3 CENTS 4,1912 2 e FEB = ~ aa o : Oo Q anf cece o ts : O-5 Qo > 2 a D- a a o- 3° th * 2 es ~ a QD i ae oO SE: Q “While there was yet a full minute to spare, the Princeton team stood up suddenl NEW YORK STREET & SMITH PUBLISHERS a PPO | oS apt thee IE a Sa Since a serial, a two-part story and one or more short stories were added to the main story in each issue of this weekly, there seems to be a misapprehension concerning their effect on the length of the main story. Attention, there- fore, is directed to the fact that when this change was made it was explained that the main stories; would be the same length as before, but, gwing to a reduction im the size of the type and the space between the lines, so much space would be gained that it would be possible to publish supplemental stories. The promise then made has been kept. 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At your own risk ifsent by currency, coin, or postage stamps in ordinary letter. Receipts—Receipt of your remittance is acknowledged by proper change of number on your label. If not correct you have not been properly credited, and should let us know at once. % N O- $28. ne NEW YORK, February 24, 1912. Price Five Cents. — \ DICK. MERRIWELL’S RESPONSIBILITY; Or, The Winning Pull in the Tug of War. By BURT: L. CHAPTER I. PICKING OUT A TEAM. “One, two, drop!” At the word there was a sudden thud, as four bodies fell to the ground. Immediately afterward there was a creak- ing and a sound of straining as the four prostrate men pulled with all their might at a rope. _ ¥hen there were long breaths and grunts, and pres- ently one of the four exclaimed: “Tsay, Mr. Merriwell, I didn’t suppose you were going to say ‘drop’ until you had counted three!” “You had no right to suppose any such thing,” re- sponded Dick Merriwell, with a smile. “The man who gives the word in a tug of war sometimes doesn’t count at all, and you’ve got to get used to falling at one word only.” “Tt will be a pistol shot in New York, won’t it?” “That isn’t decided on. You didn’t get the rope under your knee when you fell.” _ “T know,” responded the one addressed. “That was be- cause the word ‘drop’ came before I was ready for it.” “Took out for it next time, then. That will do for the present.” The four young men stood up and looked at Dick Mer- ae to await his next command. a They. were in the gymnasium at Yale. A corner of the main exercise hall had been set apart for them and STANDISH. screened so that their work could not be seen or inter- rupted by other students’ Four short pieces of wood had been nailed to the floor at intervals of about five feet. At each of these blocks or cleats a student stood with his hand upon a rope that was tied to a post a few feet distant from the nearest cleat. | These four were stripped to the thinnest of athletic cos- tumes; but Dick Merriwell, who stood by directing their work, was in his a street clothes. He was training the four to represent the college in a tug of war that was to be one feature of some intercol- legiate games to take place in a short time. The contests were to consist of all kinds of indoor exer- cises, as the season for outdoor sports had long since come to an end. : There was to be leaping, wrestling, trapeze, “and hori- zontal bar work, maneuyers on the giant swings, fencing, and so on. The entries for these events were not limited to one class; sophomores could contest as well as juniors and — seniors; and’as a matter of fact many ambitious fellows in the sophomore class were in training for the big event. Every day the wrestlers got together in-the gymnasium and varied their work at the machines by wrestling with each other. The leapers, too, made daily efforts to jump a little No more reprints will be published after No. 830, Rae TIP TOP higher or a little further than they had the day before; while those who made specialties of tricks upon the bar and trapeze, spent hours every day in perfecting them- selves in their feats. The students talked of little else when they met on the campus, or in one another’s rooms of an evening, Four colleges were to be represented in the meet, namely: Yale, Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton, The contests were to take place on neutral ground, and for this purpose, a large and famous armory in New York City had been engaged. The second half of the college year had hardly begun before arrangements for this athletic meeting were under way. . . As is usual in such matters, where the whole college is concerned, the management was given to a committee of upper class men. This committee had consulted Dick Merriwell, who was so acceptably filling the new and difficult position of uni- versal coach at Yale. | “We want you to train the men who are to take part in the tug of war, Mr. Merriwell,” they announced. ‘\We'll have to sift out the best men,” he said, “and that means that a lot of men will need to be tried, to deter- mine just who the best men are.” “We know that you never play any favorites, Mr. Mer- riwell,” they.said. “We're going to let you select the men, as well as train them. The thing we are after is a rousing victory for old Yale.” “It’s the thing we all want,” he asserted. “Just so.” “Tn other lines,’ he went on, “it seems the best policy to pick men: who are specialists and crackajacks in their particular fields. We all have ideas as to who the best wrestlers are, and the best jumpers, and that’ sort.” They named a number of men. Dick Merriwell set the names down, and said he would talk with the men, think the matter over, and confer with them again about those men, j _ Whatever Dick Merriwell undertook, he went at it with his whole heart and mind. And this matter was no -ex- ception to the rule. That was one of the reasons for the great success he was having in his new work at, Yale. After he had thought the matter over, he called together the men he thought of trying out for members of the tug-of-war team, and laid the matter before them. “There’s going to be a tug of war! Hooray!’ “What are the requirements?’ neec _. “Who’s going to be on the, team?’ - Will it be on cleats or on the level floor?” _. “Will it be on the ground?” - These and many other questions of a similar kind were asked so rapidly that Dick Merriwell had no chance for a reply. At last he explained that the team had not been chosen.” , ; | be “The managing committee,” he said, “has asked me to take charge of the training, and we're going to have trials in a corner of the gymnasium every afternoon, As goon as the team is made up, we shall get down to daily Eapragtice... ', | mebageen es: ik ‘Tt was natural that the tug of war should arouse more interest throughout the college than any of the other eevents..§ Ma aL oti 99 o : OF course it was important that one or another student | - should be in training to meet the best wrestler or jumper ¥ woe > Ne ACE CTT rs - 2 e —_— Oe ere np hcme a r P ete Np A AOE ID WEEKLY. - 1 x from the other colleges, but the tug of war was an eveilt in which the whole § g sa | TI vie Nee college was represented. ‘here is never anything like a team event to arouse the enthusiasm of students, oh Hae Peta team consists of but four men, to be eee that they are supposed to be, and generally , the strongest men in the college, and so students 0% all classes look to thc ; Ss ose fou n to hc he glory of the college. r men to hold up the g we There was another thing that made the tug-of-war team preety interesting at this time. For two or three yeatS: aoe ne been very successful in the tug of wal — ler pulling against other colleges or against outside athletic organizations. : ” It had happened tt put on the Princeto since, iene Was greatly to the advantage of the team in que and.\ te ead three men who were used to each other not be eed a great deal of experience, the team W% oe ps werful, but it made every other team feat it. not allicias uote deal mote in this than those who af always digico oe A team that has the reputation O° shibcames 8, 1s apt to strike terror to the hearts of 1 Pponents and rattle them so that they cannot do their nat three very strong men had bee? n team, and had stayed there eV? ~ best. as eee was very proud of its tug-of-w™ This was ae a of carrying off the prize for that evem Cornell, and ae ot not only at Yale, but at Harvard a? dateedinae each of these three colleges there w4 et . wh to down Princeton if possible. ; vai it Aappened that when the managing committee © ick Merriwell, that they wou” -of-war team, so much i the contest that a mob of students lasium eager for a place upon Me Vas shown, in gathered at the gym rope. The commi £2 x49 1) and tetanic Was inclined to dismiss the whole crowd H own jidaptee , pick out four men, according to ¥ ee Ophelia o Merriwell opposed this policy. é ; may be gj : 49 re said, “and if tance ants concealed in that crowd, 7 os s onl Mae see hi. Give them all a trial.” y one, we “want to discover “But it wo said, ‘‘to Plea i weeks,” one of the committee against each ath. t ese men in teams and make them PY. *T don't ai: let until we could sift out the best four ont think we nee other to find out wher wt? have them pull against < at the r T ” < i de . jave an idea aN ) 7 ell, then, ont I can sift that crowd in a wees willing th Sy Se Oy a O it § that you shall try it. | take to Satie is Mat Dick Mas should unde intend its training candidates for the team, and so supe His oped ord . . Daeg? ices ae “xamining the applicants caused much ' tive as well rst, but it proved to be remarkably effe® In a in te great time saver. | ; ay 1 \ ig Bs 0 » aS in many other sports, it 18 My t tells, but quickness and as "ai men did in solid muscle. “If a man can’t drop the team, tugger,” had a rope fastened securely to a tight every time,” he declare the making of a If he can drop right, he > To test this he : / TEES IOE and the candidates in squads o1 1our took hold of this rope and dropped half a dozen times at his command. He gave brief explanations of what was necessary for them to do, before giving the word; then he watched the men go down, showing them where they had been in error, and had them try again. It took no more than half a dozen minutes for as many trials, and then another squad was brought on. In this way he tested from thirty to forty men an hour, and so in the course of three days had given every candidate for the team a chance. 3 After that it was an easy matter for him to strike off the list fully three-quarters of the candidates; that left from twenty to thirty who might still be useful. These men he also tried in groups of four, but con- tinually shifted the men from one group to another so as. to find out which of them worked together to the best advantage. At last, after ten days of patient examination, he had the members of the managing committee come behind the screen and watch the efforts of six rhen who had been selected as the best team workers in the,ywhole college. The matter was discussed very frankly, not only by the members of the committee, but by the candidates them- selves, for everybody was anxious that the best possible team should be selected. It was decided at last that big Bill Brady should be the anchor of the team. He had been Dick’s choice almost from the start, for he was heavy and cool, and from past experience Dick knew that Brady could be quick. It is the anchor in a tug of war who does the head work for the team. “I'd rather have a good anchor and three weak men,” said Dick emphatically, “than three giants on the rope di- rected by an anchor who is either excitable or slow.” Everybody agreed that Brady was just the man for the Yale anchor ; and after a good many trials, Naylor, of the senior class, and Jim Phillips, of the sophomore, were assigned places on the