“I am,” he said.
“You are ready to give Hooker up?”
“Yes.”
Hodge made a struggle to repress his triumph. All he had worked for was accomplished. Frank Merriwell sat there, staring down at the floor, dark, depressed, dejected.
“Come, come!” cried Bart. “You look as if you had lost your best friend!”
“I feel as if to-night has seen the death of another of my youthful confidences in human nature,” said Merry, in a dull voice. “If this keeps up, I fear for the future.”
“Oh, come off! Fear for the future! What are you giving us!”
“The truth. I have seen old men who were crafty, suspicious, doubtful of all mankind, and I have pitied them, for it has seemed to me that they were the most miserable of human beings. If I thought I might become like one of those I should be wretched now!”
“Bosh! They are the limit. It’s well enough to be on one’s guard against deception and crookedness, but you must know there is such a thing as honesty in the world. You must know there is such a thing as true friendship. There are your own friends——”
“And they fled before me when I——”