Frank Merriwell’s Return to Yale E-Book

Burt L. Standish

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

After a long adventure, Frank Merriwell finally returns to his second home, Yale University. His friends are so alarmed by this unexpected appearance that they simply do not know what to do. This story conveys such warmth. And the next few hours you spend, not looking up from the book.

Leseprobe

Contents

CHAPTER I. GREETINGS ON THE CAMPUS

CHAPTER II. IMPRISONED IN A CHIMNEY

CHAPTER III. TURNING THE TABLES

CHAPTER IV. READY FOR THE TEST

CHAPTER V. ONE OF THE MISSING PAPERS

CHAPTER VI. THE PROFESSOR'S CASE

CHAPTER VII. A FORCED CONFESSION

CHAPTER VIII. PICKING OUT A TEAM

CHAPTER IX. HUNTING FOR A FRESHMAN

CHAPTER X. THE FINDING OF MELLOR

CHAPTER XI. A REPORTER'S INFLUENCE

CHAPTER XII. ON THEIR GUARD

CHAPTER XIII. THE WRESTLER

CHAPTER XIV. A TRICK

CHAPTER XV. OFF THE CLEATS

CHAPTER XVI. BLACK MARKS

CHAPTER XVII. THE TEST OF NERVE

CHAPTER XVIII. FRANK WANTS MORE

CHAPTER XIX. THE LEAP INTO THE RIVER

CHAPTER XX. THE LAST STAGE

CHAPTER XXI. MAKING THINGS INTERESTING FOR MILLER

CHAPTER XXII. MILLER'S NERVES

CHAPTER XXIII. TRIED BY THE "PIGS."

CHAPTER XXIV. HUMPERDINK TO THE RESCUE

CHAPTER XXV. FRANK HAS A VISITOR

CHAPTER XXVI. SIGNIFICANT MOVEMENTS

CHAPTER XXVII. HALLIDAY IS PUZZLED

CHAPTER XXVIII. FRANK'S VISITORS

CHAPTER XXIX. AN UNWILLING PROMISE

CHAPTER XXX. "FALSE TO HIS COLORS."

CHAPTER XXXI. FRANK IS MISERABLE

CHAPTER XXXII. "THE MARBLE HEART."

CHAPTER XXXIII. "FOR THE HONOR OF OLD YALE."

CHAPTER XXXIV. A SENSATION ON THE FIELD

CHAPTER XXXV. STOPPING A TOUCHDOWN

CHAPTER XXXVI. WON BACK

CHAPTER XXXVII. INZA BEGINS TO UNDERSTAND

CHAPTER XXXVIII. A BLOW FOR FRANK

CHAPTER XXXIX. THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY

CHAPTER XL. REJOICING AT YALE

CHAPTER XLI. A CONTRAST IN ENEMIES

CHAPTER XLII. A CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

CHAPTER XLIII. AN UNPLEASANT SITUATION

CHAPTER XLIV. STUDENTS' RACKETS

CHAPTER XLV. THE DUEL

CHAPTER XLVI. A STUDENTS' CONFAB

CHAPTER XLVII. DIAMOND STRIKES A BLOW

CHAPTER XLVIII. FACING THE BULLY

CHAPTER XLIX. TO THE RESCUE

CHAPTER L. AGAINST ODDS

CHAPTER I

GREETINGS ON THE CAMPUS

“Ah, there, Merriwell!”

Frank Merriwell was crossing the campus at good old Yale, and this cry, in a familiar voice, sounded from Durfee Hall.

He turned his eyes toward the favorite dormitory, and seated at an open window on the ground floor he saw his classmate, Jones, he of the famous nickname, “Dismal.”

“Hello, Dismal,” called Frank, “aren’t you going to come out and shake hands with a fellow?”

“I would if it wasn’t for the shower,” responded Jones, whose usually solemn face was graver than ever.

“Shower?” repeated Frank, looking up in surprise at the perfectly clear sky.

“I see that you’ve just arrived, so that you probably haven’t noticed it,” said Dismal, coming out of his window to avoid going around through the hall.

He came slowly across the grass plot that lay between him and Frank and held out his hand, saying:

“How are you, Frank? I’m glad to see you.”

Frank, who had just come from the railway station, had a gripsack in each hand. He set them down upon the grass and shook Dismal’s hand warmly.

“There it goes!” exclaimed Dismal, with something like animation, “the shower’s begun again.”

Frank’s brows wrinkled in perplexity.

“I don’t see any signs of a shower,” he said.

“That’s because you haven’t been here all the morning,” returned Jones, solemnly. “I’ve been sitting there in my window for fully three hours watching it; it’s been a perfect rain of gripsacks on the campus. Every fellow that comes along stops to shake hands with everybody he meets, and every time he stops, down goes his gripsacks.”

Frank laughed.

“You’re the same old cheerful joker, Dismal,” he said. “But you’re beginning early. If you keep up this sort of thing you’ll actually get caught laughing before the end of the junior year.”

There was a faint shadow of a smile on Dismal’s face as he responded:

“Well, anyhow, Frank, I’m glad to see all the fellows come trooping back. Are you glad to get here yourself?”

“Why, of course I am.”

“Had a good time during the vacation?”

“I always have a good time,” said Frank. “Don’t you?”

“Oh, yes, in my way. To tell the truth, I spent most of the summer dreading the day when I should have to come back to the confounded old books, and lectures and examinations; but I got here yesterday, and now I’m dreading the time I shall have to go away again.”