rope; that left one vacancy. Merriwell recommended that the other three men, one of whom was Harry Maxwell, who had stood the test so far, be trained equally, so that two at least could rank as sub- stitutes in case of sickness or other difficulty. But at last Tom Arnold, a junior, obtained the coveted place; so that the make-up of the team was Brady, Nay- lor, Phillips, and Arnold. Dick Merriwell now took these men in hand and drilled them ceaselessly. In this way he got them so that they could fall at the word, and fall right. After that there was a good deal of practice in pulling against voluntary teams made up from among the stu- dents. | It proved that there were no four students in the col- lege who could stay on the cleats half a minute against the team that Dick Merriwell had selected and trained; so practice teams were made up of five, six, and sometimes eight men. The dead weight of eight men proved to be a little too much for the regular team, although the latter was never pulled off the cleats. All in all the Yale students were greatly satisfied with _ their tug-of-war team, and as the time for the intercol- legiate contests approached their confidence grew. __ They believed that they would be able to get away, not _ * only with Harvard and Cornell, but also with Princeton. WEEKLY. CHAFP-ER Ii. THE FIELD OF BATTLE. The contests were to take place on Wednesday evening. On the Monday previous, all the Yale athletes went to New York, special permission for absence from the col- lege having been obtained from the faculty. As New Haven is but two hours’ ride from New York it might have been possible for the students to attend to all their duties on Wednesday, and still get to New York in time for the events, but that would never do for the contestants. Nobody knows better than men who train, how easy it is for an athlete to get thrown out of order by a change in diet and air. The finer the training the greater care there has to be. Therefore, the managing committee for Yale felt that it was absolutely necessary to give the contestants at least two whole: days in New Yerk City in order to get used to the slight change that would result in their leaving quarters in New Haven. Students who were not contestants in the intercollegiate sports were not allowed to leave New Haven so early, and so it was a comparatively small party that went with Dick Merriwell, and the members of the committee to rooms that had been engaged for them in a hotel near the Grand Central Station. It would probably have amused an outsider if he could have known the great care taken to prevent those students from being harmed by illness or anything else. They were all well able to take care of themselves ordi- narily, but from the time they went into training they were like so many children in charge of a nurse. They were informed as to just what they could eat and what they must let alone. Not one of them was per- mitted’ to smoke, and every one of them was required to do just so many hours of exercise of some kind or an- other every day. _While they remained in. New Haven it was no very difficult matter to see to it that every one of the contestants obeyed the regulations of the managing committee, and of Merriwell, the coach. . In New York it was not quite so easy, for Merriwell and the membérs of the committee were a good deal oc- cupied in discussing ‘arrangments with the committees, and coaches from other colleges who were quartered at different hotels. ‘When it happened that Dick Merriwell and all the com- mittee had to be away from the Yale boy’s hotel at the same time, the oversight of the Yale crew was left to big Bill Brady. | There. was not much for him te do, for each one of the contestants had.a program of exercise laid out for him..- There was to be just so much walking at certain hours, and the remainder of the time, except for meals, was to be occtipied in resting. . It was understood that as often as possible the entire - crowd should walk together, and this they did on the first evening after their arrival. They went. to Central Park and walked rapidly for an hour among its winding paths ; then they returned to their hotel, had baths, and went early to bed. During the next day, Tuesday, the contestants were left pretty much to themselves as Dick Merriwell and the members of the committee were away most of the time. After one of the meetings with the committees from 4 TIP’ TOP other colleges, the Yale managers, finding that a number of things had to be done, divided the work and separated. Three or four hours later Dick Merriwell met one of them, whose name was Nat Sprague, on the way to the hotel where their companions were staying. They re- ported to each other what they had done, and then fell as usual into discussing the prospects for victory. “T saw the Cornell tug-of-war team out for a run,” rague. art What do they look like?’ Dick asked, without much show of interest. . “Beef !’”’ said Sprague. ‘Not dangerous, then, eh?” “Why, no, I presume not. They look as if they could carry our fellows — on one hand, but it seemed to hey were clumsy in their running. me] don’t fear shen, said Dick; “I’d heard from some other fellows that Cornell was counting on weight more than anything else, and as you know, I take more stock in headwork.” “There’s this to think of, though,” remarked Sprague: “if a beefy team gets the fall on you by the fraction of a second, you simply can’t stand it. That’s the time when dead weight will tell.” “The Cornell beef eaters won’t get the drop on Yale,” returned Dick quietly. “No, I guess not, and for that matter, so far as I can hear, there seems to be no doubt in anybody’s mind that the real contest will be between Yale and Princeton.” “Have you seen the Harvard men?” asked Dick. “No, but we know all about them, don’t we?” “I think so. They're a gamey lot, but I don’t think they can