Walter stood up and attempted to grasp Ditson’s arm, but he was so full that he made a miscalculation and caught nothing but empty air.  Then he struck across the table at Roll.

“Oh, you would hit me, would you!” grated Ditson, who saw that his companion was much the drunker.  “You would hammer my face!  Well, perhaps I’ll do some hammering myself!”

Then he caught up an empty champagne bottle and swung it over his head as if to strike Gordon.

Like a flash Merriwell’s hand darted down over the top of the screen and snatched the bottle from Roll’s grasp.

A moment later Frank went around the screen and confronted the two lads, still holding the bottle in his hand.

“I saved you from having a cracked head that time, Gordon,” he said as he collared Ditson.  “And I have found out who the traitor is.  I am glad you are not the man.  As for this thing”—­he gave Ditson a shake that caused the fellow’s teeth to click together—­“he has shown to-night that he is a most contemptible cur!  I hated to think him as dirty as he has shown himself to be.”

Frank’s face was full of unutterable disgust for Ditson.

Other freshmen came crowding into the corner, and Ditson saw himself regarded with scorn and contempt by everybody.  He cowed like a whipped cur and whined: 

“I was simply fooling; it was all a jolly.  I never did anything of the sort.  I was simply trying to get Gordon on the string by telling him so.”

“Well, you got yourself on a string, and pretty well tangled up.  Gentlemen”—­turning to the freshmen present—­“here is the traitor who has been giving our secrets away to the sophs.  Both Rattleton and myself heard him acknowledge it.  Take a good look at him, so you will know him in the future.”

“Oh, we’ll know him!” cried many voices.

“It’s a mistake—­” Roll began.

“That’s right,” agreed Frank.  “The worst mistake you ever made.  At last you have shown just what you are, and everybody is dead onto you.  Get out of this!”

“Tar and feather him!” shouted a voice.

“Let him go,” advised Merriwell.  “He is covered with a coating of disgrace that will not come off as easily as tar and feathers.”

Ditson sneaked away, the hisses of his classmates sounding in his ears.  The look on his face as he rolled his eyes toward Merriwell before leaving the room was malicious in the extreme.

Frank turned to Walter, who did not seem to know what to do.

“Gordon, you have found that fellow out, which is a lucky thing for you,” he said.  “He would have ruined you.  At the same time, I have found out that you had no hand in the sneaking work that has been going on of late.  You were simply an unconscious and unwilling tool, and it did me good to see you resent it when you found out what Ditson had been doing.”

Walter tried to say something, but he choked and stammered.  Then he muttered something about having a drink all around, but Frank assured him that he had taken quite enough.