WEEKLY

ANK MERRIWELLS RIVER PROBLEM

orf[he Disappearance of Jack Diamond=

 
 

 

 
 

    

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No. S11.

CHAPTER I.
PERIL FOR INZA.

i Barnett, the showman, imprisoned in the town of Sky-
-. line, and held for trial for the murder of his wife,*
eagerly greeted the lawyer who had been admitted to see
Le him, and who was to defend him.

ry “Before we talk about my case,” said Barnett, “I want
to mention a thing I forgot yesterday, in giving instruc-
tions for the sale of my personal effects. There was a
golfing outfit—golf balls, drivers, cleeks, brassies, mashies,
putters~—”

“They went with the other things, at the sale,” the law-
yer explained; “you told me to sell all your personal
_ belongings.”

_ He was a young man, much interested in the defense
_ of this prisoner, in spite of the black charge against him—
_ professionally interested.

_ “The things brought good prices,” he added; “I had
the sale at the Skyline Hotel, and that helped. I’ve
placed the money in the bank, to your credit. But as
to the show itself—if we try to sell it, that’s going to be
more difficult, out here; we couldn’t do anything much
with it, this side of Kansas City.”

“Tt was the golfing outfit that I wanted to ask about,
but you hurried on. It’s important.”
Barnett was dark, slender, yet muscular, with dark
yes that held an anxious glitter.

“That outfit, as I may have told you, or you may
w, I used in my vaudeville turn. I juggled with the
yalls and the clubs. But you don’t know that one of
balls is filled with an explosive more dangerous
dynamite. Of course, I never juggled with that. It
given to me as ae—”

. No, 110, “Frank Merriwell at the Cowboy Carnival.”

  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

  

  
 

  

 

   
     

NEW YORK, September 12, 1914.

Price Five Cents.

Frank Merriwell’s River Problem;
Or, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JACK DIAMOND.

By BURT L. STANDISH.

The young lawyer had drawn back, and sat staring
at Barnett, as if he feared the golf ball mentioned, or
wondered if in this prisoner he had not a dangerous
lunatic to deal with.

Suddenly he jumped to his feet.

“I must be going——”

“Well, I want those balls and the other things returned.
They ought not to have been put up in that sale, but I
forgot all about them. My head was muddled when I
came here, and that’s why I forgot it. Merriwell’s fin-
gers gouged deep when he captured me, and for hours
my head was ringing and spinning.”

A frightened exclamation rose to the lawyer’s lips.

“T’ve got to go,” he urged; “an explosive! I must get
hold of. those balls at once.”

“Who purchased the golfing outfit, if you happen to
know?” Barnett asked.

“Frank Merriwell, I believe; yes, I’m sure it was
Merriwell. And, come to think of it, he had men out
this morning, and yesterday, too, getting some golf links
ready; or, perhaps, improving and finishing the ones
already started.”

His hand was on the door, and he lifted his voice,
calling to the sheriff, who was out in the corridor.

“Merriwell!” said Barnett grimly.

“T don’t want him to get blown. up,” declared the
lawyer.

“It would serve him right, for the way he did me,”
said Barnett, with a snarl; “still, I’d prefer not to strike
at him in that way.”

The sheriff was slow in
shouted to him again. 3

As he waited, he wheeled on Barnett. His face was
white.

“For the love of Mike,” he gasped, “why did you

coming, and the lawyer
 

2 NEW: TIP TOP WEEKLY:

want to fool with a golf ball that held an explosive? I
suppose you got it mixed up with the others?”

“J did, and that’s what I. wanted to tell. you; but if

they are all brought to me here, I can-pick it out readily

from the others.”

The sheriff’s feet were heard in the corridor; and the
door swtng open, releasing the ashy-faced and staring-
eyed young lawyer.

“Where’s your telephone?” he panted;
Skyline Hotel at once.”

“In my office, below,” answered the sheriff, as he
locked the door on the prisoner. “About him?” he added,
perking his head toward the door,

“Inganest thing I ever heard of,” said the lawyer;
“one of those golf balls that I sold yesterday to Mer-
riwell was filled with an explosive.

He began to run along the corridor, and took the stairs
three steps at a jump.

When the slower-moving sheriff reached
the lawyer. was clamoring at the telephone.

“Yes, gimme Skyline Hotel at once—two-two-five—
important !” 7

“Get it?” asked the sheriff, hurrying in.

“Slower than the ages! Oh, here—yes! I want. Frank
Merriwell. Get that? Frank Merriwell, in a hurry.”

“Did you ever hear anything like it?” he demanded
of the sheriff.. “He juggled with those golf balls, you
know, in his vaudeville performance. I saw him doing
it, and perhaps you did. Well, the idiot also had a
golf ball filled with something like dynamite; and that
ball was with the others that I sold. to Merriwell.”

He turned to the telephone.

“Mertriwell? Ah, glad you’re there; ’fraid I couldn’t
get you at once. Those golf balls you bought at the
sale, you remember? What’s that? Well, they’re dan-
gerous—deadly; one of them is, anyway. I don’t know
which one. Better bring them all right over to the jail
here, so they can be taken in charge by the sheriff.
What’s that? What?”

He clung to the receiver as if attacked. with faintness.

“Your wife! Out on the golf links? Get busy, then,
Merriwell; get busy! One of them’s an explosive ball.
Get out there and stop the game at once—take an auto-
mobile. No time to lose. Yes—oh, he has gone!”

He wheeled on the astonished sheriff.

“Merriwell’s started. Now I’m going. Say, if. Mrs.
Merriwell should happen to use that particular golf
ball_—_—”

He flung out of the office,
the steps to the sandy street.

“Merriwell’s wife—an explosive golf ball; and the prop-
erty of that prisoner upstairs!” the sheriff muttered, as
he began to follow the lawyer.

Out of the Skyline Hotel, Frank Merriwell had come,
jumping.

There was no way to reach the: golf grounds but by
conveyance of some kind; no telephone connected with
any building there or near there.

Merriwell saw Browning standing in the: warm sun-
shine of early September, quietly and lazily smoking’ his
pipe. Browning was one of the men Merriwell had never
been able to stop smoking.

“Go down that street, Bruce,
mobile; I’ll look in this direction.
is in terrible danger.”

“got to get the

the office,

and began to run down

and look for an auto-
Quick action! Inza

      
   

 

  

The lazy air left big Bruce Browning instantly; he was

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
 
  
     
   
       
   
  
  
   
   
  
   
  

like a lion. rousing. He obeyed instantly and without :
question. As he began to sprint along the street, not 4
even Merriwell. moved. more rapidly. on e

Browning found an automobile at the first corner be- {|
yond the hotel. a) ae tl

“lve got to have this,” he said, leaping in. without g o
further explanation beside the young man’ who sat in the 4
forward seat. “Life and death, perhaps; anyway, great it
danger. Mrs. Merriwell! Can you drive the machine?” F y

“T’'m just keeping it here—sitting here—until the owner a
returns.”

Bruce flung a word or two to a man. who stood by, yt
telling him to declare to the owner that only urgent 4
necessity had caused the machine to be taken in that J
manner; that it would be returned promptly, with apol- | ce
ogies, and money for its use, if necessary.

Even as he was saying this, Browning was pushing is
the young man aside and stowing his large body in be- Sc
hind the wheel. yc

He brought the big automobile round with a speedy
atid short turn, and drove it back to the hotel. A short tr
distance beyond he took in Merriwell, who had been pl
unsuccessful in his quest.

“Tumble in,” he said, “and just hand over directions. .
We don’t need to stop for anything. Where away?” fe

“To the golf links,” said Merriwell. re ;

His eyes were large and anxious, and he was breath- .
ing quickly and heavily, for he had been running. : re

“The golf course it is,” said Browning. |

The big machine turned again, and shot away over ag
the sandy street.

thr om ay
CHAPTER II. Tyas wh
THE ENCHANTED GOLF BALLS. =

Inza Merriwell was building up a “tee,” or little mound new
of sand, on which she intended to. place her golf ball bal
for the first drive. At the same time she was explaining. — str

She was accompanied by Winnie Badger. Hans Dun- to
nerwtist was there, acting as caddy. : str

Before them stretched the links, or golf course, laid — S
out in the gently undulating valley beyond the town. fro
Except for the putting: greens, the course was in its “
natural state, clothed with the short, crinkly buffalo grass, me’

‘with areas of wiry salt grass in the alkali ae sn DT 46
depressions. Fave

“Yoost you blanadion dot to me also-o side Tike: insy
wise,” Dunnerwust begged. “Iss idt like some pilliaeds — oth
or pool?” —clul
“A little like pool, and a little like croquet. Vee Kin
there are eighteen holes, each about four inches wide D
six inches deep, placed at unequal distances on the cours of 1
The players must knock the ball successively into: yV
hole, with the fewest number of strokes they can, toc
very simple to tell about it, but takes a lot of skill a she
practice to’do it well. The holes are from a “hinds age

   

to four hundred yards apart. That makes a lot of w
ing and furnishes good exercise. And, really, tp
is fascinating, too.

“Around each hole is a smooth place ‘of about tv
yards, called a putting green, to aid the or
ae iM dt pete.

   
  
  
  

    
         
      
       

  

as oS
uit
ot

often call for skill and a good deal of knack. There’s
an obstacle, a hazard, out there, you see, that irrigating
ditch, without any water in it, high banks rising on
each side of it. And we'll find others as we go on.

| “Now you see I make a little mound on the top of
| this tee, and set the ball in it. After I drive the ball
out from the tee, I’ve got to take it wherever it lies,
and often there’s where skill comes in; for sometimes
it is found in awfully mean holes and bad places. When
you're playing by yourself, you’re playing against Colo-

   
  
  

 

ler oe c

 

nel Bogey.”
“How couldt idt; uff you blay mit him, how could idt
DY; - you peen blaying py yourselluf?”
nt Inza laughed merrily.
a “Colonel Bogey is the imaginary person, who has a
Ol-

certain record that you are always trying to beat.”
“Oh, imatchinary! Yaw, I seen. He iss here vhen he
iss nodt here. Undt vhen he iss nodt here, he iss make

 

 

16°. so goot a recordt dot you musdt peat idt. Budt now
you are blaying against Mrs. Padger.”
dy “Mistaken again,” said Winnie, with a laugh; “she’s
rt By: trying to teach that numbskull, Winnie Badger, how to
en | play the game of golf.”
qT “Yaw. I standtunder. Undt uff she beadts you, idt
ans aan iss a wictory, undt uff you beadt her, idt iss a tefeadt.
ae Yaw, I seen. Budt vhy iss idt a lynx?”
A “Hans, if you make me laugh,” Inza warned, “I can’t
* | play'this; I want to make a good drive from here.”
She lifted her club, then lowered it, and explained
mn again, as she settled the ball more to her satisfaction.

 

“In starting to learn the game, strike the ball easy
and deliberately at first—not driving it hard, as you can
when you are skillful; as you gain in practice, you will
find yourself naturally driving longer distances. When
you get to a green and want to hole the ball, you
need to be very careful, for a little tap may send the
ball too far; that causes you to loose out—make extra
strokes, more than are necessary. The object is always
to get the ball into the hole with the fewest possible
strokes.”

She tested the club, swinging it; then selected another
from the number that Dunnerwust carried.

 
  
  
 
 
 
 
    
  
  
   

“So many kindt uff clubs dot idt makes me a puzzle-
mendt,” Dunnerwust declared, looking them over.
“Barnett had about everything that any one would
ever dream of needing in a golf game,” Inza admitted,
inspecting the clubs and balls. “Still, there are many
other kinds—one-piece clubs, gutta-percha clubs, aluminum
clubs, bulger and straight-faced clubs, and irons of all
kinds.”

- Dunnerwust, after a further inspection, stowed the rest
of the things and prepared to watch the playing.
Winnie, who had also armed herself with club and ball,
stood watching Inza, who formed a pleasing picture as
she swung her club.

At the end of the stroke the club came round in a
graceful swing. The ball, shot from the tee, struck in
the buffalo grass beyond the putting green and went
yunding on. :

‘Yaw, idt iss as easy as I am,” Dunnerwust declared.

  
  
   
  
    
   
   
     
  
  
   
 

 

  

 

NEW TIP TOP

WEEELY. 3

after them. “Yoo yoost hidt idt, undt idt iss gone. Idt
iss a skinch.”

Inza was not pleased with her performance; her ball
had lacked resilliency. It lay now in a depression made
by a wagon wheel. She selected a mid-iron and lofted
it, sending .it on in a fairly good drive, yet still not
pleased with the action of the ball.

From a near-by house of sod and boards a man came
out and stood watching the playing. He was a muscular
giant, large, unwholesome, a most unpleasant-looking man.
His face was sulky and lowering, as if he had a grouch
against himself and all the world.

“IT wish he would go away,” Inza whispered; “he gives
me the shivers.”

Dunnerwust heard the comment.
at the man.

“Yoost clear oudt,” he ordered.

“You-own this land?”

“Dot makes noddings oudt.”

“I owned it all once,” said the man, dropping to a
sorrowful tone, “but like a fool I let the sugar-factory
men have it. They cheated me. I didn’t know they
was going to build a factory. I sold for twenty dollars
an acre; now it’s worth three hundred.”

“Yoost you move avay,” said Dunnerwust.

But the man did not move away.

For half an hour or more the practice game went on.
Dunnerwust made a poor caddy. Balls were lost. The
man followed about, and they thought he picked up
some of them. Soon four balls of the ten they had
brought were missing.

He shook a golf club

Glancing round, Winnie saw an automobile leave the
road and drive “cross lots” toward the field, coming on
swiftly.

Inza, having holed her ball, was building a tee, when
Winnie discovered that in the. touring car rushing upon
the field sat Merriwell and Browning.

She waved her hand.

“Frank and Bruce,” she said.

Inza flashed them a look.

“They are hurrying.”

She went on building’ her tee, and placed her ball
in the little nest she made in the top of it.

“They're waving,” said Winnie; “yes, and shouting!
They want us to go back to town for something. Now,
isn’t that mean—just when I’m getting interested. Well,
we'll refuse to go.” *

Inza stood up, smiling.

The automobile came on with a roar; Frank Merriwell,
standing up in it, was shouting and waving.

“Something important, sure,” said Inza; “but I’m going
to drive this ball first. I want to see if I can’t make a
better drive. I’ve either lost my skill, or something
is the’ matter with this ball.”

She waved her hand to her husband, wholly misunder-
standing his frantic gestures; lifted her club, and—drove
at the ball.

The car came up in a cloud of dust.

A little cry had broken from Inza’s lips. Merriwell
was leaping out of the automobile. The golf ball had
not responded to the stroke, but had rolled off the tee—
shot off, sideways, as if crippled, and now was lying in
the grass,°a dozen yards distant.

“Stop!” Frank was shouting: “Don’t touch those balls
again! Stop!” ¥

 

   

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smiling.
“what is it?”

Inza looked at him,
“I’ve stopped,” she said ;
“An explosive ball!”

The women jumped as if a shot had sounded. Dun-
nerwust dropped his caddy outfit.

“Where iss?” he said, stepping back.

“T don’t know. But don’t touch those golf balls
again.”

Browning was crawling out of the car, and soon came
hurrying over.

“That — ball — has — been — acting — queer !”
slowly, her face suddenly pale.

She stood unsteadily for a moment, dizzy, then followed
Merriwell as he hurried to the ball. She was by his
side as he stooped over it..

“Tt’s battered, and the side cracked in,” he remarked.

He picked it up gingerly. As he did so the crack
it widened, like a splitting eggshell, and something bright
dropped out. He stared at the bright object as it fell to
his feet; then stooped and caught it up. He held it out
between his fingers.

“A--diamond!” he gasped.

“A diamond ?”

Inza took the glittering stone and turned it curiously
and wonderingly in her hand.

“A diamond in a golf ball?”

Merriwell shook the ball gently, and another glittering
stone dropped out. He was bewildered. His face, which
had been pale with anxiety, was now flushed a deep
red.

Browning and Winnie Badger hurried up, with Dun-
nerwust toddling behind them.

“Why,” Inza fluttered, “how could diamonds get into
a golf ball?”

_ Merriwell, shaking the ball, extracted those that re-
mained in it, and showed in his palm five small diamonds,
cut gems, that flashed white fire in the sunshine.

“It seems unbelievable,” she said. “Was that what you
meant? But I know you wouldn’t try to frighten me
in that way!”

“Diamonds instead of dynamite,
he could not believe his eyes.
Merry.”

The man who had followed the players round, came
up, peering. |

“What was that about dynamite?” he asked.
see-—diamonds,”

said Inza

”

said Browning, as if
“A pleasant surprise,

“Oh, I

His eyes became greedy, his coarse form beistindedl

“Diamonds!” he said, and whistled.

“Merry was told that one of the golf balls held an
explosive like dynamite,” Browning explained; “that’s
why we came in such a hurry, Perhaps the explosive is
in one of the other balls?”

Merriwell pulled himself together with a little shiver,
and looked into Inza’s dark eyes. It was good to see
her standing there, though her face was pale, after the
horrible vision that had tormented him as he and Brown-
ing were hurrying to the golf ‘course.

“It’s plain, after all,” he said; “these things belonged,
you know, to Barnett, and were sold yesterday at the
hotel by mistake, without his consent, it seems. We can
see now why he wanted them returned. He hastened the
matter by telling his lawyer that. one of them was filled
with an explosive, and that all of them must be returned
without delay. He wasn’t willing that even his lawyer

 

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

 

    

 

 

should know about the diamonds. Still, how could he

have prevented it?”

   
  

The question went unanswered in the shower of ex- ‘
clamations and comments that fell all round. ‘me

Merriwell began to look at the other golf balls, | a
handling them carefully. =:

“There still may be one here that has an explosive in’ |
it,” he remarked. “It wouldn’t do to risk cracking them is

open just to find out if they hold dynamite or diamonds.” | d
“Diamondt’s diamondts,” said Dunnerwust. “Dot vos ;

der name uff der show dot veller hadt, too; he vent py «a bie
der name uff Tom Diamondt. Iss dere a meanness in ; te
idt?: Frankie, ton’dt shake dot pall, blease. Uff idt— 6
blows me oop, I ton’dt vant to be here.’ ‘ i
g 5 ay i . : al
All took turns in handling and examining the dia- (© |
monds and in looking at the broken golf ball that had | «
held them. Also, they looked closely at the other golf in
balls. Ay r piv, M
“There are some more balls,” said Inza. “I mean we Jf i
had: more, but we've lost them.” Tees th
“LT haf loogked vor ’em efery blace undt I couldtn’t | “ti
7 ; a ; Me Ai
find me,” admitted Dunnerwust. “Yoost pack in dot He th
alkali sinkin’s ve losdt vun.” \ ea iis
“T think we lost four, altogether,” Winnie added. “Isn’t — 1 ‘
it dreadful? Perhaps all of them held diamonds.” oh Ka
ce Bre tas te pe a
Or dynamite!” said Bruce. ake
“Ugh! I shall be afraid tc drive at a golf ball ever : Rg
again. If one of them is filled with an explosive, and
we had struck it with a golf club rf

 

 

“You can see why we hurried so,’
significantly.

“We must make
he added.

Inza’s hand fell on his arm. %

“That man—he has followed us all round, and we have Ete
thought that perhaps he picked up: some of the balls that
we were Usrable to locate; and now see—he is going home,
hurrying.” a

* Merriwell remarked '

a hunt for those that were lost,”

 

 
   
   
  
     
 

The man who had seemed so interested had quietly de-
tached himself, and was hastening to his house, which —
was some distance off, at one side of the course. ea

Merriwell started as if to follow him, but stopped.

“That’s only a suspicion, and it may be wholly without
foundation. We'll make a hunt for the missing balls.”

They went back over the course and searched in all
the places where balls had been missed, spending much
time. But none of the lost golf balls was found. -

Gathering again at the automobile, they reéxamined
the balls that remained. |

“These two,” said Merriwell; “take a look at t
Each seems to have a seam or fine line round the mi¢

 
    
   
   
  
  
    
  
   
 
   
 

filled with something, they shouldn’t hold, then
and sealed? Dynamite, or diamonds?”
Inza and Winnie drew back.
“Shall I try to open them?”
“Don’t,” urged Winnie.
heer ts was etki one slightly.

   
   
 
  
 
  

Seiadiondi » cried ‘edie with an ‘eon
nervous scream. \ ROK,
Merriwell held them out on his palm.
“Blue-white diamonds,” he said. .
I try the other base ss i p

      
    
 
 
 

    
    

NEW TIP

 

 

“Not if I’m careful—and if this holds dynamite, you
can take a stick of dynamite and cut it all to pieces with
OR _ a knife, you know. In fact, in order to make sure that
| it will explode, an exploding cap must be stuck into a

  

alls, } dynamite stick, and fired with a fuse.”
_ + He was twisting the ball gently.
eae Like the other, it unscrewed readily at the hairlike
hem | joint in the middle and fell into halves, exposing the
ds,” | diamonds it held.
VOR Tee Merriwell tried the other golf balls, but none of them
E PY = could be opened in that manner. And he could not
: ip | — tell by testing in any other safe way whether or not one
id ;

of them held an explosive. He handled them gingerly,

and was urged to care by those about him.
“Three of the golf balls contained diamonds,” he said.
“There were four diamonds in this, five in this, and six
in this—fifteen nice little diamonds; worth some money.
My guess is that’ Barnett had a fancy for diamonds,
made a collection, or invested some of his savings in
them, and stored them in the golf balls he juggled, be-

 

 

 

   
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  

dtn't lieving that no one would ever think of looking for them
dot _ there. What he said about one of the balls holding an

he: 3 explosive was, probably, to scare any one from examin-
Isn't ms ing them closely, and to induce their speedy return to

i} him.”
Hie “A good guess,” said Browning.
ever | ‘The diamonds went round, inspected and admired by
and every one.
“These,” said Merriwell, picking out four or five, “make
tked “me think of the ones in your necklace, Inza. Where is
that necklace ?”

ost,” “At the hotel,” said Winnie, starting.

“Oh, in the hotel safe!”
ee She reddened with confusion.
have _ “TE have to confess that I neglected to put it in the
that safe,” she said. “I intended to, then forgot it.”
ay “It's in your trunk?”

Hie “T'll have the necklace put in the safe as soon as we
7 de- get back to the hotel,” she promised nervously. “It’s in
yhich — my trunk now.” -

  

“These diamonds,” said Merriwell, “I'll turn over to

   
   
   
  

ied the sheriff,'or to Barnett’s lawyer, and all these golf
‘hout balls. “Well, it’s time to go back. Unless we wish to
ae ake another search for the balls that have been lost.”

n all They made the search, but it was fruitless—then, they

  

otored hack to town. Inza and Winnie had walked out
the golf course with Dunnerwust.

_ As they started they discovered that the hulking and
_ Unpleasant occupant of the sod house near the course
2 ounted a horse, and was proceeding to town on
“the road ahead of them.

. hey passed him soon, yet he was not far behind
when they reached their hotel.

  
   
  
   
  
   
 
  

      
    
    
     
    
   
   
   
   
   
   

CHAPTER III,

FRANK MERRIWELL’S PROBLEM.

  

‘rank Merriwell had been induced to come to Skyline
¢ rk Ashton, the young superintendent of the new

  

POP

WEEKLY. 5

rounded it were on the Kansas side. Dependent on the
Arkansas River for irrigation water, the beet fields
had gone begging through the hot summer weather, and
would furnish less than half a crop.

