I shall make a spectacular climax on the order of the mechanical horse races you see on the stage. I shall have some dummy figures and boats made, so that the boat race may be seen on the river in the distance. I have an idea of a mechanical arrangement to represent the crowd that lines the river and the observation train that carries a load of spectators along the railroad that runs beside the river. I think the swaying crowd can be shown, the moving train, the three boats, Yale, Harvard and Cornell, with their rowers working for life. Harvard shall be a bit in the lead when the boats first appear, but Yale shall press her and take the lead. Then I will have the scene shifted instantly, so that the audience will be looking into the Yale clubhouse. The rear of the house shall open direct upon the river. There shall be great excitement in the clubhouse, which I will have located at the finish of the course. The boats are coming. Outside, along the river, mad crowds are cheering hoa.r.s.ely, whistles are screeching, Yale students are howling the college cry. Here they come! Now the excitement is intense.
Hurrah! Yale has taken the lead! The boats shoot in view at the back of the stage, Yale a length ahead, Harvard next, Cornell almost at her side, and in this form they cross the line, Yale the victor. The star of the piece, myself, who has escaped from his enemies barely in time to enter the boat and help win the race, is brought on by the madly cheering college men, and down comes the curtain on a climax that must set any audience wild."
Hodge sat down on the bed.
"Frank," he said, grimly, "you"re going crazy! It would cost a thousand dollars to get up that effect."
"I don"t care if it costs two thousand dollars, I"ll have it, and I"ll have it in a hurry!" laughed Merriwell. "I am out for business now. I am in the ring to win this time."
"Yes, you are going crazy!" nodded Hodge. "Where is all the money coming from?"
"I"ve got it!"
Bart went into the air as if he had received an electric shock.
"You--you"ve what?" he yelled.
"Got the money," a.s.serted Frank.
"Where?" shouted Bart.
"Right here."
"May I be tickled to death by muskeeters!" gasped Gallup.
"Got two thousand dollars?" said Hodge. "Oh, come off, Merriwell! You are carrying this thing too far now!"
"Just take a look at this piece of paper," invited Frank, as he pa.s.sed over the check he had received from Horace Hobson.
Bart took it, he looked at it, he was stricken dumb.
Gallup looked over Bart"s shoulder. His jaw dropped, his eyes bulged from his head, and he could not utter a sound.
"How do you like the looks of it?" smiled Merry.
"What--what is it?" faltered Bart.
"A check. Can"t you see? A check that is good for forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight dollars."
"Good for that? Why, it can"t be! Now, is this more of your joking, Merriwell? If it is, I swear I shall feel like having a fight with you right here!"
"It"s no joke, old man. That piece of paper is good--it is good for every dollar. The money is payable to me. I"ve got the dust to put my play out in great style."
Even then Bart could not believe it. He groped for the bed and sat down, limply, still staring at the check, which he held in his hand.
"What"s this for?" he asked.
"It"s for the Fillmore treasure, which I found in the Utah Desert,"
exclaimed Frank. "It was brought to me by the man who came in here a little while ago."
Then Gallup collapsed.
His knees seemed to buckle beneath him, and he dropped down on the bed.
"Waal, may I be chawed up fer gra.s.s by a spavin hoss!" he murmured.
Hodge sat quite still for some seconds.
"Merry," he said, at last, beginning to tremble all over, "are you sure this is good? Are you sure there is no crooked business behind it?"
"Of course I am," smiled Frank.
"How can you be?" asked Bart.
"I received it from the very man with whom I did the business in Carson when I made the deposit. In order that there might be no mistake he came on here and delivered it to me personally."
"I think I"m dyin"!" muttered Ephraim. "I"ve received a shock from which I"ll never rekiver! Forty-three thousan" dollars! Oh, say, I know there"s a mistake here!"
"Not a bit of a mistake," a.s.sured Merriwell, smiling, triumphant.
"And all that money is yourn?"
"No."
"Why--why, ther check"s made out to yeou."
"Because the treasure was deposited by me."
"And yeou faound it?"
"I found it, but I did so while in company with four friends."
Now Hodge showed still further excitement.
"Those friends were not with you at the moment when you found it," he said. "I"ve heard your story. You came near losing your life. The mad hermit fought to throw you from the precipice. The way you found the treasure, the dangers you pa.s.sed through, everything that happened established your rightful claim to it. It belongs to you alone."
"I do not look at it in that light," said Frank, calmly and positively.
"There were five of us in the party. The others were my friends Diamond, Rattleton, Browning, and Toots."
"A n.i.g.g.e.r!" exclaimed Bart. "Do you call him your friend?"
"I do!" exclaimed Merry. "More than once that black boy did things for me which I have never been able to repay. Although a coward at heart so far as danger to himself was concerned, I have known him to risk his life to save me from harm. Why shouldn"t I call him my friend? His skin may be black, but his heart is white."
"Oh, all right," muttered Hodge. "I haven"t anything more to say. I was not one of your party at that time."
"No."
"I wish I had been."
"So yeou could git yeour share of the boodle?" grinned Ephraim.