Both girls tried to comfort her.
"What is the matter, f.a.n.n.y, dear?" asked Bessie, kneeling beside her. "I suppose your nerves are all shaken."
"She is almost hysterical, poor girl!" said Mabel. "And I do not wonder a bit."
"Who wouldn"t be, after such a narrow escape?"
"It-it"s-not-that!" sobbed f.a.n.n.y.
"Not that?"
"No."
"Then what can be the matter with you, dear?"
"Oh, girls-I"m-I"m just the meanest creature in the-whole world-and I just-just hate and despise myself! So there!"
Mabel and Bessie looked at each other in astonishment.
"You must be silly, f.a.n.n.y! You are nothing of the sort!" cried Mabel.
"Yes, I am!" sharply declared f.a.n.n.y, using a handkerchief to dry her tears. "I am just as mean and hateful as I can be, and I wish I were dead! It would have been a good thing if I"d burned!"
Mabel and Bessie looked horrified.
"It"s dreadful!" they exclaimed.
"I don"t care, it"s true!" cried f.a.n.n.y. "Just think of the mean, hateful things I said to Frank Merriwell, and then think what he did for me! And I did not mean those things at all! Oh, I"m wicked, and I know it!"
"Why, f.a.n.n.y! Mr. Merriwell did not mind what you said," a.s.sured Mabel, hoping to pacify her in that manner.
"He heard them, and he must think me the meanest, hatefulest creature alive. I shall never dare to look him in the face again-never!"
After a long time her agitation subsided, and then, of a sudden, she exclaimed:
"Girls, do you know what I am going to do?"
"No; of course not."
"I am going to ask Frank Merriwell"s pardon on my knees! I will do it now!"
Both Mabel and Bessie were so astonished that they could hardly speak.
The idea of f.a.n.n.y Darling getting on her knees to any one was utterly preposterous. But there seemed a most astonishing change in her, and now she started to find Frank.
But Frank was gone. Charlie Creighton came in and told the girls that Frank and Bart had departed to their hotel.
"Oh, it"s too bad!" cried f.a.n.n.y. "I should have gone to him at once, but truly I was so ashamed that I could not face him. Tell me, Charlie, was he burned much?"
"Well, the doctor could not tell just how severe the burns on his hands might prove to be."
"Well, the very next time I see him I"ll do my best to let him know I appreciate his heroism," said f.a.n.n.y.
In the meantime Frank and Bart had taken a car and were on their way to the Continental. Bart showed considerable agitation concerning Merry"s hands.
"I hope you will not be knocked out so you"ll be unable to go in for athletics the same as usual this fall, Merry," said Hodge. "What would the Yale eleven do without you?"
"They would get some other man equally as good," smiled Frank.
"They couldn"t!" cried Hodge, loyally. "That would be an impossibility!"
"It can"t be you really mean that, old man?"
"Of course I do."
"Then you are foolish. Why, Hodge, there are hundreds of men just as good as yours truly. I know I am a good player, but I also know there are others."
It was nearly midnight when they left the car and started to walk the short distance to the hotel. Frank led the way by a short cut through a narrow street, which was rather dark and deserted.
"There are not many fellows who would have done what you did to-night for a girl who had treated them as Miss Darling treated you," said Bart.
"Oh, I don"t know! It seems to me that almost any fellow would have done that."
"Hegner was with her, but he did not lift a hand to save her."
"It is plain he did not know what to do. He did not think quickly enough."
"That is just it, Merry. In any emergency you think of just the right thing to do, and that is what makes you such a good man. I say Yale can"t afford to lose you from her eleven, and I hope you will not be damaged so it will knock you out."
At that instant five or six dark forms suddenly darted out from both sides of the street and surrounded the boys. A voice snarled:
"When we are through with him he"ll be damaged so he won"t play football this season!"
CHAPTER x.x.xIV-A FIGHT AGAINST ODDS
"Ambushed!"
"Trapped!"
Frank and Bart uttered the exclamations as those dark forms gathered around them and they heard that snarling voice.
At a glance they saw the faces of their a.s.sailants were hidden by handkerchiefs which had been tied across them to their eyes, and one of them had turned his coat wrong side out.
The one with the turned coat seemed to be the leader of the party.
"Get around them, fellows!" he ordered, sharply. "Don"t let them skip!"