The upper Arkansas is notorious for failing in its water
supply late in the season. Its snow-fed stream, coming
down from the Rockies, bursts through the granite bar-
rier at the Royal Gorge in a mighty flood in early June,
sometimes fairly drowning the valley lands even far down
into Kansas. But, this flood season past, the river soon
begins to fail, and finally sinks away in its wide bed of
sand, until it is everywhere easily fordable, and at last
runs only in numerous rills that a horse may leap across.
In very bad years these rills almost disappear.

This low-water period occurs usually when drought is
doing its worst, and the hot winds from the heated
plains of the Texas Panhandle and eastern New Mexico
blow the strongest. Vegetation not native to the region
cannot survive in such years without the aid of irriga-
tion,

Yet always, in the longest drought and the dryest
season, the wells supplying the farms and small ranches
everywhere never fail in their water supply, and seem
not to be lowered by pumping. |

Ashton had informed Merriwell that some settlers
beyond the Colorado border had thrown a dam across
the river there, diverting what little water the stream
held, and so had made the condition of the Kansas beet
fields even worse.

In addition, their dam had broken in the June flood
that year, together with the barriers of the small lake in
which they had tried to store water. As a consequence
the flood had been more severe than ordinary. Coming
in the middle of June, it had gone all over the beet fields
in the valley, and when it receded, had left them covered
with a sticky and heavy coating of mud. The result was
that many acres of beets had been smothered and killed.

The outlook for the success of the sugar-beet industry
at that point, Ashton had said, was- not good, due to
these conditions. As he felt that he was in a position
of responsibility, he asked if Merriwell could not visit
Skyline and give him some advice, and, perhaps, aid in
working out a plan that would save the situation.

The Merriwell Company, organized by Frank Merriwell,
and of which he was president, with its headquarters at
the time at Phoenix, in the center of the arid South-
west, was attempting, among other things, to solve ifri-
gation and land-development problems. To that end,
was soliciting business. So this offer was in its line,
and Merriwell had accepted Ashton’s invitation.

But he had done so with no exaggerated notions of
what was possible in the Arkansas Valley, yet with a
very definite idea in mind, which he had laid before
Ashton, and which had met Ashton’s approval.

He had not been pleased, when he arrived in Skyline, to
find that Ashton had been too optimistically proclaiming
what Merriwell would be able to do. Merriwell had not
promised that he would be able to do anything. Yet the
Skyline people seemed to feel that the situation would
be bettered at once.

There were a number of ‘iia things not pleasing to
Merriwell at Skyline, as he was quickly to discover.

‘The sugar company, in buying up the land on which it
was now trying to grow sugar beets, had used some
rather sharp ptactice with the settlers’ and owners of

     

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the land. It had sent on agents, in a time of drought
and discouragement, when nearly every man there was
inclined to sell out and abandon the country, and had
been able to purchase cheaply, lands that were actually
worth ten times what the company paid for them.

As soon as the settlers and land owners knew that a
sugar factory was to be established, there was great
dissatisfaction, loud talk, and many threats. Yet, having
sold out, it seemed they could do nothing but grumble.

But a number had removed farther west—farther up the
valley, and there, over the Colorado line, they had dammed
the river, and were proceeding to divert the stream to
their new lands, leaving the beet lands below hot and
dry.

Here was a situation in which the sugar men could
do nothing. The settlers were in another State, and
could not be reached by the Kansas laws. There had
been an attempted injunction, and the case had gone to
the supreme court of the United States, which was asked
to determine the question of who had the right to the
water; the owners of the land in Kansas, where it had
been used first, or the newer owners of land up in the
adjoining State of Colorado, who, being nearer the source
of supply, were now seizing it. But this question might
not be reached and settled by the supreme court for
years.

The injunction suit had been brought by the sugar
company, which had money to fight the thing through.
The settlers over the line, not having money, had -pro-
ceeded at once to fight in another way. They had,
Merriwell heard, cut their own dam and the banks of
their storage reservoir in the time of the June flood, and,
by thus. aiding the natural flood, they had themselvés
drowned the beet fields of the sugar company, their
enemy.

So there was much bad blood, and a condition out of
which anything might grow.

Another thing, Merriwell soon learned, was that the
employees of the company, those who worked in the fac-
tory, and the Mexicans who toiled in the beet fields,
were dissatisfied with their wages, and threats of a strike
of large and ugly proportions were filling the air at the
time of his arrival.

The authorities and business men of Skyline had sought
to plaster over these ugly things by giving a great cow-
boy carnival, hoping thus to furnish distracting amuse-
ment until the promise of water for another season and
promises of better treatment all round would inspire
more favorable conditions.

Drawn by the widely advertised Cowboy Carnival, Bar-
nett, the showman, had arrived with his fly-by-night ex-
hibition, under canvas. It was called “Diamond’s Dia-
monds,” taking its name from \its former owner, Tom
Diamond, who was a distant and unworthy relative of
Jack Diamond, Merriwell’s old. Yale college friend.

Barnett having slain his wife in Skyline, and being now
in prison charged with murder, the show had ended
its career right there, and the town was still filled with
the show people—the vaudeville artists, canvasmen, and
supernumeraries, penniless, and stranded.

In visiting Skyline, Frank Merriwell had moved in this
business matter with his usual celerity. He had formu-
lated his plans before leaving Phoenix, and had wired to
Kansas City for a well-digging and drilling oufit.

This outfit had arrived in Skyline on the day of Mer-

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

appearance there, had been set up at a

riwell’s selected hie
point by the river, and set to work at once. dp ing

It was, with its crew, now in charge of Jack Dia- & flig
mond, who had been doing engineering work in the | ~~ _
mountains. edn

Merriwell had urged Diamond to visit him in Skyline, tog
and finding, on his arrival, that Diamond was temporarily Go tas
out of a positiof through the completion of the work on | 1
which he had been engaged, Merriwell had solicited his ; ago
experienced aid, and it was being given. i: “

Ephraim Gallup was a member of -Diamond’s crew. 4 wee

Bruce Browning .was soon to continue his journey into | «
California. Within a few days Buck Badger and his wife clin
would return to the Badger ranch. And Dunnerwust at

would go to his home in Kansas City. They were linger- 4 © \
ing, and would probably remain a number of days longer,
for the sake of old friendships and the enjoyment of
old associations. me Ns

Such were the conditions, business and otherwise, at ee
the time of the opening of this story. able

 

CHAPTER IV.

ASSAULTED AND ROBBED.

 
 
 

On the day that Merriwell was called up in “scare- |
head” fashion on the telephone by Barnett’s lawyer and |
told about the explosive golf ball, he had just returned
from the point where the big drill was eating into the
edge of the river bed.

Diamond had come into town with him, but happened
not to be in the hotel when the lawyer telephoned;
had not gone out to the golf course, and, in fact, knew
nothing about it until later.

The hulking settler, living out by the golf course, hitched
his horse in the street not far from the hotel, and en-—
tered it. Where he went after doing this no one knew.
No one had noticed him except the members of Merri-
well’s party.

While Inza and» Winnie remained in the hotel lobby
a few minutes, talking with some new acquaintances,
who were guests of the hotel like themselves, Frank Mer-
riwell went on up to his'room, with the golf balls.

Browning, having Dunnerwust with him, was in the
automobile, looking for the owner, with apologies and
money.

When the conversation in the lobby flagged, Inza pro- f
ceeded to follow her husband upstairs, while Winnie a
sought her own room. te

It was a startling sight that greeted Inza. The door
of the room being ajar, she entered. Merriwell was lying
senseless on the floor. The window beyond, leading on a
fire escape, was open; yet she could not be sure that ‘it,
had not been open all the while, as the weather Was
warm. é

With a cry of fright and alarm she ran to Mettieéltis
side, dropped down by him, and, throwing her arms round
him, lifted his head; at the same time, seeing that he
was unconscious, that his eyes were closed, and that on
his head there was a bruised lump, her scream for fa
rang. out.

     
 
   
   
   
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
  
  
 

 

    
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
   
   
  
 
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
 

and a porter came running up the stairs.
Browning and Dunnerwust heard Inza’s screamin, ;
as they sat in the automobile in the street below.
“Murter some more dimes, I pet you!” said D nne

  

       
 

 

   

 

    
 
  

ted wust, recalling the trail of crime he had been follow-
. ing but a few days before—the trail that had led to the
Jia- | flight and capture of Barnett.

the : His round body went out of the motor car, at the same
: time that Browning’s feet landed on the sidewalk, and,
rote together, they ran for the nearest stairs, which came to
rily the ground floor on that side.

— _ The scream from the room above rang out again, an
his —agonized cry.

’ “Inza, yoost so sure as I am me; I vouldt know: dot
. %  woice in Chinese.”
into { “Sounded like her,” Browning agreed, and began to
vife climb the stairs, three steps at a jump, with Dunnerwust
rust - serambling at his heels.

Ber- % ~~ When they entered Merriwell’s room, hearing the scream
ger, there again, and finding the door open, Inza was still
of on the floor, pillowing Merriwell’s head.
Se Winnie Badger had dashed out past the startled and
, at |. slow-witted porter, and was now in the lobby below,
asking the clerk to telephone for the nearest doctor.

“Bruce, Bruce,” Inza wailed; “I’m—afraid he is dead!

} He doesn’t breathe—he doesn’t Pe
Browning tried to draw her gently away, but she clung

- to her husband, with her arms round him.
are<) ee “Can’t something be done—can’t you get a doctor?
and | Winnie has gone, but 3
ned  “T heard her speaking to the clerk; no need for me to
the | go down there,” said Browning, dropping on his knees.

| ~ -“Fust be quiet—quiet; I think he is not seriously hurt.
ned 1: ‘You don’t know how it happened?”
- $0 be His fingers slid along and took hold of Merriwell’s
new | wrist, feeling for the pulse; the arm lay limp.

_ Browning’s face instantly brightened—he felt the pulse,
hed | jumping erratically. His fears had been greater than he
en- | would admit. pe 5
ew. | “He’s all right,” he said; “or he will be all right in a
‘rri- little while. Don’t alarm yourself, Inza. He was struck

on the head with something—perhaps a club, when his
bby back was turned, no doubt, and it floored him. You
Ices, didn’t hear him. fall? You weren’t in the room, of
fer- j  coutse?”
4 _ Inza tried to explain hysterically.
the _- “Well, let me place him on the bed, over there. That’s
and _ better than lying on the floor. Soon we'll have a doctor

  

here. He needs a stimulant, I think. Where’s Hans?”
 “T am caming.”
“Hans, get a little brandy somewhere—stimulant of
some kind—down in the hotel.”
Dunnerwust slid out of the door and his feet went
lumping down the stairs.
Although Merriwell was no lightweight, Bruce Brown-
ing lifted him as easily as if he had been but a child,
nd placed him on the bed, Inza sobbing and trying to
help.
“J wonder what this means?” said Browning.
His face was pale. He glanced round with eyes that
iad blurred mistily, seeking for an explanation.
“Oh, those diamonds!” he said. “He brouglit the dia-
monds up here?”

   
   
 

        
      
      
        
   
       
       
     

   
 

   
 

— | NEW FIP TOP WEEKLY. 7

Browning walked over to the window, and looked ‘out
at the ground and at the fire escape. He saw that the
fire escape ran down so that it gave access to a yard at
the rear, by the kitchen, an unfenced open place that lay
between the back of the hotel and the wall of a near-by
building.

This side street was little used by the public, so that
any one fleeing by way of the fire escape and the rear
yard might readily get away without being seen.

Hearing another cry from Inza, Bruce Browning turned
about. Merriwell had opened his eyes and was staring
round in a dazed way. Inza was down by the bed, look-
ing into his face, smoothing his hair, begging him to speak
to her.

Browning crossed the room quickly yet quietly.

“He will be all right soon,” he assured; “don’t excite
yourself, and don’t excite him.”

Winnie Badger burst into the room, her lips open to
speak; but stopped short, with the words unsaid, when
she beheld the tableau before her. Her eyes brightened
and the anxious lines in her face softened.

Dunnerwust followed at her heels, bringing brandy ; and
with him came the owner of the hotel and the clerk.

“The doctor is coming—be here in a minute,” the clerk
teported. “Merriwell is better, eh?”

“Just a drop or two of this brandy,” said Browning,
producing and snapping open a drinking cup.

Merriwell pushed it aside when Browning offered it.

“What's the meaning?” he asked. é

He looked at Inza, noting the tears in her eyes, at
Winnie and Browning, and at the hotel men.

“The doctor will be here in a minute,” the clerk re-
peated.

“Who needs a doctor?” said Mertriwell, puzzled.

“You do,” said Inza, stroking his hair. “I found you
lying on the floor, unconscious, and I thought you were
dead,” she wailed.

Merriwell stared at her, trying to think.

“T feel a bit stupid,” he. said; “and I begin to know
that I’ve got a head and.a ripping headache.’ Then he
started up. “Oh, yes; I was attacked when I came into
the room!”

He looked round as if he expected to see his assailant.

“It was right there. The man was behind the door as
1 came.in; I heard him step out, and I started to turn;
then I got it—on the head. And”—he looked about again
—‘‘that’s all I seem to remember.”

“You didn’t see his face?” said Browning.

“No—didn’t see anything; just heatd a step, and turned

”

The doctor summoned by the clerk bustled in, hurried
and important. He was a new man in a new town.
Probably this was his first case. He stepped at once to
the side of the bed.

“Bad contusion,” he said; “how did it happen?”

Browning turned toward the corridor.

“Explain to him,” he urged, speaking to Winnie Badger ;
“I’m going down to look round on the street and at the
back of the hotel, for I can’t do anything here.”

Big Bruce Browning’s eyes were moist and bright as he
got out of the room. He loved Frank Merriwell as few
men love even a brother. Merriwell’s dazed lodk and
Inza’s appealing face were more than he could stand, now
that he had seen there was nothing more that he could
“do to help, and he wanted to get track of the misereant

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who had struck down and robbed Merriwell, before it

was too late to make an effective start at it.

When he was in the corridor he became aware that
Dunnerwust was following.
“Iss he hurted mooch?” Dunnerwust whispered, tip-

toeing as if he thought that standing on his toes would
keep his voice from carrying into Frank’s room.

Browning took him by the arm and drew him along,
down the stairs.

“IT hope not, and I think not. Still, no one can tell,
That young doctor looks fussy, but perhaps he knows his
business. I want to make some inquiries on the street
and in the kitchen, back here. Perhaps some one in the
kitchen saw the fellow who fled after hitting Merry.”

“Idt vos a wholesale-undt-redail roppery, huh?”

“Well, the diamonds are gone, and the golf balls.”

“Dot Barnett, he iss make some more troublesome-
Vhen dhey hang dot scamps, I vill be habby.”

. lans.”

ness.

“They don’t hang men for murder in Kansas,

“No? Vot do dhey thang ’*m vor?”

“Nothing. They simply shut them up in prison.”

“Vot a gountry! Vhen I murter somepody I am cam-
ing to Kansas.”

Nothing was to be learned on the street, though Brown-
ing saw that the horse of the man who lived out by the
golf links was gone. At the rear of the hotel and in
the kitchen there they learned no more. No one had
been seen on the fire escape, and no one had been ob-
served passing out by the back way.

“Dot proves noddings,” said Dunnerwust.
low does nodt make a trink uff peer.”

“IT wonder where Diamond is?” remarked Browning, as
they emerged on the principal street, before the hotel.
“Oh, here he is—coming.”

Jack Diamond came up at a swinging gait, gentlemanly
in manner, slender, dark-eyed and handsome, his smooth
face looking almost as boyish as when he had beeh Frank
Merriwell’s friend and chum at Yale.

“Hello!” he said. “Where have -you been hiding your-
self?”

Browning drew him aside.

“You didn’t happen to be round here when a big man
came from the rear of the hotel and mounted a horse
he had hitched at that rack?”

“No. I have just come up the street. Been down to
the station to see about those fittings ordered for the drill;
they haven’t arrived yet.”

“Well, Merriwell was attacked a while ago in his room
—knocked down and robbed.”

Hurriedly Browning told his story.

Diamond’s face worked strangely as he listened, and
his dark eyes shadowed.

“So you think it may have been done by the man
who took the horse and who lives out by the golf course.
We'll have to interview him. If we jump the thing at
him suddenly, we may scare him into a confession, or, at
least, discover if he is the right man. Diamonds in Bar-
nett’s golf balls!’ No one would have dreamed of look-
ing for wealth there: And he said it was dynamite, or
some explosive. He is a crafty fox. I’m going upstairs
to see how Merry is.”

They followed Diamond, but more slowly.

When they gained the corridor he was coming out of
Merriwell’s room.

“The little doctor has got him to: talking,” he reported.

“Vun sval-

NEW TIP 10P WEEKLY:

‘street, they began to look about.

“T had a look at him, and he is coming round all right.
But in a blow on the head there’s always danger of com-
What needs is rest and quiet, now. I
wanted to say that to Inza.”

Browning looked in at Merriwell’s door.
tiptoed Dunnerwust.

“Yoost as goot undt new as I am meinselluf,” he whis-
pered in words that carried well into the room. “Merry,
I am vishing you vellness undt habbiness undt all der
complimendaries uff der season.”

Merriwell smiled at the rotund figure tiptoeing beyond
the door.

“T’m all right, Hans,” he said.

“Your headt iss nodt hurting me, heh?”

“Well, I feel dizzy, and I can’t remember things very
well. A concussion, the doctor calls it. But I'll be all
right to-morrow.”

“Who dit idt? Uff I yoost hadt der name undt undress
uff dot scamps——”

Merriwell’s smile was seen again.

“You’re better than medicine, Hans,” he said. “But
Inza and the doctor say I’ve got to keep still. And I’m
afraid of them, especially of Inza. Come and see me to-
morrow. I'll be able to recollect it all by that time, and
Tl tell you all about it.”

“You yoost can’t keep a goot man down me,” Dunner-
wust whispered, as he turned back into the corridor, ac-
companying Browning. “Vrankie Merriwell, he iss rise
oop all der dime.”

“Think we’d better go out and take a look at the man
who lives by the golf course?” Diamond asked.

“IT am going mit you,” said Dunnerwust. “I haf der
tedectif insdinctiveness. ._You seen idt pefore. Vhen no-
pody vouldt do noddings dot odder dime, I go aheadt undt
findt oudt dot a voman has peen kilt undt who has kilt
idt. Maype der same man——”

“He is in jail,” Diamond reminded.

“Dot makes noddings oudt. He mighdt haf an ac-
comblishment.”

plications. he

Behind him

“You mean an accomplice. Not likely in this case.
Those were his diamonds, you know, that were stolen.”

“Budt

“Yes?”

“T haf an itea. Der tedectif vot iss in me iss vorking.
Barnett might haf sendt his accomblishment to steal dose
tiamondts, so dot he couldt say dot Vrankie Merriwell
stole ’em. How iss dot yor a pright itea?”

“Punk!”

“He iss Merriwell’s enemy!”

They were at the street entrance, and, stepping into the
The automobile already
used in visiting the golf course stood not far off, and
they went over to it, seeing the same young man
charge.

 

“You wouldn’t accept anything for the use of this car ie

before,” said Browning. “Now we'd like to take it
again, but we insist on paying for it if we do.
Merriwell——’”

“Ts it for Merriwell?”

“To be used on his account,” said Browning.

Frank

, “But 4

  

 

 

 

   
  
 

 

 

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what has that to do with it? We'll pay for the use A

Of it."
“Simply this,” and the young fellow’ rose in his Seat:
“the owner of this car, when I told him about it, said that

  
  
  
 
   
 
 

use his car, and, if at any time Merriwell or his friends
wanted it, to turn it over to them. So, here you are.”
ton He sprang over the wheel into the street.

“This is kind of him, and you,” said Diamond. “We
might argue it out with you, if we had the time; we'll do

 

him 3 i ;
it later. Right now we are really in a hurry.”
Hise He looked at his watch.
tty “I had no idea it was so late. Browning, it will be
“ae | dark before we get out there, if we don’t move pronto.”
rond 4 CHAPTER V.
INVESTIGATING.
| In the morning, Jack Diamond and Buck Badger, ac-
very | companied by Bill Higgins and the county sheriff, went
all out in an automobile to the sod shack by the golf course
to make a rough call on the occupant, whose name, they
ress | had learned, was Clark Templeton.
The visit of the evening before, made by Diamond
and Browning, had been fruitless, for the man had not
‘But been at home, which was just as well, for the visitors
I’m had not gone armed with a warrant.
 to- This legal document the sheriff now carried, and it
and { authorized him to make a search of Templeton’s house

and premises, and to arrest Templeton. It had been
ner- | ~— issued on the affidavit of Jack Diamond, which declared

ac- Diamond’s belief that Templeton had attacked and robbed
rise _ Frank Merriwell.
k Tt seemed quite clear to Diamond that this was so.
man | Templeton had seen the diamonds that were taken
_ from the golf balls. He had ‘ridden into town, and he
der had been in the hotel at the time the assault was com-
no- _ mitted. But the evidence was purely circumstantial. It
indt ' Was not strong enough to bolster a case against Temple-
kilt | ton, if the diamonds were not found in his possession.

 

Templeton blazed out his wrath when the sheriff in-
_vaded his humble little house and produced that war-
ac- —s- rant authorizing him to search it.

‘\, “Do you think I’m a thief?” he flared at the sheriff.
He turned on Diamond.
fs a “And you are the dog who makes the charge against
me? Well, you'll pay for this, and you'll pay good,
_ before you get through with me.”

ing. | ‘The sheriff tapped the angry man on the shoulder.
lose “See here, Templeton,” he warned, “I’ll have to pull
well — - you in, if you go to making threats. If those diamonds

_ aren’t here, there’s nothing against you, understand.” ’
“Oh, there isn’t!” said Templeton. “My good name is

} Smirched, isn’t it? I’m an honest man, put under sus-

the — s Picion by this thing. And all on the word of this stran-

 

  
   
  
    

ady = | _ ger,” he pointed to Diamond, “who is probably as big a
and } scoundrel and thief as he has tried to make me out to
vin ff be.” 3

|’ © Diamond’s features were working, his face was red,
car and his eyes had the dangerous glitter his friends knew
hae and disliked to see, Badger’s heavy hand fell on his
ank | shoulder.

  
 

“When you trap a wolf and he snarls at you, that
_ doesn’t make you mad, does it, pard? You expect it.
‘ 2 SO ” t \

Templeton flung round at him, eyes blazing,

“Now you're cutting in? I think you call yourself
Kansan! You're as much of a puppy——”

Badger’s hand fell away. .

   

 

 

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

“If you punch him, Diamond, I’ll not try to stop you,”
he rumbled.

“At some other time and place, say what you said a
moment ago,” cried Diamond, “and I'll be glad to have it
out with you!”

“Yere, yere!” shouted Higgins. “Did we come out yere
to scrap, er what?”

The sheriff lifted his voice.

“If you men will stand outside, Higgins and I will
go through this house,” he said.. “But if you’re goin’ to
stay inside and make faces, why, we can’t go on. I don’t
want to have to arrest everybody, and carry a load of
prisoners in with me, but you seem tryin’ to make me
do it.”

Diamond calmed down, and he and Badger went out-
side. Higgins and the sheriff searched the house and its
occupant.

“In that bureau drawer, there,” said Templeton to them,
“you'll find the two golf balls I picked up out on the
course, after I came back from the hotel. I tried to
open ’em, but couldn’t without smashin’ em, and that
dynamite talk I heard made me afraid to do that; I think
they’re just golf. balls.”

The sheriff found the balls in the bureau drawer, looked
at them carefully, and stowed them in his pocket.

