At the time he must have
thought I was going by one of the regular liners; but it is plain he
followed me up pretty close and found I was going over this way. As
there is no second-class passage on this boat, he decided he could not
travel in the same class with me without being discovered, and he
resolved to go as one of the crew, if he could get on that way. That's
how he happens to be here."
"If what you say is true, it will go pretty hard with Mr. Harris. We'll
have him ironed and--"
A cry of rage broke from the lips of the accused.
"There is no proof!" he snarled. "No one can swear I attacked this
fellow and threw him into the stoke-hole!"
"Oh, yes!" said the stoker who had come up from below. "I saw the whole
business. By the light from the furnaces, I plainly saw the man who did
it, and you are the man!"
"That settles it!" declared the engineer. "You'll make the rest of the
voyage in irons, Mr. Harris!"
"Then I'll give you something to iron me for!" shouted the furious young
villain.
He leaped on Frank Merriwell with the fierceness of a wounded tiger.
Frank was not expecting the assault, and, for the moment, he was taken
off his guard.
They were close to the moving machinery. Within four feet of them a huge
plunging rod was playing up and down, moved by a steel bar that weighed
many tons.
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