"I'm sorry for Merriwell!" said another.
"Eh?" gurgled Hock Mason, more astonished than ever. "Is that a fact?"
"That is."
"Well, I'm going to thump him!"
Again he lifted his fist, and Danny Griswold cowered before it.
"Stop, Mason!" cried Frank, his voice hard and cold. "Strike him, and I'll give you a mark to remember me by!"
"Ho, ho!" sneered Mason, and he smashed Griswold in the face.
The moment the bully struck the little fellow, he released his collar and whirled toward Frank.
Merriwell kept his word.
Crack—Frank's fist struck fairly on Hock Mason's left eye, and the big bully was knocked down in a second.