Frank Merriwell's Alarm Part 41

"You met Isa?"

"In Sacramento."

"And she looks as she did long ago--just as handsome?"

"A hundred times more so!" cried Bart, his eyes kindling and a flush suffusing his cheeks. "Merriwell, she is the handsomest girl I ever knew!"

Frank whistled, regarding Bart searchingly and uneasily.

"What's this? what's this?" he exclaimed. "What has she been doing with you? Why, hang me if I don't believe--I know you were hard hit by her!"

"I was," confessed Bart, flus.h.i.+ng still more. "When I first saw her I thought her Vida, but she seemed to have grown more beautiful than ever, and I could not help looking at her. Then I discovered there was a difference--I saw it was not Vida but Isa. When I spoke to her she remembered me, and then--well, we became very friendly. I told her everything, and she laughed. She said Vida was too soft for anything--said the old aunt made Vida do anything she wished, and the girl hadn't spirit enough to do as she desired. She said she would stick to a fellow if she loved him even though he were jailed for twenty years. There was spirit, dash, go about her, Merriwell! She fascinated me. I saw in her what I had missed in Vida."

Frank shook his head in a very sober manner.

"My dear fellow," he said, "do you remember Isa had a husband?"

"Yes, but he is dead," said Bart, quickly.

"I know that; but do you remember the sort of fellow he was?"

"Of course; he was a counterfeiter."

"Exactly, and Isa 'shoved the queer' for him. She didn't do a thing to me the first time we met. I changed a fifty-dollar bill for her, and when I tried to pa.s.s the bill I came near being arrested. You remember that?"

"Sure."

"I hardly think that is the sort of girl you wish to get stuck on, old boy."

"I don't know about that," said Bart, rather defiantly. "She stuck to her husband through thick and thin, and I think all the more of her for it."

Frank was alarmed.

"My dear fellow," he cried, "you are an easy mark. That girl is shrewd--altogether too shrewd for you to match your wits against hers.

She will play you for a fool--I am sure of it."

Bart reddened again and then turned very pale, his manner indicating great embarra.s.sment. He drew from Frank a bit, and something in his air added to Merriwell's alarm.

"I hope you haven't been very friendly with Isa Isban," Frank said.

"I might have been more friendly, but she had a foolish idea that it would injure me if I were seen with her often."

"She had such an idea?"

"Yes; and that goes to show the girl's heart is all right. She had consideration for me."

Frank bit his lip and scowled.

"It is remarkable," he confessed. "Are you sure it was out of consideration for you that she did not wish you seen with her?"

"Sure? Of course."

"It seems strange. It seems that the kind of life she has led with that reckless coiner husband would be sure to make her careless of others--make her hard and heartless."

"It is not strange you think so, Merriwell; but it is because you do not know her. I honor and respect her for standing by her husband, even when she knew he was a rascal, and I believe she has a heart and soul a thousand times more n.o.ble than the heart and soul of her half-sister."

"Bad, bad!" exclaimed Frank. "Look here, Bart, you must go along with me. That is settled. Isa Isban will ruin you if you do not escape from her influence."

A look of indignation settled on Hodge's face, and he drew away.

"If you knew her well, Frank, I would not pardon you for saying that about her; but, as you know nothing about her, I will overlook it.

But, old fellow, please don't speak of Miss Isban in that way."

"Miss Isban? Her name is Mrs. Scott; her husband's name was Paul Scott."

"I know, but she has resumed her maiden name since his death. She calls herself Miss Isban now. You should see her, Merriwell. She looks like a sweet girl graduate--a girl of eighteen, and----"

"She must be twenty-one or two."

"I don't know, and I don't care. She does not look it, and I believe she is a splendid girl. I honor and respect her."

"Great Scott!" thought Frank; "Hodge is in the greatest peril of his life! I am sure of it. I am sure that girl will work his utter downfall if he is not saved from her influence. It is my duty to find a way to save him. I will!"

When Frank made up his mind to do a thing, he bent all his energies to accomplish the end. In the past Hodge had been easily influenced, but he felt sure Isa Isban had a hold on the lad that could not be broken with ease. The task must be accomplished by clever work.

"Where is she now?" Merry asked.

"I don't know."

"Don't? How is that?"

"Well, you see, I--I left Sacramento rather--rather suddenly,"

faltered Bart.

"Suddenly? Explain it, old chum. Why did you leave Sacramento suddenly? I trust you did not get into trouble there?"

Hodge ground his heel into the ground, seeming quite occupied in digging a hole in that manner. Suddenly he started and listened.

"A horse is coming this way--up the trail!" he exclaimed. "It is coming at a hot pace, as if hard ridden."

"Let it come. That needn't bother us. Answer my questions, Bart. You know I am your friend, and there should be perfect trust and no secrets between close friends."

But Hodge did not seem to hear those words. He was listening to the hoofbeats of the galloping horse, and his face had grown pale.

"Look here, Merriwell," he hastily exclaimed, "the rider of that horse may be a person I do not care to meet."

Bart got up hastily, and Frank arose, saying:

"You needn't be afraid of him. The other boys are good fighters, and there is no single man in this country that can do you up while you are with this crowd. We will stand by you."