In a dark doorway a drunken man was curled up fast asleep. Hooker was seen to halt suddenly and look sharply at the man. Then he approached the inebriate.
Frank Merriwell’s heart fluttered. What was he about to witness? In a twinkling his fancy pictured Hooker, a student of Yale, disguising himself in old clothes, and coming night after night to this wretched quarter to pick the pockets of the unfortunates of the streets.
Bart had clutched Merry’s arm, and he was pointing toward Hooker, hoarsely and triumphantly whispering:
Hooker bent over the man and seemed about to go through his clothes. Instead of that, he pushed the sleeper’s hat back from his face. Then, as if not satisfied, he felt in his pockets some moments, found a match and struck it. For a single moment he held the match so the light of the blaze fell full and fair on the face of the sleeper. Then, with a flirt, the match was flung aside.
“He was making sure the fellow is too drunk to make trouble when he goes through him,” said Bart.
“Wait!” whispered Frank. “What is he doing now? He seems trying to awaken the man.”
“He’s trying him to find out if he’s dead to the world,” declared Hodge.
“No, see――he’s shaking the man! He’s really trying to awaken him!”
Smack! smack! smack――the sound of Hooker’s open-handed blows on the man’s face came plainly to their ears.
“Well, this is a queer piece of business!” admitted Hodge.
Frank was more mystified than ever, and now his curiosity was aroused to an extraordinary pitch. Smack! smack! smack! Hooker continued to apply the flat of his hand to the man’s face.
“There is no fooling about that,” said Merriwell. “He’s really trying to awaken the man.”
Hooker was heard talking earnestly to the unknown, who had been aroused in a measure by the stinging blows. He was seen to be dragging the inebriate to his feet.
“Well, he is getting him up!” admitted Hodge.
Frank was relieved. A few moments before he had felt that Hooker was about to commit an act that would irrevocably brand him as a crook and a criminal, but nothing of the sort had happened thus far, and it began to seem that nothing might happen. The disguised student had no small amount of trouble in getting the man upon his feet. He had applied heroic measures in arousing him, and the stinging blows from his open hand had served to awaken the sleeper to a sense of his position. Now, however, having dragged the man to his feet, Hooker was finding it difficult to keep him from lying down again.