stand against us. The fact is, I’m thinking more of the other events than the tug of war just now.” “So? I would have supposed you would be capable of thinking of nothing else.” Dick shook his head. te “The tug of war doesn’t worry me a little bit,’ he said, “but I should feel pretty badly if we fell down on thing else.” | Oe. on not going to fall down, There are two or three events, you know, in which we are almost certain to 2 win. The high leap, for example— ae “That’s just what I’ve been thinking about,” interrupted Dick. ; “Why, are you afraid of Marlin? . Marlin was a member of the sophomore class who had shown most unusual power in jumping, and: had easily beaten all the other Yale students who had tried for that event. ° | -“T hear that Cornell has a man named Grover,” said Dick, “who thinks he can beat everybody at the high | jump.” | . Yes, I’ve heard of him, too,” Sprague responded, “but - what of it? Marlin has broken the record in private prac- “That doesn’t make it certain that he will do as well 9? ce at the armory.” “No; but he’s in good condition, isn’t he?” _ “First-rate.” | DE Ao a ae at - “Then I wouldnt worry about him, boars “’m not worrying, exactly, and, in any case, if our fel- _ lows do | POUR NaI ire iG Sake sont Ge be hs were At this point in their conversation the two arrived at the hotel, They went at once to the suite of rooms that ‘tions had been asked an to be ab | able that the cup for ws do their best and we get beaten, there’s nothing to WEEKLY, had been engaged for the Yale athletes, and found ™ of the contestants reading or dozing, A few were © for a walk, All the students asked eager questions 46 the final arrangements, and so on, After severa d answered, Sprague remar oe Princeton this winter, a get most of th a ore aa the Princeton men’ offering odds?” asked Brady of tong.” *0 strong as that, but they're putting uP [0% Pat betting any heavier than usual?” Dick Mert “Perhaps not,” have come across had begged and b of and had b events,” “How is “I didn’t I ques ked 7f th! “There'll be hard ti Orange doesn’t Sprague answered, “but if, not | my the betting crowd. It seemed as if # 1 orrowed every dollar they could lay ne Tought it here to put up on the di the betting going?” asked Brady. 4 A pay very much attention to it, but it se tug of ven as between Princeton and Yale om eee ar, and On some of the other events the Pr! ea ere asking for odds : rather than giving the je mipressed me most was that it aked as if “Wh aes crowd that had the most money: , ip ny asked Dick, in a surprised tone, “it wast", i ce On contestants who were doing the betting, we “No, but some of the students.” ; hat’s queer,” “Why ne “Here it is Tuesda inceton lows who are goin y afternoon, and the Princetot e DE f & to see the contests are not du ‘ ore to pple afternoon, Tt doesn’t seem to me prob € Princeton faculty would let the geneta! 1) me up here at this time, any more than © \ ee men to come.” _ “4 Said Sprague, “there’s a 14 fata eae town going around with orange sh desinge Se oles and hunting for chances to bet ™ Diab a 7, Harvard, and Cornell.” | ja ade no response, but remained for a ae € others continued to talk about in thought while th t e ae Presently he asked where Marlin and a i were. _ Curtis was anoth im stature, and on fen seen at Yale. €r sophomore athlete. He was 4 8 : ° of the best wrestlers that had © ere i @ good deal of confidence that he would wi the wrestiere ce for from all that could be learae® no one Wis. representing the other colleges rhe skill seemed Ould compare with him in strength, a” “They aie all that would be needed. ie “What!” ete oe answered Brady: Fe ee R 2 I ed ic : aghast, 7 ' just bgt tore any improper sense,” said Brady. eT he Walk, and I didnt’ see any objection t Py taking it in sy : principal oBriaet, way that they could see’ some va “No, t’ * iis ; : ‘ ; lief. Wie’ al! tight,” responded Dick, ina tone of « un ate they due back?” ak aaa Tn about half an hour.” ; Eaten own up other he that time, Sprague ha : : siness concerned with the m4 Dick w rgea 3 actly why, ine aug anxious, He could not have said ¥80 far as Curtis and Marlin were ©? o impulse, Dick leaped from the doorway and oe MPT. Pe A UE a 0 ee eT A eh ea ee TIP TOP WEEKLY. 5 he had a good deal of respect for them, but he was fearful of accidents, as if they were little children unable to care for themselves. He did not betray his anxiety to Brady or the’ others, but remarked, after a time, that he had another errand to’ do, and went away, leaving instructions that no con- testant should leave the hotel until his return. CHAPTER III. A MAN HUNT. Dick Merriwell went down to Madison Square and stood for a moment looking doubtfully at the several ho- tels in that vicinity. He knew that the Princeton athletes had engaged rooms at a hotel in that neighborhood, but this thought was not in his mind at the moment. “The Hartman House,” he was thinking, “is one of the celebrated hotels in New York, and a place to which all strangers like to go.” As it was the time of year when days are short, it was already dark, although it was yet some time before the usual evening dinner hour. Dick strolled across to the Hartman House, and went in at the main entrance. A number of men were in, the lobby, but apparently there were no students among them. He went slowly past group after group, and turned at length to the barroom. Tt was filled with customers when Dick entered, but everything was quiet and orderly. At the farther side of the room, and partly concealed -by the bar, which took up the middle, was a group of young men just on the point of leaving by a side door. “Too bad you've got to hurry,” one of them remarked, in a pleasant voice. “Pm overdue at the hotel already,” said another, “and must get back before they become anxious about me.” - Dick could not see the speaker, but he recognized the voice