An hour later, in his room, he handed the money to Harry Collins, whose emotion choked him so that he could not utter his thanks or express his gratitude. “Not a word now,” said Merry. “My boy, to get that money and save you I did something no man could lead me to do for myself. Use it to save yourself—and your mother. Perhaps it was more for the sake of your mother, whom I never saw, that I did it, than it was for yours. My mother is—dead!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VII FRANK EXPLAINS THE SITUATION. “I have seen that face before,” declared Frank. “I thought I had at first glance,” confessed Jack Diamond. “That’s why I stopped and stared. She must have thought me a chump.” The two friends were at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. They had been sauntering along, when the attention of both was attracted by a strangely handsome face in the passing throng. A pair of midnight eyes flashed them one swift glance as the girl hurried on. Jack stopped in his tracks. “Merriwell,” he said after a moment, “you can’t guess of whom she reminded me?” “I shall not try to guess.” “Juliet,” said Jack. “She does look something like her. She has a fine figure. I am sure I have seen her before.” “What made it seem more like Juliet,” muttered the Virginian, “was that she appeared startled by the sight of one or both of us.” “I was startled,” confessed Frank, gazing after the retreating figure, “for it seemed to be the face of somebody I knew.” The girl had been swallowed up in the throng on the south side of the street. “She was like Juliet,” murmured Jack; “though not so handsome.” “She was quite as handsome as Juliet Reynolds,” Frank thought, but he did not speak the words aloud. Instead, he said: “Let’s turn back, Jack. I’d like to get another glimpse of her.” “You?” exclaimed the Virginian, in surprise. “Why, I thought Elsie——” “There are a few things you do not know, old chum,” said Merry, forcing a smile, which was not quite free from regret and pain. They had turned about. “But Elsie Bellwood is in love with you, Merriwell,” Diamond insisted. “I know it, old man.” “You think you do; but you have been abroad for some time, and things have happened while you were away.” Jack was astonished. “Why,” he breathed wonderingly, “you don’t mean to say—to say———— What do you mean, anyhow?” “That it’s all off between Elsie and your humble servant.” “Impossible!” “True, just the same.” “I can’t believe it now. You are joking, Frank!” “Do you think I would joke about a thing like that?” “Forgive me, Merry; I know you would not. You never boasted of your ‘affairs of the heart.’ You were not that kind. And you might have boasted truthfully, for all the girls seemed to get smashed on you. You never talked of such things.” “And I did not mean to speak of this, but you——”