ve leaped toward Frank.

"You insolent hound!" he cried, through his set teeth.

Merriwell stood with his hands at his side, making no move, but he saw
that Flemming's friends had grasped him and were holding him in check.

"Steady, Flem, my boy!" fluttered Thornton. "Remember where you are!"

"I will strangle him."

"Wait! You can't do it here!"

"Let me go!"

"Thornton is right," declared Andy Emery, who had placed himself between
the two foes. "You cannot fight him here, old man."

"Then fix it so I can fight him somewhere--anywhere! I could murder
him!"

"You will have to wrestle him."

"Yes," said Thornton, "you will have to do that, Fred, or his friends
will believe you are afraid."

"Then I will wrestle him--and I will break his back!"

"You must calm down before you attempt it, and you must promise to
wrestle fairly according to rules."

"That will give me no chance to get square for this insult."

"You can show your superiority by throwing him, which you will do, as
you are an expert wrestler, and, for all of the other things he does so
well, no one ever heard that Merriwell could wrestle. Then, the next
time you meet him outside college bounds, you can force him to
apologize."

Emery nodded.

"Thornton is right, Flemming," he said.

Then, with a mighty effort, Fred seemed to gain control of his anger,
and he calmly said:

"All right, I will wrestle him, but I shall not be gentle with him,
although I promise not to foul him."

"Be as rough as you choose, as long as you keep within bounds."

Then it was that Frank Merriwell was heard saying to the friends who had
gathered around him:

"It may seem that I have opened myself to criticism by my manner in
challenging this person, but I call you all to witness that he was the
first to be insulting by his manner of criticising the friendly bout
between Mr. Diamond and myself. That, however, was not the beginning.
Had not Flemming given me other cause, I should not have challenged him
in such a manner. I have sought neither his friendship nor his enmity,
but he has seen fit to regard me as an enemy. I can honor an honest foe
who meets me man to man, but not one who takes a mean advantage of me.
On my head I now bear a bruise where I was felled by a heavy cane in the
hands of one of Flemming's friends, when he with five companions set
upon Diamond and myself. I always endeavor to square all my accounts
with friends and foes, and I shall balan