Frank Merriwell's New Comedian; Or, The Rise of a Star

by Burt L. Standish

  CHAPTER IV.

  IN THE SMOKER.

  So Frank took the company back to Denver. He was able to do so withoutdepositing the check till Denver was reached, as Horace Hobson furnishedthe funds, holding the check as security.

  Hobson went along at the same time.

  While on the train Frank made arrangements with several members of hiscompany in the revised version of "For Old Eli," when the play went onthe road again.

  He said nothing to Lloyd Fowler nor Charlie Harper. Although he did notmake arrangements with Granville Garland, he asked Garland if he caredto go out with the company again, informing him that he might have anopening for him.

  Fowler saw Merry talking with some of the members, and he surmised whatit meant. He began to feel anxious as time passed, and Frank did notcome to him. He went to Harper to talk it over.

  Harper was in the smoker, pulling at a brierwood pipe and looking sourenough. He did not respond when Fowler spoke to him.

  "What's the matter?" asked Fowler. "Sick?"

  "Yes," growled Harper.

  "What ails you?"

  "Disgusted."

  "At what?"

  "Somebody."

  "Who?"

  "Myself for one."

  "Somebody else?"

  "Yes."

  "Who?"

  "You're it."

  Fowler fell back and stared at Harper. He had taken a seat opposite hisfellow actor. Harper returned his stare with something like stillgreater sourness.

  "What's the matter with me?" asked Fowler, wondering.

  "You're a confounded idiot!" answered Harper, bluntly.

  "Well, I must say I like your plain language!" exclaimed Fowler,coloring and looking decidedly touched. "You were in a bad temper whenwe started for Denver, but you seem to be worse now. What's the matter?"

  "Oh, I see now that I've put a foot in the soup. I am broke, and I needmoney. All I am liable to get is the two weeks salary I shall receivefrom Merriwell. If I'd kept my mouth shut I might have a new engagementwith him, like the others."

  "Then some of the others have a new engagement?"

  "All of them, I reckon, except you and I. We are the fools of thecompany."

  "Well, what shall we do?"

  "Can't do anything but keep still and swallow our medicine."

  "Perhaps you think that, but I'm going to hit Merriwell up."

  "Well, you'll be a bigger fool if you do, after the calling down youreceived from him to-day."

  At that moment Frank entered the smoker, looking for Hodge, who had beenunable to procure a good seat in one of the other cars. Bart was sittingnear Harper and Fowler.

  As Frank came down the aisle, Fowler arose.

  "I want to speak to you, Mr. Merriwell," he said.

  "All right," nodded Frank. "Go ahead."

  "I have heard that you are making new engagements with the members ofthe company."

  "Well?"

  "You haven't said anything to me."

  "No."

  "I suppose it is because I made some foolish talk to you this morning.Well, I apologized, didn't I?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, I presume you will give me a chance when you take the play outagain?"

  "No, sir."

  Frank said it quietly, looking Fowler full in the face.

  "So you are going to turn me down because I made that talk? Well, I haveheard considerable about your generosity, but this does not seem verygenerous."

  "Ever since joining the company and starting to rehearse, Mr. Fowler,you have been a source of discord. Once or twice you came near flatlyrefusing to do some piece of business the way I suggested. Once youinsolently informed me that I was not the stage manager. You completelyforgot that I was the author of the piece. I have heard that you toldothers not to do things as I suggested, but to do them in their own way.Several times before we started out I was on the verge of releasing you,which I should have done had there been time to fill your placeproperly. Last night you were intoxicated when the hour arrived for thecurtain to go up. You went onto the stage in an intoxicated condition.You did not do certain pieces of business as you had been instructed todo them, but as you thought they should be done, therefore ruining anumber of scenes. You were insolent, and would have been fined a goodround sum for it had we gone on. In a number of ways you have shown thatyou are a man I do not want in my company, so I shall let you go, afterpaying you two weeks salary. I believe I have given the best of reasonsfor pursuing such a course."

  Then Frank stepped past Fowler and sat down with Hodge.

