“You’ll be expressing something else in a short time. Oh, you sing high now, you do; but your tune will change, and you will cry pretty soon.”
The wretch selected a brand from the fire and laughed as he flashed the blaze before Frank’s face.
“Is it warm?” he asked. “Well, it will seem warmer when I apply it to the tender skin on your feet.”
“Go ahead!” grated Merry; “but do not forget what I have told you. My turn will come!”
The fellow prepared to apply the blaze to Frank’s feet, but, as he stooped to do so, another voice was heard:
It was the tall whitecap, and he was pointing straight at the leader.
“Stop!” he roared. “This job doesn’t go!”
There was no misunderstanding the big fellow’s meaning. It was plain enough that he intended to interfere.
“What’s that?” snarled the leader, glaring through the slits in the hood, the blazing brand shaking in his hand. “What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I say,” retorted the other, standing over Frank and returning the glare with interest. “This fellow’s all right. He’s got nerve and sand. I’m not goin’ to stand here and see him roasted in that style.”
Angry imprecations burst from the hidden lips of Merriwell’s would-be torturer.
“Stand back!” he shouted, shrilly, flourishing the brand at Frank’s defender.
“Well, I guess not! I helped lace Eli Gibbons, for he was a thief, a liar, a wife-beater, and everything mean; but this case is different.”
“And I know you were in the Gibbons affair, so it’s not best for you to interfere here. I could have a warrant out for your arrest to-morrow morning, and, by the Eternal, if you meddle with me now, I will! This is my business. You were paid for your part of the work, and you did it.”
“Why, blame your eyes!” roared the big fellow. “If you dared to blow on me, I’d skin ye alive! Since I’ve seen what you mean to do with this chap, whose little finger is more man than the whole of you, I’d like the job of tying you up to a tree and giving you the same kind of a dose Gibbons received!”
“Why, my father--my father would have you sent to prison!”
The big fellow snapped his fingers and laughed.
“That for your father! He wouldn’t touch me, for if he did, I would land his son behind bars. Oh, you can’t make any bluffs with me, for they will not go.”