“Then I see that you’re sure to enjoy yourself during the junior year,” said Frank, stooping to pick up his gripsacks.

“When I’ve got my room in order I’ll come around and go to luncheon with you.”

“Do!” replied Dismal. “I’ll go back to my window seat and watch the shower. Hello! there comes Browning, and he’s loaded down with gripsacks, too. My, but there’ll be a perfect torrent!”

Big Bruce Browning came up with friendly words of greeting, and as Dismal had predicted, he set down his gripsacks in order to get his hands free.

“It’s getting worse and worse!” remarked Dismal, as if worried about it, “for here comes Rattleton and Diamond from one direction and Harold Page from another.”

The last named students were on their way, just as Frank had been, to their respective rooms, and each carried more or less baggage, except Diamond, who, being something of an aristocrat, had sent all his traps to his room on a wagon.

Seeing Frank standing near Durfee, they all turned toward him, and in a moment there was a lively exchange of greetings and small talk.

Four of these students, Merriwell himself, Jack Diamond, Bruce Browning and Harry Rattleton, had not been long separated, to be sure, but after a sporting trip which they had undertaken across the continent, it was like meeting after a long absence to find themselves together again at Yale.

It was the beginning of a new college year, and members of all classes were trooping back to begin their work.

While these juniors were discussing all manner of things that interest students, such as the prospects of the football eleven, the make-up of next year’s crew, and the coming elections into secret societies, members of other classes were scattered about the campus chatting in much the same way.

Among those who appeared upon the famous quadrangle were many who belonged to the incoming freshman class. It was easy to recognize them, for, as Rattleton observed:

“You can tell a freshman with the naked eye.”

They were either proceeding in a fearful hurry, as if they thought they were in danger of getting in late to an examination, or they were standing in awkward idleness looking at the strange buildings and evidently not knowing which way to turn and dreading to ask anybody a question.

The juniors smiled indulgently as a group of three or four candidates for the freshman class passed them.

The newcomers were discussing an examination from which they had just come, telling each other how they had answered certain questions and wondering if they would get marked high enough to pass.

“I can sympathize with them,” remarked Diamond. “I know just the kind of shivers they’re suffering from.”

“What jolly good subjects those fellows would be for a quiet hazing,” remarked Page.

“You mustn’t forget,” said Frank, “that we’re juniors now, and therefore out of it so far as hazing is concerned.”

“That’s right,” added Browning, “the freshies are nothing to us; they’re far beneath us.”

“Except in one sense,” said Frank. “The sophomores, you know, will get even for the hazing we gave them, by taking it out of the freshies, and so it becomes our duty, in a way, to take care of the freshmen and see that they get fair treatment.”

Speaking of this it may be well to explain that in all colleges the juniors take this attitude toward the freshmen.

As a rule the freshman receives the attention of a junior with a great deal of gratitude, but also as a rule he does not find that it amounts to very much.

The junior is ever ready to give him a good deal of solid advice, and a great deal more ready to get the freshman to do errands for him, and all manner of odd jobs that the freshman is quite sure to do, until, as the boys say, he tumbles to the fact that after all the junior is really making game of him.

“Speaking of hazing, though,” said Page, suddenly, “I’ve got a new room.”

“Have you? Where is it?” asked Rattleton.

“It’s up High Street a way, in one of the oldest houses in New Haven.”

“Good room?” asked Browning.

“Capital! I’ve got to do some grinding this year and the room will suit me exactly for that, but there’ll be hours when the books can be forgotten, and then you fellows’ll find that the room is a corker for cards or any sort of jollification.”

“I don’t see what that’s got to do with hazing,” remarked Merriwell. “You said that the hazing reminded you of it.”

“Yes, I’ll tell you why, or rather I’ll show you. There’s something about that room that would be perfectly immense if we were sophomores now. Come down and see it, will you?”

“Better wait a week,” said Browning, picking up his bags, “I’m busy now.”

“How extraordinary!” remarked Dismal Jones. “If the faculty should hear that Browning was busy they’d give him a warning!”

Browning frowned in mock anger and Frank, putting on an expression quite as solemn as Dismal’s own, and laying his hand on Dismal’s shoulder, said:

“The fact is, boys, Jones has become ambitious. He knows that the election of class-day officers is only a little more than a year away, and he’s getting himself into training for one of the positions.”

“Oh, go on, it isn’t so!” exclaimed Dismal.

“That’s just his modesty,” continued Frank, “for of course he doesn’t want to push himself forward, but he’s quietly waiting for his friends to recognize his great ability, and as we’re his friends we just want to boom him from now on, and I take this occasion of nominating Dismal Jones, Esquire, as class wit.”

Rattleton burst into guffaws of laughter, while the others smiled.

“The idea is humorous enough to elect him!” said Diamond.

“Well, if he’s going to be a candidate,” added Browning, “we must put the campaign through in proper fashion. We must organize a Dismal Jones Club and have an emblem.

“I move that we all wear crape upon our left arm and mourning bands upon our hats until the election.”

“Great Scott!” howled Rattleton, “the time for mourning will be after Jones is elected.”

Jones listened to this joking with stolid good humor; never a smile lingered on his face, but his solemn eyes showed no resentment.

“It’s all right,” he remarked when they gave him a chance to speak, “you fellows think you’ve got me on a long string, but I’d like to bet that if I should run for a class office, I wouldn’t be last in the race!

“Of course,” he added, hastily, “I haven’t really any insane notion of doing such a thing.”

The students laughed again, picked up their gripsacks and prepared to separate.

