ry next week it
would be seven or eight, and before long I was poor again. Reporting on
space is a mighty hard mill to go through; but a man learns something at
it."

"Go on about Morgan," urged Frank.

"There isn't a great deal to tell. The cards turned on him. He struck
the toboggan and he went down with an awful thump. All he had made was
wiped out at a single swipe. He followed it up, and in less than a week
he was dead broke. Had to give up his rooms at the Imperial. Came down
to a cheap hotel, and he's there now. He plays the bucket shops with
every dollar he can get, hoping the tide will turn. I don't think he
eats enough to keep a sparrow alive. The only thing that keeps him from
drinking is that he spends all the money he can get gambling."

"How does he get money?"

"Why, he--he--he gets it somehow--I don't know--just--exactly--how."

Frank felt that he could forgive the big fellow the fib. He knew well
enough that Dade Morgan was getting his money from Richard Starbright,
who, in order to earn anything, was working like a dog on a newspaper.
The fact that he was helping Morgan along Starbright wished to conceal.

Instantly Merry knew the situation was one to be investigated.
Starbright had told him enough for him to realize that Morgan was on the
road to ruin and very near the brink.

In the old days at Yale, Dade had been for a time Frank's bitterest
enemy, having been taught from early boyhood by his uncle and guardian
to loathe the very name of Merriwell; but in the end Merry's manliness,
bravery, generosity, and nobility had conquered Morgan's hatred and had
finally made the fellow Frank's friend.

Starbright was right in saying Dade Morgan was proud and high-strung. He
was not the fellow to long endure poverty and humiliation without doing
something desperate.

"Take me to him right away, Dick," urged Merry.

Suddenly Starbright seemed to hesitate.

"I don't know as Dade will ever forgive me for showing him up in his
poverty," he said. "He hasn't let any of his friends at home know of his
reverses. Keeps writing to them in the most cheerful manner, and I'll
bet they think he has New York at his feet."

"I'll make it all right with him," assured Merry. "Don't worry about
that, Dick. Let's get to him without the loss of a moment."

They had now reached Third Avenue, and they boarded a car southward
bound, which at that hour was comparatively empty, while the cars bound
in the opposite direc