before.

With an effort, Frank steadied his quivering nerves, remaining quiet to
watch and listen.

The person who had appeared in answer to Snell's signal was the man in
black, and he quickly pounced upon the boy, like a huge hawk upon its
prey.

"The ring!" he cried, hoarsely. "Where is it?"

Wat gave a low cry of fear.

"Don't!" he gasped. "You're hurting me! Your fingers are hard as
iron, and they crush right into a fellow!"

"The ring!" repeated the man, fiercely. "Produce it!"

"I haven't got it."

"What?" snarled the mysterious stranger. "You have not kept your word!
What do you mean?"

"Don't shake a fellow like that!" quavered Snell. "You act like a
madman."

"Answer my questions! Why haven't you kept your word?"

"Couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Didn't get the chance."

"But you said you could get a boy to assist you--the fellow who rooms
with this Merriwell."

"I thought I could, but the cad went back on me."

"He refused to aid you?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you have found no opportunity to get hold of the ring yourself?"

"Not yet--but I will, sir," Snell hastily answered. "All I want is to
know that you will pay me as you agreed. Don't hold onto my arm so
tight; I won't run away."

"Bah!" cried the man in black, as he half-flung Wat from him. "What
beastly luck!"

"It is bad luck," confessed Snell, falteringly. "But it isn't my
fault. I have done my best."

The man in black said nothing, but stood with his head bowed, the elbow
of his right arm resting in the hollow of his left hand, while his
right hand, fiercely clinched, supported his chin. The wind continued
to flap the cape about his shoulders.

The man's attitude and his silence gave Snell a feeling of fear, and he
drew away, acting as if he contemplated taking to his heels, for all
that he had said he would not run.

"I do not propose to endure much more of this," muttered the man, at
length. "I'll have that ring soon, by some means!"

"You must consider it very valuable," said Wat, curiously.

"Valuable!" came hoarsely from the lips of the man in black. "I should
say so! If it were not, I shouldn't be making such a desperate
struggle to get possession of it."

The lad who was listening a short distance away, strained his ears to
catch every word.

"There must be some secret about the ring?" insinuated Snell. "The
gold in it amounts to little, and the old black stone----"

A strange sound came from the