CHAPTER XI.
THE SPANIARD AGAIN.
"I don't think you're really to blame, professor," said Dick. "Indeed, Ihave often wondered in the past how you succeeded in warding off theattacks of the fair sex, who are continually besieging you. No one is toblame if he happens to be attractive and fascinating to women."
The old fellow brightened up a little.
"That's nonsense, Richard," he said. "Of course, there was a time whenthe girls did chase after me more or less, but that's gone by."
"You know better, professor. In these days girls are learning to admiremen 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 holdthem off. If we go to Paris, you'll have to be on your guard. They'resure to throw themselves at you. Paris is full of pretty girls, theysay, 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 embarrassing, but it would berather exciting."
He rose to his feet and threw out his chest.
"I don't know but you are right," he nodded. "Since crossing the pondI've noticed the ladies glancing my way and smiling on me. In Londonthey smiled at me, and in Scotland the Scottish girls were inclined togive me the eye. I used to be quite a chap with 'em, but since gettingmarried I've lived retired and kept away from 'em. I'll have to look outor 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 Dick had Professor Gunn thinking himself really a verycaptivating old chap with the ladies, and he began to tell how he hadfound it necessary to dodge them all his life.
"Stop it, pard!" whispered the boy from Texas. "If you don't let up I'llsure give myself away to him."
Thus adjured, Merriwell finally quit egging Zenas on, but he improved anopportunity to slip out of the room and leave the professor relatingsome of his experiences to Buckhart.
Dick descended to the lower rooms of the inn, entering the one to whichthey had first been ushered by the landlord.
A man in black clothes was half sitting, half reclining in a bigeasy-chair that was drawn up before before the fire. Evidently he hadbeen perusing a newspaper, over which, made drowsy by the warmth, he hadfallen asleep. The paper was spread over his face.
At one corner of the glowing open grate was another chair, and Dick satdown in this.
"A cool night, sir," he observed, by way of being sociable.
The man did not stir. Evidently he was quite sound asleep.
Dick took from his pocket a tourist's map and began examining it. Theold professor had stated that in a few days they would leave England forwarmer countries to the south, but their exact route had not yet beendecided on.
For ten minutes or more Dick studied the map closely, becoming quiteabsorbed in it. At last, although he had not heard a sound or observed amovement 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 justenough for him to peer over the upper edge of it.
Merriwell found himself looking straight into a pair of dark, magneticeyes, which were fixed on him with a steady, intent gaze. As those eyesmet Dick's they did not waver or blink in the least, and thus the twosat perfectly still, Dick holding the map and having his head partlylifted, gazing at each other unwaveringly and in stony silence.
Almost instantly Dick knew he had seen those eyes before. There wassomething familiar about them. They gave the boy at first a queer,uncanny sensation, and something like a chill, followed by a tinglingflush of heat, passed over him.
A sense of danger came to Dick Merriwell. He seemed to feel theinfluence of a strange, subtle power. Directly he realized that thisunknown power emanated from those piercing dark eyes, and it seemed thatin his ear his guardian genius whispered an anxious warning.
Immediately the boy roused himself and brought his own firm will to thetask of combating the influence whose touch he had so distinctly felt.Summoning his spirit of resistance to the contest, he continued to watchthe 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 onecorner of the room ticked solemnly and regularly. Outside the wind rosein a great gust and swept with rushing sound through the branches of thetrees. Ghostly hands, like those of restless spirits seeking admissionfrom the darkness and the cold, rapped at the casement of a window.
Still the unknown man and the American lad sat motionless, gazing intoeach other's eyes.
The unvaried ticking of the great clock began to sound loud as hammerstrokes.
Gradually Dick realized that he was obtaining the mastery. He had metand resisted the unknown influence the other was bringing to bear uponhim, and his determination was conquering the subtle power of thosemagnetic eyes.
He called into action all the force of will he could command, knowingthat 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.
Dick sat face to face with Miguel Bunol!
"Curses on you!" hissed the Spanish youth. "Had you not looked up sosoon I would have succeeded."
"Never!" retorted Dick. "It is not in you, Bunol, to conquer aMerriwell."
"We shall see."
"I should think you would know it by this time. What are you doinghere?"
"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 couldfrighten me? Fool not yourself by such a fancy. I have a right to gowhere I choose, have I not?"
"You might find it unpleasant if you were to appear in the vicinity ofKinross, Scotland, about now. Of course you have a right to go there, ifyou choose, but you would be arrested if you did so."
"We are not in Scotland, Merriwell. This is England and the heart ofSherwood Forest."
"But the law is just as strong here as in Kinross. If Dunbar Budthornewere here he would----"
Bunol snapped his fingers contemptuously.
"He would do nothing at all. Had he sat before me, were he sitting thusnow, I'd have him powerless to disobey my command--I'd have him subjectto my every wish. I am his master, and he knows it."
"Still at Lochleven you did not succeed in forcing him into yourdastardly scheme--you did not compel him to aid you in your plot to marryhis 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 possibilityof baffling me again. Now you know why I am here. What will you do aboutit?"
The Spaniard asked the question mockingly. He was flinging defiance inthe teeth of the young American.
"You have selected a big task, Mig Bunol."
"But I have sworn to succeed."
"You will fail utterly and miserably."
Bunol lifted one hand to caress the thin, black mustache upon his lip.
"That is what you believe," he said; "but I know I shall not fail. AtFardale I hated you, but I forgot you after I left the school. Neveragain would I have given you a thought had you not crossed my path inLondon. You crossed it at a most unfortunate time for me, as then I wason the very verge of accomplishing my great object."
"And that object was to ruin Dunbar Budthorne and to make his beautifulsister your wife."
"I love her!"
&nb
sp; "You love her! Never! You love nothing but your own selfish, villainousself, Bunol. You were interested in her, and fascinated by her, becauseof her beauty; but had she been a poor girl you would not have dreamedfor a moment of marrying her."
"How wise you are!" sneered Miguel, shrugging his shoulders. "Even ifthat is so, what does it prove?"
"It proves that you are a fortune hunter of the lowest and mostcontemptible sort."
"Is it such a crime to be a fortune hunter, as you call it? What are theruined and penniless noblemen of Europe who seek marriage with Americanheiresses?"
"You are not even in the class of those men, for, though they may becads, and snobs, and weaklings, and utterly lacking in manly qualities,few of them are downright scoundrels and desperadoes. At least, theyhave titles to give in return for the wealth their rich wives will bringthem; but you have nothing to give."
"Yah!" snarled the Spaniard, showing his white, gleaming teeth. "You saythings that sting, but some day your tongue will be silent with death!"
"Your threats do not disturb me in the least, Bunol, for I am confidentthat I shall live to see you hanged, as you justly deserve to be. Bunol,your power is broken and your great scheme has come to naught. You mayas well seek other victims, for never again will your fingers handle adollar of Budthorne's money."
With a sneer on his dark face, the Spanish youth had listened toMerriwell's words.
"It is a great wonder you think yourself!" he cried. "You think you havedefeated me. How little you know me, boy! Did you imagine you had thrownme off the track and would see me no more while abroad? I am here. FromEdinburgh you I followed to Glasgow, from Glasgow to Dublin, from Dublinto Manchester, Sheffield and here. I chose this spot to appear to youagain and to let you know I am on your track. All this time you haveknown nothing of it, and you have thought me frightened by what happenedin Scotland. While you remained in Scotland I did not care to appear, asI knew you would try to have me arrested.
"In Dublin there was no reason why I should make myself known, nor yetin Manchester or Sheffield. Here we are far from any town and in theheart of a forest. True, your friends are within call of your voice ifyou lift it; but I, too, have friends ready to spring in on us at asignal. My friends are all armed, and it is short work they would makeof two boys and a cowardly, withered old man. Ha! ha! Call, if you like!I am willing; I am ready. Utter a shout, and by the time your friendsget down to this room you will be lying on this hearth in your blood."
"Are you trying to frighten me with such talk, Mig Bunol? You shouldknow by this time that I am not easily frightened. You say you havefollowed me. That is good. While you were doing so Dunbar Budthorne andhis sister were getting far beyond your reach. You have followed me inorder to be near when they joined us again. That is it!"
