“No; I haven’t ten with me. I’ll let you have five.”
“I tell you I haven’t got it! See here—that is all the money I have.”
Snodgrass displayed the contents of his pockets, and there was less than six dollars in all. He had known well enough that Arnold would want money and had come prepared.
“Well, then, I’ll have to make that five do for the time being,” said the traitorous freshman regretfully, as he reached over and cooly took from the money the five dollars Snodgrass had agreed to let him have. “Now, let’s have some more drinks and get out of here.”
“You’ll have to pay for the drinks,” said Snodgrass. “You have all the money now.”
“But you have just about enough left for one more round,” said the freshman serenely. “Go ahead and push the button. I need this in my business. Why don’t—you—do——”
Arnold stopped, staring suspiciously at the little slide in the door. He fancied it had moved.
“Snodgrass,” he said, leaning forward and whispering the words, “I believe somebody has been spying on us!”
“What makes you think so?” he asked, glancing nervously round the room.
“I think I saw that slide in the door move. It was open on a crack, so somebody on the other side could hear what we were saying.”
“We’ll see about that!” he muttered. “If some fellow has been spying on us, we’ll thump the stuffing out of him!”
He sprang toward the door, meaning to see if the slide would open at his touch.
Instead of that, the door swung open and Frank Merriwell stepped into the room!
With a gasp of dismay, Ben Snodgrass reeled back, staring at the intruder.
Arnold had started up, his face white as parchment, while he shook in every limb.
“Sit down!” he said sternly, pointing to the chairs by the table.
Arnold dropped back with another gasp. Snodgrass seemed to hesitate, and then he stiffened up, as if in refusal.
Frank fixed his steady eyes on those of Ben Snodgrass. The sophomore made a mistake in glaring straight back. If he had desired to refuse to obey Merriwell he should not have looked Merriwell in the eye. It was not often any man looked Frank squarely in the eye and declined to obey any command he gave.
“Sit down,” said Merry, more gently than before.
And Snodgrass suddenly wilted, sliding to the chair, upon which he sank.