came almost harshly from the girl.
"It's all right. We're still friends. We'll always be friends--nothing
more. Sometime I'll be bridesmaid at the wedding, and----"

But Frank had heard enough, and he stopped her.

"I am not likely to marry anyone very soon," he said. "Elsie knows that.
Let's talk about something else. How did it happen we met you?"

Inza seemed willing enough to permit the conversation to be turned into
another channel.

"We were out shopping, you know--making our last purchases before
starting for Bar Harbor. You must take us out on your yacht after we all
get down there."

"I'll do it. Your aunt----"

"Oh, she will not object. You know she thinks you the finest fellow in
all the world. She will come along."

At last the boys were forced to part from the girls, but Jack had made
such progress with Paula that she offered him her hand at parting,
saying laughingly:

"Next fall you will not pick the winner if you pick Yale, even if Mr.
Merriwell is on that eleven. If you want to keep your record for wisdom,
be careful."

"Jove!" exclaimed Jack, after they had seen the girls on board a car.
"She's a way-upper, Merry!"

"She's a good sample of the Boston girl."

"Eh? Where's her glasses?"

"You have been reading the comic papers."

"She didn't mention Emerson or Browning."

"And that surprised you?"

"Why, I didn't suppose the genuine Boston girl could talk ten minutes
without doing so."

"Boston girls are very much like other nice girls, old man. They are
well educated, refined and all that, but they are not always quoting
Emerson and Browning, they do not all wear glasses, they are not all
cold and freezing and they are handsome."

They came to Cornhill. A car was coming down from Scollay Square, and
they paused close to it to let it swing out upon Washington Street.

Just as the front of the car approached, Frank Merriwell received a push
from behind that sent him flat upon the track directly in front of the
car wheels!

That particular car did not have a fender, and it seemed that Frank must
be mangled beneath the wheels. The motorman saw the lad go down and put
on the brake hard, but he could not stop the car in time.

Frank realized that he had been pushed upon the track by some one whose
deliberate purpose it was to maim or murder him, but he could not save
himself. He struck the paving, and the iron wheels seemed right upon
him.

But Jack Diamond moved with marvelous qu