It was Monday forenoon, and the second day after Merriwell’s pick-up nine had clashed on the diamond with the team from Gold Hill.
As a result of Jode Lenning’s clever work during that game, he won over all the ball players, and made many friends among the spectators; but the one man Merry and Darrel had wished to reconcile with Lenning became angry at what he termed Lenning’s deception, and seemed more bitterly set against the young fellow than ever. That one man was Colonel Hawtrey.
Lenning, happy in the thought that many of the friends he had lost had been regained, returned with a light heart to his work at the Ophir Mine. At the Ophir House, directly after the baseball game, Mr. Bradlaugh, president of the Ophir Athletic Club and general manager for the syndicate that operated the gold mine, had labored hard with Colonel Hawtrey to soften him in his attitude toward Lenning. He had not been very successful, but he had given Frank a tip that, Monday forenoon, he and the colonel were to play a game of golf on the Ophir club links, and he suggested that Frank appear personally and speak a good word for Lenning.
What the ball game had failed to accomplish, Frank might succeed in bringing about by explaining that, whatever duplicity Lenning had used in the game, had been at the suggestion and by the advice of Merriwell himself and of Darrel.
It was a delicate mission, this that was taking Frank to the golf links that forenoon, and he had every reason
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 to consider it, as he had observed to Clancy, “one of the hardest jobs he had ever tackled.”
The club links lay to the south of the clubhouse, and Merry and Clancy had hardly reached the clubhouse door before they glimpsed two white-clad figures and two diminutive lads with bags out on the course. One of the white-clad figures was on its knees, building a tee.
“There they are, Clan,” remarked Merriwell soberly.
“Sure thing, Chip,” laughed Clancy, a little uneasily. “Let’s mosey over and have our little interview.”
Perhaps it was not an opportune moment in which to interrupt two golf enthusiasts, but Merry reflected that he and Clancy were there by invitation of Mr. Bradlaugh, and it seemed the part of wisdom to get their interview with the colonel over as soon as possible.
It was the colonel’s first drive, and he was carefully weighing his driver in his hands as the boys came up.
“Hello, Merriwell,” he called out genially; “and here’s Clancy, too. Did you come out to see me get the better of Bradlaugh? This,” he laughed, “is going to be one time when Gold Hill puts Ophir down and out.”
Mr. Bradlaugh nodded to the boys, and gave Merry a suggestive wink. That wink said, as plain as words, that Merriwell had better chip in with his word for Lenning while the colonel was feeling in such an amiable mood.
“I don’t want to butt in here, colonel,” said Frank, “but Clancy and I didn’t come to see your match with Mr. Bradlaugh, but to have a bit of a talk with you.”
A look of surprise crossed the colonel’s face, and then his brows lowered with just a shade of suspicion. He tucked his driver under his arm, gave a regretful look at the waiting ball, and then pushed his hands resignedly into his trousers pockets.
“Go ahead, Merriwell,” said he. “I wouldn’t allow
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 many young fellows to stand between me and the ball I’m going to put over that bunker, I can tell you. I realize, though, that I’m vastly indebted to you in a good many ways. What’s on your mind?”
“There’s just one thing, colonel,” returned Merriwell earnestly, “which I’d like to see accomplished before Clancy, Ballard, and I pull up stakes and quit southern Arizona.”
“Only one thing, eh?” said the colonel, with a faint smile. “Well, what is it?”
Frank was brought right up to the critical point, first crack out of the box. He had steeled himself for the ordeal, however, and answered calmly:
“It’s about Jode Lenning, colonel. I’d—I’d like to see you take down the bars a little, and be friends with him.”
The faint smile had passed from Hawtrey’s face. The brows lowered again.
“Be friends with that young ne’er-do-well?” he observed. “That’s the thing you’d like to see accomplished before you leave Arizona?”
“Yes, sir,” Frank answered hopefully.
“When do you expect to leave?”
Frank’s hopes continued to grow. Why all this talk if the colonel was not inclined to be in a receptive mood regarding his cast-off nephew?
“Why, we’re going to leave just as soon as Professor Borrodaile receives his check from Mr. Bradlaugh’s syndicate for ............