“T’ll take ’em to town,” he said. “We can find out
there what’s in ’em, if anything.”

The search revealed nothing else.

“Sorry I had to do this, Templeton,” the sheriff apolo-
gized.

“T ain’t blamin’ you,” said Templeton, “you had to
do your duty; I’m blamin’ that whelp out there that they
call Jack Diamond, and I’ll be even with him before I’m
through with it.”

Diamond’s dark face appeared in the door; he had heard
the words, and he was_ wrathy.

“What’s that?” he said hotly.

“Cool down, Diamond,” the sheriff warned. “You can’t
blame the man.”

“I'd be ready to apologize to him,” said Diamond, “if
he hadn’t called me a whelp.”

“Apologies not wanted,’ Templeton flung at him. “And
carry this’to Merriwell, as from me, will you? He started
you in this—gave the hint that I had attacked him; it
looks it. Just say to him re

“Cut it out!” the sheriff ordered sharply.

All left the shack, climbed into the waiting automobile,
and sped back to Skyline.

At the sheriff’s office the golf balls were opened care-
fully, and were found to be—golf balls.

While this examination was being made, one of the
hotel girls came to Merriwell’s room, where she met Inza
at the door, and was admitted.

The maid was a comely girl, but fagged by the heat
and the hard work of the summer.  .«

 

Merriwell had so far recovered that he was sitting in
an easy-chair by the window overlooking the side street,
the window that opened on the fire escape. The maid,
regarding him with interest, hesitated before stating her
errand

“T’ve been so afraid of blaming somebody where I
shouldn’t,” she prefaced, “that I’ve kept still, but I did
see a man on that fire escape about the time Mr. Mer-
riwell was attacked. He was one of the men that came
here with Mr. Barnett’s show, and he has been stopping

i

    
 

j
4]
4
t

aici

ay anaes

 
          

   
TO

I thought nothing about it at the time,
a little

in the hotel here.
though seeing him there
he took that to get into the yard.”

“You would know him again?” asked.

“Well, I can tell you his name right now, and | don’t
want to get him into trouble, if he had nothing to do
with it. And, of course, I don’t want to to go
into a court and tell about it. Id be’ frightened
death if I had to. “And, perhaps, he did nothing—that is,
nothing wrong. There are other ways he could have got
on that fire escape without going out at that window;
he could have reached it from the room below this, or by
halls that lead to it from both floors. So it’s no
proof, because he was on the fire escape.”

“You wouldn’t mind giving us his name?”
kindly.

The girl turned to him.

“T know that you’re a good man and a gentleman, Mr.
Merriwell, and wouldn’t want to get a girl into any trouble
but if you should find out for
I’d be willing

made me wonder why

way back

Inga

have
to

the

Merry asked

where there’s no need,
true that he was the man who attacked you,
and tell what, I saw.”

said. “We'll promise not to
among ourselves and friends—
unless we get other proof.

then to go into a court

“T understand you,” he

mention his
not make the suspicion public,
Will that satisfy you?”
“Well,
on

he
the

name except

name is Will Harkness. That’s his: name
He had an act in Barnett’s vaudeville—

and he has been stopping here since

his
the register,
dancer ;
up.”

was a
show broke
30th Merriwell and Inza thanked her for this show of
confidence, and the girl departed. ©

Jack Diamond had to return-to the point on the river
where the big well drill was at work, and he went out
that

there afternoon.

Diamond was a practical engineer, and he had been
making good in some difficult engineering work in the
mountains. Frank Merriwell’s plan to get water out of a
practically dry river had met his enthusiastic approval
as soon was presented to him, and he was now
in charge of the drill and digging machinery, doing all
to aid his old friend.

as it

he could

Merriwell’s plan was simplicity itself.

As every could the wells on the farms and
small ranches furnished water abundantly in the dryest
seasons, over an area that reached for miles on each
side of the river; a thing which proyed that the water
supplying these wells was not dependent on the amount
in the river. All. up and down the river this
was true. It demonstrated that here, under the ground,
was an inexhaustible water supply.

To raise it by windmills and ordinary pumping engines
was a slow process. Qnly a few acres could be irrigated
in that way, oftep no more than twenty or thirty, even
where large engines and many wells were provided. And
the sugar company, with thousands of acres, needed water
in greater abundance, irrigating sanals and ditches filled
with flowing water.

Another thing known to Whee sburctt and to many others,
was that the depth at which water was reached in these
wells showed that the closer to the river’ they were the
less was the depth,

This demonstrated that the river lay at the bottom of a
And, as water always seeks its lowest

one see,

of water

shallow. trough.

level, wells sunk in the bed\of the river, or at the side /

/

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

the river bed, would
the amount of water that gravitation was for-
drawing dawn through the soil toward the channel.
Merriwell was sinking a testing well and preparing
to dig a chain of great wells, and to sink other chains of

The wells were to be connected—and powerful

of
get
ever

as Merriwell was sinking his,

vast

them.
mining pumps were to be set up.
not be able to exhaust these wells, furnished as they
would be by the under-flow drainage of that vast valley
region.

thus raised was to be sent out into the irri-
already constructed, or to be constructed,

The water
gating ditches

or stored in a lakelike reservoir in seasons when the use
All through the fall and

of water was not required.
winter months the batteries of giant pumps could go
on working, storing the water that would be used through
the
In addition, it was known to everybody that the river
was well filled during certain of the months when no
crops were raised—through the late weeks of
winter and the early part of spring; and that even
devastating floods were to be expected in May and June.
Merrjwell’s comprehensive irrigating scheme provided
for diverting the river floods into the big reservoir or lake
that was to be excavated beyond the river; a lake that
would cover hundreds of acres, and, when filled, would
give a depth of many feet of water.
Thus, all the possibilities of securing and storing water

growing season.

being

in a region where prosperity depended almost solely on —

it were being provided for.

It was no wild dream,
enthusiast, but a working scheme, requiring the expendi-
ture of large capital, but which was sure to succeed.

Already the very dream of the things which would
come true when Lake Merriwell, as the reservoir was
already named by the people, was filled and furnishing its
life-giving water, was causing property and town lots in-
Skyline, with farm and ranch prospects, to soar to un-—
believable financial heights.

Jack Diamond, working under Merriwell, in a plan of
such vast possibilities, knowing, too, that Merriwell had —
the financial backing of a great American sugar company,

was ready to give to it the best there wag in him, and |
give it unsparingly. ee

As soon as Diamond turned away from Skyline, ‘that |
afternoon, and went out to the river and the drill work,

he determined to put out of his mind the words of Clark

Templeton. “
“I refuse to let the snarling of a dog like that trouble
* he said to himself.

ra da was on the road to recovery, a thing to 8
thankful for, and to make any friend of his noe and

 

 

His belief was that
even the strongest pumps and batteries of pumps would

no hair-brained plan of an

  

4

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oe

a

{

+

~

 

 
 
  

   

 

 

optimistic.
As for the loss of the diamonds, it was plain: they had

been stolen, and it was up to the sheriff and Higgins

find thee thiel. In ane a hand in the seatch -§ :

    

thief seakoue was not in his line. If the dintacillg ea
not eer ae would know aha to do,

 

thing. .
“Merry will see this test well gutaied: betene i is”
to get out here again,” Diamond was thick

   

  
  
   

    
    

    

in:
re;

ne

ye
wo
the

Jac

dia
snc
ket
aol

you
in
Ter

and
bor
hea
sect
crac

line
his

  
  
    
     
    

vould
for-
yinel,
aring
ns of
erful
that - .
vould ©
they
valley

trrpis

acted, -
e use
(and |
d go
rough

river
‘n no
ss of
even
June.
vided
r lake
: that
would —

water.
ly on

ae

+f : aah.

pendi-
d.
would —
> was.”
ng its —

ots ae

oun- |

On

an of |

had
npany, | s

and |

ite 9 oat

i that te
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work,

   
   
    
 
  
 

   

inspected \the work: done in his absence and heard the
report furnished by Gallup.

Finding a chance for a few words with Gallup, Dia-
mond acquainted him with what had taken place in and
near the town.

“T want tew know!” the Yankee gasped. “Waal, naow
yeou can see haow it is with thet Dutch cabbige head;
wouldn’t been a thing of this ef he hadn’t been out on

thet golf ground, losin’ them balls.”

“But the diamonds weren’t in the balls that were lost,”
Jack corrected.

“No? Waal, there wouldn’t been any golf balls and
diamonds thet we would know abaout ef Hans hadn’t
snooped raound and pulled the strings thet got Barnett
ketched up and arrested, would there? Yeou can’t wiggle
aout of that.”

Diamond smiled at Gallup’s apparent earnestness.

“You like that Dutchman, and you know you do! But
you have to talk. Now get this in your nut. You'll be
in charge here whenever I’m away. Watch out for
Templeton.”

That night, while Diamond was in Skyline, and Gallup
and the drill crew were asleep, the big drill that was
boring the testing well was dynamited. There was a
heavy, rumbling underground explosion, which threw out
sections of the heavy drill, broken and ruined, and
cracked and twisted the well casing.

Wtihin an hour afterward, Ephraim Gallup was in Sky-
line with the ominous report, having ridden in as fast as
his horse could carry him.

CHAPTER VI.
THE FINISH OF THE FOURSOME,

Though backed by no evidence, it was the general be-
lief among Merriwell’s friends that Templeton, seeking
to get even with Jack Diamond, had dynamited the well,
and probably had used for the purpose the explosive golf
ball which Barnett declared had been with the golf balls
that came into Merriwell’s possession by purchase. Four
golf balls had been lost on the grounds, and but two had
been recovered from Templeton.

The telegraph wires to Kansas City were kept hot for a
few hours ordering repairs. for the drill and the well
casing; and Diamond was busy in trying to lift the dam-

e aged casing and fish up certain parts of the drill that
| had been left in it.

_ Dunnerwust, sure that he had all the instincts of a
Nick Carter, found himself with a double-barreled mys-

tery on which to exercise his talents, and gave himself

up to it assiduously. When he was not trailing the show-

. man who had been named by the hotel maid, he was out

on the golf grounds, watching Templeton’s house.
One day he Was found out there with a bruised face

~ and eyes blackened, having been savagely assaulted by

 

 
  
   
   
 
   
 

Templeton, who had caught him looking in at his windows.

“You fellows can meander tound them links if you want
to, but if you come foolin’ round my house, you get it,”
Templeton had declared to him, and then had beaten
him up.

and watching the house, with eyes so puffed he could
tdly see, when som¢ of his friends, coming out to
the golf course, found ‘him. /

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

I am caming mit sooch a slowness.

- Dunnerwust crawled off a short distance, and was lying”

Diamond was with the party, which had come out on
horseback. The party consisting of Badger and Mrs.
Badger, and Inza Merriwell, in addition to himself. Hav-
ing seen that Diamond was overworking, they had in-
duced him to drop all thoughts of the well drill for a
little while, for a game of golf.

It was to be a foursome.

Diamond stood looking off at Templeton’s, an angry
glitter in his dark eyes, after the battered German had
told his story. /

Then he turned away.

“Oh, well——”

“T ton’dt vant you to gidt madt mit him,” Dunnerwust
urged. “Idt iss me dot he haf to seddle. I am going
to landt him in chail mit Parnett, undt ton’dt let idt forget
you.”

Templeton did not show himself, and the foursome was
begun, Diamond and Inza playing against Badger and his
wife. Diamond led off, followed by Badger. Dunner-
wust insisted on being caddy.

“Uff I lose me dhese palls, idt iss make noddings oudt,”
he urged. “Dhere iss no tynamite in ’em.”

Inza found the ball driven by Diamond bunkered, in a
little pit with grass tufts growing on one side and a ball
cactus on the other.

“Now see what you’ve done,” she said, puckering her
red lips, as she studied how to loft the ball to the best
advantage; “you couldn’t have picked a worse place.”

Diamond laughed.

“T might have put it under that little bridge over the
dry ditch there,” he said. “Take this iron.” He drew
out one as Dunnerwust came up to him.

“Der eye vot ain’dt kvite svelled oop I am keebing on
dot haus,” Dunnerwust explained gravely; “dot iss vhy
I tought I saw

‘him loogking oudt by der vindow in.”

He stood off as Inza prepared to loft the ball.

“Oh, dose dimes uff longk ago,” he exclaimed, admiring
her. “Dose dimes vhen I am a simbledon poy, undt you
undt Elsie Pellvoodt make Frankie Merriwell go roundt
like a spinvheel.”

Inza laughed, and her iron came down.

“Hans, what are you talking about?”

“Ach, Dose vos der habby dimes,
eh?”

“These are happy times, too, Hans. I feel as light as
a bird, now that Frank is nearly well again. But don’t
talk, unless you want Buck and Winnie to beat us.”

She lifted her iron again, and lofted the ball. It went
soaring. Winnie made her stroke; and all went on, fol-
lowing the balls.

you know me!

Buck Badger made a good shot from a bad lie, and
the contestants approached the green.

“Whose site am I blaying on?” Dunnerwust asked, as
Diamond. got into position, intending to try to hole his
ball.

“Neither,” Winnie told him; “you’re the caddy.”

“Budt I mean, who iss in symbaty mit me—who do I
holler vor?” /

“For our side,” said Winnie.

“For our side,” said Inza.

Diamond drove the ball; but he struck it with too much
force—it went two yards beyond the hole, crossing it and
jumping out.

  
 

 

12 NEW TIP

Badger followed, and fell short.
It was again Inza’s turn,

colored her cheeks. With a tap that seemed barely to

touch the ball, she sent it true, and in it dropped.
The game went on. ,
Dunnerwust did not know for which side he would

“holler” in the end, for first one side seemed leading,
then the other.

At the third putting green Diamond had built his tee;
he was first to drive off. He was. balancing a heavy

club, and looking on ahead to ‘see where to send his

ball; then he looked at the ball, lifting his club for
the stroke.
Dunnerwust gave a sudden squawk. In his interest

in the game, he had been forgetting to watch Templeton’s
shack. Now Templeton was approaching, and close by.
As the squawk of fright and warning left the lips
of the
his hand, and threw it up,
Jack Diamond.

German, Templeton jumped forward, a revolver in

with muzzle pointing toward

¢

Badger and Wirnie ‘were some distance off; Diamond
and Inza, with Dunnerwust, formed a group. Dunner-
wust’s short, fat legs got in motion, moving on Temple-
ton, as Inza screamed her alarm. “

Jack Diamond, turning his head, saw the lifting re-
volver; saw Templeton’s faee working like that of a

madman; heard the loud words that fell from his lips.
Diamond’s golf club was in the air, and he had only
time to bring it over in a golfing stroke.

Instead of driving in the direction he had intended, he
pulled the club round, and drove the ball with all the
force of his strong arms at the breast of the man who
threatened his life.

It went true as a rifle bullet.

There was a heavy, thumping blow as the ball struck;
the next instant the huge, hulking form of Clark Temple-
ton crumpled together and dropped, the revolver falling
out of his hand.

Badger was running toward the scene, shouting, and
Winnie was coming behind him. Dunnerwust jumped at
the revolver and clawed it out of the grass. For a mo-
ment, as he danced like an Indian, it seemed that he
meant to put a bullet into the man on the ground.

Inza stood reeling, the color all gone from her face.

With a jerk, Jack Diamond pulled himself together,
and, with a calmness rare to see, walked over to the

crumpled form on the ground.
“Tdt vos a closeness vor your life,” Dunnerwust sput-
tered. “You haf kilt him, I peliefe me.”
“Sorry I had to hit so hard,” said Diamond ;

would you-—”

“but what

Dropping down by Templeton, he looked into the drawn
face, and saw a trace of blood on the lips.

Badger came up at a run.

“The coyote,” he gasped; “I saw that, Diamond, but I
was too far off! If you hadn’t been as quick as chained
lightning——”

“T think we'd better get him into the house,” said
Diamond quietly ; “then go or send for a doctor. We can
carry him, big as he is. Dunnerwust, seamper over to his
house and get some water; there’s a well there.”

“Can’t we make a stretcher?” Winnie demanded nerv-
ously. ‘Buck, get some blankets from the house, and

and the flush of excitement,

   

 

 

 

TOP WEEKLY.
something to make a stretcher with; then we can help
in carrying him.”

3ut Buck Badger, who had the muscles of an ox, got ©
the stricken man on his shoulder, with Diamond’s help,
and carried him bodily.

The cold water that Dunnerwust brought from the well 1 ;
revived Templeton when it was sprinkled in his face,

“No, don’t go for a doctor,” he said, when he heard :
the order being given, and saw that Badger was preparing c
to ride to the town. ae

But Buck galloped away. | ‘

Diamond sat by the bed, doing what he could to make x
Templeton comfortable. n

“Vhy dit you do idt?”’ Dunnerwust demanded. “To- Pe
tay you haf salt undt battered me, undt now idt iss t .
Tiamondt.” :

“You have been spying on me, when I am innocent; and |
this man insulted me. When I was in town to-day I I
was called a thief by some small boys on the street,
who had heard of the burglary charge this man brought, mn
against me. It made me crazy, and it was enough to
make me so. That’s your. answer.” th

“Vhy vos you in der hodel, and make a schneak oudt th
uff idt vhen Merry iss |

“Hold your tongue!” said Templeton. ty dhe

He rolled off the bed, found a chair, and sat down in i or ad

 

 

 

it. Sitting thus, he glared round the room, at Inza and T
Winnie, at Diamond and Dunnerwust. all
“I have been an abused man,” he declared hoarsely, his ~§
eyes glittering. ‘The sugar company cheated me and te
took my land for almost nothing. All I’ve got now is Ja
this little plot of ground ‘and this little shack. And be- his
cause I am poor, and happened to find some golf balls
that were lost, I. am treated like a criminal. If your | 9%
crowd thinks I will stand for it——” BYR -
He got up and walked about. } q ‘ r zs
Abruptly he turned on Diamond. | gir
“The man responsible is Merriwell!” he cried.. “I was Yo
about to send him once some thoughts of mine. Now | i
send him this: Let him look out for himself! And all _
of you, now—if you will leave my house, you will oblige . Be
me. As for that doctor, I don’t need him and I don’t Pas
want him.” anc
He turned in his walk, and looked at Diamond again. | Gal
“And. mind this. If an attempt is made to arrest me — - iN
'll shoot the sheriff hc Of

 

for what happened this afternoon,
or any man that comes here to lay hands on me.” - —

 
  
 

Diamond was not a good man to start: an Spee
with a man in the mood of this one. Winnie and Inga
tried it, in their femininely persuasive way, and gave the
attempt over to Badger, whose tongue, though he did
not so use it now, could be as rough as the back of a
hedgehog. iss

When Templeton became too abusive, they left hints ‘and
his house and returned toward the town; on the way —
there they met the physician who was going out %, ee
him.

    
  
  
  
  
   
    
    
   

The rete went on, ee their talk ie

 

         
 
 

    
  

  

 

NEW

ip t CHAPTER VIL.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JACK DIAMOND.

ae The fact that Jack Diamond had suddenly and mysteri-

elp, ously vanished was not known until Ephraim Gallup

came into town one morning to get some instructions
well from him about the work to be done at the well.

C.. “T meant to got these ’ere orders frum him last evenin’,

card -thinkin’ I hed time before he went away, but when I

ring come tew look fer him, he wuz gone. So I had tew ride

_ - in, yeou see.”
b Gallup was speaking to Merriwell, whom he found tak-
lcs ing a sun bath in a chair before the hotel in the early
morning.

To- i Merry had declared to every one that he had recov-
; » ered, yet he was still weak, and his face looked pinched
ie and white; he had recovered mentally, but not physically.

He was feeling well again because he willed to be well.
and py “{ haven’t seen Diamond,” he said. “He wasn’t here

y To last night, nor this morning.”

Peet, | “I want tew know!” Gallup exclaimed, in his astonish-

ight | ment.

7 we “You're sure he isn’t at the well? He has a little room

j there, in the bunk house, and sleeps there when he
pudt thinks the work demands it.”

{ “IT went tew his room,” Gallup explained; “but his bed
_ hadn’t been occypied at all.” His eyes looked troubled.
n in A “T don’t like the appearance of this ’ere, naow, do yeou?

and .—s Tempileton has been threatenin’ him, and ‘we’ve been
__allaowin’ it wuz Templeton thet dynamited the well. He’s
“Bs. A, cut aout, yeou know.”
ae | “I thought of Templeton. Only yesterday I warned
eH i. Jack to look out for him. It’s likely that Templeton had
i ar his finger in it, if anything has happened to Jack.”
balls oe Merry got up and went into the hotel. When he came
your 4 out, Buck Badger and Bruce Browning were with him.
_ |. ¢ Gallup was still on his horse in the street.
ioe . “The clerk says Diamond wasn’t here last night,” Merry
; ay announced to Gallup. “Bruce is going in search of Hig-
oe gins, and Badger will ride out to Templeéton’s shack.
was = You'd better ride back to the well and make sure that
ww I Diamond isn’t there, for he may have returned in your

i all. “45 absence. T’ll look about here.’

 

blige ty The tall Yankee drew his horse round and clattéred
jon’t | away, thoroughly alarmed. Merry returned into the hotel,
a and acquainted his wife and Winnie Badger with what
in, _ Gallup had reported.

me { When Higgins came in, with Browning, the manager
eriff | of the hotel was sent for; then the maid who had given
- | information was summoned. She entered the room Jook-
ment | ing frightened when she saw Higgins.

“Ym the marshal o’ this yere town, ye know,” said

 
 

> the } Higgins; “so I’ve got a right to ask questions, and to
did expect answers. The story you told to these people, about

 

$eein’ a showman named Harkness on the fire escape
about the time Merriwell was knocked out and/ robbed
been told to me. Templeton, who lives in that
shack out by ther golf grounds, was suspected then, and
now he’s missin’; and one of our friends, named Jack
Diamond, who he had threatened, is missin’, too. So,
it all round, I think you'd better jest go over that
ory ag’in.”

“You don’t believe me?
_ Scared,

 
 
    
 

  

 

  

,

she cried, her eyes big and

TIP TOP WEEKLY.

EEO ae

nee

   
    

-explain. “I’m allus ready an’ eager to take the word

of a lady, onless she’s biased; I’ve known ’em to be so
biased they plum’ walked in circles when they wuz tryin’
to tell the truth. In lookin’ round, tryin’ to do my duty
as marshal, I’ve dropped to the fact that Templeton was,
er—ruther sweet on you; beggin’ your pardon fer havin’
to say it so plump out, jest like firin’ a pistol. And if

 

”

 

he was

“Well, he did call to see me that day—just a minute;
though it was against the rules for me to see any gentle-
man during working hours,” she admitted, her eyes
glistening with sudden tears.

“A-hem!” said Higgins, as if clearing his throat; “and,
not wantin’ the proprietor yere to see him when he was
leavin’, he jest dropped down the back way by means 0’
the fire escape.”

The girl began to cry.

“Well, Mr. Morgan”’—that was the name of the pro-
prietor—“he was coming through the hall,” she explained,
“and, of course, Mr. Templeton couldn’t go out by way
of the office, and he didn’t want to go through the
kitchen 7

“So he jest dropped out by way o’ the fire escape, in-
cidentally rappin’ Merriwell on ther head and takin’ ther
golf balls and diamonds, I’m sorry about this—sorry
you felt called to say it was another man that you seen
on the fire escape—man named Harkness!”

The girl wiped her eyes with her apron.

