in't--no man on
earth is good enough for her--but I'm just as good as Fairfax Lee, any
day in the week! Hanged if I don't tell him so, too!

"Yes, I'll walk into his office, if I have to knock over that clerk to
do it, and I'll tell him what I think of him, if I'm arrested for it
next minute. In this beastly East, instead of meeting a man and fighting
him, the first thing a fellow thinks of, if he has a word with another,
is to call in the police. But I'm not afraid of the New Haven police!"

Badger's heart seethed like a volcano.

"See her! Well, I reckon! I'll see her if I die for it! I'll see her,
even if she refuses to speak to me! I'm going to find out what's at the
bottom of this!"

While the Westerner was thus storming, an expressman came with the
little package containing the ring and the trinkets which Badger had
given to Winnie. It contained no note, but the address was in Winnie's
handwriting.

Badger tore the package open almost before the expressman was out of the
room. A lump came into his throat as he looked at the ring. He
remembered so distinctly the time he gave it to her and all the words
then said. It seemed impossible that she had returned it now in this
curt manner.

"I'll ask her to take it back!" he muttered. He dropped the ring into a
pocket of the suit he was wearing, that he might be sure to have it with
him when he met her--for that he would meet her in some way or other he
was firmly resolved.

"Her father has driven her into this. It's not her wish, I know. But she
is so good and dutiful that she may stick by this decision, to please
him. I allow that there is where the trouble is going to come. But I
won't give her up! Not unless she tells me positively with her own lips
that everything is ended."

Badger now did something which he would never have dreamed of doing a
short time before. Even the thought of it would have been greeted with
scorn. He carefully put the letter in an inner pocket, put away the
trinkets which Winnie had returned, and set out to find Frank Merriwell.
The act did not even strike him as incongruous.

"Inza and Elsie will do anything for Merriwell! He can go in and out of
Lee's house as he wants to. I allow he will be glad to help me in this
thing, if he can. The trail looks to be so confoundedly tangled that a
bit of help in ciphering it out will be mighty welcome just now!"

He scowled as he crossed the campus and remembered the unpleasant
experience of