“They were brought about by the stuff he had been drinking,” asserted Skelding. “I took some pains to investigate a little, and I have found that he’s been drinking absinth. That explains it. He’s in a bad way.”
“Driven there by a certain man,” said Chickering solemnly.
“Driven there by his own blank foolishness,” said Gene positively. “No man can be in the condition Defarge was in and drink absinth without quickly paying the penalty.”
“Tempwance lecture by Mithter Thkelding!” cried Veazie, and Ollie snickered.
Gene gave the two little fellows a look that seemed full of positive disgust and contempt, but he held his temper, going on:
“Defarge, like some of the rest of us, has been bucking up against the wrong man, and he did not know enough to throw up the sponge when he was beaten. That is the whole of it in a nutshell.”
“I don’t understand you, Gene,” said Julian Ives, staring at Skelding. “Do you mean that we have bucked against the wrong man when we bucked against Merriwell?”
“That’s what I mean. Doesn’t it look that way? Now, be honest in answering.”
There was consternation in that room at once. Always Skelding had been the fiercest and bitterest against Merriwell.