“T’ll lose my place here, I suppose,” she said, but with
the air of one who knows that in the West maids are
scarce and hard to. get, and secure positions with the
utmost readiness, “but that. wasn’t a lie, except in one
way. I did see Mr. Harkness; but he wasn’t on the fire
escape, he was right in the hall, out there. And it was
at that time.”

“I see! That was all the proof you had ag’inst him?
He was in the hall. And when you was asked, ther fact
that he had been in the hall made you think of puttin’
him on the fire escape and connectin’ him with that other
matter, to throw suspicion away from Templeton.”

“Has Mr. Templeton gone?” she asked tearfully.

“Cleared out for his own good,” said Higgins; “and if
he manhandled Jack Diamond while he was doin’ it, there
will sure be one hangin’ in Kansas, even if ’tain’t ther
general habit, jest as soon as he can be caught.”

The maid was not discharged by the proprietor—he did
not see how he could get along without her; also, it was
thought that if she rerhained in the hotel, under surveil-
lance, and was questioned now and then, something more
might be learned.

When Buck Badger returned from Templeton’s, re-
porting Templeton not there, and Gallup came in on his
horse with the statement that Diamond had not been at
the well, and no one there could even guess what had
become of him, the feeling fell on all that the situation
was serious.

 

Dunnerwust met Gallup on the street soon after the
Yankee had made his unfavorable report.

“Another myst’ry fer yeou tew butt intew and make
more trouble fer ever’body all raound,”’ Gallup growied,
as if he were not delighted to meet the German again
and as often as he could. “If yeou'll jest keep aout of
it this time——”

“Undt ledt noddings be dit?’ Dunnerwust snapped.
“Dot odder dime——”

i
i

|

ee

q

 

     
     
   

   
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
     
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
 
  
   
  
   
   
   
    
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
 

EE ———EEE

 
  

_ And Badger has ag’in gone aout tew Templeton’s.

 

a4 NEW TIP ‘TOP WEEKLY.

“Ain’dt yeou ever goin’ tew sing any other song but
thet?” Gallup reproved. “Jest bercuz yeou happened——”

“Habbened! Ditn’dt I make idt habben? Vhen nopody
vouldt do neddings, ditn’dt I do somedings?”

“An’ naow yeou’re goin’ tew find Jack Diamond, o’
course !”

“Uff a sureness I am. I know righdt vhere he iss.”

“Dew tell! Where is it?”

“Dempleton has got him.”

“Where ?”

“Vell, dot iss vot I am to inwestigate. Idt vouldt be
no tedectif case uff dhere vos noddings to inwestigate.”

“Whut I’m afraid of is that he’s killed Diamond. He
tried tew shoot him in the golf grounds——”

“No, idt. vos in der headt; I seen idt. Budt dot iss
no sign dot he iss kilt him. Dempleton addacked me.
Budt am I deadt? I haf got a plue-plackness by der
eyes, budt oddervise

“Where yeou goin’ tew begin? Higgins is rakin’ the
taown over. Merry and Browning aire doin’ ther same.
I’ve
So where aire yeou goin’

 

jest got in from ther well——
tew butt intew the game?”

“T ton’dt haf to gif idt avay—nodt to you.”

Dunnerwust walked off chestily.

Gallup grinned in his homely way, amused by the Ger-
man, yet admiring him.

“Good old Hans,” he thought ;
and can’t dew northin, jest bluffin’.. But ef he could, er
could find a way, he’d go ther limit in tryin’ tew do
all he could. Waal, guess I’ll kite back tew thet well
onct more. Might ’a’ suthin turned up there.”

The search carried out that day for news or trace of
Jack Diamond was feverish in its intensity. The prairie
and valley land by the golf links and beyond were gone
over as with a comb. Higgins fairly turned the town of
Skyline upside down, And out at the well and along
also, far over into the sand hills beyond, the

Diamond and. for Clark Templeton were

“he don’t know northin,

the river,
quest for
prosecuted.

Badger rode here and there with the speeding impetu-
osity of a cowboy. Browning forgot his laziness and was
moving without rest. Inza and Winnie did what they
could, questioning the maid again and the servants and
even the guests of the hotel.

In addition to these closé friends of Jack Diamond,
there were scores of people who gave aid; men and
women who admired Frank Merriwell, and who, having
in the brief time of his stay there met and known Jack
Diamond, had come to love the honest heart and gentle-
manly demeanor of the Southerner, who was as courtly
as if he belonged to the true old school, even while he
carried in his breast a hot Southern heart and a proverbial
chip on his shoulder.

But the frenzied search ended in failure.

Of course, there was no work done on the broken drill
and at the dynamited' well that day, except that a few
men remained there to guard the place and do the few
necessary things.

Gallup was riding round, here and there, a bit wildly
and vaguely, when he was not “jawing” Dunnerwust or
discussing with him the general situation.

Dunnerwust, hurling himself about, picking up clews
and dropping them again, had not much time for wordy
contests with Gallup, yet always came to the scratch

( Ral oR oy
C20 lh whaler Sef sloon’,

when Gallup appeared spoiling for their perennial and
friendly fight.

“Yeou don’t know no more than yeou did this mornin’,
and then yeou didn’t know northin,” Gallup told him,
when night, came down and apparently no progress had
been made.

Dunnerwust was resting himself by taking a smoke.

“Yaw, I know more; I am more sure dot you are a

fool, Efy.”

“So? Waal, it ain’t no news thet you’re one. I’m gittin
wuss an’ wuss scat abaout Diamond, I tell yeou. Yeou
know, Hans, haow he is—he’ll fight at ther drop of the
hat, an’ do ther hat droppin’ act himself. So I figger
thet when him and Templeton come together, wherever
"twas, they jest made fer each other; and Jack got his
medicine. Templeton’s as big as a house and stronger’n
a grizzly.”

“Yack iss no shickens, neidher.”

“Naw, he ain’t; he’s a scrapper. But ef Templeton jest
got holt of him, Jack wouldn’t had no show, and I figger
thet wuz ther way of it. Then Templeton hid his body
some’ere’s under thet driftin’ river sand, and kited. Can
you dope it out different?”

Balancing on his round legs, Dunnerwust emitted a
cloud of smoke and looked at Gallup. steadily.

“T am vatching dot showmans, Harkness.”

“Whut’s he got tew do with it?”

“Dot dairy maidt says dot he vos in der hall.”

“When Merry wuz knocked out. But thet don’t fit here,
Nobuddy ain’t been thinkin’ abaout him in connection with
this case o’ Diamond’s.”

“Etzackly!” The German volcano threw up another
cloud of smoke.

“Whut do yeou mean by thet?” Gallup demanded.

Dunnerwust spread his fat legs farther apart.

“Yoost vot I saidt. Der rool uff der tedecdif pitzness
iss: Vhen eferypody iss loogkin’ vun vay, you yoost loogk
der odder.
a tief to gatch a tief. Vhen

“But Merry’s wuz a case 0’ robbery. It looks like Dia-
mond has been killed fer revenge an’ ginral anermosity.”

“So eferypody iss hundt vor Derapleton. I sday me
by der town in undt I vatch Harkness. He haf peen
fordy-’leven blaces to-day, undt I haf peen yoost as
many. He iss a skyvayman. Dit you know dot Diamondt
had zwei hunert tollars in his cheans vhen der lasdt dime
he vent oudt to dot vell?”

“Naw. Two hunderd?”

“You ask Vrankie. I foundt idt oudt dhis morning,
Vrankie, he toldt me dot himselluf, undt he iss gif idt to
Diamondt to bay off der mans at der vell drill.”

“Chaowder !
itr

“Now you see my cheneral meanness.
iss'a skyvayman, undt uff Diamondt vos ropped undt

 

murtert vor dot money—— Vhell, who iss der most like- é

ness.uff a man vot youldt do idt?”
“Thutter! I’m goin’ in to see Merry, an’ see while he
thinks abaout thet idea.”
“Tdt iss a great itea,” Dunnerwust declared soleraage
“How dit I gidt idt? Yoost by der feelingness uff efery.
ving. You pick an itea oudt uff der air, undt you loci :
at idt, undt——”
But Gallup was leaping up the hotel steps, on his way ‘
to talk with Merriwell.

All iss not geldt dot glitters, undt idt dakes ©

Thet puts a differ’nt face on it, don’t

Uff Harkness

  

 

Te ae ee gate ee te oe

gr,

th

7’,

ge

   
 
 

     

 
        
        
       
    
    
   
    
   

        
    
 

 

NEW. TIP
and CHAPTER VIII.
; THE MYSTERIOUS NOTE.
\in’,
ie Under the door of Merry’s room a note was slipped that
» - - . . .
Had night, and. was found by him in the morning.
It read:

Be Ft ; “PRANK MerrIwELL: We are holding Diamond. He is
ea safe with us, and is well. Our object in detaining him is

to secure possession of the diamonds that were in the
ttin golf balls belonging to Barnett that you bought at the
eou sale. If you will place those diamonds in a box, or
the 7 wrapped in something, at the point in the open land of
ger the sand hills south of the bridge, where you will find
‘ver a flag flying, we will release Diamond. His early release

It will not

his i depends on whether you do this honestly.

er’n pay you, nor him, to try to trap the man we will send
to get the diamonds. If you think this is bluff—keep the
| diamonds, We sign ourselves collectively,
jest apes THe Men Wuo Neep tHE Money.”
ger
ody | It could be seen at a glance that the note had been
Can written by a man of some education. There had been
an attempt at disguising the handwriting, apparently not
da very successful.
Another noticeable. thing was—the note had been placed
there by some one who was in, or had entered, the hotel.
} Its receipt was a relief. For if its statements were
true, Jack Diamond was alive, and that was the important
ere, thing.
with | When Merriwell had exhibited the note to Inza, and
they had anxiously and somewhat excitedly discussed it,
ther 1g Buck Badger and his wife, ‘who were on the floor with
him, were called in,
_ ~~ “Seems to let Templeton out,” said Badger, “and I’ve
4 been dead sure that coyote was guilty.”
gle ti “But he may be one of them,” Winnie suggested.
‘ance cd reckon they ve thrown a rope that they'll tangle
their own legs in, whoever they are.”
Dik. i . “One of the most peculiar things about it to my mind
ity.” ies” said Merry, “that whoever wrote this note doesn’t
me 3 know that the diamonds have been stolen from me; con-
been sequently doesn’t know that I was attacked. But. he does
as | know that at the sale I bought the golf balls, and he knew
phdt that diamonds were in them—that Barnett concealed his
lime diamonds in the goif balls he used in his juggling act.”
There were exclamations and knitted brows when this
was set before them.
ling. “That seems to prove several things,” Merry went on.
It to Re “Tt is some one who knew Barnett concealed diamonds
isin ‘his juggling golf balls. Yet the writer hasn’t kept in
lon’t | close touch with happenings here in Skyline; so, for some

  

days, at least, he has not been in Skyline, as he couldn’t
- have been here without knowing what has occurred; for
the whole town knew it.

   
  
   
  

“That seems to show further that instead of being
several mer’ who need the money, it is one man; it seems
unlikely that a number of men would appear here sud-
denly, ignorant of what had happened, and do this.”

“Then we're not to forget that some one .in the hotel,
‘or who entered it last night, put the letter under the
‘door; and, if a stranger, to do that he had to learn

4

 
 
   

    
  
   
 

It seemed that Dunnerwust’s “idea” was being backed
proof. ‘

  

   

TOP WEEKLY. I

ne en

   

cat

Badger was. walking round, listening, hunching his thick
shoulders.

“TI know those sand hills,” he said. “We'll just go out
and locate that flag, and then we'll lay for the whelp,
after. leaving something there that he will think is his
diamonds.”

“And jeopardize Jack’s life!” said Winnie.

“Well, we can’t put the diamonds there—they’re not
come-at-able. But just suppose that we could; what as-
surance have we that those coyotes would release Dia-
mond after they got them? I don’t know that I like the
looks of this,” he added, as he continued to walk round.

Though breakfast was awaiting them, they passed it by;
even the women were anxious to go out into the hills
at once and see that flag and study the, situation.

srowning was in the lobby, having had his breakfast.
When they had picked him up and gone on into the street,
they encountered Gallup and Dunnerwust.

Having secured an automobile, into which all hurried,
they were setting out, when Bill Higgins came up on his
horse, his cowboy hat flared back, his marshal’s star
shining on his breast.

4: he asked.- “Well, a little trundle round
in an ottermobile will do you all good; air’s nice this
mornin’.” \

It was ‘plain that bluff and honest old Bill Higgins had
not slept well that night; his eyes were red-lidded and
his grim face was almost cadaverous in appearance. He
had been untiring in his efforts to located Diamond and
the man who it was supposed had assailed him.

“We're going for a little spin, Higgins,” said Merry;
“can’t you gallop along with us? Or hitch your horse
and climb in here; there’s plenty room.”

The lock he gave Higgitis made the latter know. this
was important.

”

No news yit?

“So?” said Higgins, his eyes widening, “I'll jest accept
yer invite, Merriwell, after I hitch this critter over there.
I’m that lazy, ye know,” he added, for the benefit of
some men who were passing, “that I can’t pass up an
invitation ter ride in any upholstered gas wagon.”

In a minute he had his horse hitched, and was in the
automobile.

Having stowed himself in the front seat, between
Browning and Merriwell, who was driving the car, he
asked quietly:

“What's on the midway?”

“We've a tip that Diamond is being held for a ransom—
letter to that effect. We're to go Sut beyond the bridge
now.”

“So?” said Higgins, breathing heavily. “It eases up
ther cinches to know ’t he’s livin’, don’t it? I’m breathin’
better already. Is he helt out there?”

“We don’t know where he is held; but we’ye been in-
structed where to leave the ransom—Barnett’s diamonds,
that I’m supposed still to have in my hands.”

“Oh, them! Templeton is in it?”

“We don’t know.”

“H’m-m !”

The car was pointed southward, and was spinning down
the dusty street. leaving the town behind, it
crossed the lowland leading to the almost shoreless river ;
and they saw before them the flimsy mew bridge, built
on pilings, so that it resembled nothing in the world so
much as a giant centipede with its back arched over the
river sands.

Soon

 
   

 
  

  

be much more;

16

 

With a rumbling roar they passed over this long bridge
and bored into the heavy sand of the new- roadway
beyond it.

When they had climbed the first hill, they saw. be-
fore them a more than mile-wide, cup-shaped valley,
whose rim was the ragged hills, and in its center a small
flag, or handkerchief, upheld by a stick thrust into the
sand. :

Browning explained to Higgins the significance of the
flag and its location as the automobile ran down to it.

“Ther critter had to come yere to set it,” Higgins re-
marked, “and maybe we'll find his tracks.”

But in the night the wind had been blowing, and the
man’s footprints had been covered with sand.

Stopping the automobile, they sat looking at the flag,
which they now saw was a bright-red handkerchief, of the
bandanna variety, supported by a green willow stick, that
had apparently been cut by the river.

“Don’t tell much,” said Higgins.

“You'll notice how far off the hills are,” remarked
Badger; “the nearest must be all of half a mile, and may
distance is mighty deceptive here. ~° It
would take a harder-shooting gun than there is in this
country to put lead into a man here from any of those
hills,”

“I reckin he figgered that out when he picked on this
place for his flag raisin’”’ was Higgins comment, as he
looked about and at the wind-blown sand by the flag.

When they had examined the handkerchief, a new one,
and the stick, and found in neither anything to help them,
they sat looking at the surrounding hills and discussing
the situation, with many anxious remarks about Diamond.

Circling the valley in the automobile, they visited and
ascended some of the little hills. Behind these hills lay
an uneven sand-blown plateau. Its scanty growth of grass
was of the bunch-grass variety, with broom sedge in
scattered tufts. On the hills it was the same. There
were no trees nor bushes.

“A jack rabbit could hide here, and a man might, but.
a horse, never,” said Badger. “I don’t think there is
even a jack rabbit here now. And whenever a wind stirs
up, and it’s blowing here most of the time, this sand
simply crawls, and the tracks of a man couldn’t be seen
half an hour after they were made.”

Looking down into the valley from the tops of these
hills, the handkerchief, and even the stick that upheld it,
could be seen clearly.

“You might think that you could throw a stone to that
handkerchief, but it would take a good rifle to send a
bullet there,” Badger added.

“The feller that planned this out was shore a smart
skunk,” Higgins commented.

“That’s whatever,” said Badger lt Ae “By lying on
one of these hills he could see any one entering or even
approaching: the valley, if they came from the town. You
can see this end of the bridge now, and the tops of
the houses in the town, No one could move down there
without being seen from these hills. Of course, his plan,
or their plan, is to wait somewhere until they see that
the diamonds are left, then go and get them. If guards
were on these hills, they simply wouldn’t go get them.”

Inza had climbed to the hilltop with Merriwell, Badger,
and Higgins.

“But they couldn’t live out here,”

she urged; “they

   

NEW TIP’ TOP “WEEKLY:

 

would have to visit the town to get food. And it’s ter-
rible, if Diamond is held out here anywhere.”

“Looks to me like they’ve got the thing cinched,” said
Badger gloomily. “You see, they won’t appear if any-
body is watching—and they can know if any one is; and
if no one is watching, they can come and go as. they
like. They can cross the river anywhere, if they come
from the town. Half an hour afterward, if they choose

a windy time, which they’re sure to do, they can’t be fol-~

lowed through the hills. As for grub, what is to keep any

man from sneaking from here into the town and buying |

what he wants, after night comes? Nothing.”

“And if they did come down and found nothing,” said
Inza, “or a deceptive something——”

Badger hunched his shoulders in his characteristic way,

_a habit probably caught from Mexicans.

“T reckon,” he said, in answer, “that it might go hard
with Diamond.”

Inza’s face brightened as she turned to Merriwell.

“I’ve an idea,” she declared. |

“That’s good—ideas are scarce with me;
hunting for one.”

I’ve been

“My diamonds, Frank—my necklace! This man thinks
you have Barnett’s diamonds. If we place my diamonds
here for him, that may satisfy him; he probably never
saw Barnett’s diamonds, and will be satisfied: Anyway,
whether he knows whose they are or not re

Her face was flushed with the hope given by her new
idea.

 

“I'd rather leave money,” said Badger; “that’s what
the skunks want. They said diamonds because they
thought Merry had a lot of them that he got easy. But
I don’t want to leave anything here for them.”

“Not to save the life of Jack Diamond?”

“Don’t put it that way. I’d do anything to help Dia-
mond, of course. What I mean is—these coyotes who are
probably now hiding somewhere and peering out at us
oughtn’t to be let win the game so dead easy.”

Inza’s dark eyes searched the tops of the hills.

“Do you suppose they’re looking at us?”

“No way to tell. It would be an all-day job to comb
the tops of these hills; but I’m game for it. Eh, Merri-
well ?”

“I’d remain out and make the search with you——”

“No you wouldn’t—not in your condition; that would
be for Gallup and me; he’s long-legged and hard as nails,
and I’m used to rough work. We could do it, all right.”

“You didn’t let me finish. | I’d be willing to do it if it
would do any good. But when we begin to search, any
man in hiding out here will understand what is on, and
quietly leave. An hour afterward you might find his

tracks, if the sdnd hadn’t covered them over; and if he.

led you a long race, they’d be sure to be covered before
you could catch up with him.”

Inza looked round again.

“But where can they be keeping Diamond—if he is out
here?”

“He is not out here,”

“Vou don’t mean——

“No. We'll believe that he is alive.
held out here.
note doesn’t seem to be out here.”

“They've got ther game won,
grumbled.

said Merriwell.

,

they ; have,”

But -he is ‘not 44>
And right now, the man who sent that aS

Higgins .
“All I see to do, and I hate like pizen to say
it, is to leave the diamonds, or money, down by that

   

      

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flag, and jest stand back and let ’em take it. After
that they'll let Diamond go, if they’ve got him, er ain’t
killed him.”

Returning to the town, they tried to be cheerful, be
cause Jack Diamond was said to be alive, but in their
cheerfulness there was an element of grimness and sad-

=mess.

CHAPTER IX.
DUNNERWUST IS “ON THE YOB.”

Dunnerwust had assured Gallup that he was “on the
yob.”

He had gone out in the automobile, had looked at the
flag and the willow stick, and had climbed heavily to
the tops of some of the sand hills. He had looked owlish

and had asked foolish questions.

He mulled the whole matter over in his slow mind on
the way back almost without speaking.

“Dot iss yoost a fakes,” he had then said.
_ “Waal, ther flag is right there, tew prove whut the
letter said,” Gallup asserted. “Yeou seen it.”
“Undt ve left idt behint me. Yaw.”
“Whaddah yeou think?”
“Yack Diamondt iss nodt by der sandt hills in.”
“TI don’t allaow he is myself.”
“Undt der mans iss in dher town.”
“Haow do yeou know?”
“By der feelingness uff me. Also-o undt likevise I
knowed idt pecause I haf some praininess by der dop uff
my headt, vhich iss lacking in yeou.”

“Chawoder, do yeou want me tew thump ye?”

“Efy, ve are nodt fighdting; ve are yoost talking mit
a friendtly feeling for owersellufs undt Diamondt. Uff
dot mans is by der town in, he vill sneaks oudt to dot

- flag adt some time he haf selected undt dake a: loogk.

Uff der diamondts ain’dt in idt, he vill come pack by der
town in again. Iss dot some plainness as your nose?”

“Waal, go on; you’re slower than a beer horse.”

“J vish I hadt idt—some peer; idt iss petter as dhis

Allkaliza vater vot ve haf to trink, in a demperance town,
in .der intemperate Sdate uff Kansas, vhere der vimmins
vote, budt der mans sdill haf to make der lifing. Budt
der boint uff my incommunicadion iss, dot der mans iss
sdaying in der town.”

“And Diamond?”

“I ton’dt know vhere he iss. Vouldn’t saidt idt to Mer-
riwell, budt I am afraidt, Efy, dot Yack Diamondt iss
gone oudt. You keeb idt sdill. Budt vedder Yack iss
lifing or dying, needn’t keeb us vrom gatching der mans.
You see?”

“Chaowder, I ain’t seein’ northen, but I’m hearin’ a lot
o’ yeour foolish talk. How’re ye goin’ to ketch him?”

“T am going to vatch dot showmans.”

“There yeou go ag’in; yeou’re batty with ther heat,
Hans.”

“All right.
der yob.”

Harkness, whom Hans Dunnerwust suspected, was one
of the guests of the hotel. He did not conduct himself
like a guilty man. He knew all the reports that were
public property. He even met Merriwell now and then

You yoost vatch der Dutchman. I am on

and talked with him about the mystery of the robbery in

Merry’s room, And now he was equally willing to talk
with any one about the disappearance of Jack Diamond,

 

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. 17

as soon as the news got out that Diamond had disap-
peared.

Yet he was suspected by every one who was in Mer-
riwell’s secret—suspected of having been the burglar who
entered Merry’s room, struck him down, and rifled his
pockets.

But there was no proof against him, and he did not
seem to know even that he was suspected.

“A showmans,” thought Hans, “iss got to be an acdor,
efen uff he only dances in der fodderville mit his feedt;
idt iss bart uff der pitzness. Undt dhis mans, he iss
acting all der dimes. Budt he ton’dt can fool Dunner-
wust. I am vatching him, undt he ton’dt know idt.”

But in this Dunnerwust was much mistaken. -~Hark-
ness would have been a dull man if he had failed to notice
Dunnerwust’s clumsy manner of shadowing him. Dunner-
wust had followed him about like a tame poodle.

In addition, the German had carried his explorations
into the hotel kitchen, had questioned the maid upstairs,
talked with the bell boys and the clerk, and, pretending
now and then at night to fall asleep in the corridor lead-
ing to Harkness’ room, he had, in that manner, watched
the room.