as that of Marlin. “He had no business in here, confound him!” thought Dick angrily. “(No one but a fool would go into a bar- room even out of curiosity, at such a time as this.” He crossed the room, intending to speak to Marlin and - walk back to the hotel with him, and give him some sharp advice on the way. . Marlin was a little in advance of the group as they went out, and so Dick did not catch up with him before they were all out upon the sidewalk. He noticed that all the men who had been speaking with ~ Marlin wore orange ribbons in their buttonholes, but it struck him, too, that somehow they did not look like stu- 3 1. dents, He had no time to reflect upon this doubt, for just as he stepped out upon the dark street he saw one of the . : crowd pretend to stumble and fall rather heavily against Marlin. _“T beg pardon,” this man said quickly. — “Tt’s all right,” Marlin responded, as the curb under the force of the shove. At that instant Dick saw another in the crowd making he staggered to Tin and cause him to fall. ne _ The attempt was not made, for acting instantly upon caught the a movement which showed that he was going to trip Mar- - fellow a terrific)blow on the side of the face. It sent him reeling halfway across the street before he finally lost his balance and fell, full length. et _ ‘The attack was so unexpected and sudden that most of ss in the same sharp tone. the others in the group did not stir for a second. There was one exception to this. One man who had edged forward in order to make sure of tripping Marlin, if the first man should fail, and he was so intent upon accom- plishing this that he did not stop when Dick’s form shot past him to attack the other. Therefore when Dick wheeled about to defend himself in case the others should fall upon him, he saw this man just in the act of giving Marlin a violent kick upon the shins. It was all happening so quickly that at ‘this instant Marlin had just made his reply to the apology of the man who had shoved him, and was only beginning to re- gain his balance. . The kick in the shins did the business for him. He fell on his hands and knees, and just then Dick struck out again. He was never so thoroughly aroused in his life, and his blows fell like rain upon the: Princeton man’s face and chest. The latter would have suffered a square knock- down if he had not been standing so that he fell against his comrades. The others, recovering from their first astonishment, made a feeble effort to close in on Dick. He beat them off vigorously, striking without mercy at any one who came within reach. “Cheese it, there’s a:cop!” exclaimed one of the party suddenly, and they all took to their heels. Marlin by this time had got up and was supporting him- self against a lamp-post. “Can you walk?” asked Dick quickly. “T guess so,’ responded Marlin, so surprised that he could hardly speak. Dick took him by the arm and marched ‘him back to the barroom, through which they went to the lobby, and then out by the ladies’ entrance. The scrimmage had taken place so. quickly and quietly that it had attracted no attention within the barroom, and as Dick and Marlin were not followed, it seemed prob- ably that the cry of alarm about a policeman’ coming was false. CHAPTER IV. SCOLDING A POU MPER. “Now, Marlin,” said Dick, rather sharply, as soon as they were in the street, “what have you been up to?” “Why,” answered Marlin hesitatingly, for he had not yet half recovered from the surprise of the event, “nothing but swapping boasts with those Princeton fel- lows and refusing to drink with them.”. “It’s small business for a Yale student to boast of what he can do,” exclaimed Dick, in disgust. Marlin bit his lip and said nothing; for he had learned that in athletic matters the word of a coach is law, and — ‘ that a student in training would no sooner dispute his coach than a soldier would dispute an officer. And Dick Merriwell was more than an ordinary coach. Aa ae “And did you refuse their drinks?’ demanded Dick, “On my honor, Merriwell, I did. .Do you suppose I woulditake such risks just previous to——’ : “Don’t talk to me about risks,” Dick interrupted; “here _ it is only the day before the contests, and you're not back at the hotel at the time you’re ordered to be.” -*T know that,’ Marlin responded humbly, “and Tm - sorry for it, but I didn’t realize how the time was going _ 6 TIP. TOP - by after I got in with those fellows. They’re very pleas- ant chaps, and I must say that I can’t understand for the life of me why it was you sailed-into them so.” Dick was too irritated to explain for a moment. It was very seldom that he spoke as sharply as this to any one, and he would not have done so on this occasion if he had not been so anxious for the success of Yale in every possible event. ; yee As they walked along he noticed that Marlin was per- fectly steady, and although there was a slight flush on his face, there was no sign that he had been drinking. The flush undoubtedly was due to mortification and excite- ment. a “See here, Marlin,” said Dick, in a quieter tone, “don’t you know that those Princeton students, as you call them, were trying to disable you?” at “T never dreamed of such a thing.’ “it's a: facts: “How do you know, Merriwell?” “T saw the attempt made, and for that matter you goé kicked in the shins and tumbled over, didn’t you?’ “Ves, but I supposed that was, an accident of the scrim- mage.” “Tt was nothing of the kind; it was a put-up job, and, if I hadn’t sailed in, it might have lamed you so that you couldn’t jump. That was what they’were after.” _ “Whew!” exclaimed Marlin. “I think I’m a good Yale man, and | hate Princeton and all the rest of them, but, on my honor, Merriwell, I didn’t think that a student of any college would resort to stich a low-down trick. “T don’t believe it, either,” said Dick. “Well, that——” “What. made you think those fellows were students?” “Why, they said they were; they gave the year of their class, which made them out to be seniors. They had big wads of money that they wanted to bet, and they got into conversation with me by asking what odds I would put up on myself in the high jump.” , : Dick grunted to express his disgust, and asked : “Did they talk like students? “I thought so.” eaten “T don’t believe they were,” said Dick, ‘“‘for there was something in their manner that didn't make them seem like students, and besides that, I can’t believe any more than you that Princeton men would try to win out in these - contests by deliberately disabling any of our fellows. “Of course I can understand how, in an exciting match like a game of football, a man’s temper might get the best of him, but to,try to lame a fellow in cold blood, hours before the beginning of the events is a little too much for me to think of when it comes to a student, whether he’s from Princeton, Harvard, or anywhere else.” “Then who were these fellows?” asked Marlin. “They may be New York gamblers for all I know,” Dick answered, “but in any case I think they are men, not: connected with Princeton in any way, who are trying to make sure of their bets by disabling the leading contestants in, the other colleges.” “Then but for you I suppose I might have been seriously lamed ?” : eee 7 “T don’t know, Marlin, I’m taking no credit for what I did, but I hope you see that you made a grave mistake in not coming back to\the hotel on time.” fi “T do, and will see that such a thing doesn’t happen again.” ; Reger | : hy =e aS ae Ss . _ WEEKLY. “Where’s Curtis >” s don’t know.” ; we he start out with you 2” -€S, but we didn’t keep toca ¢ xe Pp tog¢ther long. W here did he go?” : : We separated 4 and Broadway, said that he w district.” Che Tenderloin Pe Hates he hurried his steps a ‘asnt Curtis turned re larlin, butty ae Urtis up yet?” asked Marlin, DUR, ing along with him, B No, and unl no telling what mischief h Marlin looked a serious crime. eee ma he was quite pale ad ee , 7 ‘ . . . ; i a fre, exclaimed Dick cheerfully, “you've aoe your scolding, so now brac ‘get it.” ve the slightenre Tace up and forget it. If yo : nue Soreness from that kick. give yourself a 80° en > Whe you get to the hotel, and go to bed.” , ATEN’ von: connhaiee and oe ie ike shine. Omungt” asked Marlin, for Dick B@© on asked Dick suddenly. ? ihe % t the corner of Thirty-second Stree [ was for going down Broadway, but ® anted to see something of the Tenderlo! exclaimed Dick, with a groat. ’ SO 4? oh ess he’s more careful than you were, there» a _he may have got into.” ob aS penitent as if he had been guilty ne The flush on his face had entirely °8~ aoe shall T say to the fellows >” a ordered mi a hae might tell them that I met youany know where r the hotel; if they ask for me, you don" aes hero and that’s all there is to it.” ia Jick Mertiwell and went on obediently to the hote ‘dt anxiety etic: ’ boiling with indignation and sore va and Broadwa “C Uptown, bound for Thirty-second ae find Curtis 1. He had’ no foolish idea that he wou —urtis there, but as that was the last place where he: had beer it s which is eae It seemed to be the most sensible point _ i Sn a search for him. CHAPTER MA SEARCHING FoR A es oe tha, Wed at the corner he looked about @ : €n entered a hotel, and going to the tel ang up the Yale men’s hotel, and asked 1 ‘When Dick moment and phone closet, Brady. “Brady.” he «:; otady, he said. w oe in the receiver at his I, w hey he heard a familiar hello 2° “No, but M. “at, “has Curtis returned ?” No, but Marlin has.” ‘Are you comin ug ont know,” ot ae me this evening iS you to take a run with us up the @¥ “T'll be there i I ‘ ¢ ”? i Dik. hung os chance to ask His object ‘ § back soon ?” 4p the receiver questions, In not ex without giving | Brady 3 was Plaining what he was about, ~, contestants from worrying. ~~ Marlin would not speak of his ee ane to have any of the oe . 43 at there was anything so serious ~~ S It seetied 4s a Sahiba disable Yale af ore serious situation 2°. 1f he had never been in a MOK when one advent, There had been times in his ie of his life, but at coor, Mother had brought him in dang at stich times his mind was usually 4 SP FS wine i PIO IMT LS TIP. TOP now he was oppressed by responsibility and anxiety for others. Re The credit of Yale, as well as his own reputation as the Yale coach, depended upon the good showing at the inter- collegiate games; whether they won or lost was not so much of consequence as that the Yale crowd should do their best. a Dick felt responsible, for the good condition of every man in the party. He walked up Sixth Avenue, looking to right and left, and glancing in at the door of every saloon he passed. Near the juncture of Sixth Avenue and Broadway, were a number of places where gamblers gathered, and it was in one of these that Dick half suspected and feared that he would find Curtis. : Business was lively in all these places at this hour. Men of all conditions were at the bar getting up appetites for dinner by the aid of cocktails, and discussing all manner of sporting events, from horse races in New Orleans to cocking mains in New Jersey. As Dick made his way through one of the crowded bar- rooms, he overheard some remark about the coming col- lege games, but it did not, seem as if the professional sports took very much interest in them, and nothing oc- curred to give him any clew as to Curtis’ whereabouts. He now turned down the avenue, running through every place he came across, until he got as far as Twenty-third Street.. There he paused, feeling rather discouraged. Tt is worse than looking for a needle in a haystack to hunt for a man in New York. Further down the avenue there were other saloons, but ‘he had already passed out of the district most frequented by gamblers. i He had no other theory on which to pursue his search, and it seemed