"Then you may be just the kind of a man I am looking for. I want somebody with nerve. The trouble with the fellows in college who hate Merriwell is that they do not dare butt up against him. They are afraid of him." "Well, I'm not afraid of any man living, let alone a mere boy. He's nothing but a tenderfoot! Waugh!" "Hear them shouting over him!" muttered Thornton. "See! They have lifted him on their shoulders! One would think he alone won the race to-day!" Then Frank was heard to make the brief speech which elicited such hearty applause. "It is sickening!" growled Flemming, pale with jealous rage. "It is," nodded the stranger. "It makes me want to give him back the kick he gave me!" "If you stick to me, I promise you that you shall have a good opportunity," said Flemming. "You may bet your rocks that I'll tie to you, pard," assured the unknown. "I'll help you to get square, and you can help me. Frank Merriwell will have to keep his eyes open if he dodges us both." CHAPTER XXII. THE FIGHT ON THE TRAIN. It happened that, as he was perched on the shoulders of his friends and admirers, Frank Merriwell saw Flemming and Thornton in the further end of the car. Merriwell would not have given his enemies more than a passing glance, but it occurred that he saw and recognized the man who was talking to Flemming. "It is the scoundrel who tried to bribe me!" muttered Frank, angrily. "And he is with Flemming and Thornton! I fancy I smell a mouse." Then he forced his friends to put him down, and, the moment he was on his feet, he hastened along the aisle toward the end of the car, having called Diamond to follow him. The plotters saw Frank coming, and the expression on his face told them that there was a storm brewing. "By Jove!" fluttered Thornton, in alarm; "he looks as if he means to thump somebody!" Although he did not show it, Flemming was not a little alarmed by Merriwell's angry appearance. Several of the students gathered about the crew saw there was something in the wind, and they followed Merriwell and Diamond down the crowded aisle. Halting within a short distance of his enemies, Frank pointed straight at the stranger and cried: "There he is! Take a good look at him, boys! That is the creature who tried to bribe me to throw the ball game to Harvard!" His words rang through the car, and were heard by every one. The uproar and excitement that followed was quite unexpected by Frank. A wild shout of anger broke from the college lads, and there was a scramble for that end of the car. "Mob the wretch!" "Thump him!" "Choke him!" "Don't let him get away!" These cries broke from the crowd of lads, who strove in mad haste to get at the stranger. "Great Christopher!" gasped Tom Thornton, in terror. "I'm going to get out of this! It's altogether too hot for me!" Then he tried to slip away.