“Perhaps he might, but I doubt it. I am certain Merriwell could not lift it.”
“Don’t be too certain. Frank Merriwell is far stronger than he looks. I fancy, if put to the test, he’d be able to show himself even stronger than Starbright.”
“Do you think that?” exclaimed the doctor, in apparent surprise. “Well, you know them both, and you may be right. But how I could astonish them. They do not know that I am the strongest man in the world, do they?”
“I don’t think they do.”
Somehow, this answer seemed to arouse the man’s suspicions.
“Have you betrayed my secret?” he whispered rather fiercely. “You promised that you would not. Have you told them that I am the strongest man in the world?”
“No.”
“You are sure?”
“Yes.”