“Say!” called Page, eagerly, “what about coming down to see my room?”

“Oh, we’ve got a whole year ahead of us,” growled Browning.

“I’ll run down in the course of an hour or two,” said Frank. “I don’t think there’s anything to do at my room, and I’ll be glad to learn the way to yours. What’s the number?”

Page told him, and Frank exclaimed:

“Why! some of the professors live there, don’t they?”

“Pretty much the whole house,” responded Page, “is let out to students and instructors; I believe Prof. Babbitt has his room there––”

“Babbitt!” interrupted Rattleton; “he’s the most unpardonable crank in the whole faculty.”

“Well, I shall let him alone, and I’ve no doubt that he will let me alone,” returned Page. “He’s a good deal of a hermit, I’m told, and I don’t think that his being in the same house will make a particle of difference to me. Anyhow, there’s the room and I want you fellows to see it.”

“I’ll be down in a little while,” said Frank, and the others also promised to come in the course of a day or two.

CHAPTER II

IMPRISONED IN A CHIMNEY

Frank found that there was nothing whatever in his room to demand his attention, and so, after he had unpacked his grips and put away their contents, he went down High Street to call on Page.

The house in which Page had taken a room was made of stone. Its walls were very thick, the ceilings low, and everything about it made it seem like a relic of the last century.

This is indeed what it was. In former days it had been the residence of one of the wealthiest men in New Haven, but that was long ago; for years it had been used wholly as a lodging house.

Page’s room was on the second floor. It was very large and cheerful. Three windows looked out on the street and in each of them was a broad seat provided with heavy cushions.

On the opposite side of the room there were two old-fashioned benches built against the wall. Between the ends of these benches and right in the middle of that side of the room was one of the ancient chimneys of the house.

It came out three or four feet into the room and gave the place an antique and interesting appearance. Page had hung a lot of ornaments in the way of fencing foils, boxing gloves, baseball bats, and other materials used by students, upon this chimney.

After Frank had taken a general look around the room he said:

“It’s a nice old den, Page, and I think the chimney there is the best part of it. What a pity that there isn’t a fireplace. There ought to be, and it strikes me that there was at one time.”

Saying this, he knelt down before the chimney and examined the stones of which it was made. These had been painted white. Frank thought he could see a line that indicated what had once been an opening. Page watched him in silence.

“There certainly was a fireplace here at one time,” said Frank, rising, “and if I were in your place I’d have the stones cut away so that you can use it again. An open wood fire there would look immense in winter.”

“That’s a good scheme, Frank,” responded Page, “and it was that chimney that led me to speak of the room. I didn’t know it when I hired the place, but since I’ve got in I’ve discovered that–well, I’ll show you.”

With this he stooped over by the chimney, put his hand upon what appeared to be a little projection from one of the stones, turned it, and opened a door.

Within the door there was revealed an old-fashioned fireplace, deep and high. All it needed was andirons and poker to make it complete.

“Well, that’s funny!” exclaimed Frank.

“Isn’t it?” returned Page. “I got on to the thing wholly by accident. When I was hanging up some of the things there I stumbled and caught hold of that little projection for support.

“The thing turned in my hand, and the first thing I knew the door was open. It opened a little hard, showing that the thing hadn’t been used for a long time.”

“Didn’t the owner of the house speak of it?”

“I don’t think he knows anything about it.”

“Have you told him?”

“Not much!”

“Why not?”

“Well, because it just struck me that such a place as this was a kind of a secret worth keeping. You can see for yourself that it was the evident intention of the person who set up this door that it should be a secret. The hinges are perfectly concealed, and it has been fitted in and the edges painted in such a way that only the closest inspection would give a fellow a suspicion that there was any opening there.”

At this moment there was a knock, and Browning came in.

“I thought you were coming next week?” exclaimed Page.

“Well, I found I’d nothing better to do than run down here. What’s that you’re looking at?”

The boys explained the matter to him, and in his slow way he admitted that if they were sophomores it would be quite possible to utilize this secret door in the course of hazing freshmen.

“As we’re not in the hazing business now,” he said, “I can’t see any use for the place, Page, except for you to hide in when your creditors call.”

“Huh!” retorted Page, “it’s my habit to keep my bills paid.”

“It’ll make you unpopular if the fellows know that.”

“I was telling Page,” said Merriwell, “that if I had the room I’d take down that door entirely, get some andirons and burn a log of wood on a winter evening.”

“That’s a good scheme,” returned Browning, “but if I should do anything of that kind I should never get a stroke of work done here; this room was never meant to study in, but it’s an ideal loafing place.”

With this he threw himself upon one of the window seats and looked out. The others took places on the other windows and for a few minutes their conversation turned upon college topics.

Then Browning, who was a little restless, as most students are immediately after a vacation, said he would have to be going. Page urged him to wait, but he shook his head.

“By the way,” he said, with his hand upon the door, “I’ve got some news.”

“Well?” said both the others together.

“I regret to say it isn’t pleasant news, but it may be important to you two; it certainly is to me.”

“Spring it!” exclaimed Page.

“Cut the preface!” said Merriwell.

“Babbitt has announced an examination for juniors in mathematics.”

“What!”

Merriwell and Page were so surprised that they sat down suddenly. Browning remained standing by the door.

“It’s a fact,” he said.

“But what can that mean?” asked Merriwell. “We had our regular examination last spring.”

“I know we did, but Babbitt’s going to have another just the same.”

“Where did you learn it?”

“On the bulletin board, of course. The notice was put up not more than an hour ago.”

