Dick Merriwell Abroad Part 17

"That's nonsense, Richard," he said. "Of course, there was a time when the girls did chase after me more or less, but that's gone by."

"You know better, professor. In these days girls are learning to admire men of brains, and talent, and genius. You'll have to be careful, professor. There's something about you that fetches them every time."

Zenas smiled.

"Do you think so?"

"I know it! I want to warn you for your own good. You'll have to hold them off. If we go to Paris, you'll have to be on your guard. They're sure to throw themselves at you. Paris is full of pretty girls, they say, and they'll keep you ducking. If you were inclined to be frisky, you could have a score of handsome women chasing you."

"He! he!" laughed Gunn. "That would be embarra.s.sing, but it would be rather exciting."

He rose to his feet and threw out his chest.

"I don't know but you are right," he nodded. "Since crossing the pond I've noticed the ladies glancing my way and smiling on me. In London they smiled at me, and in Scotland the Scottish girls were inclined to give me the eye. I used to be quite a chap with 'em, but since getting married I've lived retired and kept away from 'em. I'll have to look out or some of them will be trying to steal me."

Buckhart turned a laugh into a severe fit of coughing.

"I'm afraid I've taken cold," he barked.

By this time d.i.c.k had Professor Gunn thinking himself really a very captivating old chap with the ladies, and he began to tell how he had found it necessary to dodge them all his life.

"Stop it, pard!" whispered the boy from Texas. "If you don't let up I'll sure give myself away to him."

Thus adjured, Merriwell finally quit egging Zenas on, but he improved an opportunity to slip out of the room and leave the professor relating some of his experiences to Buckhart.

d.i.c.k descended to the lower rooms of the inn, entering the one to which they had first been ushered by the landlord.

A man in black clothes was half sitting, half reclining in a big easy-chair that was drawn up before before the fire. Evidently he had been perusing a newspaper, over which, made drowsy by the warmth, he had fallen asleep. The paper was spread over his face.

At one corner of the glowing open grate was another chair, and d.i.c.k sat down in this.

"A cool night, sir," he observed, by way of being sociable.

The man did not stir. Evidently he was quite sound asleep.

d.i.c.k took from his pocket a tourist's map and began examining it. The old professor had stated that in a few days they would leave England for warmer countries to the south, but their exact route had not yet been decided on.

For ten minutes or more d.i.c.k studied the map closely, becoming quite absorbed in it. At last, although he had not heard a sound or observed a movement on the part of his companion, he was led to glance up quickly, feeling himself attracted by something.

The man in the easy-chair had permitted the newspaper to slip down just enough for him to peer over the upper edge of it.

Merriwell found himself looking straight into a pair of dark, magnetic eyes, which were fixed on him with a steady, intent gaze. As those eyes met d.i.c.k's they did not waver or blink in the least, and thus the two sat perfectly still, d.i.c.k holding the map and having his head partly lifted, gazing at each other unwaveringly and in stony silence.

Almost instantly d.i.c.k knew he had seen those eyes before. There was something familiar about them. They gave the boy at first a queer, uncanny sensation, and something like a chill, followed by a tingling flush of heat, pa.s.sed over him.

A sense of danger came to d.i.c.k Merriwell. He seemed to feel the influence of a strange, subtle power. Directly he realized that this unknown power emanated from those piercing dark eyes, and it seemed that in his ear his guardian genius whispered an anxious warning.

Immediately the boy roused himself and brought his own firm will to the task of combating the influence whose touch he had so distinctly felt.

Summoning his spirit of resistance to the contest, he continued to watch the eyes revealed above the edge of the newspaper.

Neither man nor boy moved a muscle. In dead silence they remained thus, watching each other like panthers about to spring.

The fire glowed warmly on the hearth and a great clock that stood in one corner of the room ticked solemnly and regularly. Outside the wind rose in a great gust and swept with rushing sound through the branches of the trees. Ghostly hands, like those of restless spirits seeking admission from the darkness and the cold, rapped at the cas.e.m.e.nt of a window.

Still the unknown man and the American lad sat motionless, gazing into each other's eyes.

The unvaried ticking of the great clock began to sound loud as hammer strokes.

Gradually d.i.c.k realized that he was obtaining the mastery. He had met and resisted the unknown influence the other was bringing to bear upon him, and his determination was conquering the subtle power of those magnetic eyes.

He called into action all the force of will he could command, knowing that he was defeating the object of the silent man before the fire.

Finally the man uttered a low exclamation of disappointment and anger, and the newspaper fell rustlingly from his face.

d.i.c.k sat face to face with Miguel Bunol!

"Curses on you!" hissed the Spanish youth. "Had you not looked up so soon I would have succeeded."

"Never!" retorted d.i.c.k. "It is not in you, Bunol, to conquer a Merriwell."

"We shall see."

"I should think you would know it by this time. What are you doing here?"

"That is my business."

"In which I am somewhat interested. How dare you show your face again?"

"Dare?" laughed the young Spaniard, harshly. "Did you think you could frighten me? Fool not yourself by such a fancy. I have a right to go where I choose, have I not?"

"You might find it unpleasant if you were to appear in the vicinity of Kinross, Scotland, about now. Of course you have a right to go there, if you choose, but you would be arrested if you did so."

"We are not in Scotland, Merriwell. This is England and the heart of Sherwood Forest."

"But the law is just as strong here as in Kinross. If Dunbar Budthorne were here he would--"

Bunol snapped his fingers contemptuously.

"He would do nothing at all. Had he sat before me, were he sitting thus now, I'd have him powerless to disobey my command-I'd have him subject to my every wish. I am his master, and he knows it."

"Still at Lochleven you did not succeed in forcing him into your dastardly scheme-you did not compel him to aid you in your plot to marry his sister."

"But for you, Merriwell, I should have succeeded. You ruined my plot.

That very night, as I fled in a boat across the bleak bosom of the lake, I swore to turn my attention to you, and put you beyond the possibility of baffling me again. Now you know why I am here. What will you do about it?"

The Spaniard asked the question mockingly. He was flinging defiance in the teeth of the young American.

"You have selected a big task, Mig Bunol."