He designated Ephraim by the final word, and Gallup cut him short right there.
"Yeou"re the cheapest one of the hull lot, old oil-smirk!" he flung at the speaker. "Such fellers as yeou are more dangerous to real ladies than all the young mashers goin", fer yeou are a hypocrite who pretends to be virtuous."
The man gasped and tried to say something, but seemed stricken speechless.
Now the c.o.c.k-eyed man was aroused once more. He seemed on the point of making a swing at somebody or something. He pushed his face up close to Ephraim, but still his rebellious eye seemed looking in quite another direction.
"If you want any trouble here," he said, hoa.r.s.ely, "I"ll attend to you.
I can do that very well."
Ephraim looked at him, began to smile, broke into a grin, and burst into a shout of laughter.
"Haw! haw! haw!" he roared. "I couldn"t fight with yeou ef I wanted to, fer I"d think yeou didn"t mean me all the time, but that yeou really ought to be fightin" with some other feller yeou was lookin" at. Yeou"re the funniest toad in the hull puddle!"
"I"ll arrest the whole lot of you!" threatened the policeman. "Quit that business! Come along to the police station if you want to make any complaints."
Then he turned to the woman, saying:
"Madam, I presume you will make a complaint against this fellow,"
indicating Frank.
"I certainly shall," she promptly answered; "for it is my duty to teach him a lesson."
"Will you come to the station?"
"Yes."
"Permit me to accompany you," urged the gallant man.
"You are very kind," she said; "but I think I can get along. I will follow at a distance."
"All right," nodded the officer, once more gripping Merriwell"s collar savagely. "March, sir!"
And then they started toward the station.
The bobbing man, the little man, the c.o.c.k-eyed man, and the gallant man formed behind. Then the crowd fell in, and away they went, with the mysterious veiled woman following at a distance.
Ephraim placed himself at Frank"s side.
"This is a gol-darn outrage!" fumed the Vermonter, speaking to Merry.
"Whut be yeou goin" to do abaout it?"
"I shall have to do the best I can," answered the unfortunate youth, quietly.
"But yeou won"t be able to start for Puelbo with the rest of the people."
"It doesn"t look that way now."
"That"s tough!"
"It is decidedly unfortunate, but I hope to get off in time to join the company before the first performance to-morrow night."
"Haow did it happen?"
"I hardly know. The woman stopped me and insisted that I should go somewhere to talk with her. I explained that my time was limited, but that seemed to make no impression on her. When I tried to get away she flung her arms around me and screamed. That brought a crowd together, and then she declared I had a.s.saulted her."
The policeman on the other side of Frank laughed in ridicule. Although he said nothing, it was plain he took no stock in Frank"s story.
"Larf!" grated Gallup, under his breath. "Yeou think yeou know so gol-darned much that----"
"Hush!" warned Frank. "I do not wish you to get into trouble. You must inform the others what has happened to me."
"It"s purty gol-darn hard to keep still," declared Ephraim. "I never see sich a set of natteral born fools in all my life! How many of the craowd saw what happened "tween yeou an" the woman?"
"No one, I think."
"An" I"ll bet a squash they"ll all go up an" swear to any kind of a story she"ll tell. Who is she?"
"I don"t know."
"That"s queer. Wut was her little game?"
"Don"t know that."
"By gum! it"s some kind of a put-up job!"
"I have a fancy there is something more than appears on the surface. It is an attempt to make trouble for me."
"That"s right."
"I hope to see the woman"s face at the police station."
"Yeou won"t!"
"Why not?"
"She won"t show it."
"Perhaps the judge will request her to lift her veil."
"Not by a gol-darned sight! Men are too big fools over women. They"ll take any old thing she"ll say abaout yeou, an" lock yeou up fer it.
She"ll give some kind of name and address, an" they"ll let her go at that."
"Well, unless I can get bail right away I shall be in a bad fix. If Kent Carson were in town he would pull me out of it, as he did before."
The officer p.r.i.c.ked up his ears.
"Ha!" he exclaimed. "Then you have been arrested in Denver before? This is a second offense! I rather think you"ll not get off as easy as you did the first time."