In doing all this, the simple-minded German had thought
he was using the utmost discretion: he had used whis-
pers, he had moved on tiptoe, he had talked by indirec-
tion. Not once had he asked a straight question, so that
more than half the time the people he queried did not in
the least-know what he meant.

But Harkness knew. So, while the German watched
Harkness, Harkness was watching the German.

Dunnerwust decided, after that visit to the sand hills,
that if he hoped to prevent the sacrifice of Inza Merri-
well’s jewels, it was time for him to “get busy.”

Doing the shadow act in the corridor again that night,
he found, when he had entered the corridor, that Hark-
ness had gone out of his room and left the door un-
locked.

“Iss idt a trap vor me?” Dunnerwust mused. “Uff I
go me in, does he come undt findt me undt peadt oop
my face mit some more plackness undt plueness? Vhell,
idt is courage dot vins pattles, undt der prave deserfs
der fair. Uff I am kilt, I shall die innocent undt fighdt-
ing.”

Pushing the door open, he squeezed his round body
into the room, and closed the door, but did not slip
the inner bolt; he wanted to be able to get out quickly.

Then he began to look round the room, aided only by
the light that came through a window from a street lamp.

Dunnerwust was tiptoeing about with the stealthiness
of a cat, peering into the closet, slipping his fingers into
boxes and vases on the lamp shelf, fingering the lock of
the trunk, pawing under the pillows of the bed, when
quick steps sounded in the corridor; and the door flying
open, a man stood in it.

The man was Harkness.

At the moment Dunnerwust -was > Pawing at the mattress
and the bed clothing.

“So I caught you,”
IT would!”

The German gave a squeal of fright.

“Keeb avay!” he begged.

Harkness came into a room, and kicked the door to,
behind him.

“You Dutch scoundrel, I’ll settle with you now, and I

said Harkness coolly. “I thought

     

. : rs

;

cn ‘ ; 7 es ad ad 8 ae
ee em one, AN Ce LS «

ee ae a4
  

 

——
ae ae named

18 NEW “TIP TOP WEEKLY.

defy any man to say I haven’t the right. And to jail you'll
go, too, for attempted burglary.”

“Keeb avay!” Dunnerwust. squealed.
off uff me.”

Harkness made a jump for him.

Dunnerwust whirled round to meet him, dragging away
the mattress and some of the bed clothing to use as a
shield; and, stumbling as he turned, he fell to the floor,
with these things on top of him.

Harkness, in a rage, began to kick him.

Dunnerwust’s yells arose:
“Hellup! Murter! Keeb off!
Hellup! Murter! Fire! Hellup!”

Footsteps at a run clattered in the corridor, and the
door flew inward, pitching Gallup into the room. Out of
the dimly lighted corridor into the dimly lighted room
was not a great change, and Gallup was not blinded by
the transition. He saw the squirming bundle on the floor,
the man kicking at it savagely, and, rising from the
bundle,» he heard the German’s yells for assistarice.

“Thutter!” he howled, and flung himself on Harkness.

Other footsteps sounded in the hall,

Frank Merriwell and Bill Higgins, ascending ta Merry’s
room, had gained the landing on that floor, when they
were greeted by yells and the sounds of conflict coming
now from Harkness’ room, They recognized the voice
of .Dunnerwust and the shout of Ephraim Gallup.

“Suthin’s shore broke loose,” cried Higgins, and jumped
forward, ready, not only to do his full duty as marshal
of Skyline, but to aid his friends, as well.

“Jerdgin’ by ther sounds,” he added, as he gained the
door, with Merriwell at his heels, “somebudy’s bein’ mur-
dered in yere.”

“Sdop idt! Keeb

am kilt! I am deadt!

Higgins flung into the room, and Merriwell behind him.

Gallup had Harkness down and a furious struggle was
in progress between them; while Dunnerwust, enveloped
in the bed clothing and smothered by the mattress that
had protected him from the kicks, was still bellowing for
help and rolling round.

“Hellup! Murter! Dake him off! Hellup!”

Higgins drew his police club, ready to crack heads
with it,

Merriwell pushed the button by the door and switched
on the lights.

‘Tl learn yeou haow tew kick a friend o’ mine when
he’s daown,” they heard Gallup declaring. “Ouch! If
yeou bite my finger ag’in, I'll massacree ye! Leggo my
windpipe—leggo |”

He flounced, half rose, and struck with his feet.

“Time to take a hand, ‘fore somebudy’s killed,” said

Higgins.

He threw himself on the combatants.

Merriwell, rushing to the aid of Dunnerwust, began
to get him out of the tangle of bedclothes.

Still other footsteps sounded in the corridor.

The occupants of rooms along that. corridor were ap-
pearing, drawn by the uproar of fighting. They crowded

to the door, looking in, shouting and exclaiming.

Higgins pulled the Yankee off his antagonist.  Merri-
well unswathed the German.
door saw it all, under the bright electrics,

Then, when Higgins, drawing up Harkness, was at the
same time threatening him with his club, Merriwell saw
something else.

The mattress had been dragged from the bed, expos-

The staring people at the’

ing the bed tothe springs, except for an intervening sheet
or covering, and in doing so had exposed to view a small
box, whose. top had been pulled off by the drag of the
mattress, The glittering contents of .the box lay revealed
—diamonds.

Merriwell stepped in front of them, to keep them from
being seen by the men in the doorway, though at the
time the men were looking at Higgins and Harkness.

“Dunnerwust was right,” thought Merry. “A box of
diamonds under the mattress—or it would seem so!”

Dunnerwust, staggering about, steadied himself by cling-
ing to the foot of the bed. He also saw the box and its
spilled contents.

“Diamondts!” he yelled. “Ditn’dt I knowed it? You
gan’t keeb a goot man down!”

Harkness, talking volubly and denouncing every one
and everything, heard that cry, and looked at the bed.
When he saw the diamonds, he jumped over to the bed.

Merriwell interposed.

“Are they yours?” said Merry.
are not,”

Seeing, the, diamonds, Higgins swung round with a
jerk, after putting his hand. back to his, hip; then there
was. a suggestive snapping click, and Harkness’ hand,
that had stretched out to grab the diamonds, was man-
acled at. the wrist.

He whirled on Higgins when he felt the touch of the
handcuffs, his face turning white,

“What's. this?” he snarled,

“You’re my pris’ner, I reckon,” said Higgins. ““Any-
way, we been lookin’ fer some diamonds—and I opine
there they aire, in your possession, and in your bed. I
cal’late Dunnerwust an’ Gallup wuz diggin’. ’°em out when
you come in on ’em. You’re my pris’ner, anyhow, till
we see how ’tis.”

Harkness lunged toward the door, trying to break
away. Higgins jerked him back, and contrived to manacle
the other hand.

“You're my pris’ner,” he announced sternly, “and ef
you. pitch round, I'll have to give ye the elub.”

“This is a frame-up,” said Harkness.

He turned, appealing to the men crowding in the door-
way. ii

“Gentlemen,” he said, “this is a frame-up, I found
this Dutchman in my room. He thrust those diamonds

“Hands off, 1f they

under my mattress, and when I came at him, the mattress -

I never saw those
All I ask is fair

was pulled off the bed in the fight.
diamonds before. This is a frame-up.

play.”

“Then you refuse to claim the diamonds?” said Mer-

riwell.
“I never saw them before, I tell you!” Harkness

shouted.

His face was now as white as the sheet-on which the
gems lay, and he. was trembling violently.

Higgins caught Merriwell’s eye.

“Gents,” said Higgins to. the people in the oe “you'll ;
Vm the

jest have to clear out; this ain’t no public show.
marshal, understand.”

He fairly pushed them into the corridor, and, Closing iii

the door on them, he slipped the bolt in place. |
“Set down,” he commanded, speaking to Harkndes,
Harkness dropped limply into a chair.

“That lie don’t go, you know,” said Higgins sternly. ue?

“You've been caught with the goods. Look them dia-

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monds over, Merriwell, and see if they’re the ones that
came out o’ them golf balls; I reckon they aire. And
if they aire, we’ve got this critter fer somethin’ more
than robbery; we’ve got agin’ him a case of attempted
murder.”

CHAPTER X.
THE LURE OF INZA’S DIAMONDS.

Merriwell was sure the diamonds were the ones that
had been in the golf balls. But to make assurance
doubly sure, they were taken to Barnett for identifica-
tion. Before they were shown to him, he described them
so accurately that no doubt of their identification was
left.

Higgins and the sheriff questioned Barnett, not only
about the diamonds but about what he knew of the rec-
erd of Will Harkness. Harkness was present.

“He’s a good dancer,” said Barnett..

“That all?” Higgins growled.

“That’s all T’ll say now,” said Barnett.

When Harkness was led off to another part of the little
prison, on a jail charge, Barnett was again interviewed,
and this time, with Merriwell there, he was shown the
note that had been thrust under the door of Merry’s
room, from the men who claimed to be holding Jack
Diamond.

“Ever see that handwritin’ afore?” demanded Higgins.

Higgins expected him to say that it had been written
by Harkness. The showman’s face clouded.

“T think I know who wrote that,” he said; “a skunk
named. Bill Leavett, who was with my show, in a balanc-
ing turn, and quit me dead cold at Cedar Junction. I
was behind with the salaries, for business hadn’t been
good, and we had a row about it. He has followed on
here, if it’s him.”

He turned to the sheriff.

“Tf you'll let me get at the papers held in the trunk
taken from my tent, I can know certain; for I’ve got
there the contract with me that he signed.”

When the sheriff produced the papers from the trunk,
and the disguised handwriting was compared with the
signature on the contract, any one could see that the
resemblance was more than accidental.

But to find Leavett!

“He’s black-eyed, and wore a thin, black mustache,”
said Barnett. “I wouldn’t give you these items, gents, if

he hadn’t used me dirty; he claims to be an American,

but looks Frenchy.”

“He was in the hotel yesterday,” said Merriwell. “He
came there with a grip, and, I think, claimed to be a
traveling man; anyway, the fellow I have in mind an-
swers to that description.”

“Another thing,” said Higgins. “Of course, we're lettin’
you have these diamonds—they’re yours; but we'll want
’em to use in court when Harkness. is tried fer what he
done to Merriwell. But I’d like to ask you if there ‘was
ary golf ball that had dynamite in it?”

“T said it held an explosive more dangerous than dyna-

_ mite,” Barnett reminded.

“Well, about it?”

“There was in none of the balls an explosive of the
kind you’re thinking about. Those that had anything in
’em held diamonds.” - ver
_ Higgins frowned.°

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

ve

  

You nighabout scared Mer-

“Then, what’d ye mean?
riwell into heart failure.”

A faint smile came to the lips of the prisoner.

“To my, mind there’s nothing half so explosive as dia-
monds. See what these have done here. They nearly
killed Merriwell. They’ve put Harkness into jail. Now
they’re going to trouble Leavett. Is there anything in
the world more explosive—that creates more trouble, I
mean—than diamonds?”

“That’s all you meant?” said Higgins.

“Well, I knew they would come back to me in a big
hurry—I thought they would, if I said one of the golf
balls held a deadly and dangerous explosive; and that
lawyer of mine—well, I didn’t trust him no more than
I trust anybody else. That’s all there was to it. I wanted
the diamonds; I want to sell ’em to get money. I’m °
going to need a lot of it now. In this other matter, I
wouldn’t help Merriwell, but that in doing it I’m getting
in a punch at Leavett.”

“T reckon you need hangin’,” Higgins declared, rising.

“But they don’t hang men in Kansas,” said the prisoner,
his eyes glittering.
was the

Higgins walked out of the room, which

sheriff’s office.

“Gimme my way about it, and there’d soon be a danglin’
ornyment on the nearest lamp-post,” he snarled, when the
door had closed behind him.

* * Ea * x * *

After the heat of summér, with the coming of the
cooler weather of September, a heavy rain fell through-
out that section of the semiarid West.

A rainfall there is worthy of much comment in the
local papers. It is mentioned here only because of its
bearing on the events of this narrative.

Bill Leavett had evaded search,

Merriwell had confidently expected to find him domi-
ciled in the Skyline Hotel. He had left his grip there,
and had vanished. When Bill Higgins, using his au-
thority as marshal, opened it in the presence of the hotel
proprietor, who claimed a lien on it for an unpaid bill,
it was found stuffed with old clothing and old news-
papers.

Not to be found in the town, Leavett was watched for
at the bridge, at other points along the river, and in
the sand hills.

The disappearance of Jack Diamond had grown into a
tragedy filled with dread and fear. Several days had
gone by, and nothing new had been‘ heard.

Dunnerwust remained hopeful. He was now shadowing
all the members of Barnett’s disrupted company who
remained in the town.. He had many talks with Gallup
about it.°

“I know yeou’re playin’ detective,” Gallup admitted,
when reminded of Dunnerwust’s feats in that line, “an’
yeou sure have made good in some things; but yeou know
yeou ain’t doin’s northen naow but wearin’ aout good shoe
leather.”

“I am gidding iteas,” said Dunnerwust.

“But they don’t amount tew anything.”

“You neffer can dell.”

Then the rain came, a great storm that roared over the
plains and through the sand hills.

Merriwell took action immediately.

  

 
  

Sn ere pee gn PTE TT am EN TEP

   

20

Inza had been urging him to risk her diamonds, by
depositing them at the point indicated by that letter.

Merry was ready now to comply. He had not held
back because of the risk of losing them, but because
he saw that they would be risked without hope of cap-
turing the letter writer. Since Barnett’s disclosure that
the letter had been written by Leavett, who had been a
member of his show, the belief that Leavett held Jack
Diamond a prisoner vanished like mist. It began to
seem that Diamond had been killed by’ Clark Templeton,
who was missing and could not be located.

. But, Merriwell wanted to capture Leavett. Perhaps,
after all, he was holding Diamond, unlikely as it seemed.

Taking a horse in the town, the morning after the
rain, Merriwell galloped across the bridge into the hills,
with Inza’s' diamonds in a box in his pocket.

He went openly and boldly, but without making his
purpose known to any one but his friends.

Bill Higgins, who had been warned in advance, was al-
ready on top of one of the hills in hiding. But he was
on foot, for he could not hide a horse there. And if the
’ tracks he had made in the rain-wet sand were seen now

by Leavett, the latter might not venture to get the dia-
monds. Another thing that Higgins was to guard against,
was that some man might have followed Merry from the
town and seen what he did, and so might lift the
diamonds.

eer

é

Having deposited the diamonds, Merriwell rode back
into the town, knowing that if Leavett was now in hid-
ing on the hills, his position would enable him to see
this return.

In the town, Merriwell’s friends had gathered quietly,
with horses. They had assembled in front of the Sky-
line Hotel, as if they contemplated a horseback jaunt
into the country.

as

 

Without seeming to do so, they were watching,
they galloped about, the fringed tops of the hills where
Higgins lay in concealment.

Soon they saw a flag hoisted there.

It was the signal that Higgins was to make if the man
ventured down into the valley to get the diamonds,

“The flag!” said Inza.

“The flag!”

The cry went from lip to lip.

The horses were in motion, Frank Merriwell’s little
party galloping at once down the main street of the town,
over the bridge, and on into the sand hills.

When they gained the top of the hill which gave a view
of the valley, they saw Higgins on foot near the south

.side of the valley, running heavily toward the hills
‘there.

“Chasing him,” said Merriwell.
But the man was not in sight;
at that point, and had vanished.
With the wind that was blowing, and blew there nearly
all the time, it was easy to see that by having a start,
which was in distance half the width of the valley, the
man could, on any ordinary occasion, make good his es-
cape; sand would have filled in his tracks quickly and
baffled pursuit; and he could have been seen at no great
distance, once out of the valley, owing to the irregular
configuration of the shifting ridges.

But now the wind was not rolling the sand. The rain
had beaten and packed it down. It lay heavy and sod-

den. For the time being, the wind had no more effect on -

he had gained the hills

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. : “ee

        
        

Footprints retained their
for until

it than if it had been wet clay.
outlines, and would so hold them
the sand was thoroughly dry again.

This was what Merriwell had foreseen, that morning,
when he ventured the diamonds at the indicated Hiding
place, and had sent Higgins to the hilltop to signal and
begin the chase. a:

Higgins was working through the heavy sand toward
the top of the first hill when the party on horseback
overtook him. ha

He stopped. i

   

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“T saw ther critter,” he cried, when they came up with Tie
him. i
“It was Leavett ?” ¥
“I dunno—nobody could say. Why, that critter came '
down off that hill next ther river, and he had a sheet qtr
round him, and a white mask or handkerchief over his 2
face; looked jest like a ghost.” \"
“Oh, it must have been Leavett!” said Browning. i
“Clark Templeton?” some asked. =

“As the letter was written by Leavett, of course it was fa
that coyote; could be no other,” declared Badger. “Well,
shall we push him?” 13

They began to climb the hill, following the tracks of
the man in the sand. They knew he could not escape
them; he was trapped.

Higgins climbed with them, on foot, for a while.

“T been dopin’ it out,’ he said. “He’s been hidin’ in
the town, and every mornin’ he has crossed the river
and laid on one o’ these hills through the daytime; must i

* done it, to been so prompt this time. He’s been able
to know in the town all about Diamond—that he hasn’t
been located-——” :

He stopped abruptly, flushing.

He had been warned not to speak of the fact that
Merriwell and others doubted that at the end of this :
trail they would find news of Diamond. Fits

“Oh, I know about that fear—if that’s why you're Pils
stopping,” said Inza, her eyes moist. ‘Merry has tried |
to keep it from me, but he has been so anxious that he
has babbled about it in his sleep.”

“Likewise, Mr. Buckram Badger has done the same,”
said Winnie. “It’s no secret.”

“I didn’t know,” said Higgins, abashed. “Well, that
feller wearin’ the sheet round him, thet, we’re now chasin’,
havin’ been in the town every night, as I figger it, has
been to know nigh as much as we have. That’s all.”

Higgins dropped out at the top of the hill.

“There’s his tracks,” he said, pointing; “he can’t keep
it up long; walkin’ in this wet sand is too tirin’, I reckon
he’ll be p’intin’ toward the town soon, You can see he
was hurryin’ here, and that means he knows there’s people
on horses after him now. He wouldn’t keered so much
fer men on foot; he could shake ’em, or keep so fur
ahead of them that. he’d be likely to win out in the
end.”

He waved the’ riders on, as he dropped out of ‘the He!
game.

“So long! Luck to you!” he shouted after them.

The tracks of the fugitive swung toward the river,
after a while.

They came on the discarded sheet and bigidkotchlet.

The quarry was being driven to bay. AD

Then the capture was made, not far from the river,

The man was Bill Leavett.

 

 
   
 

 

        
     
       
       
     
     
     
       
     
   
         
       
     
    
   
  
 

 

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And he had Inza’s diamonds.

He was forced to admit, however, that he knew noth-
ing about Jack Diamond. He had merely picked up
enough information after entering Skyline to make him
think that Merriwell had possession of the golf balls
holding Barnett’s jewels, and he had used Jack’s mysteri-
ous disappearance as the bait with which he hoped to get
the diamonds into his hands. Registering at the hotel
under a fictitious name, as a traveling man, he secured
an opportunity to slip his note at night under the door
of Merriwell’s room.

He had dropped quietly out of the hotel after that,
and had lodged with a friend, a showman, in security,
and had watched from the sand hills, and visited his flag
in the valley whenever he thought he could do so safely.

Then he had been caught.

“IT knew that rain had made it dangerous,” he said;
“but when I saw the flag visited, I thought I’d take a
chance.”

In truth, the waiting had worn him out. He had to
do something, or move on and drop his attempt.

CHAPTER XI.
JACK DIAMOND’S RETURN,

It was known the next day that Clark Templeton was
again in his shack out by the golf grounds.

Merriwell and Higgins, hearing it first, rode out there
to interview him; Higgins being prepared to arrest him
and bring him into the town.

They found ¢Templeton sitting in his doorway, a_rifle
on his knees.

“T don’t intend to be taken, if that’s what you’re here
for,” he said.

“Bluffin’ don’t go with me,” said Higgins, “nor with
Mr. Merriwell; and whether you go to town, an’ to ‘jail,
all depends. If I want to take you, I’m goin’ to take
you. But first I’m goin’ to ask you, like a gentleman, to
tell me what you know about Jack Diamond. That’s our
chiefest int’rest right now.” i

Templeton’s hands tightened on his rifle.

“You want me for threatening him out here that day
with a revolver. That’s what I thought!”

“Nothin’ of the kind, right now. But you, when last
seen yere, was talkin’ loud as to what you was goin’ to
do to him. What we're askin’ now is: What did you do
to him?”

Templeton’s face changed.

“What have I done to him?” he said.
haven’t seen him since.”

“Then why did you kite out?” Higgins demanded.

“Well, 1 was afraid if I stayed I’d be arrested for
making those threats, and for drawing a revolver on him.
So I dropped out quietly. I’ve been up at Sandy Bend—
been there ever since; as you can find out by inquir-

“Nothing. I

ing up there.”

“That’s the truth?”
Templeton frowned.
“I’m not used to having my word disputed in that

”

“Then you don’t know anything about Jack Diamond—

don’t know where he is?” Merriwell asked.

 

   

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. 21

“Not'a thing,” Templeton asserted. “I haven’t seen
him.”

He looked anxiously at Higgins.

“You going to jail me?”

“Depends,” said Higgins; “but not right now, anyway.
We've got other fish to fry right now.”

“Jack Diamond has disappeared mysteriously, and we
can find no trace of him,” Merriwell informed ‘Tem-
pleton; “and we’ve done nothing for days but search
for him.”

“Well, he ain’t in my shack,” said Templeton roughly.
“You'll have to look elsewhere, gentlemen. I haven’t got
him.”

* * ” x * * *

When. Merriwell and Higgins rode back into the town
and to the hotel, they rode into what seemed at first
a mad orgy.

Dunnerwust and Gallup, Browning and Badger, and
dozens of the people of the place were creating a‘din in
front of the hotel.

Looking closely, Merriwell and Higgins saw that they
surrounded a gentlemanly appearing, youthful man, who
was none other than Jack Diamond himself.

Merriwell and Higgins slid off their horses and soon
were themselves in the midst of the cheering and clamor-
ing crowd about Diamond.

* * x " ¥ Ps * *

“It’s a simple story—simplest in the world—though not
wholly a pleasant one,” Diamond explained, in answer to
the appeals of all his friends.

“You see, those farmers up the river, over the Colo-
rado line, having once dynamited the well, tried it again—
some of them; and I happened to be there. In their
fright and fear at being seen by me, they carried me
off, and did not trouble further about the well; they
were scared blue. And they held me up the river, some-
where, in an old shack—just kept me there, under guard.”

“We'll make it hot fer ’em,” Higgins bellowed.

“Oh, you will!’ Diamond smiled. “You haven’t heard
all the story. They came to the well masked, and they
were masked when they carried me away; I only know
that they were some of the farmers up the river by over-
hearing a little talk they had one night; I couldn’t identify
one of them—I never saw any of their faces.

“And, friends, they treated me well. I’m fleshier than
when I went away, don’t you think; I’ve increased my
girth. I had plenty to eat, all the time in the world to
sleep, and time for some much-needed rest. Only, they
wouldn’t let me go, and they wouldn’t let me write and
send out a letter, though I knew you were anxious
about me.

“Finally they just released me. Last night they brought
me down to the State line, and turned me adrift. Then
they rode away. Ever since that time I’ve spent in getting
here.”

