Both boys rushed at Frank. Radford was in advance. Merriwell ducked and arose. He had grasped Radford about the ankles, and he lifted the fellow into the air, flinging him clean over his head!
Radford fell and struck on his back, while Frank was barely in time to grapple with Harlow. Rolf"s rush swept Merriwell back, and both fell over Radford"s prostrate form.
Then the latter made a scramble, and the two pinned Frank to the ground!
They had him foul at last!
CHAPTER XIV-FRANK AND ELSIE
As well might they have tried to hold an eel. With a squirming twist, Frank managed to writhe from beneath them, somehow thumping their heads together till they were dazed by the stars that seemed to flash before their eyes. While they were in this condition, he got upon his feet, breathing heavily, but laughing as if it were a matter of sport.
Harlow and Radford sprang up quickly. They located Frank, and, though amazed by the manner in which he had escaped them, renewed the attack.
Now all three were fighting somewhat slower, as if the strain upon them was telling on their wind.
The struggle was still raging when a stout, motherly-looking woman, with a basket in her hand, came around the corner, and stopped, staring in amazement at the scene.
"Well, I never!" she exclaimed.
The girls heard her, saw her, flew to her.
"Oh, Mrs. Barnaby!" cried Elsie.
"Oh, Aunt Hannah!" exclaimed Kate.
"Stop them!" palpitated the girl with the blue eyes and golden hair.
"Drive away those horrid fellows who are trying to whip the one in the bicycle suit!" urged the other girl.
"What"s all the row about, anyhow?" asked the woman.
Then, hurriedly and brokenly, the two girls told her what had happened.
Her kindly face grew stern and her eyes flashed as she listened.
"The rascals!" she exploded. "They oughter be hoss-whipped! I"d like to do it, too! Hey! you git out!"
She flourished her hands and swung the basket about, but the fighting lads did not heed her command.
Then Aunt Hannah hastened forward boldly and resolutely struck Rolf Harlow over the head with the basket.
Smash-spatter!
The basket contained eggs, and they were broken and smashed over Harlow"s head. Out flew the sticky, yellow ma.s.s, spattering all over Rolf.
A howl of astonishment and dismay broke from the lips of the rascal, and then, taking one look at the angry woman, he turned and fled, while Kate Spencer screamed with laughter.
Seeing he was deserted, Berlin Radford did not delay about following his friend, and the two were hard scrambling up the path, and uttering cries of impotent rage.
There was a hammock near, in which Elsie Bellwood had been reclining when Rolf Harlow came upon her and into it Kate Spencer dropped, holding her handkerchief to her face and laughing as if she would lose her breath.
"Oh, goodness!" she cried. "Oh, Aunt Hannah! didn"t you do it that time!
Ha! ha! ha! How astonished and disgusted that chap looked! And what a spectacle he made as he stood there, with those broken eggs dripping down his face and neck! Oh! oh! oh! Brother Kent will die when I tell him about this!"
"The rascals!" burst forth the woman, as she stood with her smashed and dripping basket in her hand, regarding it in dismay. "All them good eggs broke to pieces, and I jest bought "em over at the store! Who"s goin" to pay for them eggs?"
"I will be happy to pay for them," laughed Frank. "It was worth the price of a bushel of eggs to see Rolf Harlow after you struck him with the basket. I have to thank you for saving me the trouble of finishing both those chaps."
Elsie ran to Frank.
"Oh, are you hurt much?" she fluttered. "I am afraid you are hurt!"
"Not a bit, dear little girl," smiled Merry, tenderly. "They did thump me a few times, but all that thumping did not damage me at all."
It was nearly ten minutes before Kate Spencer could stop laughing, and for an hour afterward she would break out occasionally when she remembered how Harlow had looked after being struck by the basket.
The whole affair was explained to Mrs. Barnaby, and Frank was introduced. He promised to send her over another basket of eggs from the store, which eased her feelings greatly.
"I"m glad to meet you, Mr. Merriwell, sir," said the good woman. "Elsie has told us lots about ye, but I never expected to see you here."
Frank explained how, by accident, he came to be there, telling of the treacherous work in which he had detected Harlow not long before.
"The fellow must have come directly here after returning to Blue Cove,"
he said. "And that other chap was the spy."
"That other chap has been stopping at the Cove a few days," said Kate Spencer. "He thinks he is a masher, and he was determined to force his attentions upon me."
After they had talked a short time, Mrs. Barnaby went into the house, and Kate, seeing Frank and Elsie wished to be alone, soon excused herself and left them seated in the hammock.
"Oh, Frank," whispered Elsie, looking up at him with her innocent blue eyes, "I am so glad to see you again! I had begun to fear we"d never see each other any more."
"And I had begun to fear so myself, dear little girl," he confessed. "I did not know where you were, for you were sailing over the world with your father, and you did not have any permanent address."
"You did not answer the last two letters I wrote you."
"I answered every letter I received from you, Elsie. It must be they did not reach me."
A look of relief added to the happiness of her sweet face.
"And I thought you were getting so far above the sea captain"s poor little daughter that you did not wish to answer. I heard that you were in college, and that you had become famous, and-and all that. Oh, Frank!
you cannot know how I waited, and watched, and longed for an answer to my letters!"
"It was a shame, little girl! But you should have known me better than to think I would forget you. You should have known that, no matter what fortune might befall me, I could not forget you. I have thought of you a hundred-a thousand-a million times! I have longed to see you more than I can tell!"
His arm was about her waist, and he drew her close. Her golden head fell on his shoulder, and she smiled up into his eyes.