“You may have had them fixed that way on purpose to fool me.”

“Oh, you must know better than that!  Be reasonable, Diamond.”

The Virginian made a savage gesture.

“If you are so pleased to be made a laughingstock of it’s nothing to me,” he flashed.  “Keep still if you want to.  I’m going to tell all I know.”

“That would make a very large book—­full of nice clean, blank pages,” said some one in the background.

Frank’s manner suddenly changed.

“Look here, Diamond,” he said, “you won’t tell a thing.”

The Southerner caught his breath and his eyes stared.

“Eh?” he muttered, surprised at the other’s manner.  “I won’t?”

“Not on your life.”

“Why not?”

“Because it will mean expulsion for you as well as myself if you do.”

Every one was listening.  They gathered about the two freshmen, wondering not a little at Merriwell’s words and manner.

“Expulsion for me?” slowly repeated Diamond.  “How is that?”

“It’s straight goods.”

“Explain it.”

“Well, I will.  We came here to fight a duel, didn’t we?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You admit that?”

“I do, sir.”

“That is all that’s needed.”

“How?  Why?  I don’t understand.”

“Duels are not countenanced in the North, and nothing would cause a fellow to be fired from Yale quicker than the knowledge that he had had anything to do with one while here.  Do you twig?”

There was a moment of silence and then a stir.  A deep sigh of relief came from the masked lads, and some of them showed an inclination to cheer Merriwell.

Diamond seemed nonplused for the moment.  He glared at Frank, his hands clinched and his face pale.

At last he slowly said: 

“A duel is something no gentleman can blow about, so if you are a gentleman you will have to remain silent, sir.”

“That’s the way you Southerners look at it, but yon will excuse us Northerners if we do not see it in the same light.  A hazing is something we do not blow about, but you seem determined to let out everything, for all that it would be a dirty thing to do.  In order to even the matter, these fellows are sure to tell that you came here to fight a duel with deadly weapons, and you’ll find yourself rusticating in Virginia directly.”

“’Way down in ole Virginny,” softly warbled one of the delighted sophomores.  “That’s the stuff, Merry, old boy!”

Diamond trembled with intense anger.  He tried to speak, but his voice was so hoarse that his words were unintelligible.  A blue line seemed to form around his mouth.

“Merriwell’s got him!” Bruce Brown lazily whispered in Tad Horner’s ear.  “See him squirm!”

Tad was relieved, although he endeavored not to show it; but a satisfied smile crept over his rosy face, and he felt like giving Frank Merriwell the “glad hand.”