“You have made some very nasty threats, Swift, but you had better think twice before you attempt to carry any of them out. And if you annoy Miss Burrage again, I’ll thrash you till you’ll need a doctor for a week.” Then, having reached the front door, he proceeded to kick Roy Swift down the steps. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXVI HAPPY HEARTS. Humiliated and infuriated, Roy Swift left, swearing vengeance. As soon as he got back to the hotel, he took to drink. He seemed in a great hurry to fill himself with whisky, and as he grew intoxicated still wilder schemes began to revolve in his head. “I’ll be even with Merriwell!” he vowed. “He shall not have her! I swear it!” He was one of the kind that grow desperate as they become intoxicated. In a disgraceful condition, he hunted up Walter, who, as yet, knew nothing of the affair at Brander’s. “Burrage,” said Swift, “I’m going to marry your sister!” Walter looked at him a moment, and then said: “Swift, you are disgustingly drunk. I advise you to get into a room and stay there till you sober off.” “Don’t need your advice. I’m going to marry your sister. That is business. I swear by everything high and low that I will have her! Frank Merriwell shall not!” Then he turned and made off. That afternoon Inza left the house to go to the post-office. Within ten rods of the door she was startled to hear the hoof-beats of a horse behind her. Turning quickly, she saw Roy Swift, mounted on a bay horse, coming straight toward her, his face flushed and his eyes gleaming. She tried to get out of the way, but she could not avoid him. She thought he meant to run her down and trample her beneath the feet of the horse, but he swerved aside, bent from the saddle, caught her up somehow, and flung her across the horse before him. Then, in this manner, holding her helpless, the intoxicated fellow went tearing through the village, yelling like a wild Indian. Frank was with Walter Burrage when Swift passed the hotel. Merry saw him and dashed out to the street. In front of the hotel a horse was hitched, being harnessed into a sleigh. Out came Merry’s knife, and with wonderful swiftness he cut that horse clear from the sleigh. Onto its back he flung himself, starting in pursuit of the liquor-maddened kidnaper. It was a wild race through the village and out into the country beyond. From the top of a hill, Fardale Academy and the buildings surrounding it might have been seen, but neither pursued nor pursuer looked in that direction. Frank found that Swift was drawing away, the horse on which he was mounted being far superior to the animal Merry had appropriated. In vain Frank urged on the horse he bestrode.