  The actor took his seat beside Harper, who said:

  "I hope you are satisfied now!"

  "Satisfied!" muttered Fowler. "I'd like to punch his head off!"

  "Very likely," nodded Harper; "but you can't do it, you know. He is aholy terror, and you are not in his class."

  Behind them was a man who seemed to be reading a newspaper. He washolding the paper very high, so that his face could not be seen, and hewas not reading at all. He was listening with the keenest interest toeverything.

  As Frank sat down beside Hodge he observed a look of great satisfactionon Bart's face.

  "Well, Merriwell," said the dark-faced youth, with something like theshadow of a smile, "you have done yourself proud."

  "Let's go forward," suggested Merry. "The smoke is pretty thick here,and some of it from those pipes is rank. I want to talk with you."

  So they got up and left the car.

  As they went out, Fowler glared at Merriwell's back, hissing:

  "Oh, I'd like to get even with you!"

  Instantly the man behind lowered his paper, leaned forward, and said:

  "I see you do not like Mr. Merriwell much. If you want to get even withhim, I may be able to show you how to do it."

  With startled exclamations, both Harper and Fowler turned round. The manbehind was looking at them over the edge of his paper.

  "Who are you?" demanded Fowler.

  "I think you know me," said the man, lowering his paper.

  Lawrence sat there!

  In Denver Frank was accompanied to the bank by Mr. Hobson. It happenedthat Kent Carson, a well-known rancher whom Frank had met, was making adeposit at the bank.

  "Hello, young man!" cried the rancher, in surprise. "I thought you wereon the road with your show?"

  "I was," smiled Frank, "but met disaster at the very start, and did notget further than Puelbo."

  "Well, that's tough!" said Carson, sympathetically. "What was thematter?"

  "A number of things," confessed Frank. "The play was not strong enoughwithout sensational features. I have found it necessary to introduce amechanical effect, besides rewriting a part of the play. I shall startout again with it as soon as I can get it into shape."

  "Then your backer is all right? He's standing by you?"

  "On the contrary," smiled Merry, "he skipped out from Puelbo yesterdaymorning, leaving me and the company in the lurch."

  "Well, that was ornery!" said Carson. "What are you going to do withouta backer?"

  "Back myself. I have the money now to do so. I am here to make adeposit."

  Then it came about that he told Mr. Carson of his good fortune, and therancher congratulated him most heartily.

  Frank presented his check for deposit, asking for a check book. The eyesof the receiving teller bulged when he saw the amount of the check. Helooked Frank over critically.

  Mr. Hobson had introduced Frank, and the teller asked him if he couldvouch for the identity of the young man.

  "I can," was the answer.

  "So can I," spoke up Kent Carson. "I reckon my word is good here. I'llstand behind this young man."

  "Are you willing to put your name on the back of this check, Mr.Carson?" asked the teller.

  "Hand it over," directed the rancher.

  He took the check and endorsed it with his name.

  "There," he said, "I reckon you know it's good now."

  "Yes," said the teller. "Th
ere will be no delay now. Mr. Merriwell candraw on us at once."

  Frank thanked Mr. Carson heartily.

  "That's all right," said the cattleman, in an offhand way. "I allow thata chap who will defend a ragged boy as you did is pretty apt to be allright. How long will it take to get your play in shape again?"

  "Well, I may be three or four days rewriting it. I don't know how longthe other work will be."

  "Three or four days. Well, say, why can't you come out to my ranch anddo the work?"

  "Really, I don't see how I can do that," declared Frank. "I must be hereto see that the mechanical arrangement is put up right."

  "Now you must come," declared Carson. "I won't take no for your answer.You can give instructions for that business. I suppose you have a planof it?"

  "Not yet, but I shall have before night."

  "Can you get your business here done to-day?"

  "I may be able to, but I am not sure."

  "Then you're going with me to-morrow."

  "I can't leave my friends who are----"

  "Bring them right along. It doesn't make a bit of difference if thereare twenty of them. I'll find places for them, and they shall have thebest the Twin Star affords. Now, if you refuse that offer, you and I areenemies."

