“Methinks thou didst attempt to swipe him first,” murmured Douglas Dunton, “else these faithful eyes much deceived me.” “Gol darned ef Vance warn’t tryin’ to dew somethin’ ter Hodge,” grinned Ephraim Gallup; “but he didn’t seem ter do it very much.” “I simply attempted to protect Stella from his attack,” asserted Lester. “I saw him seize her and kiss her in the most violent and offensive manner, and——” Stella interrupted him with a laugh. “Offensive to whom?” she asked. “To you, of course, for you struggled to throw him off.” “Now, you saw that in your mind, Lester, my boy,” she declared. “I did not struggle.” Vance was astounded. “But you—you screamed,” he fluttered, hesitatingly. “Yes, I think I did.” “Why did you do that?” “Well, Hodge was a trifle abrupt, and he took me by surprise.” “Then you acknowledge——” “That—no more.” “But it was an insult.” “Nonsense! It was nothing of the sort.” Vance was pale, and he began to glare at her, anger and jealousy in his eyes. “I hope, Miss Stanley,” he began, stiffly, “that you are not going to say that you liked it? If you——” “That is exactly what I am going to say,” laughed the actress, to the surprise of all and the fury of Vance. “I’d just been taunting him—having sport with him, you know. He had his revenge by seizing me and kissing me.” “In a most offensive and insolent manner,” sneered Vance. “Offensive to you, perhaps,” she commented, cheerfully; “but not to me. As I said before, I rather liked it. I like a fellow who has the nerve to take things by storm when he cannot get them otherwise.” She smiled on Vance in the most tantalizing manner as she said this, and he well understood her meaning. He ground his teeth with impotent rage. “If you liked it so well,” he panted, “you should not have screamed as you did.” “That was an accident,” she declared. “Didn’t mean to do it, you know, but it slipped out.” “By gum!” chuckled the youth from Vermont. “It don’t seem to me that Bart done anything so very bad. I think he was a purty gol-darn lucky feller!” “I hardly think Mr. Merriwell, who is so rigid in regard to the deportment of the members of his company, can approve of the behavior of some of them,” said Vance, with something like a sneer. At that Stella Stanley threw back her head and gave him a withering look. “Is it possible you mean me by that?” she said. “Not so much as Hodge,” mumbled the jealous actor, weakly. “Not so much?” “No.” “But some?” “Well, I was surprised to hear you confess that you liked the treatment you received from that low fellow.” “Oh, you were!” came scornfully from the woman’s lips. “I understand you, Mr. Vance, and I do not like your language! Any insinuation against my character I will not stand! I see I have been wrong in thinking you a gentleman! I see I have made a mistake in permitting you to pay me some attentions! Now you are ready to presume on our friendliness.” “No, not that! You are——”