“Say, Merriwell,” said Uncle Blossom, gravely, “you’re an enigma.  Great poker!  The idea of calling us marauders!”

“What else were we?”

“Boys, it is our duty to take him out and hold him under under the hose!”

“Gentlemen,” said Jack Diamond, who was present, “you will have a real lively time if you try to do it.  I fully agree with Mr. Merriwell that the farmer had a right to protect his property.”

“Whe-e-ew!” whistled several lads, and then they all cried together:  “Goodness, how the wind blows!”

The boys had come to understand in a measure Diamond’s chivalric nature and sentiments, and it did not seem strange that he should see something improper in stealing turkeys from a farmer; but it did appear rather remarkable that Merriwell should maintain such an idea after he had taken a hand in the game.

“It must be that you chaps intend to become parsons after you leave college,” said Walter Gordon, rather derisively.

“And Merriwell would pay for the dog if he killed the beast!” exclaimed Uncle Blossom.  “How about the turkey?  I should have thought you’d paid for that.”

“I did.”

“What!”

That word was a roar, and it seemed to leap from the lips of every lad in the room, with the exception of Diamond and Merriwell.  The boys were all on their feet, and they stared at Frank with bulging eyes, as if they beheld a great curiosity.

Merriwell simply smiled.  He was quite cool and unruffled.

“You—­you paid—­for—­the—­turkey!” gasped Lucy Little, as if it cost him a mighty effort to get the words out.

“Exactly,” bowed Frank.

“How?  When?  Where?”

“I pinned a five-dollar bill to the roost before I laid violent hands on the old gobbler.  Baldwin will find it there in the morning.”

“Water!” panted Robinson as he flopped down on a chair.  “I think I am going to faint!”

“Oh, think of the beautiful beers that V would have paid for!” sighed Robinson, with a doleful shake of his head.

“This is a disgrace on the famous class of ’Umpty-eight!” shouted Lewis Little.  “We can never wipe it out!”

“I fear not,” said Easy Street.  “It is really awful!”

“And to think Merriwell should have done it.  It would have served him right if that spring gun had filled him with shot!”

“Excuse these few tears!” exclaimed Blossom, who had secretly opened a bottle of beer and saturated his handkerchief with the contents.

He now proceeded to wring the handkerchief in a highly dramatic manner.

“Go ahead,” laughed Frank.  “Have all the sport you like over it, but I feel easy in my mind.”

Some one proposed not to eat the turkey at all, but there was a dissenting shout at that.  Then the bird was taken down into the cellar by three of them and stripped of its feathers.  A pan and necessary dishes had been borrowed of Mrs. Harrington, and there was a roaring hard-wood fire in the open grate.