"Waal, we done a purty good business last night at Ivervale, an' the gang was shoutin' fer some dust, yeou bet. The ghost ain't walked for three weeks, an' we wanted some money to git some shirts an' collars an' things done up clean. Haley promised to cough when we got to Tornton. We all went on board the train, s'posin' he was along with the tickets. When the train started, he dropped off. That's abaout all there is to it, except me an' Hans had some stuff soaked, an' we didn't git chucked off at a little side deepoe, same's the rest of the gang did."
"Well, that was a miserable trick for Haley to play, but I guess most of the managers of traveling companies play it sometimes. Why did you chaps come here?"
"Waal, we reckoned mebbe we'd be able to git up some kind of a three-cornered show an' keep from starvin'. That was aour scheme. I dunno haow it'll hit ye, Frank."
"I have just given a show at the opera house here."
Then Frank explained just what had happened and what he had done, while his two friends listened in open-mouthed astonishment and admiration.
"Jest like ye, by gum!" shouted Ephraim. "Can't throw yeou down! Yeou alwus light on yeour feet!"
"Yaw," nodded Hans, "yer veet alvays lighd on you, Vrankie."
"Haow much money did ye make?" whispered Ephraim, eagerly.
Frank pulled out a large roll, on the outside of which was a fifty-dollar bill. Both lads stared at it, and then they leaned heavily against each other.
"Efy," whispered Hans, "I pelief I vos goin' to had a pad case uf heardt vailures!"
"Waal, I'm ruther dizzy myself!" gurgled the Vermonter. "Never saw so much money as that in all my life. Why don't yeou retire an' live on the intrust of it, Frank?"
"Yaw, why you don'd led der interest uf id life on you, Vrankie?" asked Hans.
"Here is just about enough to get us started on the road in good shape," said Merriwell. "We shall need every dollar of it."
"We will go into partnership," he said. "It will take three of us to run the thing right."
The Yankee youth and the Dutch lad fell into each other's arms.
"Dot's vot's der madder!" rejoiced Hans. "Oh, dot Vrank Merriwell vas a beach, you pet!"
They sat down and talked it over for a long time. Frank believed Ephraim could learn to assist him about his tricks, and he fancied Hans would be good for something. They were his old Fardale schoolmates, and he had no thought of leaving them stranded away out there so far from their homes.