the long cheer for Captain Merriwell, the royal defender of the red and black, the greatest captain Fardale ever knew, and the finest fellow who ever breathed. Let her go!”
They did let her go! It seemed that they would raise the roof. And the cheer ended with Dick’s name three times shouted at the full capacity of their lusty, boyish lungs.
In his room Chester Arlington heard them, and he writhed with mental anguish that caused him to forget his bodily pain.
“Fools! fools!” he snarled. “Where is Darrell? Why doesn’t he come to me? Is he ashamed because he broke his promise not to play? Well, he ought to be! He swore he wouldn’t go into that game, and then he went!”
June could have told her brother that Hal offered to go into the game because she had urged him to do so, but she did not care to agitate Chester any further just then.
“You must keep still,” she said. “The doctor is going to bring back another physician and make a closer examination. You may be seriously hurt.”
“No!” snapped Chester. “I won’t have it so!”
“But I hope it is not so.”
“I won’t have it so! Why should I be hurt while he – while Dick Merriwell is all right? It isn’t possible!”
“I hope not! I think you will be all right, Chester.”
“You’re a good sister, June!” he suddenly exclaimed, looking at her. “I’m sorry you made the mistake of having anything to do with that cheap fellow Merriwell. But, June, you can never know how I felt when I saw you in that carriage and knew I could do nothing to save you. I thought I should die! But to have him save you, June – that was the bitterest pill of all!”
“Don’t keep thinking about that, Chester. Just be quiet until we find out how much you are hurt. It will kill mother if you are hurt much.”
For Chester Arlington’s mother doted on him. He was her pride and joy, and she had implicit confidence in him. She had permitted June to come to Fardale to satisfy June that Chester was in the right in his trouble with Dick Merriwell, but she had not fancied that June did not mean to let her brother know she was in town until after she had investigated and discovered the truth.
“I won’t be hurt!” exclaimed the unfortunate lad. “Why should anything like that happen to me? But it was so strange that I had no strength in my legs when I tried to stand.”
“That is what worried the doctor.”
“Worried him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He was afraid your spine had been injured.”
Chester turned still paler.
“My spine?” he whispered, a look of horror on his face. “Why, if that should be, I might become a helpless cripple.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s anything like that!” cried the girl, regretting that she had spoken so plainly. “I am sure it isn’t.”
He lay still and stared up at the ceiling.
“A cripple!” came huskily from his lips. “What a terrible thing! And that fellow still strong and well! Nothing ever happens to him. Why is it? It’s his luck – his luck!”
June knew he was thinking of Dick Merriwell, and she thought how nearly Dick had been knocked out of the game that day, how she had rushed to him as he lay on the field, and how she had given him the little locket as a “charm” to keep away misfortune in the future.
“What made you do it, June?” whined the lad on the bed, and she started as she realized he was thinking of the same thing. “It was a shame – a disgrace!”
“I’m sorry I disgraced you, Chester!” she said, somewhat coldly.
“I’d rather given anything than to have my sister make such a spectacle of herself. All Fardale will know of it! They will say you are smitten on him – on that fellow!”
“Chester, I know how much you dislike him; but don’t you think you are somewhat in the wrong yourself?”
He started to his elbow, with a cry.
“It’s hard enough to be knocked out this way without having my sister go back on me for a dog like that!” he exclaimed fiercely.
“He is no dog, Chester! Have you forgotten that he stopped the runaway and saved me?”
“No! no! Wish I could!”
“Have you forgotten that this is the second time he has saved me? Surely I owe him something! I owe him respect, at least!”
“That’s all! You can keep away from him! June, you must stay in Fardale no longer. I’ll write mother. That is, if you do not decide to leave at once.”
“Perhaps I may not be able to leave.”
“Not able?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You may need me.”
“You think I am going to be as bad as that? Then that infernal doctor must have told you something he did not say to me! But I’ll fool him – I’ll fool them all! I’ll get up all right in a day or so! It’s nothing but a sprained back! Why doesn’t Darrell come to me? Has he gone back on me entirely?”
“Perhaps the doctor has told everybody to keep away.”
“Confound the doctor! June, go find Hal Darrell and tell him to come here right away. I have something to say to that fellow, and I’m going to say it while it is hot on my mind.”
“Keep still while I am gone,” she said. “Will you?”
He promised, and she left the room to look for Darrell.
CHAPTER IV – JUNE’S PROMISE
The hilarious fellows were repeating “The Red and Black” when Dick passed down-stairs in search of the boy whose bicycle had been smashed. Dick had been thinking of that lad. The boy had not raised a fuss over the destruction of his wheel, and Merriwell admired him for his behavior.
The boy was sitting on the hotel steps, mournfully trying to bend the twisted spokes back into shape. A number of his friends had gathered around him.
“It’s tough on you, Sammy,” said one of the group. “No fellow has a right to grab a chap’s wheel and smash it like that.”
“He didn’t mean to do it,” said Sammy.
“That don’t make no difference! He hadn’t any right to take it at all.”
“He did it to chase the runaway and save the girl.”
“Well, you didn’t start the runaway. You wasn’t to blame for it. Somebody oughter to pay you for your wheel.”
“The fellow whose sister he saved said he’d