  The man said this laughingly, but he placed Frank in an awkwardposition. He had just done a great favor for Merriwell, and Frank feltthat he could not refuse.

  "Very well, Mr. Carson," he said, "if you put it in that light, I'llhave to accept your hospitality."

  "That's the talk! Won't my boy at Yale be surprised when I write himyou've been visiting me? Ha! ha! ha!"

  Mr. Carson was stopping at the Metropole, while Frank had chosen theAmerican. The rancher urged Merry to move right over to the Metropole,and the young actor-playwright finally consented.

  But Frank had business for that day. First he telegraphed to thelithographers in Chicago a long description of the scene which he wantedmade on his new paper. He ordered it rushed, and directed them to drawon his bankers for any reasonable sum.

  Then he started out to find the proper men to construct the mechanicaleffect he wished. He went straight to the theater first, and he foundthat the stage manager of the Broadway was a genius who could makeanything. Frank talked with the man twenty minutes, and decided that hehad struck the person for whom he was looking.

  It did not take them long to come to terms. The man had severalassistants who could aid him on the work, and he promised to rushthings. Frank felt well satisfied.

  Returning to his hotel, Merry drew a plan of what he desired. As he wasskillful at drawing, and very rapid, it did not take him more than twohours to draw the plan and write out an explicit explanation of it.

  With that he returned to the stage manager. They spent another hourtalking it over, and Frank left, feeling satisfied that the manperfectly understood his wants and would produce an arrangement assatisfactory as it could be if it were overseen during its constructionby Frank himself.

  Frank was well satisfied with what he had accomplished. He went back tothe American and drew up checks for every member of the old company,paying them all two weeks salary. Lloyd Fowler took the check without aword of thanks. The others expressed their gratitude.

  Then Frank moved over to the Metropole, where he found Kent Carsonwaiting for him.

  Hodge and Gallup came along with Frank.

  "These are the friends I spoke of, Mr. Carson," explained Frank.

  "Where's the rest of them?" asked the rancher, looking about.

  "These are all."

  "All?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Why, by the way you talked, I reckoned you were going to bring yourwhole company along."

  He remembered Hodge, whom he had seen with Frank once before, and heshook hands with both Bart and Ephraim.

  "You are lucky to be counted as friends of a young man like Mr.Merriwell," said the cattleman. "That is, you're lucky if he's anythinglike what my boy wrote that he was. My boy is a great admirer of him."

  "It's strange I don't remember your son," said Frank.

  "Why, he's a freshman."

  "Yes, but I know a large number of freshmen."

  "So my boy said. Said you knew them because some of them had been tryingto do you a bad turn; but he was glad to see you get the best of them,for you were all right. He said the freshmen as a class thought so,too."

  "Your son was very complimentary. If I return to Yale, I shall look himup."

  "Then you contemplate returning to college?"

  "I do."

  "When?"

  "Next fall, if I do not lose my money backing my play."

  "Oh, you won't lose forty-three thousand dollars."

  "That is not all mine to lose. Only one-fifth of that belongs to me, andI can lose that sum."

  "Then why don't you let the show business alone and go back to collegeon that?"

  "Because I have determined to make a success with this play, and I willnot give up. Never yet in my life have I been defeated in anundertaking, and I will not be defeated now."

  The rancher looked at Frank with still greater admiration.

  "You make me think of some verses I read once," he said. "I've alwaysremembered them, and I think they've had something to do with my successin life. They were written by Holmes."

  The rancher paused, endeavoring to recall the lines. It was plain toFrank that he was not a highly educated man, but he was highlyintelligent--a man who had won his way in the world by his own effortsand determination. For that reason, he admired determination in others.

  "I have it!" exclaimed the rancher. "Here it is:

  "'Be firm! One constant element in luck Is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck. See yon tall shaft; it felt the earthquake's thrill, Clung to its base and greets the sunrise still. Stick to your aim; the mongrel's hold will slip, But only crowbars loose the bulldog's grip; Small as he looks, the jaw that never yields Drags down the bellowing monarch of the fields.'"