“When is it to be?”

“Three days from now.”

Page looked blankly at Merriwell.

“I never was any good at mathematics,” he said, “and after a summer without a thought of it I don’t believe I could do an ordinary sum in multiplication.”

“Well,” responded Frank, doubtfully, “it can’t be that the examination will have any serious consequences for us fellows if we passed last spring.”

“There’s no telling how serious Babbitt may make it,” said Browning. “The notice on the bulletin board, of course, doesn’t give any explanation, but I met Frost, the fellow who graduated a couple of years ago, you know, with high honors in mathematics, and who was made instructor in one of the lower departments of that course.

“I knew Frost quite well when he was a student, so I asked him if he knew anything about this.”

“What did he say?”

“He smiled a little queerly and answered that Professor Babbitt had his own ideas.”

“In other words, Frost wouldn’t tell?”

“Oh, no, that’s not it; Frost is a member of the faculty now, you see, and of course he has to speak very respectfully of the older men.

“I got a very distinct idea that Frost regarded Babbitt’s examination as all nonsense, but he did explain to me what Babbitt’s idea about it is.”

“That’s what we want to know.”

“It’s just this way,” said Browning, sitting down. “It seems our class is enlarged by the addition of quite a number of men who have graduated from or studied at other colleges.

“They have applied for admission into the junior class, and there’s got to be an examination for them, of course; in fact, the examination for such candidates is going on now.”

“That’s quite a usual thing,” remarked Merriwell.

“Yes, certainly, but Babbitt has declared that the examination of last spring was very unsatisfactory. He says men can’t go ahead in mathematics unless what they have done before is thoroughly learned, and he proposes to find out just what sort of talent there is in our class before he begins a year’s work.”

“He’ll find out what I can’t do!” groaned Page.

“Probably he knows that already,” said Merriwell.

“That’s the substance of it, anyway,” added Browning. “Babbitt’s idea is to strike an average as to what the class can do and proceed from that.”

“Then I shouldn’t think,” said Merriwell, “that the examination should have any terrors for us.”

“You’d think,” exclaimed Page, “that Merriwell looked at an examination as he would a plunge in the surf, just a little dip for the fun of it, and it’s all over. It won’t be so with me.”

“Don’t worry,” responded Frank, “you’ve got three days in which to cram.”

“And that’s just what I’ll do, I’m thinking.”

Page dropped his chin upon his hands and looked gloomily at the floor.

“I’m sorry to give you unpleasant news,” said Browning, rising, “but I told you I thought it was important. So long.”

With this he went out.

“Oh, well,” said Page, after a moment, “I’m not going to be knocked out by that! I’ll just go into the examination and do as well as I can and take chances; that’s what the rest of us have got to do.”

“That’s the best way to look at it,” Frank answered, “and I don’t think I shall bother my head with cramming for it.

“If I were you, Page, I’d go down to some of those second-hand stores on the street and see if you can’t pick up a pair of old-fashioned andirons. You don’t want to get new ones, you know, for a place like this, they wouldn’t seem appropriate.”

“That’s so,” Page answered, with a queer smile, “I believe I’ll adopt your suggestion at once. How would you place them?”

“Why, just as they are placed in every other fireplace,” Frank answered, “one on each side; that is, if the old chimney will draw.”

“Perhaps it won’t,” said Page.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” continued Frank. “It may be that the place was closed up because the chimney was defective. Let’s see if we can find out.”

So saying, he knelt and entered the fireplace. Once inside it was easy to stand upright, for the chimney was broad, and as he looked up he could see that it ran with a slight incline clear to the roof.

“There’s nothing to prevent a fire from being built here,” he said, with his eyes turned upward. “Such a chimney as this would draw like a furnace.”

Page made no response.

“I declare,” Merriwell added, “it makes me wish that winter had come so that I could see a roaring old blaze of logs here. Doesn’t that strike you about right?”

As Page made no response, he turned to look at his classmate, and then discovered that the secret door to the fireplace had been closed.

With his eyes turned upward and seeing the little patch of light at the top of the chimney he had not noticed that the light from the room had been shut off.

“Hello, there!” he called, feeling along the wall to find the door. “I’m no freshman.”

There was no sound from Page’s room. Frank found a match in his pocket and struck it. From inside it was easy enough to distinguish the outlines of the secret door that concealed the fireplace.

It was not possible, however, to discover any way by which it might be opened. The latch was the kind used on doors, but strong, and with no knob on the inside.

Frank pushed against the door with some force. It did not yield in the least degree.

“Seems to me,” he thought, “that Page has a queer idea of fun to lock me in like this. I’ve a good mind to kick the door down.”

He thought a moment before deciding to do this, and reflected that it would hardly be a good-natured way of treating the joke.

If Page meant to have some fun with him by making him a prisoner, the joke would be all the more successful if Merriwell should get mad about it and break open the secret door.

“I think,” thought Frank, “that I’ll get even with Page for this in a way that will surprise him.”

His match went out just then and he began to feel in the darkness of the stones that made the chimney. They were untrimmed stones, so that the interior surface was very irregular.

Just above his hand, but within reach, was an iron bar crossing the chimney; it was put there to bind the walls.

Frank drew himself upon this and then, being in the narrow part of the chimney, was able to work his way upward by clinging with hands and feet to the rough edges of the stones.

It was slow progress, but not difficult, and sure. The only question would be whether the opening at the top of the chimney would be large enough to permit of his crawling through.

He had got about halfway up when he halted in his journey. He had heard voices, and he recognized both of them.