Dick laughed triumphantly, for he had stated the reason why Bunol had sopersistently dogged him about, and he felt that the fellow had beencompletely baffled.
Dick's laughter caused Bunol to turn pale with rage. He saw that theyoung American regarded him with positive contempt. In Dick he had notaroused an atom of fear--nothing but aversion, scorn and contempt.
"You cannot fool me!" he snarled. "The Budthornes are not very far away.If you live, you will meet them soon. I shall be there."
"Will you?"
"Yes! I know your cowboy friend has become deeply interested in Nadia,but--bah!--what is he? I can dispose of him so." Bunol gave a carelessflirt of his hand.
"It's plain enough you do not know the kind of stuff that Brad Buckhartis made of."
"He is nothing but a blustering braggart."
"He's a fighter, every inch of him; fearless as a lion. It was hisbullet that pierced the shoulder of Rob MacLane, the outlaw, on the wallof Lochleven Castle, and sent him tumbling to the ground, where hiscareer ended with a broken neck, greatly to the relief of all honestpeople."
"Still he is nothing but a blustering braggart, and any man of realcourage can become his master. I mind him not. It is you I have set myheart to conquer and crush, and then Buckhart will be disposed of withease."
"How do you propose to carry out your little project with me?"
"Don't think I'll not find a way. If I chose, you'd never leave this innalive. You'd never rise from that chair, unless it were to drop dead onthis hearth!"
"If all this is true, why don't you go about it?" cried Dick, his eyesflashing. "I'm watching you! I am waiting for you to begin!"
"I came here to force you to tell me where Nadia is."
Once more Dick laughed.
"And you fancied you could succeed? You fancied you could force aMerriwell to do your bidding? Bunol, you are a greater fool than Ithought!"
"Oh, laugh, conceited idiot!" snarled the Spaniard. "You may be laughingin the face of death!"
"In some ways you are amusing, as well as disgusting. Now I know why yousat so still on that chair and pretended to sleep with the paper hidingyour face. Now I know why you permitted the paper to slip down until youcould peer over it. You have discovered that with your eyes and yourmind you can govern weaklings. Your success with Dunbar Budthorne causedyou to think you might hypnotize me, and force me to tell you where youcould find Nadia. You have failed. What will be your next move?"
"I have failed, and my next move may be to put you forever out of theway of causing me more trouble."
"Begin!" was Dick's challenge. "I am waiting! Do you fancy you can do italone? or will you call your paid ruffians to your assistance? CallDurbin! Call Marsh! Durbin has none too much courage, and Marsh is amiserable coward. I am here in this room alone. Call them to your aidand let's have it out!"
"How bold you are!" sneered Bunol, again. "But it is not on such asDurbin and Marsh I depend alone. A closed carriage passed you on theroad shortly before you arrived here. I was in that carriage, and withme were men ready to cut your throat at a word of command from me.Should I give the signal they would come with a rush. Better be carefulwith that tongue of yours. If you do not arouse me too far, I may permityou to live yet a while longer; but in the end you shall die--and by myhand!"
Dick was becoming tired of the talk. He had fancied some one might enterthe room, either the landlord or the friends he had left upstairs. Now,of a sudden, he heard a sound of heavy knocking coming from the upperpart of the inn, as if some one were pounding furiously on a door.
"Your friends are growing impatient," said Bunol. "They wish to get out,it seems."
"Wish to get out?"
"Yes; they are locked in their rooms. One of my men attended to thatafter you left them, I presume. I gave orders to keep Buckhart and theold man away in case I found an opportunity to meet you face to face.But the place will be disturbed by the racket they are making. I hopeyou enjoy your supper here and your night's rest. I'm sorry to say Ihave decided to leave you. It might be disagreeable if your party andmine were to remain beneath the same roof."
Bunol started to rise from his chair, as if to depart.
Instantly, without warning and with a great bound, Dick reached theSpaniard and clutched him.
"Wait a minute!" he exclaimed. "Don't be in such a hurry to go."
With a furious exclamation, Bunol flashed out a knife and struck at theboy's throat a blow that was much like a streak of lightning as thesteel glinted in the gleaming firelight--a blow impelled by deadly hatredand murderous impulse.