“You’re the chap that thrashed Old Slugs?”
“I had a fight with the man.”
“Ya-as, I heard about it. Everybody was astonished. Said a boy licked him, and he’s a tough nut. How’d you do it?”
“With my fists, sir.”
“Of course, but I don’t understand it. You’re a queer case. I wondered why the old man told me to take you to fire to-day.”
Frank started.
“Then you were told to take me?”
“Ya-as. Ganzell told me to find the youngest wiper in the house and take him. Said his name was Frank Merriwell. I wouldn’t have picked you if it hadn’t been for that.”
Frank’s heart was filled with gratitude, for he realized that Ganzell had given him this opportunity, which would not, in the natural order of things, have come to him in a long time.
Ganzell had seemed to pay very little attention to Merry, but, in truth, he was watching him closely. It did not take him long to discover that the youth was built of the right material, and, although Frank did not know it, the foreman gave him all sorts of opportunities for learning things.