He knew that he was on the level of the room above Page’s, and he realized that the sounds of talking came to him distinctly because there was a fireplace there that connected with this same chimney.

The voices he heard were those of Prof. Babbitt and Instructor Frost.

“The fact is, Frost,” Babbitt was saying, “I’m aiming this examination at certain men in the class, and I’ve no hesitation in saying so. There’s that fellow, Merriwell, for example; I’d like to force him to do more studying.”

CHAPTER III

TURNING THE TABLES

“This is growing very interesting,” thought Frank, bracing his knees against the stones of the chimney so that he could hold his position easily.

“Why, I thought that Merriwell ranked high, professor?” said Frost.

“He’s no fool,” growled Babbitt, “and if he would study hard I presume he might lead the class in scholarship, but as it is, he spends most of his time in athletics and skylarking.”

“Oh, not quite so bad as that!”

“Yes, it is. He’s naturally bright, and by a very little attention to his lessons he’s able to get marks that enable him to pass along with fair standing, while most of his time is given to anything but work. It isn’t right that anybody should get through Yale so easily; it’s bad for the rest of the students.”

“I have an idea,” said Frost, quietly, “that Merriwell’s example isn’t regarded as a bad one by other members of the faculty.”

“Ah, you’re just as bad as the students themselves in your fondness for that scamp!” exclaimed Babbitt. “He seems to fascinate everybody he meets except me.”

“Yes, I think you’re an exception.”

“I believe you are trying to be sarcastic, Frost, but it doesn’t make any difference; my mind is set on making an example of Merriwell so that the other fellows in his class who follow his lead will be frightened into studying harder.”

“Do you then mean that this examination is aimed directly at Merriwell?”

“Not quite so strong as that. There are others, of course, but he’s a natural leader, and I don’t at all fancy the easy way he takes things, and then bobs up at examinations with enough knowledge to work out his papers.”

“I should think,” suggested Frost, “that that was all the professors could require of a student.”

“That’s because you’re young!” snapped Babbitt. “You ought to forget that you’ve been a student––”

“Excuse me, professor, but I think just the contrary. It seems to me that the more an instructor remembers of his student days the better he will be able to get along with his classes.”

“All right, then, you stick to your theory, and I’ll stick to mine. Meantime, look at this paper; that’s what I asked you to call for.”

“Is this the examination paper that you’re going to set before Merriwell’s class?”

“Yes.”

There was then a silence of some minutes during which probably Mr. Frost was studying the examination paper. At last he remarked:

“Well, I’ve looked it through.”

“What do you think of it?” asked Babbitt.

“Do you want my honest opinion?”

“Of course I do! Why else should I get you up here?”

After a slight pause Mr. Frost said: “It seems to me that the examination is very one-sided.”

“Eh?”

“Why, it is all aimed at a certain line of work, and doesn’t cover anything like all the work done in the course of the year.”

“Well, I have my reason for that!”

“I supposed so.”

“I know that fellow Merriwell’s weakness; I know just where he’s likely to be faulty, and if he can pass that paper he’ll do better than I think he can.”

“Why, Prof. Babbitt,” exclaimed Frost in an indignant tone, “it looks as if you were purposely trying to trip Merriwell so as to get him disciplined, or dropped!”

“The faculty can do with him what it likes,” remarked Babbitt, crossly, “when I’ve handed in the marks on this paper.”

“I must say it doesn’t seem to me to be fair,” said Frost.

“I don’t care for any opinion of that kind,” retorted Babbitt.

“Then I don’t see why you asked me for any at all.”

“Well, well,” and Babbitt seemed to be struggling with his temper, “you and I won’t dispute about it. You’ve got your work and I’ve got mine. I asked you about this paper because I thought you’d sympathize with me in my design.”

“I can’t sympathize with you in it, Prof. Babbitt, and I wish if you’re going to give an examination that you would give one of the usual kind, including in the questions, problems that cover the entire year’s work, and so get an idea––”

“The idea I want to get will come from the answers to these questions, Frost.”

“Then I suppose I couldn’t persuade you to make up another paper?”

“No, sir; I’m going to take this to the printer at once, and by to-morrow morning the copies will all be here in my room, where I shall keep them until the hour for the examination.”

“I’m sorry you told me about it,” said Frost.

“Why?”

“Because I think well of Merriwell and the others––”

“I suppose you’d like to warn them of what’s coming.”

“Prof. Babbitt!”

Frost spoke in a loud tone; he was evidently very angry.

“Oh, well,” exclaimed Babbitt, “don’t fly in a rage at that suggestion; of course I know that you won’t betray any secrets of the faculty. I simply said that I supposed you’d like to warn that rascal, Merriwell.”

“You’ve no right to think even as much as that!” returned Frost, “but you may be very sure that whatever I wish to do I shall not expose the questions on that paper. Good-day, sir.”

“Good-day,” said Babbitt, and immediately afterward there was a slamming of a door.

Then Frank heard the professor grumbling to himself, but what he said could not be made out. A little later there was the sound of a door opening and closing again. Prof. Babbitt had doubtless started to the printer’s with the examination paper.

Frank then resumed his trip up the chimney. He had heard no sound from Page’s room, and he was just as determined as before to turn the joke upon his classmate.

As he passed the level of Prof. Babbitt’s room he saw that the fireplace of the chimney had been closed in the same way as in Page’s room, but in this case the door was not a secret one, and at the moment it stood partly open. This was what enabled him to hear so plainly the conversation between the instructors.

