“I know all that you would say, Merry,” he declared. “It’s all true. The stuff is my one temptation and my curse. If I take this drink, I may go straight to the dogs, but what of that! It will help me to forget that I have been fooled by a pair of black eyes, and that I betrayed the best friend a chap ever had. Down it goes!” Frank would not release the arm of the reckless freshman. “Not yet,” he said firmly. “You shall not take that stuff till I know why you are so determined to drink it.” “Because I am a fool and a traitor!” “We’re all fools in one way or another, but traitors we are not.” “You know I’m a sneak, Frank Merriwell!” hoarsely said Dick. “I don’t see how you can still entertain one friendly feeling toward me. If I received what I deserve at your hands, they’d take me away from here in an ambulance!” “If you had not told me that no liquor had passed your lips, I should think you jagged already,” asserted Frank. “You are talking like a few mixed drinks.” “I’m talking just what I think. My eyes are open at last.” “Well, if getting your eyes open has this effect on you, it will be a good idea to shut them again.” “Not much! I have been fooled twice, and it’s going to be a long time before I’m deceived again in the same way. Let me go, Frank. I want this drink, and I must have it!” Frank knew that Dick would barely swallow the first drink when he would want another. Then another, and another would follow, till the freshman was howling drunk. Drink had been the curse that finally conquered old Captain Starbright, Dick’s father, and it seemed that the craving for liquor had been inherited by the son. But Dick fought against the desire, and fancied he had overcome it until the time when his enemies at college succeeded in drugging him and getting him started on a carousal just before a football-game. Frank Merriwell had found Starbright in Rupert Chickering’s room and rescued him, locking him up and watching over him while he grew sober, though the “doped” lad had raved and prayed and begged for whisky. From that time Dick had found it more difficult to keep in restraint his desire for drink, but never until Merriwell discovered him at the bar of the Fifth Avenue Hotel had he yielded to the tempter. Under ordinary circumstances, the mere sound of Merriwell’s voice had been quite enough to cause Starbright to resist temptation, but now a remarkable change had come over him, and he seemed determined to drink even though it was right before Frank’s eyes, and in defiance of his entreaties. Merriwell knew from this that the case was desperate, but he was determined to keep the freshman from accomplishing his purpose. The barkeeper looked on in evident displeasure at Frank’s interference. “Why don’t you let him alone, young fellow?” he growled, glaring at Merry. “He’s old enough to know his own business.” Frank turned his eyes and gave the barkeeper a single steady look, as he grimly said: