“Sit down, Skelding,” Merriwell invited, motioning toward a chair. “I shall lock the door to keep intruders away.”
He did so, and found Skelding seated. Merry came and sat down near, saying:
“Perhaps you will be willing to tell me the whole story. You say Defarge blames me because he failed in his society ambitions? Is that right?”
Merry had not spoken of “Bones.” A member of that society never discusses his society outside the secret rooms of the order.
“That is right. Up to the last minute he believed he was sure of going to ‘Bones.’ It drove him daffy when the fifteenth man was chosen and he found himself ignored. He had been drinking for some time, and absinth has obtained its hold on him. Since that he has taken quantities of the stuff, and you see what the result is.”
“I see,” nodded Frank. “Poor chap! I have a hypnotic influence over him, Skelding, and that was how I was able to conquer him as you see. I never knew I possessed such power till one night a long time ago when, then crazed by drink, he tried to strike me in the back with a knife. I held him helpless and looked deep into his eyes, willing that he should obey me. He did so, and I found I had power to make him do as I chose. But I do not believe that any man has a right under normal circumstances to exercise such a power over another, and I removed the influence from him.
“For a long time I fancied I would never have further trouble with him, and I even hoped that, without another clash, I might make him friendly toward me. It would have given me satisfaction at one time had this resulted. But when I came back to Yale this year I found all the old bitterness in his heart had awakened, and he tried to injure me once more. Then I willed that he should be unable to harm me as long as I kept my power over him. Once more, however, I released him. It must have been since then that he took to drinking absinth.”
“Something must be done to save him, Merriwell, or he will be lodged in a madhouse within a week. But I did not think; perhaps you mean to have him punished for making an attack on your life? Your patience with him must be exhausted.”
“I try to hold my patience with a man just as long as I believe there is any hope for him. But I must confess that Defarge’s case looks hopeless. You have not told me, Skelding, how it happened that the cartridges in his revolver were changed. Who changed them?”