“I can’t face it—I can’t! I’ve gambled away ten thousand dollars that do not belong to me! That means prison!”
“And you cannot restore one cent?”
“Would to God I could!” sobbed the youth, from the depths of his heart.
“If you could, you would?”
“Yes, yes, yes! I’d slave like a dog to pay that money back! I’d do anything! I’d work to the day of my death! But who would believe me if I said so?”
“I believe you,” declared Frank Merriwell, in a way that gave the other a strange thrill.
“But you—what can you do? You are a stranger to me.”
“Yes, I am a stranger to you; but by the eternal Heavens! I am not going to see a human life go to wreck on the rocks if I can help it!”
“How can you help it?”
“I may find a way. What is your name?”