Part 21 (2/2)
”Yes, we are back,” answered Dave. ”How have you been since we saw you last?”
”Very well indeed,” answered Vera. ”And how did you like it on the ranch? We heard you had turned into regular cowboys.”
”Hardly that,” said Dave. ”But we went in for bronco-busting, and rounding-up, and all that.”
”Somebody said you had some trouble with cattle thieves,” went on Vera.
”Oh, Vera, don't mention that!” cried Mary, and blushed a little.
”Why shouldn't we?” demanded the other girl. ”I don't believe those stories, and I think Mr. Porter and his friends ought to know what is being said.”
”What is being said?” repeated Roger.
”Yes.”
”Who is talking about us?” demanded Phil.
”Mr. Merwell,--the young man who used to go to Oak Hall. He goes to Rockville Military Academy now.”
”And what did he say?” questioned Dave.
”Oh, he said a great many things--not to me but to some girls I know. He said all of you had gotten mixed up with some cattle thieves, and had tried to get out of the trouble by blaming him, but that he and his father had made you stop talking about him.”
”Well, if that doesn't take the cake!” exclaimed Phil. ”Isn't that Merwell to a T?”
”The shoe was on the other foot,” explained Roger. ”Merwell was the one who was mixed up in the affair, and he and his father had to pay for a lot of horses that--well, disappeared. We exposed him, and that is what made him mad.”
”Did Mr. Merwell steal some horses?” asked Vera, in alarm.
”Not exactly--according to his story,” answered Dave. ”He says he took them in fun. Then the regular cattle thieves took them from him--and let him have some money. He claimed that he was going to return the horses, but didn't get the chance.”
”And he and his father had to pay for the horses in the end?”
”Yes,--they paid Mr. Endicott, the owner of the ranch at which we were stopping.”
”Then I guess Link Merwell was guilty,” said Mary. ”And after this I don't want him to even speak to me--he or that friend of his, Mr. Nick Jasniff.”
”You'll do well to steer clear of the pair,” warned Roger.
”It is a shame that they are allowed to talk about you as they do,” said Vera. ”If they keep on, they will give you a very bad name.”
”I don't believe folks in Rockville will believe much of what Jasniff says,” said Phil. ”They'll remember his evil-doings of the past.”
”He and Merwell seem to have made themselves popular at the Academy,”
was Mary's reply. ”How they have done it I don't know. But perhaps they have money, or else----”
The girl did not finish, for just then an automobile swung around the corner and came to a halt in front of a store near which the young people had halted. The automobile contained Merwell, Jasniff, and two other students of the Academy, all attired in the cadet uniforms of that inst.i.tution.
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