The voices of Inza and Winnie were heard, and they
came forth, radiant.

“The prodigal has: returned,” said Diamond, moving
to greet them. “He couldn’t help it—that is, he couldn’t
help staying away.” ,

“Undt vhere iss der fat calf?” Dunnerwust demanded
loudly.

  
 

orn - oe eee
i ee TRE ge Te

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

“Haw, haw!” roared Gallup, smiting Dunnerwust on
the shoulder; “yeou must be it, yeou old Dutchman;
yeou’re ther fattest thing raound here.”

THE END.

“Merriwell Against Odds; or, King of the Diamond,”
is the title of the story that you will find in the next
issue of this weekly, No. 112, out September 22d. It tells
of the concluding adventure of the Merriwells and their
old friends at Skyline. Do you remember John Swift-
wing, old Tip Toppers? He plays an important part
in this story.

THE FIRE FIGHTER.

By BERTRAM LEBHAR.

(This interesting story was commenced in No. 107 of the NEw Tip
Top WEEKLY. Back numbers can be obtained from your news
dealer or the publishers.)

CHAPTER XV.
BASE INGRATITUDE.

Early the following morning, Larry called at his father’s
office. He clung to the hope that the man who had sold
the worthless hose to the city: might be some other Mike
Harvey. He refused to believe that his father was guilty
unless he heard from the latter’s own lips that such was
the case.

Father and son had not seen each other for some

days, and the old man glared at Larry as the latter stepped

into the private office.

“What’s all this that I’ve been readin’ in the papers about
you?” he demanded fiercely, “It ain’t bad enough that
you should go and be a fireman, against your parents’
wishes, you’ve got to turn out to be a coward in the bar-
gain, eh? Never did I think that a son of mine cotild be
mean-hearted. enough to strike a crippled man. Your
mother and sister are half dead with the shame of it.”

“Never mind about that now, father,’ returned Larry
curtly. “As far as I’m concerned—well, you shouldn’t be-
lieve all you read in the papers. But I’ve come to see you
about a different matter. Are you the Mike Harvey who
sold the last lot of hose to the fire department?”

“Yes, I had that contract. What about it?”

Larry’s face had turned a shade paler. “What about
it?” he groaned. “Haven’t you read about the fire last
‘night ?”

“No; I haven’t seen the papers this mornin’.
bad fire?”

“A bad fire? I should say it was! Seven of our boys
were killed there—killed because of the rotten hose you
sold the city. Oh, father, I didn’t think it could be true.
I didn’t think that you could be as bad as all that!”

The old man scowled at his son. “What do you mean
by talkin’ to me like that?” he roared. “What do you mean
by rotten hose? Who says it was rotten?” ;

Larry laughed bitterly. “If you had been at the fire,
father, and had seen the way it burst, you wouldn't ask
such a question. There were so many leaks that we
scarcely had a stream to fight that fire with.
it got away from us, and those fellows were killed. The
boys say that you are responsible for those deaths, father,

Was it a

That is why —

They’ve been calling me the son of a murderer and a
crook. They want me to get out of the department, be-
cause they say that the son of Mike Harvey isn’t fit to
associate with them. I came here hoping that I could go
back and tell them that they lied.

“Oh, what made you do it?” he went on bitterly. “You’re
a rich man; you didn’t need the dirty money—the price
of men’s lives—as badly as all that. Why have you dis-
graced us?”

His father’s face had turned as white as his own. “My
boy;” said the old man huskily, “’tis sorry to hear this I
am—sorry to hear that the hose is no good, and that they
blame me for it. I swear that I didn’t mean to cheat the
city. I thought the contract was bein’ filled in good faith,
the same as every other contract I’ve ever undertaken.”

“Then how did it happen that you unloaded that worth-
less stuff upon the fire department?” demanded Larry, half
incredulously, although he was beginning to gain fresh
hope from his father’s words. “Do you mean to say that
you didn’t.know what you were selling?”

The elder Harvey nodded. “Yes, that’s it. I didn’t
know. I don’t understand much about that line of busi-
ness, and I took it for granted that those goods was all
right. I’ve been made a tool of by others. I suppose if
there’s goin’ to be trouble I’ll have to bear the brunt of
it. But I want you to believe, my boy, that it ain’t my
fault. If they tell you that your father is a crook you
can tell them that they lie. ‘Tis a poor dupe I’ve been, but
not a crook,”

He proceeded to explain to Larry how he had been in-
duced by some political friends to lend his name to a
new cOmpany they were forming. The sole purpose of
this company was to land the contract for supplying the
fire department with new hose. The company was to be
called the Harvey Hose Company, and Larry’s father
was to be its president, and receive thirty per cent of the
profits.

The hose for the filling of this contract was supplied by
a manufacturing company in which these political friends
were heavily interested. Old Harvey had not suspected ,
for a minute that there was to be any ‘attempt to increase
the profits by handing the city inferior goods.

Armed with this explanation, Larry went back to the
engine house, and narrated to Tom Brooks, the only man
in the company whom he could now look upon as his
friend, what his father had told him.

“It’s too bad,” said Brooks sympathetically. “I haven't
any doubt, Larry, but what your old man is as innocent
as he claims; but unfortunately he’s going to have a hard
time proving it. As he says, they'll make him the goat. I
guess there'll be a big fuss raised about that hose; and
possibly the grand jury will take up the matter.

“Now, old man,” he went on, “I don’t want to hurt your
feelings, but don’t you think, under the circumstances,
that what my father said last night was about right?
Wouldn’t it be a wise move on your part if you were to get
out of the department?”

Larry received this suggestion with great indignation.
“I didn’t expect this from you, Tom,” he said. “I thought

that you were my friend.”

. “I am your friend,” insisted the other, “and that is why —
am giving you this advice. I honestly believe that it —
would be foolish of you to remain here, under the circum-
stances. Although, of course, you are not to blame, the
boys won’t look upon the matter in that light. They can’t —

 

 

 
 

 

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help feeling sore on you. I guegs, after all, Larry, it’s

only human nature for them to dislike the son of the
man whom they blanie for putting their lives in danger,
and being responsible for the death of those poor fellows.

“If you stay in the department, old fellow,” he con-
tinued, “I’m afraid they are going to make it very dis-
agreeable for you Even if you were to be transferred
to another company, things wouldn’t be much better for
you, for I guess all the boys in the department feel pretty
sore about that hose. And, after all, Larry, there. isn’t any
reason why you should be a fireman, is there? It isn’t as
if you had to earn your living this way, as is the case

Your old man is rich, so you don't
There's lots of other jobs besides fire

with most of us
have to worry.
fighting.”

“Maybe there are,” replied Larry grimly, “but I think |
prefer this one. I'm grateful to you for your advice, Tom,
and I think you mean well enough, but 1 want to tell you
right now that I’m going to stick. No matter how dis-
agreeable they make it for me, they won’t succeed in mak-
ing me quit. If | did, I'd be the coward they think me.”

Brooks slapped him approvingly on the back, “I guess
you're right, Larry. I meant to advise you for your good,
but, on second thought, ] must admit that you would be
a coward if you were to let them force you out. Stay and
fight em to a finish, old fellow. You can count on me to
help you all I can.”

“Thanks,” said Larry, as he grabbed his friend’s out-
stretched hand, “You're the right kind of a pal, Tom.”

The two men had been alone in the sitting room of the
engine house during this conversation. They were now
interrupted by the entrance of Bull Donovan, who came
toward them with a scowl] upon his face, and a wicked glint
in his small eyes.

“Say, Brooks,’ he exclaimed, “what do you mean by
talkin’ with this fellow? Don’t you know that the boys
have held a meetin’, and decided that we’re all goin’ to
leave him entirely to himself? We think that the son of
Mike Harvey ain’t fit for honest men to associate with,”

Larry was so taken aback by this thrust from the man
who had so much cause to feel grateful to him, that for
a few seconds he stood’ staring at the speaker, unable to
give expression to the indignation that was surging within
him.

Then, his voice trembling with rage, he cried: “You
dirty cur! What right have you to class yourself among
honest men? I’ve kept silent long enough about you, Bull
Donovan. It was more than you deserved, but I made
up my mind that since you weren’t man. enough to come
out with the truth I wouldn’t show you up. And I would

have continued to keep my mouth shut, too, if it hadn’t

been for this.

“But now,” he went on, shaking his finger in Donovan's °
face, “I’m not going to spare you arly longer. I’m going

to tell the real story of what happened that day, and let
the boys judge who is the least worthy for them to asso-
ciate with, you or I!”

\

iy CHAPTER XVI.
A QUESTION OF VERACITY,

Strange as it may appear at first blush, Donovan’s ani-

-mosity toward Larry Harvey had been increased instead
of diminished by the fact that the latter had shielded him
in the trial room at headquarters and afterward.

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

  

And yet, taking into consideration the moral caliber of
the man, his attitude was exactly what might have been
expected of him. He could not think of his generous
rival's self-sacrifice without despising himself, and the
more he despised himself the more he hated the man who
caused him to do so.

We have all met this type of fellow—the ‘surly brute,
who, having done you an injury, will hate you more if
you heap coals of fire upon his head than if you retaliate
in kind. Put yourself on his level, and he can almost feel
kindly toward you because youido not cause him to experi-
ence a sense of inferiority; but show that you are a big-
ger man than he, and you will increase his enmity ten-
fold. Thus it was with Donoyan in his attitude toward
Larry.

When the men of the engine company held a meeting to
decide what course of treatment should be handed out to
the son of the man who had imperiled their lives by the
crooked deal in hose, Donovan, instead of keeping in the
background out of a sense of gratitude to Larry, had been
the most fierce in denouncing him, and in insisting that he
be punished for his father’s offense.

It was he who had suggested that it would be a good
thing to give Fireman Harvey a “silence,” as they call it
in the navy, and let him live and work among them hence-
forth without taking any more notice of him than as if
he had been deaf and dumb. This drastic treatment, he
argued, would pretty soon break the young man’s spirit,
and result in his handing in his resignation.

The other men agreed that this sounded like a good plan,
and voted to put it into effect. Brooks had not been pres-
ent at the meeting, and, therefore, seeing him now in
friendly conversation with Larry, Donovan had lost no
time in acquainting him with the will of the majority. He
realized that it would spoil the whole effect of the silence
if its victim was on speaking terms with even one ‘member
of the company.

At Larry’s threat to reveal the truth about his en-
counter with Donovan, the latter laughed contemptuously.
He had been expecting this, and was fully prepared for it.

“Tell them what lies you like, if you can gét them to
listen to you,” he sneered.

>

“Tell it to me, Larry,” exclaimed Brooks eagerly. “T’ve
felt sure all along that you didn’t get a square deal in
that matter. I’m mighty glad that you've decided to speak
out at last. Tell me the story, and I'll tell it to the other
boys. They'll listen to me, I guess.”

Donovan scowled at him, “Do you mean to say, Brooks,
that you ain’t goin’ to abide by the will of the majority—
that you’re goin’ to remain friends with this feller when
all the rest of us have decided to cut him out?”

“T don’t let anybody pick my friends for me, or tell me
who I mustn’t talk to,” was the cold reply. “You fellows
can do as you please about Harvey, Bull, but, as I was
telling him, just as you came in, he can count on me as
his friend.”

“T guess | understand why,” sneered Donovan. “Crooked
money will buy as much as the other kind, of course.”

“Just what do you mean by that?” demanded Brooks
angrily.

“I guess my meanin’s plain enough,” retorted Donovan.
“I don’t suppose you'd be so anxious to claim this fellow
for your friend if he wasn’t the son and heir of Mike
Harvey, the rich contractor. It's surprisin’ what a differ-

  

 
 

 

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ence a few dirty dollars make. But the rest of the bunch

ain’t so mercenary, Brooks.”

Tom’s face flushed with anger, and he raised his clenched
first menacingly. He was not as powerfully built as Dono-
van, and he was first on the civil-service list for promotion
to the rank of lieutenant, so that he could ill afford to en-
gage in a brawl in company quarters; but, nevertheless,
he would have fought the sneering champion of the depart-
ment then and there if it had not been for the sight of
the latter’s limp left arm resting in its sling.

Suddenly realizing the bully’s disability, he managed to
check himself.

“You big stiff!” he cried. “I can understand how Larry,
here, couldn’t help assaulting you, the other day. I sup-
pose you made him so mad with that foul tongue of yours
that he lost all control of himself.”

“He did more than that, Tom,” declared Larry. “He
struck me, before I laid a hand on him, He was about
to strike me again, and I grabbed him by the throat and
threw him off. That is the truth about that affair. Chief
Forbes came in just as he fell to the floor, and, not know-
ing that it was in self-defense that I did it, accused me of
attacking a crippled man.”

“But why didn’t you tell that story at your trial?”
demanded Brooks, looking at Larry in astonishment.
“What on earth made you keep mum? You might have
got off without even a reprimand if you had explained
matters to the commissioner.”

“T didn’t want to snitch on Donovan,” answered Larry.
“He was lucky enough to escape a complaint, and I
thought I might as well suffer alone instead of putting
him in bad, too. You see, it wasn’t his fault that Chief
Forbes came in just as I knocked him down. It seemed to
me that it wouldn’t have been quite white to have snitched
on him. The chances are that both of us would have
been punished, in that case, for quarreling and fighting. I
thought I might.as well be the goat. I didn’t figure that as
a result of doing this I’d become so unpopular with the
men.”

“And this fellow was satisfied to keep quiet and let you
be branded as a coward, eh?” exclaimed Brooks, with a
contemptuous glance at Donovan.

“It isn’t true,” declared the latter sullenly. ‘The story
he tells is a fake from beginning to end, Brooks. I never
laid a hand on him. Does anybody suppose I’d be fool
enough to start a fight in my present condition? We was
havin’ a friendly argument about a civil-service rule—at
least I thought at the time that it was a friendly argu-
ment—and suddenly this fellow jumps up, and he says:
‘The other day you knocked me out;. now is my chance
to get square, Bull Donovan,’ he says.

“Of course, I was helpless with this arm of mine in a
sling,” went on the bully, “so I says to him: ‘You
wouldn’t hit a man in my condition, would you, Harvey?
Give me a chance. Wait until this bum arm of mine gets
well again, and I’ll give you all the fight you’re lookin’
for. Don’t be a coward and take advantage of the fact
that I’m a cripple,’ I says to him. As soon as I’d said
that he grabs me by the throat, and throws me to the
floor on the back of my head. I guess he’d have done a
whole lot more to me, too, if the big chief hadn’t come
in just then and caught him at it.”

Donovan had been rehearsing this story. for the past
few days, in expectation of being denounced by Larry

TIP “TQP\“ WEEKLY.

     

Harvey, and he was therefore able to deliver it with a
fluency which gave it a striking semblance of truth.

Larry, who had never before heard anybody lie so glibly,
stared at him in astonishment.

“That is the real story of what happened, Brooks,” Bull
went on. “I didn’t tell all of it to the commissioner at
the trial, because I didn’t want to be too hard on this
fellow. But now, since he’s lookin’ for trouble, I ain’t
goin’ to keep quiet any longer.”

The cool audacity of the man in thus twisting the situ-
ation completely around took Larry’s breath away. He
was greatly relieved to hear Brooks declare that he did
not believe a word of Donovan’s story, and that he felt
confident that their comrades would accept Larry’s ver-
sion.

“We'll see whether they will or not,” snarled Bull, shak-
ing his fist at the two friends as he moved toward the
door. “The boys have known me for years, and never
yet caught me in a lie. They don’t know anything about
Harvey, except that he’s the son of the man who sold
the rotten hose to the department. We'll see which of us
will be believed.”

“Don’t worry, Larry,” said Brooks, after Donovan had
gone out. “I guess I won’t have much trouble in per-
suading the bunch that they have done you a great in-
justice in branding you a coward. And I am in hopes
that when they hear how white you’ve treated Bull, and
what a rotten deal you've had, they'll be willing to listen
to reason about this unfortunate hose business. They’re a

pretty decent crowd of fellows, taken all in all, and I

reckon that when they’ve heard your story there won't
be a man that won’t want to shake your hand.”

The other was greatly cheered by this prospect, of
course, and it was a bitter disappointment to him when
3rooks came to him, that evening, with a look on his
face which told Larry, even before he spoke, that he had
failed in his mission.

“They wouldn’t listen to me, confound ’em!”’ said Larry’s
friend gloomily. “Donovan told his story and they fell
for it—every one of them. When I tried to argue with
them they laughed at me. They said that it was a mighty
queer thing that you had waited until now to spring that
defense.
come out with it before, and refused to believe the reason
I gave them.

“You see, old man,” he went on apologetically, “as Bull —

boasted to us, they’ve known him for such a long time,
and they don’t know you very well. I guess it isn’t more
than natural that they should take his word in preference
to yours. I’m awfully sorry.” ;

“Well, it can’t be helped,” replied the other. “I’m much

obliged to you, Tom, for your trouble. I’m lucky to have —

such a stanch pal. As for the other fellows—well, I guess
I’ll be able to jog along without their friendship. I sup-
pose it'll be pretty lonely here, with nobody to talk to
when you're not around; but if they think they can force
me to quit by such treatment, they'll find that they’ve got
another guess coming.”

A savage glint came to his eyes, as he went on: “And
as for that contemptible liar, Donovan—well, you just wait
until he is able to use that left arm of his again, Tom.
Last time we fought, down in the cellar, I wasn’t able to
stand up against him for more than six rounds. My
lungs were full of the smoke I’d swallowed at my first

cellar fire, and I was half licked before I started to fight.

They wanted to know, Larry, why you hadn’t .

 

   

 

  

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

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NEW TIP

  

But this time I’m going to be in proper condition when I
meet-him in the ring, and I rather think, Tom, that when
the fight is finished the New York fire department will
have a new champion.”

CHAPTER XVII.
“SILENCE,”

The days that followed were wretched, soul-trying days
for Larry Harvey. If his had been a less rugged and
resolute character, and if his fighting blood had not been
continually kept at the boiling point by the consciousness
that he was being unjustly dealt with, the chances are
that he would have succumbed to the strain, and been
forced into sending his resignation to fire headquarters.

To be shunned entirely by the fellows one is working
with; to be among them, but not of them; to have to
work day after day without a single person to talk to,
that is one of the most cruel and severe tortures to which
a warm-hearted, companionable young man could be sub-
jected. ;

Larry wouldn’t have been so badly off if he could have
continued to enjoy the society of his good friend, Tom
Brooks. But, unfortunately for him, an official order
temporarily transferring young Brooks to another engine
company at the other end of the city, came from head-
quarters a day after the “silence” was put into effect, and
thus Larry’s excommunication was complete.

To add to his suffering, the grand jury, after looking

into the matter of the worthless hose which had been
sold to the city by the Harvey Hose Company, decided
to find an indictment against Larry’s father, making him
the scapegoat for the rascally band of politicians who had
beguiled the old man into lending his name to the com-
pany. ,
The newspapers were full of the scandal. The elder
Harvey was held up to public scorn, and his protestations
of being innocent of intentional wrongdoing were sneered
at by the press.

Mrs. Harvey and Larry’s sister, Kate, were heart-
broken with shame and fear.

The young man, who felt that he should be constantly
with them in this time of trouble, was unable to give
them more than one day out of every five, that being all

’ the liberty which a member of the New York fire depart-

ment is allowed.

Larry came in for a lot of painful notoriety. The news-
papers had until now been in ignorance of the fact that
the son of Mike Harvey, the wealthy contractor, had

~ joined the fire department, but they discovered that such

was the case, and made much of the discovery.
_ They rehashed the report of the proceedings at fire head-
quarters, when Larry had been tried for “conduct pre-

_ judicial to good order and discipline,’ and denounced by
the commissioner for striking a crippled comrade.

Larry was horrified to find his picture in every morning
and evening paper, and columns about himself under such
humiliating headlines as:

MIKE HARVEY’S FIREMAN SON CALLED
COWARD BY COMMISSIONER.

The papers had all printed short accounts of Lafry’s
trial at the time it had taken place, but they had not

known then that the Fireman \Harvey mentioned therein

was the son of Mike Harvey, and, therefore, they now

 

  
  
 

eens a Sepyeunepnabtnnmain

 

WE Aas tee aN I te A

    

TOP: WEEKLY. 25

republished the story, giving it twice as much space as it
had occupied the first time

In spite of these afflictions, Larry maintained a stiff
upper lip. His face became paler, and he appeared to have
lost some flesh wnder the strain, but he held his head
high, and went-about his duties with a forced cheerfulness
which showed his persecutors that they could not break
his proud spirit.

Fortunately for him, the engine company of, which he
was a member was one of the busiest in the city, and he
and his comrades were kept on the jump day and night
answering alarms and fighting fires.

One morning he was on the apparatus floor, doing his
turn at sentinel duty, when the street door opened, and
Florence Brooks entered.

Larry had not seen the girl since the day when she had
called him a coward, and told him that she did not wish
him to address her. He therefore made no attempt to
speak to her now, and was much. astonished when she
came toward him with her hand outstretched, and a
cordial smile upon her pretty face.

“Fireman Harvey,” she said, “I want to apologize to
you for what I said the other day. I had no right to
form an opinion so hastily, and I am sorry for it.”

“Then you—you believe me, and not Donovan?” he
stammered, an expression of joy lighting up his pale face.

He guessed that Tom Brooks had told his sister the
real story of his trouble with Bull, and that that was the
reason for her changed attitude.

“Well, I can’t say that exactly, Mr..Harvey,” the girl
answered, with a frank smile. “You see, I don’t know
which of you to believe.’ Tom has told me your side of
the story, and tried to persuade me to believe it; but, on
the other hand, Mr. Donovan has sworn to me that his

\ version of the affair is true. That leaves me in doubt.

“You see, I have known Bull for a long time,” she
went on earnestly, “and while I know that he is rough
and something of a bully, I should hate to think that ‘he
is the contemptible fellow he must be if—pardon me for
putting it so bluntly—you are telling the truth. At the
same time, Mr. Harvey, I have great respect for my
brother Tom’s judgment, and since he believes in you so
thoroughly, I am almost inclined to do so, too. There-
fore, I have decided to form no opinion in the matter at
present. I hope that some day the truth will come out.
I feel confident that it will. In the meantime I hope
you will forgive me for my meanness of the other day,
and look upon me as your friend.”

Tom eagerly seized the hand that she extended. “This
is good of you, Miss Brooks,” he said earnestly, “It is
what I might have expected of—of Tom’s sister.”

After that the cheerful look upon Larry’s face was not
as forced as it had been. The lonely fellow felt so en-
couraged by the girl’s altered attitude toward him that he
did not mind the treatment of his comrades as much.

There was another factor which tended to keep up
Larry’s spirits, and that was the knowledge that Dono-
van’s broken arm was rapidly healing. He knew that the
time when he would be able to settle scores with his
enemy was not far off now.

And one morning, when Larry came down to the ap-
paratus floor to line up with the other men for roll call,
a thrill of joy shot through him as he glanced at Dono-
van, standing at the other end of the line.

For the latter’s left arm was no longer in a sling. The

   

   
 

NEW TIP

surgeon had pronounced it cured, and Bull was once more
an able-bodied fireman.

After the roll call the
van to offer their congratulations
through, Larry approached him,
face.

“I'm glad your arm is all right again,”
“When do we fight? I don’t want to rush you. |
that arm will be stiff for a while yet. I'll give you all
the time you need to limber up, but please don't keep
mé waiting a day longer than is necessary.”

men crowded araqund. Dono-
After they
an. eager smile upon his

other

were

he said quietly.
guess

TO BE CONTINUED.

