“Yes, you did!” insisted the Kansan, with intense earnestness. “Nobody ever did so much for me besides you. You made a man of me! You might have kicked me into the gutter and turned me into a dog, but you held out your hand and pulled me up to the top of the heap, even after I’d done you more than one onery, mean turn. That’s whatever! Nobody but a white man all the way through would have done as you did, partner. You might have had me expelled from Yale in disgrace, and that would have turned my old man against me; but, instead of that, forgetting all the bad things I’d tried to do to you, you helped me get started on the right trail. I was pretty weak in those times, Merriwell; I know it now. I thought I was strong, but I was right ready to go wrong. A little push from you would have sent me wrong. And you helped me win Winnie! That was the greatest thing you ever did for anybody, partner!”
In that moment Frank Merriwell was rewarded for all he had endured at the hands of this repentant young man, who had once been his enemy, and his heart was filled with thankfulness because he had never permitted his resentment and desire for revenge to get the best of him and induce him to push Badger down.
With this thought came another. He had been lenient toward Dade Morgan just when he might have destroyed the fellow at a single stroke. It had seemed like weakness, after all Morgan had tried to do to him; but now Merry was happy in the knowledge that he had given Morgan another opportunity and had not thrust him down.
“I’ve learned one thing,” said Badger, who seemed determined to reveal to Frank all that his heart had taught him since the happy day of his union with Winnie. “It’s the coward who tries to kill his enemies; the brave, strong man turns his enemies into friends. That’s whatever!”
In the meantime, in ways peculiar to budding young womanhood, Inza and Winnie were expressing their delight over the meeting.
“I didn’t know we should find you here, but we were speaking of you,” said Winnie. “You are handsomer than ever, Inza.”
“And you, Winnie,” said the dark-haired girl, gazing at her friend with love and admiration, “why, you’re simply wonderful.”
“Oh, it’s the West and the air out there!” laughed Buck’s wife, in blushing confusion.
“Well, I think I’ll have to try that air.”
“You don’t need it, Inza; you’re handsome anywhere, and you require no air tonic. But how does it happen you are here. Why, just before we reached the steps, Elsie said it would be just lovely to find you in New Haven.”