“Something has happened to start him off this way,” Merriwell instantly decided. “He is in a reckless mood.”
“I have to return to college in the morning, old man,” he said persuasively. “We haven’t seen each other for a long time. Come round to my room in the Fifth Avenue and let’s have a talk.”
“Excuse me,” Herrick spoke up. “Mr. Diamond has an important engagement.”
“That’s right, Merry,” agreed Jack, at once. “Just come along with me. I’ll show you the town to-night.”
“Yes, we can take Mr. Merriwell along,” said Herrick.
“Of course we can,” cried Madison. “The more the merrier. But it won’t be our fault if he gets scratched with the tiger’s claws.”
“No danger of that,” asserted Diamond. “He never fools with the tiger.”
Herrick seemed disappointed. “Is that so? Then I’m afraid he won’t find it very interesting to come along.”
“Yes, he will,” declared Jack. “Besides, he has always been a mascot to me, and I need one just now.”
Frank’s ears were wide open, and he fancied he understood the meaning of this talk, in which case he was more than ever alarmed for Diamond.
“If I could get him away and have a talk with him,” thought Frank, “I’d soon be able to learn the truth.”
But the Southerner was “out for a racket,” and Frank soon saw it would be useless to try to induce him to go quietly to a room in the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
“We’re fooling away lots of time here,” said Herrick impatiently. “We’ve hired this cab, too.”
“Well, I can pay!” cried Diamond sharply. “Don’t let that worry you, Charley.”
“That’s the stuff!” declared Madison. “Now will you be good? Come on, I want that drink. Bring Mr. Merriwell along, Jack. We’ll fill him to the chin.”
“You’ll have a hard time to do that,” asserted Diamond, as he permitted Madison to pull him across the sidewalk, at the same time clinging fast to Frank’s arm.
“Why?” asked the yellow-haired chap. “Is he a tank?”
Herrick was heard to mutter something beneath his breath.
“Total fiddlesticks!” gurgled Madison. “Then he’d better get out of New York right away. If he doesn’t, they’ll have him on exhibition.”
“Of course he will take one drink with us,” said Herrick persuasively. “One never hurt anybody, and he’ll consent to take a drink with an old friend like you, Jack.”