d.

"Ha!" cried Frank, triumphantly. "I thought so! This poor old man is
Carlos Merriwell, my villainous cousin!"

CHAPTER V.

KIDNAPED.

As our old readers know, Carlos Merriwell was Frank's deadly enemy,
although they were blood cousins.

Carlos was the son of Asher Merriwell, the brother of Frank's father.

At the time of his death, Asher Merriwell was supposed to be a crusty
old bachelor, a man who had never cared for women and had never married.
But he had not been a woman-hater all his life, and there was a romance
in his career.

Asher Merriwell had been snared by the wiles of an adventuress, and he
had married her. By this woman he had a son, but the marriage had been
kept a secret, so that when she deceived him and they quarreled they
were able to separate and live apart without the fact becoming public
that Merriwell had been married.

Fortunately the woman died without openly proclaiming herself as the
wife of Asher Merriwell. In her veins there had been Spanish blood, and
her son was named Carlos.

After the death of his wife, Asher Merriwell set about providing for and
educating the boy, although Carlos continued to bear his mother's maiden
name of Durcal.

As Carlos grew up he developed into a wild and reckless young blade,
making no amount of trouble and worry for his father.

Asher Merriwell did his best for the boy, but there was bad blood in the
lad's veins, and it cost the man no small sums to settle for the various
"sports" in which Carlos participated.

Finally Carlos took a fancy to strike out and see the world for himself,
and he disappeared without telling whither he was going.

After this, he troubled his father at intervals until he committed a
crime in a foreign country, where he was tried, convicted, and
imprisoned for a long term of years.

This was the last straw so far as Asher Merriwell was concerned, and he
straightway proceeded to disown Carlos, and cut him off without a cent.

It was afterward reported that Carl Durcal had been shot by guards while
attempting to escape from prison, and Asher Merriwell died firmly
believing himself to be sonless.

At his death, Asher left everything to Frank Merriwell, the son of his
brother, and provided that Frank should travel under the guardianship of
Professor Scotch, as the eccentric old uncle believed travel furnished
the surest means for "broadening the mind."

But Carlos Merriwell had not been killed, and he had es