“There are two things!” Santenel droned on, dropping his shoulders and sinking lower in his chair, as he again seemed to talk to the fire. “I want to strike Charles Conrad Merriwell, and you want to even your score with Dick Starbright. Both can be done at the same time.”
Dade leaned forward, his face working with hate against Starbright.
“I had Charles Merriwell in my power a short time ago, and his son broke my grip and got him away. I must get him in my power again. I can’t do it while Frank Merriwell is here in New Haven, for his father will not leave the place now for a number of days, and it may be weeks and months. He fears me too much since that. Frank must be lured out of the city.”
“Get him away on a ball-game, or some kind of game.”
“Merriwell might play them if they would come here.”
“That’s for you to answer. Perhaps I can help you. But it must be done. Starbright is on his team?”
“That’s what I thought. They must play the New London polo-team in New London. And while they are over there I will work my plans to get Charles Conrad Merriwell again in my power. But Frank must be out of New Haven. Must be lured out, I say. I can’t cope with him, and I must have a clear track here if I am to win. I know I can win if he can be led away. I don’t care how you do it, so it is done. Perhaps I can help you.”
He sunk his head deeper between his shoulders, and his eyes blazed as brightly as the fire.
“And Starbright?” Dade anxiously and tremulously asked, for he was, at the moment, more interested in the overthrow of Starbright than of Merriwell.
“A polo-game is a rough game, and a polo-stick may be a dangerous weapon in the hands of the right man. If there is not a man on the New London team who will do the work for you, scheme some way to get a man on that team who will. I have heard of men having their arms broken in such games. I see no reason why a man mightn’t be killed in such a game!”
He spoke as coldly as if his eyes were not flames of fire and his heart a seething volcano. Dade flushed and paled, while his breath came panting hot from between his lips.
“I’ll do it!” he said, gasping out the promise. “I’ll do it, somehow. I’ll need money to work the trick, maybe, and a lot of it. Money can do anything, if a fellow only has enough of it.”