When he came to the chimney top he squeezed through without much difficulty, and dropped out upon the roof.

The next question was as to getting down to the street, but to an athlete like Frank, there was little difficulty in that problem.

New Haven is often called the City of Elms. There were a number of these and other trees growing about, and one of them extended its branches toward the roof of this house in such a way that Frank could grasp it.

He took hold of it with the idea of climbing along to the trunk of the tree, and then shinning down, but the branch bent under his weight until his feet were not more than ten feet from the ground.

Accordingly Frank let go and came down with nothing more than a bit of a jar. He had landed in the yard beside the house, from which he saw that an alley led between buildings to an adjoining street.

His hands and clothes were grimy with soot.

“If I should go through High Street this way,” he thought, “and should meet Page, he’d have the laugh on me in earnest. I’ll just skip out the other way, get into my room and clean up and then give him a surprise party.”

Accordingly Frank hastened through the alley and so to his room. He met nobody on the way with whom he was acquainted, and as soon as he was in his room he washed his hands and face thoroughly and changed his clothes.

“So, then,” he thought in the midst of this operation, “Prof. Babbitt wants to make an example of me, does he, and he knows my weak points, eh?”

“Luckily, I know my own weak points, too, so far as mathematics is concerned, and in the next three days it strikes me that I can do a bit of grinding that will enable me to give the professor a surprise party. If my guess is right as to the kind of examples that will be put on that paper, I shouldn’t wonder if I could give the other fellows a lift, too.”

Meantime, Harold Page, having made his friend a prisoner in the fireplace, had gone from his room for the purpose of finding some other fellow whom he might bring back to share in the fun of Frank’s discomfort.

As his room was at some little distance from the campus, he did not expect to find anybody on the street near it, so he started on a run in the direction of the college, for it was not his intention to keep Frank a prisoner more than a few minutes.

He had not gone very far before he met a classmate, whose name was Mortimer Ford. Ford was not a very popular fellow, although it could not be said that anybody had anything special against him.

He was acquainted with Frank and the particular crowd that chummed with him, and sometimes took part in their doings, but on the whole he was rather outside the circle in which Frank had been a leader from the start.

If Page had had his wish, he would have met Rattleton, or Browning, or Diamond, or some of the others more closely associated with Merriwell, for he knew that they would enjoy the trick with better humor than anybody else.

When he saw Ford his first impulse was to go and look up somebody else, but Ford called out to him:

“Hello, Page, how long have you been back?”

“Oh, I came back a week ago,” Page answered, “and engaged a room, got it in order, and then went away again. I came back for good this morning.”

“Glad to see you,” and Ford shook hands. “What are you hurrying for?”

“Oh, nothing much,” responded Page, awkwardly.

“I didn’t know but you were trying to run away from that examination that old Babbitt has got up,” said Ford. “Say! that is a nasty blow, isn’t it?”

“It will bother a good many of us, I reckon.”

They were standing on the sidewalk, and while they were talking Page was keeping his eyes out for some other friend.

There were no other students in sight, and he began to feel a little ashamed of the small trick he had played on Frank.

“I guess I’ll go and let him out,” he thought, “Ford will do as well as anybody else to see the fun.”

So he said aloud:

“Come down to my room a minute, Ford; I’ve got something to show you.”

“I wish it was a case of beer,” remarked Ford, falling in with him and walking along, “or perhaps it’s something better than that?”

“It’s nothing to drink, but it’s something better than that, just the same.”

“Tell you what I wish it was.”

“What?”

“Babbitt’s examination paper.”

“Great Scott! why don’t you wish you owned the earth?”

“I do.”

“You might as well wish that as to think of getting hold of Babbitt’s paper. There isn’t a secret society in Yale, you know, that is closer than an examination paper. There’s hardly a case on record where one has been got in advance.”

“Oh, I know it,” said Ford, in a mournful tone; “of course it’s hopeless to think of getting hold of the paper, and I hadn’t any idea of trying to, but that’s the only thing that’s worrying me just now, and so I spoke of it.”

“Merriwell doesn’t seem to think the thing’s going to be very serious,” said Page.

“He wouldn’t think anything was serious,” answered Ford.

Just as they were entering the house where Page had his room, Prof. Babbitt came out. They had seen Instructor Frost go out and turn in another direction a moment before.

The students touched their hats to the professor, wished him good-morning, and passed in.

Prof. Babbitt grumbled a surly reply, and turned away toward the college.

Page wondered as he went upstairs whether Frank had kicked down the secret door to the chimney.

“It would be just like him,” he thought. “Confound him! I wouldn’t much blame him if he did!”

The minute he came into the room he glanced at the chimney.

“It’s all right,” he said to himself, and he felt a little triumphant. “It isn’t often a fellow can catch Merriwell, and although it’s a small kind of a trick, it will be something to speak of hereafter.”

“Well, this is a snug sort of place,” remarked Ford, looking around the room. “The ceiling is a little low, but the window seats are broad and you’ve got soft cushions. I don’t see anything the matter with this; where’s your bedroom?”

“Over there,” responded Page, pointing to a door. “What do you think of this?” and he pointed to the chimney.

“It takes up some room,” was Ford’s comment; “but you’ve got plenty of that to spare.”

“You know what it is, don’t you?” asked Page.

“A chimney, I suppose?”

“Exactly, and it follows that it’s hollow.”

“I suppose so, unless it’s been filled up.”

“It hasn’t been filled up,” said Page. “When they put modern heating into the house they closed up the fireplace that was here, and I had some notion of opening it again, but I’ve decided not to.”

