Frank Merriwell's Setback; Or, True Pluck Welcomes Defeat

by Burt L. Standish

Having done this, with a lantern he had discovered he resumed his search for Inza. But she was not to be found. What he had thought two cabins proved to be a tiny cabin and a bunk-room. These seemed to be the only rooms or semblance of rooms in the vessel.

Sick at heart, with that awful fear stunning his brain, Frank now took charge of the launch and sent it back toward the wharf, but guiding it so that it would pass over or near the spot where Santenel had thrown himself into the water.

The gloom on the water was so great that he could see nothing but the waves, which were black and oily. There was no sign of Santenel.

Then, with his fears for Inza driving him almost frantic, Frank began to zigzag the launch so as to cover a greater area of surface. There seemed a bare possibility, if Inza had fallen overboard or been thrown overboard, that she might have caught hold of something and sustained herself in the water.

“She couldn’t hold on long, though!” he groaned. “The villain told the truth! She is dead!”

He grew cold at the thought, his heart seeming to turn to ice. But a little while before, Inza, handsome, spirited, joyous, had been applauding the playing of the hockey-teams on the lake. Now, as he believed, she had passed suddenly from the land of the living.

“And her murderer has gone with her. Yes; he was her murderer, even if he did not throw her overboard.”

Frank sat as if frozen, his eyes staring almost blankly at the lights on the wharf toward which the launch was now moving. He heard nothing of the voices rising on the wharf.

As he drew nearer he became conscious that Bink and Danny were dancing about in the glow of a lantern, howling and exclaiming. Usually the little fellows amused him. Now he felt that he did not want to see them or hear them. Their seeming levity jarred on him.

As in a dream, Frank guided the launch up to the wharf. He scarcely observed the group of friends who had gathered there, nor the cab and cabman in the background. Nor did he notice the questions and exclamations that were being shouted at him.