in the presence of Frank Merriwell after being caught under such circumstances.
Orson had never been thoroughly brave, and smoking cigarettes had not added to his stock of self-reliance. Perhaps if he had never touched them he would not have been caught there in that room with Snodgrass giving away secrets about the freshman crew.
Alcohol and cigarettes! Twin destroyers of all that is noble in human nature! We shudder sometimes at the ruin wrought by alcohol, and we turn in disgust or pity from the reeling drunkard; but as true as truth exists, cigarettes to-day are working as great havoc among the boys and young men of our land as is alcohol!
All know that alcohol is dangerous and a thing to be shunned, and no youth need become its victim without realizing just what is happening.
With cigarettes it is different. Surely there can be no harm in smoking one of the tiny, clean-looking rolls? Why shouldn’t a lad smoke them? All the fellows seem to be smoking them. Oh, yes; some of the fellows acknowledge they cannot get along without them, but that is simply ridiculous. Certainly there is nothing in those harmless little things that get hold of a man and make it impossible to leave them off! It’s easy enough to prove that by smoking a few of them and then stopping. Just watch him, and see him prove it beyond dispute. So he begins with his first cigarette.
And the fellow who smokes travels with the fast set. He frequents the places they frequent. At first he slips in and out with a guilty feeling, hoping he will not be observed; but after a time that feeling passes off and he enters boldly, careless, or proud, or indifferent. He is making rapid strides on the road. Clear the track for him and watch his pace! It’s all downhill now, and he is gaining momentum right along.