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Read Ebook: Frank Merriwell's Endurance; or A Square Shooter by Standish Burt L
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Ebook has 3400 lines and 78944 words, and 68 pages
BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN
MERRIWELL SERIES
Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell
PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS
Fascinating Stories of Athletics
A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with the rest of the world.
These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.
They have the splendid quality of firing a boy's ambition to become a good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous right-thinking man.
ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT
Frank Merriwell's Endurance
OR,
A SQUARE SHOOTER
STREET & SMITH CORPORATION PUBLISHERS 70-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
Frank Merriwell's Endurance
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.
FRANK MERRIWELL'S ENDURANCE.
L'ESTRANGE.
On the way East with his athletic team Frank Merriwell accepted the invitation made by Hugh Morton to stop off at Omaha and visit the Midwestern Athletic Association.
Morton, a young man of twenty-five, was president of the Midwestern. He and Merriwell, the former Yale athlete, had met and become acquainted by chance in Los Angeles some weeks before, and there seemed to exist between them a sort of fellow feeling that caused them to take unusual interest in each other.
Merry and his friends were invited by Morton to witness the finals in a series of athletic events which were being conducted by the club. These contests consisted mainly of boxing and wrestling, although fencing, which was held in high esteem by the association, was one of the features.
In explanation of the rather surprising fact that fencing was thus highly regarded by an athletic association of the middle West, it is necessary to state that a very active member of the club was M. Fran?ois L'Estrange, the famous French fencer and duelist, whose final encounter in his own country had resulted in the death of his opponent, a gentleman of noble birth, and had compelled L'Estrange to flee from his native land, never to return.
As fencing instructor of the Midwestern A. A., L'Estrange soon succeeded in arousing great interest in the graceful accomplishment, and he quickly developed a number of surprisingly clever pupils. In this manner fencing came to be held in high esteem by the organization and was a feature of nearly all indoor contests.
At first Omaha did not appeal to Frank; but he quickly found the people of the city were frank, unreserved, genial, and friendly, and after all, a person learns to like a place mainly through the character of its inhabitants.
At the rooms of the Midwestern, Merry and his comrades met a fine lot of young men, nearly all of whom made an effort to entertain the boys. The visitors were quickly convinced that they were welcome at the club and that they could make themselves at home there without offending any conservative and hidebound old fogies. Although the Midwestern was cautious and discreet in regard to admitting members, and it was necessary for visitors to obtain admittance in the proper manner, once inside its portals a person immediately sensed an air of liberty that was most agreeable.
"The forming of cliques in this club has been frowned down," Hugh Morton explained. "I have visited clubs of similar standing in the East and found them full of cliques and restless with petty jealousies and personal dislikes. We hope to suppress such things here, although I regret to say that of late the club has seemed to be gradually dividing into two parties. Thus far everything has been good-natured and unruffled; but I fear that I see a pernicious undercurrent. I may be wrong; I hope I am."
At ten o'clock that forenoon Frank and Bart Hodge met Hugh Morton by appointment in the reception room of the Midwestern. Morton rose and advanced to meet them, smiling a welcome.
"Look here," said Frank, when they had shaken hands, "I don't feel just right about this."
"About what?" questioned the Omaha man.
"Don't you worry. My business is fixed so it will not suffer if I leave it. I'm delighted with this opportunity. Yesterday I gave you a look at the stockyards and the city. To-day, you told me, you wanted to take things easy and just loaf around. I'm more than willing to loaf with you. And my business will go on just the same."
"Just follow me," invited Morton. "I'll fix you out."
As they were about to leave the room a tall, slender, dark man of thirty-six or thirty-seven entered. Immediately Morton paused, saying:
"Mr. Merriwell and Mr. Hodge, I am sure you will appreciate the honor of meeting our fencing instructor, Monsieur L'Estrange. Monsieur L'Estrange, this is Frank Merriwell, the most famous American amateur athlete of the present day."
The Frenchman accepted Frank's proffered hand. He was as graceful in his movements as a jungle panther. About him there was an air of conscious strength and superiority, and instantly he struck Frank as a person who could not do an awkward thing or fall into an ungainly pose. His training was such, that grace and ease had become a part of his nature--not second nature, but nature itself.
"Monsieur Merriwell," he breathed softly, "it gives me ze very great pleasure to meet wiz you, sare. I have meet very many of your famous American athletes. Eet is ze grand passion in this country. Eet is good in some ways, but eet nevare make ze feenished gentleman--nevare."
"I agree with you on that point, monsieur," confessed Frank; "but it fits a man for the struggle of life--it prepares him to combat with the world, and you know the success and survival of the fittest was never more in evidence, as the thing of vital importance, than at the present time."
The eyes of the Frenchman glistened.
"Very true, sare; but mere brute strength can nevare make any man ze fittest--nevare. You theenk so? You are wrong--pardone me eef I speak ze truth plainly."
"But I do not think so, monsieur. It takes a combination of strength and brains to make a well-balanced man."
"And skeel--do not forget skeel. Eet is ze most important of all, sare."
"Brains give ability, strength gives power to exercise that ability."
"And skeel defeats ze man with strength and brains. Oh, eet does! Ze man with too much strength, with ze beeg muscles; he ees handicap against ze man with just ze propare development and no more. His beeg muscles tie him, make him awkward."
"Again I am compelled to agree with you," smiled Frank; "and I confess that I consider fencing the most perfect method of developing ease, grace, quickness and skill--attributes essential to any man who desires to reach the highest pinnacle of development."
"You have ze unusual wisdom on zat point, sare," acknowledged L'Estrange. "Eet is strange, for seldom have I met ze great athlete who did not theenk himself superior to ze expert fencer. Eet is plain you know your weakness, sare."
Bart Hodge opened his lips to say something, but Merry checked him with a quick look.
"I have fenced a little, monsieur," explained Frank--"enough to get an idea of its value and importance."
"Zat ees goode. You take eet up at school--at college?"
"Yes, first at Fardale, and later I followed it up at Yale."
"That is a fact in many instances," acknowledged Merriwell.
At this point Morton whispered in Bart Hodge's ear:
"L'Estrange is started and he will bore Merriwell with talk about fencing, unless we find a way to interrupt it and break away. We must be careful not to offend him."
There was a strange, half-hidden smile on Bart's lips as he turned to their host.
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