Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm; Or, Saving an Enemy

by Burt L. Standish

But, no matter how unfair Hodge was, Merriwell always fought fair and aboveboard. Bart had not fancied that anybody lived who would never accept an opportunity to take an unfair advantage of an enemy, and, at first, he could not understand Merriwell. Like many others in after years, he first mistook Merry’s squareness and generosity for timidity. The time came, however, when he realized that Frank Merriwell was as courageous as a lion.

The test that won Hodge to Frank came when Merry might have caused Bart’s expulsion from the academy by a word which would have made Bart seem guilty of a reprehensible thing that he had not committed. Hodge knew that Frank held him in his power; he knew that the proof of his guilt must seem convincing to Merry. For once in his life Bart was frightened, for he suddenly realized what it meant to him if he were expelled from Fardale. His mother’s letters had convinced him that there was no hope of his father relenting in such an event. “I’m done for!” said Bart, to himself. And he wondered why Merriwell did not strike. Had he possessed such a hold on Frank, he would have struck, even though he had known Merry was innocent.

Then came an accident at the academy that showed another cadet with the same initials as Bart was guilty, and Hodge was saved. Still he wondered why Merriwell had held his hand. “Why did you do it, Merriwell?” he asked, pointblank. “Because I was not absolutely certain that you were guilty,” Frank answered. “It looked that way, didn’t it?” “Yes, it looked that way.” “I should have been expelled if you had accused me.” “I think you would, Hodge.” “You had no reason to like me, Merriwell.” “I did not like you,” Frank admitted. “Then why didn’t you accuse me and get me out of the way?” “Because to save my life I would not charge my worst enemy with a crime of which he might be innocent.”

Bart remembered this conversation. He had pondered over it, and it had opened his eyes to the difference between himself and Frank Merriwell. All at once he saw that this fellow whom he hated was his superior in every way. He had suspected it before, and it had made him hate Merry more intensely; but now the full knowledge of the fact brought him a different feeling.

Not all at once did Bart surrender to Frank. He tried to keep away from Merriwell, but the rules of the military school threw them together singularly, making them roommates. Never were two fellows less alike. But Bart found that, for all of his sense of justice and honor, Merriwell was no milksop. Frank could defend his rights, and he did so often enough.

The end of it all was that Hodge became passionately attached to Frank, even though he tried to conceal the fact. He would have fought to the death for Merriwell at a time when he had not ceased to sneer and say bitter things about him. Others did not know how much he cared for Frank; he tried to hide it even from himself.

That friendship for Frank Merriwell was the making of Hodge. Frank was a splendid model. Unconsciously Bart began to imitate him, and the work of changing his selfish, revengeful nature went on slowly but surely. In time Hodge realized that he owed the great change to Frank, but he was not aware of it so much while it was taking place.

Inza had lived there in Fardale, and Bart admired her. But she was dark-haired and dark-eyed like Bart himself, and she took no great fancy to him. Merriwell’s success with Inza annoyed him at first.

Then came Elsie.

But it was Merriwell who had done most in saving her from her father’s shipwrecked vessel, which went to pieces on Tiger Tooth Ledge, off the coast at Fardale, one wild night, and it was Merriwell on whom the golden-haired girl smiled. The first sight of her had aroused a strange sensation deep down in Bart’s heart; but she would not even give him a glance.