He rewrote much of the play. He strengthened the climax of the third
act, and introduced a mechanical effect that was very ingenious. And
when the piece next went on the road it met with wonderful success
everywhere.
Thus Frank snatched success from defeat.
It is a strange thing that when a person fights against fate and
conquers, when fortune begins to smile, when the tide fairly turns his
way, then everything seems to come to him. The things which seemed so
far away and so impossible of attainment suddenly appear within easy
reach or come tumbling into his lap of their own accord.
It was much this way with Frank. He had dreamed of going back to college
some time, but that time had seemed far, far away. Success brought it
nearer.
But then it came tumbling into his lap. No one had been found to claim
the fortune he discovered in the Utah Desert. Investigation had shown
that there were no living relatives of the man who had guarded the
treasure till his death. That treasure had been turned over to Frank.
Frank had brought his play to New Haven, and his old college friends had
given him a rousing welcome. And now he had made plans to return to
college in the fall, while his play was to be carried on the road by a
well-known and experienced theatrical manager.
The friends who had been with Frank when he discovered the treasure,
with the exception of Toots, the colored boy, had refused to accept
shares of the fortune. Then Merry had insisted on taking them abroad
with him, and here they were on the steamer "Eagle," bound for
Liverpool.
Toots, dressed like a "swell," was on the pier. He shouted with the
others, waving his silk hat.
The crowd was cheering now:
"Beka Co ax Co ax Co ax!
Breka Co ax Co ax Co ax!
O-----up! O-----up!
Parabolou!
Yale! Yale! Yale!
'Rah! 'rah! 'rah!
Yale!"
CHAPTER II.
SURPRISING THE FRENCHMAN.
"Bah! Ze American boy, he make me--what you call eet?--vera tired!"
Frank turned quickly and saw the speaker standing near the rail not far
away. He was a man between thirty-five and forty years of age, dressed
in a traveling suit, and having a pointed black beard. He was smoking.
An instant feeling of aversion swept over Merry. He saw the person was a
supercilious Frenchman, critical, sneering, insolent, a man intolerant
with everything not of France and the French.
This man was speaking to another person, who seemed to be a servant or
valet, and who was very polite and fawning in all his retorts.
"Ah! look at ze collectshung on ze pier," continued the sneering
speaker. "Someone say zey belong to ze great American college. Zey act
like zey belong to ze--ze--what you call eet?--ze menageray. Zey yell,
shout, jump--act like ze lunatic."
"It is possible, monsieur," said Frank, with a grim smile, "that they
are copying their manners after Frenchmen at a Dreyfus demonstration."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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