to him that it might be better to return to the hotel and let Curtis turn up or no, as it might happen. A public telephone sign caught his eye across the way, and he again went over and rang up the hotel. = his time it was Sprague who answered, Dick told him briefly that he was on the hunt for Curtis. | “Don’t mention it to anybody,” Dick added. “Have you any idea what’s become of him?’ asked Sprangue. : “Mighty little,” answered Dick. short trip before I give'it up.” te . Dick retraced his steps up the avenue, but this time he did not make so careful a search as he had_ before; he simply glanced in at various doors and passed on. At length he turned in at Thirtieth Street, intending to call at a drinking resort on Broadway which was known “But I'll make another _ to be popular with gamblers. He had taken but a few steps when a sound of laughter attracted him and he paused suddenly. It came from his right hand. He noticed that he was standing near the side door of a saloon which he thought he had thoroughly investi- hee, _» gated on his downward trip. - He remembered. then that he had not looked in at any of the so-called private rooms at the back, _. The laughter evidently came from such a room, and ae he was quite certain that he distinguished Curtis’ voice. He waited a moment until the laughter ceased and then. he heard this, in thick accents: a “Shet ’em up ’gain! I c’n rasshle any man ’n ’Nighted ‘Shtatesh, drunk er shober.” . fiat cay Shy . t eae I en SNP DS WEEKLY. ~ It was Curtis’ voice, and Dick’s heart sank like lead. For one miserable instant he was in doubt as to what he had better do. Dick’s disgust and anger were so great that he felt like leaving Curtis to his fate, for it would serve him right to let him continue filling himself up and so lose all chance of making a decent appearance in the contests of the following evening. Then it occurred to Dick that, after all, there might be some little hope that Curtis could pull himself to- gether sufficiently to make a good effort. In any event he was a Yale student, and as such Dick felt bound to look after him; so after the slightest hesi- tation he entered the side door of the saloon and opened a door leading into the small room from which had come the laughter and the sound of Curtis’ voice. He saw the big sophomore, with a silly smile on his face, seated at a table, holding an empty glass unsteadily in his hand, and trying to talk with three companions, each of whom wore a rosette of orange-colored ribbon upon the lapel of his coat. They did not look up when Dick entered, for they supposed, as Curtis himself did, that the bartender was coming in to get an order. “Fill ’em up!” said Curtis stupidly, rapping his glass on the table. “Letsh have ‘nother round.” His eyes were bleary, and although he glanced at Dick, he failed to recognize him. The latter stood still for a second or two to control his indignation; before he spoke the bartender entered with a bottle of champagne, the cork of which was already, drawn. — “I suppose it’s the same, génts?” he said, in a busi- nesslike tone. “Shame old shampaggeny water,’ returned Curtis, holding his glass upside down. . One of the men at the table reached over and righte the glass, which the waiter promptly proceeded to fill. “Here’sh ter good ol’ Yale!’ starnmered Curtis, bring-_ ing the: glass to his lips with the aid of the man who had helped him to hold it steady. | Dick could remain quiet no longer. He reached over the table, and with a sweep of his arm knocked the glass from Curtis’ hand and sent it flying against the wall, where it broke in a hundred pieces. CHAPTER VI. A REPORTER’S INFLUENCE. The wine spattered in the face of the man who was helping Curtis, Curtis looked up in stupid wrath, and then it dawned on him suddenly that the interruption — came from the great Yale coach. ~ eg He gasped, hiccuped, sat back in his chair, and tried to rise. Meanwhile the other two fellows with the | orange rosettes had sprang to their feet, and were trying to push Dick from the room. _In this the waiter joined them, and, for a moment, therefore, Dick Merriwell had his hands full. They were lively hands, though, and in much less time than it takes to narrate it he had struck out right and left and landed stinging blows upon the faces of two of his antagonists. __ The bartender, who was a heavy fellow who had prob- — ably had plenty of;experience in dealing with tough customers, set down the bottle of wine and attacked _ Dick with great fury, | . cc _ He made the mistake of supposing that he could hustle Be 9 TIP TOP WEEKLY. the intruder out by mere force, and in so doing he put When the up both hands to catch Dick by the shoulders. This gave the athletic student a better opportunity than he could have asked for. In quick succession the bartender got two blows, one full upon the mouth, and the other on his neck. He went down on the floor with a thump, and catch ing at the table for support, overturned it. The bottle the bak eek i of wine fell upon him and drenched him. came in, and without saying a word tried to clean We The others, who had staggered back under the force place out. Everything ee aoe ca of Dick’s first blows, now tried to push their way out. came in.” Pt d and q Hy The room was a very small one, and there was but one The sergeant took up a pen, and looking at Dick, | door. ys malar : It was evident that they were not there for fighting, “What is and had no wish to defend their drunken companion, “Richard no matter what Dick’s object. in making the attack had “Hh 1 been. eee As Dick’s only anxiety was to get Curtis away, he did not attempt to stop the others from going out. : The rumpus attracted the attention of everybody in Flows Waa bet ca ; ae the main room of the saloon, and y, the time the bar- “Not at clas nything to’say for yourself? tender had been sent to the floor, a dozen or so