Frank Merriwell's Alarm Part 49

"What is the matter with the man?" she murmured. "Is he crazy?"

The man seemed puzzled by her manner, and the witnesses of the remarkable scene were absolutely at sea; they could not understand what it was about.

"I am not crazy," said the young man; "but I was a fool to marry you.

You were not worth the trouble I took to get you. I should have let the other fool have you, instead of plotting to disgrace him in the eyes of your uncle and aunt, so I could get you."

A great light dawned on Frank Merriwell.

"Great fortune!" he mentally exclaimed. "This is the fellow who married Vida Melburn, Isa's half-sister, and he thinks this girl is his wife! They used to look so much alike that it was difficult to tell one from the other.

"Married--married to you?" cried the girl. "Not on your life! Why, I never saw you before, although I have heard of you."

The man seemed staggered for a moment, and then, with a cry of anger, he leaped upon her.

"What is your game?" he hissed, as he shook her savagely. "What are you up to? I thought you a soft, innocent little girl, and now you are showing yourself something quite different. I believe you played me for a sucker! And you want a divorce! Well, here is cause for it!"

Then he choked her.

Frank went at him like a cyclone.

"You infernal villain!" he cried, as his hands fell on the man, and he tore the gasping girl from his clutches. "No one but a brute ever lays hands on a woman in anger, and a brute deserves a good drubbing almost any time. Here is where you get it!"

Then he proceeded to polish off the girl's a.s.sailant in a most scientific manner, ending by flinging him in a limp and battered condition into a corner of the room.

Diamond had hastened to support the girl when Frank s.n.a.t.c.hed her from her a.s.sailant, but she repulsed him and flung him off, saying, hoa.r.s.ely:

"Let me alone! I am all right! I want to see this fight!"

With interest she watched Frank whip the man whom she had called Kent, though she swayed and panted with every blow, her eyes glittering and her cheeks flushed.

As Merriwell flung the fellow into the corner, the girl straightened up and threw back her head, laughing:

"Well, he was a soft thing, and that is a fact! Think of being thrashed by a boy! Drew, is it possible this is our Carson City agent, whom you called 'a good man,' when you were speaking of him this evening? Such a chap would blow the whole game if he were pinched. I wouldn't trust him."

The old man stood rubbing his shaking hands together, greatly agitated and unable to say a word.

Then there came a thunderous knock on the door, and a hoa.r.s.e voice demanded admittance.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE SHERIFF'S SHOT.

Old Drew was greatly frightened, and Davis showed alarm.

"Hold that door--hold that door one minute!" cried Isa. "It will give us time to get out of the way!"

Bruce Browning's shoulder went against the door, and he calmly drawled:

"Anybody won't come in here in a hurry."

"Come!" whispered the girl, catching hold of Hart; "we must get away!

quick!"

Davis leaped after them.

"It will not be a good thing for me to be seen here," he said. "If there is a way of getting under cover, you must take me along."

"That's right," nodded Isa, "for you would peach if you were pinched.

Come!"

By the way of the door that led into the back room they disappeared.

Rap-bang! rap-bang! rap-bang!

"Open this door instanter!"

Higgins roared the order from the outside.

"What's your great rush?" coolly inquired Browning.

A volley of fierce language flew from the sheriff's lips.

"I'll show yer!" he thundered. "Down goes ther door if ye don't open it immediate!"

"Be good enough, Mr. Drew, to ascertain if our friends are under cover yet," said Frank.

The old man hobbled into the back room, was gone a moment, and then reappeared, something like a look of relief on his withered face.

"They're gone," he whispered.

"Will it be all right to open the door?"

"I reckon ye'll have to open it."

"All right. Admit Mr. Higgins, Bruce."

Browning stepped away from the door, lifting the iron bar.

Instantly it flew wide open, and, with a big revolver in each hand, the sheriff strode heavily into the room.

Behind him came another man, who was also armed and ready to do shooting if necessary.

Higgins glared around.

"Whatever does this mean?" he asked, astonished by the presence of the bicycle boys.