“It’ll be best to let him go,” Vance decided. “That will queer him with everybody, and I shall have no more trouble with him. If he has robbed Merriwell, so much the better. Oh, but it will be my turn to triumph now! Somebody’ll hear from me! Stella shall acknowledge that this slippery chap is not such a fine fellow after all. Merriwell will not stand up so proudly and claim Bart Hodge as his friend. Things have turned my way!”
CHAPTER III.
BART’S WILD MOVE.
It was nearly an hour later that Vance returned to the theater, wearing a bandage over his eye, and having his hat pulled well down to hide the fact.
He was decidedly nervous, and still there was something of triumph in his manner. He did not seem to feel the disgrace of his misfortune as keenly as it had been fancied he would.
“Hang it all,” said Garland, finding an opportunity to speak with Lester alone. “You actually act as if you thought you had come off best in your encounter with Hodge! What ails you?”
“I rather think I’ll come off best in the end,” grinned Lester, in a peculiarly knowing manner.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Yes, you do. I can see a peculiar under-meaning in your manner. What has happened?”
“Nothing that I know about.”