The town of Cartersville is situated in the southern part of the State of Iowa. This was the first stop Frank and his party made after leaving Omaha. Their first view of the town was not particularly inviting, as the railway station, after the disagreeable habit of nearly all railway stations, was situated in the most unsightly and forbidding portion of the place. In the immediate vicinity were unpainted, ramshackle buildings, saloons, cheap stores and hovel-like houses. In front of the saloons and stores lounged a few slovenly, ambition-lacking loafers, while slatternly women and dirty children were seen in the doorways or leaning from the open windows of the wretched houses.

On the station platform had gathered the usual crowd, including those who came to the train from necessity and those drawn thither by curiosity. There was also a surprisingly large gathering of boys of various ages, from six to eighteen.

Frank walked briskly along to the baggage car and noted that the baggage belonging to his party was put off there. Then he glanced around, as if in search of some one.

“I wonder where Mr. Gaddis is?” he said. “He was to meet us at the station.”

A big, hulking six-footer, with ham-like hands and a thick neck, stepped forward from the van of a mixed crowd of about twenty tough-looking young fellows who had flocked down the platform behind Merry and his party.

“Are you Frank Merriwell?” asked the huge chap, who was about twenty years old, as he held the butt of a half-smoked cheroot in the corner of his capacious mouth.

“Yes, sir,” answered Merry promptly. “Do you represent Joseph Gaddis?”

“I should say not!” was the retort. “Not by a blame sight.”

“I thought not,” said Frank.

“Oh, ye did? What made ye think not, hey?”

“You are not just the sort of man I expected to meet. Do you know Mr. Gaddis?”

“Do I? Some!”

“Isn’t he here?”

“I reckon not.”

“Where is he?”

“Ask me!”

Although the manner of the big fellow was openly insolent, Merry did not seem to notice it.

The motley crowd accompanying this man were grinning or scowling at Merriwell and his friends, while some of them made half-audible comments of an unflattering sort. They were tall, short, stout, and thin, but one and all they carried the atmosphere of tough characters.

“It’s rather odd, Bart,” said Frank, speaking to Hodge, who was surveying the crowd with dark disapproval, “that Gaddis should fail to keep his appointment to meet us here.”

“No it ain’t odd,” contradicted the big chap. “He knowed better than to be here. You made some sort of arrangement with him to play a game of baseball in this town, didn’t ye?”

“Yes.”

“Well, fergit it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Fergit it. You’ll be wastin’ a whole lot of time if you stop here, an’ you’ll put yourselves to a heap of inconvenience. You won’t play no baseball with Gaddis’ team, so you’d better hop right back onter the train and continue your ride.”

Merry now surveyed the speaker from his head to his feet.

“I happen to have a contract with Mr. Gaddis,” he said. “How is it that you have so much authority? Who are you?”

“I’m Mat Madison, and I happen to know what I’m talkin’ about. Joe Gaddis has changed his mind about playin’ baseball with you. He ain’t goin’ to play baseball no more this season.”

“Did he send you here to tell me this?” demanded Frank, his eyes beginning to gleam with an ominous light.

“No, he didn’t send me; I come myself.”

“Then you haven’t any real authority.”

“Is that so! You bet I have! I’m giving it to you on the level when I say you won’t play no baseball game in Cartersville, and the wisest thing you can do is to step right back onter this train and git out. In short, I’m here to see that you do git back onter the train, and I brought my backers. If you don’t git we’ll have to make ye git.”

By this time Frank’s friends were gathered at his back, ready for anything that might happen. They scented trouble, although they could not understand the cause of it.

“I have no idea of leaving Cartersville until I see Mr. Gaddis,” said Merry, with cool determination. “If he fails to keep his agreement with me, I propose to collect one hundred and fifty dollars forfeit money.”

“Oh, haw! haw! You do, do ye? Well, when you collect a hundred and fifty from Joe Gaddis you’ll be bald-headed. There ain’t no time for foolin’. The train will pull out pretty soon, so you want to hop right back onto it and go along. If you don’t, I’ll make you hop. Git that?”

“If you bother me I’ll feel it my duty to make you regret your action. Get that?”

“Why, you thunderin’ fool, you don’t mean to fight, do ye? I’ll knock the head off your shoulders!”

“I don’t think you will.”

“Then take this!”

As he snarled forth the words, Madison struck viciously at Frank’s face with his right fist.

Merry ducked like a flash, at the same time throwing up his left hand and catching the fellow’s wrist. With this hold, he gave a strong, sharp pull in the same direction that Madison had started, at the same time jerking the fellow’s arm downward. While doing this, Merry stooped and thrust his right arm between the ruffian’s legs, grasping Madison’s right leg back of the knee. In this manner he brought the bruiser across his back and shoulders in such a way that the fellow had no time to recover and was losing his balance when Frank suddenly straightened up with a heaving surge.

To the amazement of Madison’s friends, the fellow was sent flying through the air clear of the platform, striking the ground on his head and shoulders.

Merry calmly turned to look after the baggage, not giving his late assailant as much as a glance after the latter struck the ground.

Madison was somewhat stunned. He sat up, holding his hands to his head and looking bewildered. A number of his friends sprang from the platform and gathered around him.

The young toughs were astounded by the manner in which Merry had met Madison’s assault. If before that they had contemplated an attack on Frank and his party, the sudden disposal of their leader caused them to falter and change their plan.

Hans Dunnerwurst chuckled as he looked after Madison.

“Maype you vill holdt that for a vile,” he observed.

“There is something wrong about this business here in Cartersville, fellows,” said Frank; “but we’ll find out what it is. If Gaddis squeals on his contract with me, I’m going to see if he cannot be compelled to pay the forfeit.”

“That’s business,” nodded Hodge. “I’ll wager he sent these thugs to frighten us away, so he wouldn’t be compelled to pay the money. If we didn’t stop, he could get out of it.”

“Whereupon we’ll linger,” murmured Jack Ready.

“Somebody’s gug-gug-going to fuf-fuf-find out we mean bub-bub-business!” stuttered Gamp.

“I opine one chap has found it out already,” observed Buck Badger dryly.

“It must have been a shock to him,” said Dade Morgan, a gleam of satisfaction in his dark eyes.

“Glad he tackled Frank,” yawned Browning, with a wearied air. “I don’t feel like exerting myself after that infernally uncomfortable car ride.”

“The gentleman experienced a taste of jutsuju—I mean jujutsu,” laughed Harry Rattleton.

“Sorry Merry had to soil his hands on the big loafer,” said Dick Starbright, taking off his hat and tossing back his mane of golden hair.

“It was a clever piece of business,” admitted Jim Stretcher; “but two years ago, at a fair in Tipton, Missouri, I saw a little piece of business that——”

“Don’t tell it—don’t dare to tell it!” exclaimed Badger. “I’m from Kansas, and I’m sick of hearing these powerful extravagant tales about Missouri. If you mention Missouri in my hearing for the next three days you’ll be in danger of sudden destruction. That’s whatever!”

“You’re jealous, and I don’t blame you,” said Jim. “If I lived in Kansas I’d never acknowledge it. It was the last place created, and made out of mighty poor material. Everybody in Kansas worth knowing has moved out.”

“Which is a genuine Irish bull,” said Morgan.

“All aboard,” called the conductor.

A few moments later the train pulled out.

In the meantime, Mat Madison had recovered and regained his feet. The result of his attack on Merriwell had astonished him no less than it did his followers. Even after recovering from the shock he could not understand just what had happened to him, although he realized that, in some manner, he had been sent spinning through the air. It had dazed him. After regaining his feet he asked one of the young to............