He spoke now in a loud tone of voice, hoping that Merriwell would hear him.

“Why not open the fireplace?” asked Ford.

“Because I’ve got a pet that I want to keep there.”

“A pet?”

“Yes. It’s just the place for it––”

“What is it, a big dog?”

“No, though it’s big enough.”

“Queer place to keep a pet,” remarked Ford. “How can you get him in there?”

“Why, he’s in there already.”

“What! Now?”

“Certainly.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

Page was on the broad grin, and Ford crossed the room out of curiosity. He struck his hand smartly on the chimney, whereat Page exclaimed:

“I wouldn’t do that, you might frighten him.”

“But what in the mischief have you got there?”

“I’ll show you in a minute. Now, then, old boy, want to see the light? Does you want to come out for a little time?”

Page spoke soothingly as if he were addressing a small cat.

“Shall I let him come out?” he went on, mockingly; “shall I let him have a little taste of fresh air and sunlight, poor thing?”

He listened as he spoke for some sign of Merriwell and it bothered him a little that he got no reply.

Ford looked on in wonder.

“Don’t be so long about it!” he exclaimed. “Open up the thing if there’s any way to do it, and let’s see what you’ve got.”

“All right, then; don’t be frightened if he should run out suddenly,” answered Page.

He put his hand on the knob of the secret door, and threw it open; then he stepped back, smiling broadly.

“There isn’t anything there!” exclaimed Ford.

“What!” and Page got down on his knees and thrust his head into the fireplace.

Of course he realized in an instant what had happened. He knew that Merriwell must have climbed out at the top.

“Great Scott!” he thought, “if Frank should know that I brought a fellow up here to see the foolishness, how he would turn the laugh on me.”

“Has the thing, whatever it is, vanished?” asked Ford.

“Gone completely!” answered Page in a tone of disappointment. “He must have flown out of the top of the chimney.”

Ford got down, too, and looked up.

“Why, yes,” he said, “if it was a bird, of course it would get out that way. You ought to have known better than to put a bird in such a place. What was it, a parrot?”

“No, not exactly,” said Page. “I guess I won’t say what it was until I’ve made some search for it.”

At this moment there was a knock at the door. Page, still on his hands and knees, answered “Come in.”

The door opened and in walked Frank Merriwell.

CHAPTER IV

READY FOR THE TEST

Page got up looking very sheepish.

He expected that Frank would begin to turn the laugh on him. Nothing of that kind happened, for the first moment Ford and Frank were speaking together.

They had not met since the close of the last term, and they shook hands in a friendly way, and made polite inquiries about each other’s vacations.

“What have you got here?” asked Frank, then, stepping toward the fireplace with a queer look at Page.

The latter had not the nerve to answer.

“I suppose it used to be a fireplace,” said Ford. “It looked when I came into the room just as if there was no opening into the chimney at all, but this door fits very closely.”

“Were you trying to use the chimney as a telescope when I came in?” asked Frank. “I saw you were both on your knees, looking up.”

“No,” replied Ford, “Page had something in there, he won’t say what it was, some kind of a pet, I believe, and it has flown out.”

“No wonder,” remarked Frank, dryly; “it would be a pretty poor kind of a pet that wouldn’t fly out of a place like that.”

“If it was an unusual kind of a bird,” suggested Ford, “why don’t you give notice of it to the police? It sometimes happens that they recover missing pets.”

“Oh, I guess I won’t say anything about it,” responded Page, blushing furiously.

Frank could not control his laughter, so he threw himself into a window seat, and looked out, having his back to the other two.

“What are you laughing at, anyway?” asked Ford.

“Oh, at my thoughts!” chuckled Frank. “I think Page ought to offer a thousand dollars or so reward for his missing pet.”

“You hold your tongue, Merriwell,” said Page, “and some time or other I’ll make it right with you.”

“Are you two fellows putting up some kind of a job on me?” exclaimed Ford, suspiciously.

“Oh, no, on my honor!” exclaimed Frank, quickly. “I was just thinking of a little joke that you don’t know anything about.”

“Aren’t you going to spring the joke?”

“No, I’m going to keep it to myself.”

Page looked immensely relieved, while Ford, after a doubtful glance at both of them, turned his attention again to the chimney. He pushed the secret door back into place and then opened it again.

“Mighty funny idea, isn’t it?” he said, half to himself. “Certainly, nobody would ever believe that that fireplace could be opened without a pickax.”

“I supposed it was solid,” responded Page, “and got at the secret entirely by accident.”

“Opens easy, doesn’t it?”

Ford kept opening and shutting the door.

“If this was in the olden times,” he said, “when men had to hide from enemies, what a racket it would be to shut one’s self in here and then climb out through the chimney.”

Frank turned his back again to conceal his chuckle, while Page answered that he thought it would be a good scheme. Then he added:

“I think I’ll take the door down and make a fireplace of it.”

“And not get your bird back?”

“No. Hang the bird!”

“Well, of course, that’s for you to say. As for myself, I’m going to get over to my room and look up mathematics for a while.”

“I shouldn’t think you’d need to,” said Frank.

“Oh, a man grows rusty after three months away from the books, you know,” answered Ford, “and an examination always makes me nervous, anyway. So long.”

With this he left the room.

“Say, Merriwell,” said Page, the moment the door was closed, “I don’t know whether to feel obliged to you, or be as mad as a hornet.”

“I don’t see any reason for either feeling.”

