ver marry a drunkard!"

"Buck isn't a drunkard!"

"He was drunk when he was taken aboard the _Crested Foam_ by that
boatman, Barney Lynn."

"No, father!"

"You think not, of course. You think he was drugged."

"He was drugged. Lynn drugged him. He was not drunk, and he had not been
drinking. Who has been telling you such things? I am sure it cannot be
any one who has any honor."

"It was some one who felt it to be his duty to warn me of the fact that
my daughter is in danger of marrying a drunkard. I thank him for it."

"But, father, you would not take the unsupported word of any one, would
you? I know that Buck has touched liquor at times, just as nearly all
the college men do, but he is not a drunkard, and he is not even a
drinking man. And he is now strictly temperate. He told me so himself,
that he has taken a pledge with himself never to touch anything of the
kind again. And Mr. Merriwell--you know that Mr. Merriwell wouldn't
befriend and favor him as he is doing now if Buck were a drunkard."

"But I know, Winnie, dear!" Lee firmly, yet kindly, insisted.

"And I know, father! Barney Lynn confessed to me that he drugged Buck;
but he said nothing about Buck being intoxicated, which he would have
done, wouldn't he, if Buck had really been intoxicated when he met
Lynn?"

The girl was quick and alert. She understood that some desperate attempt
to separate her from the man she loved had been made, and she did not
intend that it should succeed without an effort against it on her part.

"Who told you this--lie, father?"

"I wish it was a lie!" Lee groaned.

"It is!"

"I have just come from Connelly's saloon, down in one of the worst parts
of the city. I was told to go there and I would find the evidence I
wanted. I went; and I have just returned. Badger was at Connelly's the
night before the _Crested Foam_ excursion. It is an all-night
resort--though it professes, I believe, to close at midnight. Badger
left there at about two or three o'clock, blindly intoxicated. He was
simply reeling drunk. He must have gone from there to the wharf, and
there he fell into the hands of Barney Lynn, who drugged him for his
money. This is true, Winnie. There isn't the slightest doubt about it. I
wish it were all a terrible mistake, but it isn't. And that was not the
first time that Badges had reeled out of Connelly's far into the night,
drunk. He is given to just such drunken debauches."

Winnie Lee's heart seemed to hav