THE COLONEL’S REMEDY.

By} MAX ADELER.

I encountered Colonel Perkins in our drug store the
other day, while he was in the act of buying some ‘Bal-
samic Healing Plaster.” I was surprised at his appear-
ance. Nearly every visible portion of his body was cov-
ered with strips of plaster, and he had a slice of it across
the bridge of his nose, so that he looked as if he had
emerged from a desperate hand-to-hand combat with
pirates, so nearly a complete wreck that if he were not
patched and glued together, he would fall apart and lose
himself gradually until he was scattered all around over
“the community. When I asked him the cause of his
condition, he explained it to me as follows:

“The fact is, it’s the queerest case on record. Doctor
says he never heard of anything like it: before. Last
December I had a kind of pain in my shin. Can’t exactly
describe it, but it was pretty much like a common stomach
ache. You imagine a man with an ordinary stomach ache in
his shin, and you understand the situation. Doctor advised
me to apply Balsamic Healing Plaster, and I did. Conse-
quence was that pain flitted downward and settled on. the
right side of my ankle, I stuck some more plaster there,
and the ache slid along into my big toe. More plaster
there. and the misery moved next door, to the adjoining
toe. Well, sir} I kept crowding it from one toe to the
other, right along, until it got onto. the little toe, where
it hurt like sin until I applied the Balsamic, when. the
pain lit out and found a home in my left ankle.

“T went after it with the remedy, and then it emigrated
and commenced keeping house on the left side of my
knee. Notice to quit being served. it fled and settled down
‘in my stomache, where it acted so infamously as to make
cholera morbus seem like a friend by comparison. But
the plaster persuaded it to move on, and‘ then it dodged
off onto my left leg. I chased it down that member. from
one point to another, in and out, over the toes, up the
other side, and then it took boarding in my liver. For
about two days I was so yellow from billiousness that I
could see to read at night by the light I shed.

“Then I tackled the persecuted organ with the remedy,
and the pain hunted out a good place for a residence
under my third rib. If one of your ribs “has ever had
colic, you know how I felt. It was torture. But doctor
said, stick on more Balsamic, and, sure enough, the agony
took out walking papers and put in a claim for about
four ctthic inches on my right shotlder. Doctor said
plaster up my arms quick, so’s it couldn’t glide down
into them, But before I could do it, that suffering made
_. itself at home in my left elbow. However, I tuckered

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WEEKLY.

down after it, and when it had gone clear
fingers and up the other side, it flicke
in my neck. I pledge you my word I never wore a shirt
for a week, ..Being hung was imere child’s play to
it. Much as I could do to swallow. But plaster,
and.for a fort-
night that colic, or whatever you call it, rattled around
among my teeth until | Didn’t care
a cent whether I was an citizen of a corpse.
Would as leave ’ve skipped and been sepulchered as to ‘ve
stayed above ground, a howling martyr.

“What did doctor say? ‘More plaster’ On she went,
all ‘round my jaws, and mister pain scooted up and
seemed as cordial as ever in its new quarters in my nose.
Every time I sneezed, I thought I’d lose it. Ached like a
barrelful of rheumatism. I didn’t any more dare to
blow it than if it belonged to some other man. It would
have been a hopeless wreck before this, but I laid old
Balsamic across the bridge, and the pain having notice to
quit, packed up and started. It took a fancy to my
forehead, and for a while it exerted itself there with
such energy that I begged my wife to split my head open
with the ax Headaches? Well, you’ve had ’em, of course.
But I don’t believe you ever felt as if Mount Vestvius
was stuck right over your eyes, wanting to erupt. That
was me. I suffered like a condensed hospital. But on
went a strip of plaster, and that pain moseyed, quit, left
home and got new quarters on top of my head.

“There it is now. I’m covered with Balsamic Plaster
from my toes up. I look like a patchwork quilt when I’m
You'd be amused. When I walk, I crackle
like a dry newspaper. I wake the baby at night just turn-
But I’ve got that malady cornered It can’t
go down, and there’s no place for it to go up. And now
I’m worried to know what to do about it. Would you
get scalped if you were me, or be trepanned and have a
silver-plated skylight put in your skull? I don’t know
which. It bothers me like thunder. Doctor wants to saw
off the sore place in the skull and put in a kind of a brass
trapdoor. But I’m kind of uncertain. I’m afraid he cares
more about satisfying his curiosity than curing me up. It’s
awful, isn’t it? I wish I’d driven that ache into a toe
and then chopped it off.”

Then the colonel paid his bill and left.

round my

red and took refuge
collar
more

and up she went, this time to my jaw,

just wanted to die.
American

undressed,

ing over.

THE BROKEN ARM.

It is easy to forget how much children have to learn, ‘a

and how the most obvious facts of life and experience
may be to them mysteries most profound, So it happens
frequently that true stories sound impossible, and of this
class is perhaps a thing which a little London girl said "
last summer to her mother.

She was. only three years old. and she bia had no
experiences in the matter of broken limbs except those
of dolls. She had the misfortune to fall and break her
own arm, and, as soon as she discovered what had hap-
pened to her, she cried out:

“Oh, mamma. will it drap off?”

“No, darling,” the mother answered;

‘

“I will hold it.
that it will not hurt you, till the doctor comes, and he
will make it all aes

“Well, mamma,” the little one said, pressing her Lips
together and trying to be brave, “do hold on tight,
that the sawdust won’t run out.”

 

 

 
 ~ Please tell me my measurements.

Some Boy, This.

Dear Proressor Fourmen: I want to ask you a few
questions in regard to my size. I am fourteen years old; 6
feet in height, weight, 160 pounds; neck, 141% inches; chest,
normal, 35 inches; expanded, 39 inches; my arm is 34
inches long; wrist, 7 inches around; ankle, 914 inches.
What should my measurements be. I would like to know
how I can weigh 180 pounds, and not be fat. Also, how I
can become a good sprinter. I have difficulty in running
the bases. I like all sports, especially baseball. I am a
member of the high-school team; also a member of the
town team. We have a crack town team. I am a constant
reader of Trp Top, the best magazine there is. Hoping to
see this in print. Yours truly, Otto KoHt.

Lisbon, Iowa.

You certainly are some “boy,” Otto. Most men would
envy your build. You only need fifteen more pounds, so
don’t worry. Do they grow many your size in Lisbon?

Your correct measurements should be: Weight, 176
pounds ; neck, ¥6 inches; chest, contracted, 38.7 inches; ex-
panded, 42.8 inches (get after your chest); waist, 34.5
inches; forearms, 12.2 inches; upper arm, down, 12.2
inches; up, 14.5 inches; thighs, 23.6 inches; calves, 16.2
inches. Practice starts, Otto. Don’t try for records at
first. Try starts over and over again. Run the distance
often, but not at top speed, until you find you are doing
it with less exertion each time, then increase your speed.

He Invents “Spikeless” Spike.

A new baseball spike has been invented by James S.
Caldwell, whose brother-in-law, Wilbur Druce, lives in
San Antonio, Tex. Two sets of these sample spikes have
been sent to San Antonio, and are being tried out by the
local Texas League players—one set by an infielder and
one by an outfielder.

Besides being such as to prevent cutting an opposing
player, these spikes are so constructed that they may be
turned in any direction by the foot and still have at least
three contacts with the ground. They also are a great
deal easier on the feet and are not inclined to ball up
with mud on wet fields.

. None Like “Tip Top.”

Dear Proressor FourmMen: I have read Tip Top for
three years, and three other weeklies for the same length
of time, but none of them can come up with Tre Top.

_ When will we hear from Jack Diamond, Harry Rattle-

‘ton, Bruce Browning, Bart Hodge, young Joe Crowfoot,
Jim Phillips, and Bill Brady?

I am eighteen years

Neen ene ene ee eee n aemeRaS SEEN

old; 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weigh 150 pounds. Yours re-
spectfully, Paut S. Pace.

Nevada, Mo.

You have read of some of your old favorites in this
issue. How did you like the story?

Your measurements should be: Weight, 165 pounds;
neck, 15.3 inches; chest, contracted, 37.2 inches; expanded,
41.2 inches; waist, 33 inches; forearms, 11.5 inches; upper
arms, down, 12.3 inches; up, 13.7 inches; thighs, 12.3
inches; calves, 15.4 inches.

Loses Toe While Swimming.

When William Large gave a vigorous kick while bath-
ing in a lake at Atchison, Kan., he felt a stinging sen-
sation in his foot. An investigation showed that he had
but four toes on that foot. He thinks the missing
member was cut off by a piece of glass or a tin can.

Not His Fault.

Dear Eprror: I have read the Tir Top from No. 1, and
never missed one up to date, except one now and then
which did not come through. Yours very truly,

Stockton, Cal. J. E. Anperson.

Tomcat Routs Bold Burglar.

“Buster,” a big gray tomcat, is a hero since he routed
a burglar from the home of his master, Charles H.
Ziegler, at Los Angeles, Cal. Buster sleeps in the kitchen,
and, when a burglar entered that room, the cat slunk
away stealthily before the man. The burglar uncon-
sciously followed Buster to Ziegler’s room, but when
he reached for the trousers of the sleeping man, the
cat, probably feeling itself cornered, let out a screech
and jumped on the breast of the intruder.

The noise awakened Ziegler, who sat up to see the
strange sight. The cat clawed at the burglar, who, un-
able to shake off the angered animal, broke into a run
and escaped the way he came.

Started Others to Read “Tip Top,”

Dear Epitor: I have been a reader of the Tip Top
Weexty for over five years, and have started other
readers on the Tip Top way. The best weekly published is
Tip Top.

The Clancy series were very good, but the return of
the Merriwells is surely welcomed.

Dick and Brad are back; the same old team.

And what reader can read about old Joe Crowfoot
without a single thrill. Joe is a good character for the Tir
Tor. Let us read more about him.

 
28 NEW PEP FOP WEEKLY.

Would be glad to’ read of the old-time favorites, such
as “The Old Flock” and “Dick’s Fardale Friends.”

Frankly, I do not like the present series in the Tir Top.
T think one gets tired of Arizona and the West.

I am waiting patiently for some good old
stories of Chip, Clancy, and Kess. And Billy
why not have him back again?

Stories like those of Frank and Dick at
Yale are the best of all. You see, 1 am partial to college
and athletic stories.

Would you answer
I cannot account for?

First—What has become of Felecia?

Second—Who is Rose Sharon?

Third—Where is Madge?

Fourth—Where is Chester Arlington?

Fifth—Where is young Joe Crowfoot?

I was glad to read of Professor Fourmen’s return.

The Compass is as interesting to read as the stories,
for there you read of others who like the Tir Top. Wish-
ing a long life to the author, I close, with best wishes
to Street & Smith, and three cheers for the Tip Top.
Yours very truly, bss

Monmouth, [l.

The questions you ask will be answered in Aa soties
that will come in future numbers of Tre Top.

Fardale
3allard;

Fardale and

some questions for me of characters

Prepate to Kill Fearless Bear.

A big bear which has been the terror of Bismarck, W.
Va., for several years and has killed several hundred
head of sheep during that time, is to be killed, if the
farmers have to spend all summer and fall to do it. They
are planning a big hunt soon, and have asked people
at Cumberland, Md., to bring their guns and ammunition
and join in the chase.

Billy Ballard.

Dear Epitor: I have been a reader of Tip Top for
about four years. IJ like Frank Merriwell and Dick Mer-
riwell best. What has become of Billy Ballard? Yours
truly, Jounniz Fosxerr.

716 Rankin Avenue, Gastonia, N. C.

You will hear more of Billy. I think he is going.to
enter Fardale this fall.

Make Key from Tobacco Box.

Manufacturing keys out of a tin tobacco box, three
inmates of the Montcalm County, Michigan, jail opened
the jail doors and escaped, while the band with the travel-
ing show was playing in front of the courthouse near by.

Frank Dives, a Ferris Township farmer, serving a
sentence for making threats, was recaptured near Crystall.

The men’s escape was discovered twenty minutes after-
ward, and all Sheriff Rasmussen’s efforts were concen-
trated on recapturing Dives, who had threatened to shoot
three different men on sight. He is fifty years old and
regarded as desperate.

“Tip Top’s” Arrival.
Dear Eprtor: Have been a regular subscriber but a
short time, but have read many stories of the Trp Top
‘Weexty. Tip Tor is the only weekly, among several, that
makes me feel disappointed if it does not come at its usual
time, and I always look forward with pleasant anticipa-

tion to the real pleasure it affords me in reading it. Yours
truly, P, -Reitrne
Faribault, Minn.

Use Hens to Prove Road Bad.

In a hearing before the board of review regarding the
alleged faulty construction of a $52,000 road between
Nevada and Wyandot, Ohio, several farmers testified they
had to stop raising chickens, as the fowls go. on the road,
get stuck in the tar, and then are run over by autos.

Chip’s Old Chums.

Dear Eprtor: Having read Trp Tor for about three
years, | would like to say it is the best weekly that I ever
read. Would like to hear more of Frank Merriwell,
junior’s, old chums, and the Merriwell athletes. Yours
truly, Brap WoobGATE.

Palmer, Mass.

“Dead” Mining Town Revives.

An example of a “dead” mining town “coming back”
is goon to be witnessed in Tombstone, Ariz., for the prob-
lem of keeping the mine free from water by the use of
large pumps has been solved, and the industry has been
revived. For many years mining operations in this once
thriving community have been at a low ebb, but a big
boom is now on.

Has Them Afi Beaten.

Dear Epitor: I have been reading Tie Top for nearly
a year. I got a loan of some old copies from a friend,
and I have bought them ever since. I have read quite a’
few weeklies, but Tie Tor has them all beaten. I would
like to see more athletics. Hoping that ‘I will see this
letter in print, J remain, a loyal Tip Topper,

Brandon, Man., Canada. Recor: CLarK,

Three Killed by ‘Wild’? Auto.
Three persons were killed and four injured, one fatally,

when an automobile got beyond control of the chauffeur _
on a curve in the road near Morgantown, W. Va. and _

dashed into the side of a hill, All the occupants were ©

hurled from the car. The dead are Doctor H. C. McKay, |

of Fairmont; his father, Winfield F. McKay, of Ravens- —

wood, W. Va., and son, Winfield McKay. John White, —

of Fairmont, suffered a fracture of the skull and may

die. ees
Thanks Mr. Standish,

Dear Epitor: I have been a constant reader of Tip Tor
for one year. I liked the Owen Clancy’stories, but I like
the Merriwell stories the best, and I thank Mr. Standish
for writing them again. Also, I hope he will continue
do so. Yours truly, F. H. LawReNCE.

Pittsburgh, Pa. Brae

ane Wile as s AAlagen Clock,

him up in time.
“IT know the very woman,” ae a customer,
a widow.”

 
 

 

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. 29

Newkirk was introduced to the widow, Mrs. Margaret
Davis, proposed inside of a week, and married her at a
public wedding.

“He will never be late for work again,”
bride, “with my living depending on his pob.
to that.”

said the
I will see

Lets Hear from the Others.

Dear Eprror: I have been a constant reader of Tir Top
for a good many years, and find it to be the best weekly
of its kind published.

The Clancy stories were fine, but the Merriwells for
mine. I am glad to see Dick, June, and Brad back again,
as they are my favorites.

As you will note, I live in the sunny South, and, not
seeing any letters from this part of the country, I decided
to send in a few lines to let you know that there is at
least one Tip Topper in Texas. Respectfully yours,

Galveston, Texas. L, B. Apams.

Blind Man Takes Aeroplane Flight.

While visiting friends at Hammondsport, N. Y., W. G.
Phillips, a blind man, of New York City, decided he
wanted to ride in the air. “Doc” Wildman, professor
of the aviation school, took him up in a flying boat,
300 feet above the lake.

“Tt felt like a featherbed,” said the blind man, on
his return. “I wish I could go again. Even if I didn’t
go up to see, I feel well repaid for the effort.”

A Thoughtful Reader.

Dear Epitor: I received the post cards, and wish to
thank you for them.

1 am now corresponding with other readers of the Tip
Tor. and we all think it fine. I am always glad to hear
from any reader. A loya' Tip Topper,
| Joun ANDERSON.
176 West Eighty-seventh Street, New York.

Gives Filipinos More Power.

Although a bill introduced in Congress hy Representa-
tive Jones, of Virginia, does not attempt to fix a date
for Philippine independence, it does give the Filipinos
much more power in making and enforcing their own
laws. The bill has met with the approval of President
Wilson and his Cabinet, but there is little hope that it
will be acted on at this session of Congress.

Likes This Series About Dick.

Dear Eprror: I have been a reader of your weekly for
areal many years, and I like it very much. I like the
1 Merriwell stories best, especially those about Dick and
_ June. Frank, junior, is good, but Dick was always my
favorite.

Let us have the Merriwell stories all the time now. I
hink this series about Dick is fine. Yours sincerely,
Parkwood, Pa. May Dunmore.

Picks Up Heavy Nugget.

ie: The second largest nugget ever found in Alaska was
picked up recently in the Koyukuk gold camp, sixty miles
“north of the Arctic Circle, according to word received
J. McCord, at Fairbanks, Alaska. The nugget
d 137% ounces and was found by J. C. Kinney,
-known miner, of the Ester Creek region.

Kinney,

Charles Murray, and Bill Redmond are working the claim
at Koyukuk on a lease and are taking the gold out at
a great rate. They have found many nuggets worth from
$200 to $600.

What Do You Mean?

Dear Eprror: The Tire Tor WeEerxkty is wonderfully
great, to my mind. I liked the Clancy series, but the Mer-
riwells are more interesting and exciting. It would be
better, I think, if you wouldn’t put things in the book
that never can happen.

Mr. Standish is some author. There are times when
{ am reading his stories, and some one comes along and
says: “Don’t read those stories, they get you crazy.” But
I tell them its none of their business. One time I nearly
got into a fight on account of it.
week, or, rather, every day, I am waiting till
Tire Top comes out. Trip Tor beats them all.

Well, having nothing more to say, I end with three
cheers for Burt L. Standish and the rest. Sincerely yours,

Harry CHARLES BERNSTEIN.

322 West 57th Street, New York.

We do not know of Mr. Standish’s ever having written
about an incident that could not happen in real life. What
do you mean? Send us an instance.

Every

Dog Shoves Her Off Cliff.

While Mrs. Charles .M. Gastener, of Nutley, N. J.
was walking with her pet dog, the animal, in playing with
her, leaped against her and pushed her over the edge
of a precipice at' the Belleville quarry. She fell a distance
of eighty feet,-and was killed instantly. She was fifty-
three years old and a widow.

The Cards are Free,

Dear Eprror: er send me the price and list of your
post cards.

I am very fond of Tir Tor and also a collector of post
cards, so please let me know your price.

Erie, Pa. LAWRENCE

The cards are free, and we have taken pleasure in send-
ing you a set.

KESSLER.

Bantam Hen Becomes Mother of Partridge.

A tiny buff Cochin bantam hen is mothering thirteen
young partridges at the Chestnut Hill Poultry Yards, at
Abingdon, Va. When a meadow near here was mowed
recently, a partridge nest, containing thirteen eggs, was
found. The eggs were presented to Doctor E, C, Ham-
ilton, owner of the poultry yards. He placed them under
the bantam hen and, after the usual period of incuba-
tion, they hatched. The little mother and her partridges
seem quite devoted.

Get After Your [Chest.

Dear Proressor Fourmen: Will you please note my
measurements following and show the correct figures?
Age, 18 years, 4 months; 5 feet 6 inches; weight, 130
pounds; neck, 13}4 inches; chest, 34 inches; expanded
chest, 35 inches; waist, 2834 inches; thighs, 19 inches;
calves, 13}4 inches; biceps, 19% inches; forearms, 10%
inches.

I desire to be tall, broad-shouldered, with’ a deep chest.
What exercises would you have me work at—exercises in

 
NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

the paragraph “Muscle Building,” in Frank Merriwell’s
Book of Athletic Development? Yours respectfully,
Woutp-Be ATHLETE.
You cannot do better than follow the directions given
in Mr. Merriwell’s book.
Your measurements are good, except for those of your
chest. Get after your chest.

Bet He’d Eat Glass; He Ate—And Died.

Joseph Ivernkorbs, thirty-five years old, of Laporte,
Ind., is dead as the result of eating glass, according to
the attending physicians. Some time ago Ivernkerbs
made a wager that he would eat a quantity of glass. He
won the bet, but stomach trouble followed, and death
resulted after a lingering illness. He leaves a widow in
Russia.

Mr. Standish and Personal Letters,

Dear Mr. StanptsH: Is there a possible chance for you
to answer letters personally, and direct? This would
bring a lot of your readers in almost personal touch
with you. Advice you may give would be followed more
determinedly than from any other person. But I suppose
this would be too much work for you. Can you do the
next best thing, which is portraying the characteristics
of Chip more plainly and frequently, so as to. enable your
readers, who are really striving to come ti to Chip’s
standard, to profit by it, that is, by having Chip’s motives
expressed in print, we can be better able to take them
for our own?

I hopé I will see your reply under the Compass in a
short time, for I am anxious to know if you can
write, personally and directly, to your readers. Yours
respectfully,

Chicago, II.

While nothing would give Mr. Standish more pleasure
than to write personally, it is, as you can easily see, an
impossibility for him to do so. If he was to do this he
would have no time for anything else.

Woutp-se ATHLETE.

Waves Flag; Gets Good Job.

_ A seventeen-year-old girl striker, whose action in wav-
ing an American flag in front of a column of Pepn-
sylvania constabulary when it entered the strike zone in
East Pittsburgh recently, nearly led to disorder, is among
those who have returned to work at the electric plant,
and she has a better. position.

Captain L. G. Adams, commanding the constabulary,
so admired the determination of the girl, that before
leaving the district he went to the company officials and
obtained a pledge from them that she would not suffer
because of her act, The officials promised to promote the
girl, whose name has been withheld.

From South Australia.

Dear Eprror: Once again, after an absence of six years,
I desire to express my sentiments regarding Tre Top
WeekLy. At the outset, I am, as a veteran reader, in
strict accord with “An Old Tie Top Reader,” which ad-
mirable letter appeared in No. 90. Accepting your urgent
invitation for sincere criticism of the new departure, while
thoroughly enjoying the new stories, I must confess that
they have not the same intense grip of the original Mer-
riwell stories. I have read them all to date, from No. 1,
old i issue, and have them all bound in half-yearly volumes,

to pass along the good, clean, highly moral, instructive,
and also intellectual treat, to those who may come after
me. You published my last letter in No. 611 and did me
the honor of placing my name at the head of your Roll
of Honor, in recognition of my efforts in placing 2,000 of
your publications in this State. That letter was the means
of gaining additional devotees to Tir Top, besides gaining
me dozens of splendid world-wide correspondents, sev-
eral of whom I still write to, also a namesake and cousin
in Summit Hill, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Standish has given me very many happy hours |
with Tie Tor. I want to state frankly that to a large ex-
tent it has molded my character for the better and in-
culcated in me an intense desire for knowledge and right
living. By copying the Merriwell habit of studying any-
thing good and profiting by it, I have been enabled to
join the Astronomical Society of South Australia, and,
several allied societies of a scientific nature. I consider my
present success commercially to be due to the “never-
say-die,” “stick-to-itiveness” example of the splendid trio,
Frank, Dick, and Chip.

Hoping I have not trespassed too much on your valuable
space, and assuring you of my continual regard for Tip
Tor, I will now conclude, expressing the wish that Mr.
Standish will soon favor us with some stories of the
“Dick Merriwell’s Regret” type, among others. I would
like a set of the cards if you have any left, and I would
like a picture of Mr. Standish for my library, to show to
all and sundry who come and enjoy his life’s work, Tre
Top, under thy roof.