“Well, I am obliged to you for not turning the laugh on me when you had the chance to, and I ought to be mad for your getting out in the way you did.”

“What should you have shut me in there for,” asked Frank, “if you did not expect me to use my wits?”

“I just did it on impulse,” Page answered, “and had no intention, anyway, of keeping you there more than a few minutes.”

“It’s all right, Page, I didn’t mind it a little bit. I went straight out.”

“I see you did.”

“Now, see here, Page,” said Frank, seriously, “I want to ask a favor of you.”

“Granted.”

“Keep that door closed during the next few days.”

“What, the door to the fireplace?”

“H’m! h’m!”

“Why, yes, I’ll do that, but why? I shouldn’t have it open more than a minute or two at a time to show the fellows.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Not show it to the fellows?”

“Not to anybody.”

“I said I’d grant your favor and so I will, but what in the world is on your mind?”

“I’ll tell you,” said Frank, with a little pause, “after the examination.”

“Babbitt’s examination?”

“Yes.”

“All right I suppose you’ve got some first-class trick you want to tell, and you haven’t got time to get it in shape until the examination is over, is that it?”

“That’s asking too much, Page. I’ll tell you all about it later; meantime, it is a fact that men like you and me have got to put in some pretty hard licks if we want to pass that examination.”

“Oh, thunder and Mars!” groaned Page, “I’ve made up my mind not to think of it. It’s impossible for me to cram up on a whole year’s work in three days.”

“It might not be necessary to.”

“How else can a fellow stand a chance of passing?”

“Well, suppose we should study just one part of the subject, and let the rest of it go?”

“And then there might not be a single question on that subject, Frank.”

“Yes, and again they might all be on that subject.”

“It isn’t likely.”

“But it might be so, Page.”

“Do you mean to say, Frank, that you’d recommend a fellow to take a kind of gambling chance like that on an examination paper?”

“Well, not as a general thing, but seriously I do think it would be a good scheme this time. You see, Babbitt is springing this examination unexpectedly, and everybody knows that he’s got queer ideas. Now I think it would be quite like him to center the whole examination on one topic.”

“Why should he do that?”

“Well,” answered Frank, slowly, “with the idea, perhaps, of catching the fellows by surprise.”

“He don’t need to take all that pains for me,” said Page, dismally; “he could floor me if his examination Was made on the simplest things. If I was like Ford, now––”

“Oh, Ford doesn’t need to worry, of course. He led the class in mathematics last year, didn’t he?”

“Yes, and the year before, too. The idea of his being worried about the examination is all nonsense.”

“I know it is,” said Frank, “except that he’s got his ambition up to keep at the lead; that’s a natural ambition and decent, and I suppose he’ll do a lot of grinding to get ready for the exam.”

“I’d grind, too, if I thought there’d be any use in it.”

“I believe there will, Page, and if you don’t mind following my lead, I’ll tell you what subject to grind on.”

“Do you mean to say that you’re going to cram up on just one part of it?”

“Exactly, and what’s more, if you’ll agree to it, I’ll come over here with my books and we’ll grind together. We’ll get Browning, Rattleton and Diamond, and one or two others in our crowd, and do the job together.”

“It’s a bully idea!” exclaimed Page, “if it would only work. Gee! but wouldn’t it be just great if we should happen to hit on the topic that old Babbitt has chosen and every one of us write a perfect paper?”

“I can’t think of anything that would suit me better,” Frank answered.

“Then let’s try for it. It’s just a chance, but I’m with you, Merriwell.”

“All right, then, and you’ll remember you’re to say nothing about that fireplace, and you’re not to open it until after the examination!”

“I’ll remember, but you won’t forget to tell me what it all means?”

“I’ll let you into the whole business after Babbitt has examined the papers.”

It was not a very difficult matter for Frank to persuade his closest friends to join him in preparing for the examination by studying hard on one particular topic.

They were so in the habit of following his lead that although they all regarded the effort in the same way that Page did, that is, a gamble, they were willing to take the chances if Merriwell was.

Frank was almost perfectly certain that it was not a gambling chance, because he remembered well enough how he had been faulty in that topic at the spring examination, and if Babbitt was going to try to trip him, that was the subject surely that he would select for his purpose.

Three days was none too long for the boys to refresh their memories on the subject and prepare themselves well on this one topic.

They started in in the middle of the afternoon and worked together under Frank’s direction until dinner time.

He proved to be as hard a task master as Babbitt himself could have been. The boys were not exactly surprised at that, for it was natural for Frank to do with all his might whatever he undertook, but they joked him a good deal while at dinner about turning professor.

“That’s all right,” Frank answered, “you can have your joke. If we come out on this as I expect to, you’ll be glad enough that you adopted my plan.”

“I must say I rather enjoy it,” said Diamond, frankly. “Studying by one’s self is dull work, but when there are half a dozen or so grinding away, somehow the time passes more quickly.”

In the same way they worked until late that night, and began again early the next morning.

Diamond offered the use of his room as a meeting place, and Puss Parker, who had been let into the scheme, suggested that they come to his room, too. Frank said no.

“We began in Page’s room,” was the way he put it, “and we might as well work it out there.”

“His room is so far out of the way!” grumbled Browning.

“A little walk won’t hurt you any,” responded Frank. “I’d much rather keep at it there, for I’m used to the room.”

So it was agreed that the grinding should continue at Page’s, and it did until the day of the examination.

They had other duties to perform, of course, during these days, but the regular work of the college had not entirely begun, so that most of their time could be put in to preparing for their examination.