Frank Merriwell's Trust; Or, Never Say Die

by Burt L. Standish

It is true that the man who keeps himself in the very best physical condition can withstand shocks and injuries that would surely maim or kill weak and flabby persons. This explains why time after time Frank was able to endure without serious or permanent injury things which must have wrecked and ruined a weakling.

He had helped Hilda into a hansom, and now he was seated beside her. He glanced at her, and his eyes told him she was even more attractive than when he had seen her far away in the wilds of northern Maine. Often since that meeting he had wondered if she would have appeared so pretty to his eyes had he seen her first in a city, and now his question was answered.

Outdoor life had developed her till her body was graceful, supple, athletic, and yet she was not coarse, for she had brains in that finely shaped head, and she had known enough to use them to advantage. She had been educated in a city school, but even then she had not been satisfied till her father sent her to Boston, where she attended the Conservatory of Music and came forth one of the most brilliant pupils.

In the home of old Enos Dugan on that lonely island of Grand Lake was a handsome rosewood piano of the very best make, and the music old Dugan’s daughter could conjure from the instrument was the wonder and comment from Vanceborough to Houlton. She could play wild dance tunes that set the feet of all hearers to shuffling, or she could draw from the polished box sad, sweet melodies which brought the unbidden tear welling to the eye. Then, again, she could make the piano thunder and roar with the wild music of Wagner till all the forest rumbled and boomed and shuddered with the sound. Again, her fingers tinkled over the ivory keys, and the piano laughed and sang like a dancing brook in the June sunshine, drawing the birds and the squirrels to the open window, where they listened in wonder and admiration.

Few and ill-favored were the men freely permitted to visit the Dugan home, but they sat and wondered to see Hilda’s white fingers fluttering over the keys so fast that the eye could scarcely follow their swift movements. To them it was a marvel they never understood.

Hilda’s fame spread afar, but the sturdy youths of the region were brave indeed if they ventured near Dugan’s island. Even the officers were afraid of the man, and though he was reputed to be a smuggler, they generally kept as far from him as possible.

When Frank had first seen Hilda on board the little steamer that plied on the lake, she was in company with a ministerial-looking man by the name of Jones. This individual pretended that he was earnestly seeking to spread the “holy light” in dark places, but Jones it was who aided Dugan in capturing Frank, and Merry found that the pretended minister was nothing more than one of the old smuggler’s chosen allies in crime.

It was reported that Hilda Dugan was to marry this man, but Merry had seen that his attentions were decidedly unpleasant to her.

Sitting beside her in the cab, Frank fancied that her face was a trifle thinner and more refined than when he had seen her last. He had sometimes wondered in thinking of her if she had remained pretty or if time had hardened and turned her into a woman of the wilds. Now he realized that there was something in this girl that had battled with and conquered the commoner part of her nature.

For, as true as Enos Dugan was her father, there must be a coarse strain in her. Merry wondered what sort of woman her mother could have been, and he caught himself fancying her a sweet, gentle, delicate creature who had been driven to an early grave by the wickedness of her brutal husband.