"Lordy! Lordy!" he exploded, when he considered himself at a safe distance. "I know dat soun' any time Ah heah it. Smack! smack! Dat war kissin'! Heuh! a-he-uh! a-he-uh! If Mistah Merriwell don' make dat tip a whole dollah, dis coon ain't took his size an' suckumfrence!" CHAPTER XXIX. AN UNWILLING PROMISE. When Frank stepped into his room he was astonished to find himself face to face with his old-time sweetheart, Inza Burrage, and her aunt, Miss Abigail Gale. Inza hurried toward him, uttering a joyous cry, and an exclamation of surprise and delight escaped his lips. In a moment, regardless of the presence of her aunt, the girl flung her arms about Frank's neck and kissed him. Miss Gale's hard face did not soften, but she turned her back toward them, and pretended to be greatly interested in a strange crooked dagger, having a point smeared with some green substance, the dagger being locked in a case with a heavy glass door. Upon the glass of the case was pasted a slip of paper bearing these words: "The Snake Knife of the Pampas." "Inza!" exclaimed Frank, as if somewhat in doubt. "Inza--here?" "Yes!" she cried. "Isn't it a surprise? I knew I would surprise you, Frank." "A surprise indeed! Why, you didn't let me know you were coming." "No." "How does it happen?" "Aunt Abby knows some friends in New Haven, and she wished to visit them while she was in the East, so she asked me to come with her. You may be sure I was ready enough to come, and, as father is getting along very well, we were able to leave him." "Then your father--he is improved?" "A great deal since getting back to America. He raced all over Europe looking for health, but continued to get worse till he returned home. Now he says he believes this the healthiest country on the face of the earth." "And he is right. If a person is not strong enough to endure the rigors of our Northern climate, there is the perfect climate of California. But I don't suppose you came here to talk climate." Frank said this with a laugh, and they advanced, hand-in-hand, toward Miss Gale, who had turned her attention from the queer knife to some still queerer images and ornaments that adorned the mantel. "Aunty says you'll be a museum manager if you keep on," laughed Inza. "Says she never saw so many queer things." "Goodness, no!" exclaimed Miss Gale, severely, turning to look at Frank over the rims of her spectacles. "I hope you ain't a crank, Mr. Merriwell." "I trust not, Miss Gale," smiled Frank, with extended hand, which Abigail rather awkwardly accepted, but shook with a heartiness that was expressive of her esteem for Merry. "What be some of these horrid-looking things?" asked the spinster. "What be they good for?" "Some of them are mementoes, and some of them are simply for the purpose of decoration. Those little images, those odd vases, the pottery on that shelf--I gathered those things as ornaments."