"All right!" cried the boy from the North. "I'll learn it, no thanks to
you. More than that, if she needs my aid, she shall have it. It strikes
me that she may have fled of her own accord to escape being persecuted
by you. If so----"

"What then?"

"We'll meet again."

"That we will! Colonel Vallier may have settled his trouble with
Professor Scotch, but mine is not settled with you."

"You are right."

"We may yet meet on the field of honor."

"I shall be pleased to accommodate you," flashed Frank; "and the sooner,
the better it will satisfy me."

"Thot's th' talk!" cried Barney Mulloy, admiringly. "You can do th'
spalpane, Frankie, at any old thing he'll name!"

"The disappearance of Miss ----, the Flower Queen, prevents the setting
of a time and place," said Raymond, passionately; "but you shall be
waited on as soon as she is found. Until then I must let nothing
interfere with my search for her."

"Very good; that is satisfactory to me, and I will do my best to help
find her for you. Now, if your business is quite over, gentlemen, your
room would give us much more pleasure than your company."

Not another word did Raymond or Vallier say, but they strode stiffly to
the door and bowed themselves out. Barney closed the door after them.

Then both the boys turned on Professor Scotch, to find he had collapsed
into a chair, and seemed on the point of swooning.

"Professor," cried Frank, "I want to congratulate you! That was the best
piece of work you ever did in all your life."

"Profissor," exclaimed Barney, "ye're a jewil! Av inny wan iver says you
lack nerve, may Oi be bitten by th' wurrust shnake in Oireland av Oi
don't break his head!"

"Boys!" gasped the professor, "fan me! I can't seem to get my breath!
How did I do it? It scares me to think of it."

"You were a man, professor, and you showed Colonel Vallier that you were
utterly reckless. You seemed eager for a fight."

"Fight!" groaned the little man. "I couldn't fight a child! I never
fought in my life. I don't know how to fight."

"Colonel Vallier didn't know that. It was plain, he believed you a
desperate slugger, and he wilted immediately."

"But I can't understand how I came to do such a thing. Till their
unwarranted intrusion--till I collided with the colonel--I was in terror
for my life. The moment we collided I seemed to forget that I was
scared, and I remembered only that I was mad."

"And you seemed more than eager for a scrap."