"And are freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors going to allow this brutal bully to walk on their necks?"
"What else can they do?"
"Kill him!" cried Jack Diamond, fiercely—"kill him, by the eternal gods! He can't walk on my neck! If he tried it, I'd kill him, though I hung for it!"
"I don't think it is necessary to kill him," smiled Frank. "There's always some way of subduing a bully. That way must be discovered, and he must be subdued."
"We'll owe you a vote of thanks if you discover it and do the job," said Griswold.
"Well, you are liable to owe Merriwell a vote of thanks, then," grunted Browning. "I've traveled all over with him, and I never saw him take water for anything that stood on legs. There are a few bad men out West, but they didn't faze him."
"Merry is all right," said Halliday. "He's a corker, and athlete, and is built of pure sand, but he'd have to be built of iron to go up against a big ruffian like this Mason. About the only way to subdue that fellow is to kill him, as Diamond suggests."
"He is growing more and more insolent and aggressive every day," said Griswold. "If something isn't done to check him, he and his crowd of followers will run over us. They are all getting insolent, and we have received notice that they'll appear in a body to-night with tall hats and canes. Mason will lead them, and they don't think we'll dare tackle them."
"We'll rush them, if we're killed!" cried Diamond, springing to his feet and wildly pacing up and down the floor. "Are you in it, fellows? Hark—what's that? They're out now! They're singing! It's a challenge! Oh, there'll be a hot time around here to-night!"