I would like to correspond and exchange cards with
readers in all parts of the globe. I have the greatest
admiration for your splendid observatories and mammoth
instruments. Yours very truly, T. A. Rrorpan.

Annesley Ave., North Norwood, So. Australia.

P. S. If you publish this, my fifth letter since 1899, I
would deem it a special favor if you post me the copy
containing it. I want to interest more people here in the
Tr Tor. A lady friend in Kansas has sent me the Trp
Top monthly for over seven years! Trip Top is certainly —
the “best ever.” ‘ ay Phe ae

Your letter is certainly a remarkable testimonial for
Mr. Standish and for Trp Tor. We thank you for it.

We have mailed you the cards, and will mail you a
number of this issue of Tir Top.

é,
Four Wed by Sign Language

Misses Lura and Eva Lanoue, of Meriden, Conn., sis~
ters, have become the brides of Frederick S, Gagnier, of
North Adams, Mass., and Moise Leblanc, of Lowell, Mass.
All four are deaf mutes, and the double-wedding cere-
mony in St. Laurent’s Church was conducted in the sign
language by the Reverend Father Quinn, of St. Joseph’s”
Cathedral, Hartford, in the presence of deaf mutes from
all over New England.

; New Reader Likes “Tip Top.”

Dear Eprror: I have read the Trp Top for the last few
months, and will say it is the best weekly paper ever
published, I hope you will have the Merriwells on thes:
baseball field again, for I think the stories in which Chie
plays ball are the best.

Would you be kind enough to tell me what my correct
measurements should be? I am 5 feet 1114 inches tall i
and am 16 years old.

 
 

NEW. TIP TOP WEEKLY. 31

Hoping to see my letter published soon, I remain,- yours
respectfully, Oscar A, GERING.

Freeman, So. Dak.

Your correct measurements should be: Weight, 171
pounds; neck, 15.7 inches; chest, contracted, 38.1 inches;
chest, expanded; 42.1 inches; waist, 33 inches; forearms,
11.9 inches ; upper atms, down, 12.8 inches; upper arms,
up, 14.1 inches; thighs, 23.1 inches; calves, 15.8 inches.

Plow Furrow 440. Miles Long,

A furrow, 440 miles long, is being plowed by the
Mandan Transfer Cothpany for the Northern Pacific Rail-
road Company, for the creation of.a fire guard along the
Mott and Stanton extensions out of the city of Maztidan,
N. D. Four plows are being used, the break being four
furrows wide.

Has no Rival,

Dear Eprror: Your paper has no rival, it is so good.
The characters in it are wonderful. I like Frank Mefri-
ks well, junior, but Dick and Frank are the best. I remain,
Lawrence, Mass. A Tre Topper.

One Cake for 450 Petsons.

At a Sunday-school picnic given by. the Methodist
Church, of Salina, Kan., Mrs,. John H. Bell, of this city,
served one cake to the 450 persons present, and each re-
ceived a large piece. The cake was three feet across the
top and rquired four dozen eggs.

Not Enough Sporting Stories,

Dear Eprror: I have--just started Tie Top, and it is
great. The only fault that I can find is. that there are
not enough sporting stories. Yours respectfaully,

213 Stanley St., Montreal, Canada. W. Trorrer.

Dog Catches Whooping Cough,
“Bob,” a setter dog owned by Edward Morris, a. rail-

road engineer of Georgetown, Del., has the whooping
_ cough. Bob caught it from. little four-year-old Clifford
~ Redden, and in turn gave it to his master. The dog
has proved beyond a doubt that animals can have the
whooping cough, for he “whoops” as energetically as any
child. His cough is much worse than his bark.

No Better Stories.

Dear Epitor: I-was more than pleased when I read of
the return of the Merriwells, as Mr. Standish announced
‘ing No. 97. .1 have been an ardent reader of Tie Tor for

the last four and one-half years and can say there are
no better.stories on the market to-day for. both young and
old. It-is a mystery to me where Mr. Standish gets all his

of course, the ‘“Merries” first, theri

Captain Wiley, Hans Dunnerwust,
at Tommy Tucker. I have only three suggestions or
criticisms—you may call thetn—to make:

First, don’t you think Dick “has been fooling around!
June” long enough—to use American slang—for him to
| propose?

Second, 1 would like to see Dick, Pont senior, and
_ junior, Brad Buckhart, Owen' Clancy, and all the rest to
get up a good ball nine and eleven and tour the world,

sate receipts to go toward paying expenses; and have

Ry June, and all the gitls go along, too.

favorites are,

I read all

about the other tour of the world, and I liked it better
than any of the others. I don’t like to see so many West-
ern plots, because there aré more readers in the East be-
sides me who like Eastern stories.

Third, I would like to see Frank,
get smitten with feminine charms.

I think the new covers are €xcellent.

[ was vety much amused when I tead a letter in issue
No, 104 by “Southern Reader.” If he gets so disgusted
and his conscience is pricked every time he reads Tip Top,
why; in the name of goodness, does he spend a perfectly
good nickel every aveek for it, then. Even if he was in
doubt as to the originality of the Applause letters, he
ought to be satisfied when you published his letter. I don’t
think any other paper or magazifie would dare publish it.
[f he would like a story of Southern sports, ideals, et
cetera, give him one, by all means, about fueds, duels,
white-whiskered “kurnels,” thoroughbred “hosses,” mint
juleps, fox hunts, and other sacred pastimes of the great-
and-glorious South.

I would like to know the proper weight and measure-
ments of a sixteen-year-old boy, whose height is 5 feet
10% inches. I think this is a pretty long letter, but hope
it escapes the ever-yawning mouth of the wastebasket.
Would like a set of.cards and a catalogue of every Tir
Tor in old series in stock. If this is published, kindly use
only my initials and oblige, a loyal Standishite,

Troy, N. Y. G. N. S.

Some letter, George. Your measufements should be:
Weight, 165.1 pounds; neck, 15.4 inches; chest, 37.3 inches;
chest, expanded, 41.2 inches; forearms, 33 inches; upper
arms, down, 11.6 inches;.upper arms, up, 13.8 ifiches;
thighs, 22.6 inches; calves, 15.4 inches,

and Brad

junior,

Led to Rich Oil Wells by “Locator.”

For many years oil “locators”
nearly as much as water “divining rods.” There are old
and new “locators,” but only a few oil men believe in
them. Among the few who have faith ate Tippett and
Canfield, operators in the Morris field, in Oklahoma.
They give their instrument credit for havitig brought them
$300,000. :

All other operators have been amazed at the success
of Tippett and Canfield in finding good wells on territory
ridiculed by the old-timers. The locator, which is the
subject of discussion wherever oil men meet, belongs
to’ Canfield. He does not talk about it much. He has
nothing to sell. He admits that the instrument would
not.work for every one and simply says: “There is oil
down there,” when his instrument tells him this is so:
He. does not disclose what manner of mechanism the
locator is or any of the contents of the curious-looking
little cylinder, from which extend two slender prongs. :
Holding these prongs as handles, Canfield says that when
he passes over oil, no matter how deep in the earth it
may.be, there is a peculiar vibration and twitching of the
handles, telling him of the presence of oil.

The partners seem to be the only ones who believe that
the locator speaks the oil language, but Tippett and
Canfield do not worry about what others think, so long
as they can cash their faith in it for $300,000 in six
months.

Canfield «has spent the last fifty-one years of his life
in the oil game, operating from Canada to Texas. Tip-
pett is a cattleman from Gainesville, Texas, and admits

have been heard of

 
  

32 NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

his knowledge of steers is much greater than his knowl-
edge of oil, After looking the Morris field over, they
leased 420 acres. Other oil men laughed at them, when,
instead of drilling a test on their lease, they commenced
building tankage and power for pumping wells. In addi-
tion to this the land they had leased had, by all the
rules of the oil fame, already been proved dry because
wells had been drilled all around it and all of them were
dusters. It looked like the very wildest of all wildcat
speculations.

To those who cared to ask, the elderly Canfield simply
stated that his oil locator indicated that the 420 acres
of land was over a lake of oil. Then the oil men smiled
and gave it up. The first well was drilled, and, much
to the surprise of everybody except Tippett and Canfield,
it came in a good well. Then another and another well,
the last always bigger than the preceding ones, until the
locator lease became one of the valuable properties of the
district, the last well coming in with 800 barrels a day.

When the oil men finally found that what had been
thought a dry lease had reversed itself and proven to
be a real producer, they were further amazed to find
the wells, when they went out to locate them on their
maps, also had been located contrary to all oil-well rules.
They were scattered haphazard all over the lease, without
regard to the usual distances for offsetting and boundary
lines. When they were ready to locate a new well, Can-
field took his locator out and trotted about over the
ground until the locator commenced its queer pranks,
that told him where the oil was. There he drove a stake
and told the drillers to put up their rig. And every time
the oil was found. It was this lease, with its oil produc-
tion, that Tippett and Canfield sold for $300,000. They
had already sold more than enough oil to pay all expenses
and the $300,000 was net profit.

In the meantime, while the negotiations were pend-
ing on this deal, Canfield took his locator and went over
near Boynton and commenced to trot around over the
land. This was also strictly a wildcat venture. Finally
he appeared to be satisfied, drove a stake, went back, and
leased the land and ordered a driller to set up a rig. This
was entirely virgin territory, On the day the deal for
the first lease was closed for $300,000, the new Boynton
well also came in a producer, not a large one, but good,
just the same. Tippett explained that Canfield did not
expect a big well on this location.

From a Woman Tip Topper.

Dear Epitor: I-am a reader of Tip Tor and the New
Medal Library, and I like to read the Merriwell stories
best. I am a woman of forty, but am just as eager after
my Tip Top every week as any young one. Yours truly,

St. Louis, Mo. A Woman Trp Topper.

Brad is Back.

Dear Eprtor: As I have never written to the Compass,
I think I might be given the privilege of making a few
suggestions.

I read the last two issues of Tie Top, Nos. 98 and 99,
and thought they were splendid. There were only two
things wrong. One was that there was not enough about
Dick, another was that Brad is not on the pages of Tir
Tor. ;

I didn’t know Dick could be in existence without Brad.

  
  

Will we hear from him soon?
Why, we,
the enthusiastic readers, could not do without Brad. He
is my favorite of the Merriwells’ chums or “pards.”

I must make a suggestion that you follow Dick and Chip
more closely than Frank, senior, because Frank is getting

What has become of him?
Please have Brad return with the Merriwells.

rather old for a real interesting character. I do not mean
to say to leave him out entirely, for you need him. I
think it would also be nice for Frank to meet Bart Hodge

“somewhere and let them enjoy talking and thinking of

boyhood days together. -
Well, please give me an answer as to when I will hear

from Brad. Sincerely, Wo. LIttTLeric.p.
Oak Grove, Ky.

If you have been following Tie Top’closely, you have
heard of your favorite.

Wills Fortune lo Children.

Francis A. Ogden, an octogenarian, who died at Hous-
ton, Texas, June 6th, left a will in which he provides
that his entire estate be devoted to-the education of
country children, especially those whose educational ad-
vantages are limited. His estate is scattered in more
than a dozen States, his Texas holdings alone being ap-
praised at about $1,000,000.

Listen Here.

Dear Proressor FourMEN: I have read Tip Top for five
or six years now. I have read over five hundred num-
bers of Tre Top and about fifty of the Medal Library, and
I do not believe that any of them has anything on the

Owen Clancy series, after he bought an interest in the

garage.
I liked the stories about Frank Merriwell, junior, pretty

well, especially where he helped to win’ Rodno’s field for

the R. A. C., and when he was. traveling on the Cleansport.

Yours respectfully, James M. Burke.
Salem, Mass.

We thought the Clancy stories as good, as have ever
come from the pen\of Mr. Standish, too, but the big ma- _
jority of our readers did not see it that way, and, as it
is for them that we publish Tip Top, it was a case of bac
to the Merriwells, and on the jump.

 

BOYS! GIRLS!

(Vv
ys if MINIATURE .

Gr a Lon ee

  

     
    

 

Ea

    
  

if

 

THE WONDER OF THE 4Q¢@ #3
20th CENTURY 4 a
Shows the bones in your fingers, lead in a pencil, etc.,
etc. You can see through clothes, even the flesh
turns transparent and the bones can be seen. Very
useful and instructive. The most interesting in-
strument ever invented. Think of the fun you can Nese:
have with it. Complete X-RAY shipped prepaid by ie
Parcels Post upon receipt of 10c. (coin or stamps). ged
THE X-RAY CO., 162 W. 20th St. (Dept. 53), New York

 

OLD COINS WANTED |

$4.25 each paid for U. S. Fagle Cente gared Lo. We
pay a SH-premium on hundreds of_old coins. Send
10 gents at once for New lilustrated Coin Value Book,

x2 may mean YOUR fortune. c on) cc,
CLARK & CO., Coin Dealers, Box 67, LeRoy, N.Y.

  

 

 

 

 

 
   
   
  

    
      
     

       
 
SOME OF THE
BACK

NUMBERS OF

SUPPLIED

 

 

 

—Frank Merriwell’s Six-in-hand.
per e rank Merriwell’s Duplicate.
—Frank Merriwell on Rattlesnake
Ranch.
—Frank Merriwell’s Sure Hand.
e rank Merriwell’s Treasure Map.
5—F rank Merriwell, Prince of the Rope.
, Captain of the Var-
sity,
—Dick Merriwell’s Control.
8—Dick Merriwell's Back Stop.
9—Dick Merriwell's Masked Enemy.
—Dick Merriwell’s Motor Car.
1—Dick Merriwell'’s Hot Pursuit.
—Dick Merriwell at Forest Lake.
3—Dick Merriwell in Court.
4—-Dick Merriwell’s Silence.
5—Dick Merriwell’s Dog.
—Dick Merriwell’s Subterfuge.
—Dick Merriwell’s Enigma.
8—Dick Merriwell Defeated.
9—Dic k Merriwell’s ‘‘Wing.”’
0—Dick Merriwell’s Sky Chase.
1—Dick Merriwell’s Pick-ups.
2—Dick Merriwell on the Rocking R.
3—Dick Merriwell’s Penetration.
—Dick Merriwell’s Intuition.
5—Dick Merriwell’s Vantage.
—Dick Merriwell’s Advice.
—Dick Merriwell’s Rescue.
8—Dick Merriwell, American.
9—Dick Merriwell’s Understanding.
—Dick Merriwell, Tutor.
—Dick Merriwell's Quandary.
2—Dick Merriwell on the Boards.
3—Dick Merriwell, Peacemaker.
4—F rank Merriwell’ s Sway.
5—Frank Merriwell’s Comprehension.
i—F rank Merriwell’s Young Acrobat.
Frank Merriwell’s Tact.
8—Frank Merriwell’s Unknown.
9—Frank Merriwell’s Acuteness.
0O—Frank Merriwell's Young Canadian.
1—F rank Merriwell’s Coward.
2—Frank Merriwell’s Perplexity.
3—Frank Merriwell’s Intervention.
4—Frank Merriwell’s Daring Deed.
”
6
7

TEPeEEELT tt

2 DP P2 AAD GOON OUST OUOUOVONS OS SB BB BOB oS Oo Co

TreitTireiy tree

—Frank Merriwell’s Succor.
—Frank Merriwell’s Wit.
—Frank Merriwell’s Loyalty.
8—Frank Merriwell’s Bold P lay.
9—Frank Merriwell's Insight.
3;0O—F rank Merriwell's Guile.
1—Frank Merriwell's Campaign.
32—-Frank Merriwell in the
Forest.
783—Frank Merriwell’s Tenacity.
784—Dick Merriwell’s Self-sacrifice.
785—Dick Merriwell’s Close Shave.
786—Dick Merriwell’s Perception.
787—Dick Merriwell’s Mysterious Disap-
pearance.
788—Dick Merriwell’s Detective Work.
789—Dick Merriwell’s Proof.
790—Dick Merriwell’s Brain Work.
791—Dick Merriwell’s Queer Case.
792—Dick Merriwell, Navigator.
793—Dick Merriwell’s Good Fellowship.
794—Dick Merriwell’s Fun.
79: 5—Dick Merriwell’s Commencement.
796—Dick Merriwell at Montauk Point.
797—Dick Merriwell, Mediator.
798—Dick Merriwell’s Decision.
799—Dick Merriwell on the Great Lakes.
800—Dick Merriwell Caught Napping.
$01—Dick Merriwell in the Copper Coun-

try.
802—Dick Merriwell Strapped.
803—Dick Merriwell’s Coolness.
804—Dick Merriwell’s Reliance.
805—Dick Merriwell’s College Mate.
806—Dick Merriwell’s Young Pitcher.
807—Dick Merriwell’s Prodding.
808—F rank Merriwell’s Boy.
809—F rank Merriwell’s Interference,
810—Frank Merriwell’s Young Warriors.
811—F rank Merriwell's Appraisal.

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PRICE, FIVE CENTS PER COPY.
your news dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office.

812—Frank Merriwell’s Forgiveness.
813—Frank Merriwell's Lads.
814—Frank Merriwell’s Young Aviators.
815—Frank Merriwell's Hot-head.
816—Dick Merriwell, Diplomat.
817—Dick Merriwell in Panama.
818—Dick Merriwell’s Perseverance.
819—Dick Me rriwell T riumphant.
820—Dick Merriwell’s Betrayal.
821—Dick Merriwell, Revolutionist.
822—Dick Merriwell's Fortitude.
323—Dick Merriwell's Undoing.
824—Dick Merriwell, Universal Coach.
825—Dick Merriwell’s Snare.
826—Dick Merriwell’s Star Pupil.
827—Dick Merriwell’s Astuteness.
828—Dick Merriwell’s Responsibility.
829—Dick Merriwell’s Plan.
830—Dick Merriwell’s Warning.
831—Dick Merriwell’s Counsel.
852—Dick Merriwell’s Champions.
833—Dick Merriwell’s Marksmen.
834—Dick Merriwell’s Enthusiasm.
835—Dick Merriwell’s Solution.
8236—Dick Merriwell’s Foreign Foe.
838—Dick Merriwell’s Battle for the Blue.
839—Dick Merriwell’s Evidence.
840—Dick Merriwell’s Device.
841—Dick Merriwell’s Princeton
nents.
842—Dick Merriwell’s Sixth Sense.
843—Dick Merriwell’s Strange Clew.
844—Dick Merriwell Comes Back.
845—Dick Merriwell’s Heroie Crew.
846—Dick Merriwell Looks Ahead.

Oppo-

NEW SERIES.
New Tip Top Weekly

1-—Frank Merriwell, Jr.
2—F rank Merriwell, Jr., in the Box.
38—F rank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Struggle.
4—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Skill.
5—Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Idaho.
6—F rank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Close Shave.
7—Frank Merriwell, Jr., on Waiting
ders.
8—F rank Merriwell, J
9—Frank Merriwell, te? s,
thon.
10—F rank Merriwell, Jr., at
Ranch.
11—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’
12—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’
183—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’
14—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Scrimmage.
15—F rank Merriwell, Jr., Misjudged.
16—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Star Play.
17—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Blind Chase,
18—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Discretion.
19—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Substitute.
20—F rank Merriwell, Jr., Justified.
21-—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Incog.
22—F rank Merriwell, Ss Meets the Issue,
23—Frank Merriwell, /S, Xmas Eve.
o4—P rank Merriwell, 7 s, Fearless Risk.
25—Frank Merriwell, Jr., on Skis.
26—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ice-boat Chase.
27—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ambushed
Foes.
28—Frank Merriwell, Jr. 7 and the Totem.
29—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Hockey Game.
80—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Clew.
381—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Adversary.
3° Z- rank Merriwell, le Timely Aid.
38—Frank Merriwell, JI. in the Desert.
iF pant Merriwell, Ir s, Grueling Test.
5—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Special Mission
Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Red Bowman.
3 Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Task.
38—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Cross-Country
Race.
89—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Four Miles.
40—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Umpire.
41—F rank Merriwell, Jr., Sidetracked.

Or-

*s, Danger.
Relay Mara-

the Bar Z
8, Golden Trail,

s, Competitor.
s, Guidance,

8%
°
o
2
>

2
o
oF

‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’
‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’
‘rank Merriwell, Jr., in Monterey.
‘rank Merriwell, Jr. s, Athletes.
rank Merriwell, Jr.'s Outfie Ider.
‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, ““Hundred.’
rank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Hobo Teilads
“rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Canceled Game.
“rank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Weird Adven-
ture.
51—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s
52—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s
ble.
53—Frank Merriwell, Jr.,
Doctor.
54—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’
55—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s,
56—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ordeal.
57—Frank Merriwell, Jr., on the Wing.
58—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Cross-Fire.”
59—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Lost Team-
mate.
60—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Daring Flight.
61—Frank Merriwell, Jr., at Fardale.
62—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Plebe.
63—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Quarter-Back.
64—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Touchdown.
65—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Night Off.
66—Frank Merriwell, Jr., and the Little
Black Box.
67—Frank Merriwell, Jr.
68—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s,
emy.
69—F rank Merriwell, Jr., and the “Spell.”
70—F rank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Gridiron
Honors.
1—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s,
2—Trank Merriwell, Jr.'s
3—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s,
cation.
4—Frank Merriwell, Jr.,
Wolves.
5—Frank Merriwell, Jr.,
6—F rank Me rriwe Ly ats:
T7—Owen Clancy's Run of Luck.
8—Owen Clancy's Square Deal.
%—Owen Clancy’s Hardest Fight.
80—Owen Clancy's Ride for Fortune.
81—Owen Clancy's Makeshift.
32—Owen Clancy and the Black Pearls,
—Owen Clancy and the Sky Pilot.
4— —Owen Clancy and the Air Pirates,
85- Owen C lancy’ s Peril.
86—Owen Clancy's Partner.
&87—Owen Clancy's Happy Trail.
S8—Owen Clancy's Double Trouble.
89—Owen Clancy's Back Fire.
90-—Owen Clance y and the “Clique of Gold.”
91—Owen Clancy's “Diamond” Deal,
9: 2 Owe n Clancy and the Claim Jumpers.
93—Owen Clancy Among the Smugglers.
94—Owen Clancy's Cle an-Up.
95—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Pick-Up Nine.
96—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s = imond Foes.
97—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Great Game.
98—The Merriwell Company,
99—Frank Merriwell’s First Commission.
100—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Cryptogram.
101—-Dick Merr iw elland June Arlington.
102—Dick Merriwell’s Turquoise T ussle.
103—Dick Merriwell Tricked.
104—Frank Merriwell, Jr., in
Fire.
Dated August Ist, 1914.
Frank Merriwell, Jr., in the Cattle
Stampede.
Dated August 8th, 1914.
106 rriwell vs. Merriwell.
P ublished about August 15th, 1914.
107—Dick Merriwell and the Burglar.
Published about August 22d, 1914.
108—Dick Merriwell My: stified.
Published about August 29th, 1914.
109—Dick Merriwell’s Hazard.
Published about September 5th, 1914.
110—Frank Merriwell, Jr., at the Cow-
boy Carnival.

s, Teamwork.
s, Step-Over.

Vit Cobo

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_

Double Header.
Peck of Trou-

and the Spook

Ss, Sportsmanship,
Ten-Innings,

’s, Classmates.

Repentant En-

Winning Run.
Jujutsu.
Christmas Va-

and the Nine

on the Border.
s, Desert Race.

the Gulf of

105

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