others, . The sergeant looked surprised. - itnted a tila most of them customers of the place, came crowding up ‘ment before he asked a ie cr ee es ny ee oP nO ka ipeg Noe They were such questions as are alwa _ sut to pris “Letsh not fight, Mer’well,”’ said Curtis, with a tremen- oners concerning their sp ee are alu ~ Pad ef the ‘dous attempt at dignity. “Letsh not get mixed up in a city, and their own account of as ee sh ; Dick gave his at had happ He, too, tried to walk out, but the way was now barred a da ; d age, Dut to the other questions refuse to reply. Accordi ee im an with other bartenders who had come to the relief of Cuttis tof ore the sergeant ordered both him ant” their comrade. rch aE Ss 0 ge information «d, and after a vain attempt t0 8 They might have fallen upon Dick and beaten him out of Curtis. both wer ced up A. crowd had ¢ S, Doth were locked up. _, a . . . ’ - : 1 1M badly, for they far outnumbered him, if it hadn't been house, and Eee Go ee eee that at that moment a policeman took a hand in the felt certain meee Suetly (Ht Rieter _ "a : at all: Rew cad aug ut. affair. ; the curiosity seekers had gone ow! He had been passing the,side door of the saloon at < €y stood before the sergeant in the Thirtieth Street station, the policeman told briefly how. he ha heard a row in progress in the saloon and had got there in time to see Dick doing all the fighting. Uhe sergeant ‘looked at the bartenders, and one of them said: “This man,” in, pointing to Curtis, “was entertaining @ party of friends | your name?” Merriwell,” was the quiet response. Ba: grunted the sergeant, as he wrote the namts ] peaens from your looks you would say Jones; nowhere. What is your resid : ' esidence ?”’ “New Haven.” F ourt : The sergeant wa ee Merriwel] mi this. prisoner might not be ¢ : While he was w he son of the judge men ae called to a doorman and ‘asked if he might Dick struck the glass from Cur- cuac; © Sergeant or the captain. It took a little Pe™ ae pen wpe Cy PRT ene: Bee w gaat it 10 get permission for this, but Dick cot it HOB Hp«_band. : po teas pun Was taken ipa aon ne : He had entered at the first sound of a ruction, and € main room See we = et a eh enna the Princeton men suggested et tty Tei ba pleasanter if we were by ourselves, an felt that they were right. ut i I had no hesita- “They were so decent about it that | I felt kind of flat- fig tion in going into a back room with them. There they tay 1 . aa ¥ . Pig r “Did you say you were taking everything that came yy <9 _ be the ca WEEKLY “No, I didn’t, [ told them could take nothing but ale.” “Huh!” grunted. Hall. “Did they set up a bottle?” “Yes. It was about the dinner hour, at which aN T was allowed to take ale; and I thought that it a of tae do no harm; of course it was wrong—I admit i dnt but at the time | thought a single glass of ale el tose hurt me, and it would be more polite to these chap adn go through the form of drinking with them, So they a bottle of champagne, and | drank ale.” Curtis hesitated ceyr ‘You seem to have had y marked Dick. “How did y champagne ?” “T don’t know,’ seemed to make me half don’t feel any effect from it that a drop of wine Would brace me up.” “T see it all!” exclaimed Dick, The others looked at him inquiringly. “Knock-out drops!” he said. "By Jove! 1 bet you're right!” “It was anythin ie a I was in-training, an¢ asked Sprague. ” re- 4 our head about you, king ou happen to get to drinkimS ~ ’ Curtis answered gloomily. ; drowsy, whereas usual h at all, and I guess I thoug exclaimed Spree ies § to get the Yale champion fuddle' ; ore and they knew well enough that he wouldn’t ee than one glass of ale; so, unless ’m greatly muistas” they drugged his ale a “e ? - and got him completely unbalance@- tS a monstrous Outrage!” cried Sprague, all looked contemptuous, and said nothing. Lerriwell turned to Curtis, with the remark: iy “Lie still a while longer and get breakfast when Y y want it. I'll see you j , and if y think you’re going to be fit ‘ con- } . » We'll have you in the fi test to-night, just the same.” “Great Scott!” eried Cur of that, would you?” Je were thinking of it,” said Hall, “You'll have to pull your Dick seriously, “ we don’t any of us want you to Curtis bowed his he left him, remarked : i | e out tis, “you wouldn’t bar m 4 ” i appear. sae ad upon his hands, and the ott As soon as they were out of hearing; ’ ot ast; but, anyhow, we've 8 : incto the attention of the Prin ai Managers at once,” | ‘ad The others agreed ; and they went to the hotel in son Square, where they found the Princeton manage? - breakfast, | ; The case was not ex full, but enough was plained to the Princeton met Yale had ‘Teason t Py a tha Said to make them -certaitl Y Weating Princeton _ The indi gnation of great for i was : head treacherous conduct, : Pf th ht» Dick hastened to assure hima that no Yale man thoug tas such a thing possible. ase “We think son ton colors,” he aid, | pe The Princeton Managers were sure that pues a t Se, for No students had accompanied # a aiare playing off under Pr said, yeh | Bre Tie toe the city excepting those who were to take part in the contests. ‘ They declared their intention of keeping their eyes open for men wearing the Princeton rosettes, and prom- ised to do everything possible to have such men arrested, if any charge could be brought against ‘them. So there the matter had to rest. There was no doubt that the Princeton men were in earnest, and that they would do what they could, but that did not seem to promise very much. The scoundrels who were anxious to make money by betting on Princeton, could not be arrested for simply wearing an orange rosette, and there was no way of preventing further trouble, therefore, except for Yale men to hang together and take the greatest care not to put themselves in the way of strangers. It was agreed by Dick Merriwell and his companions that nothing should be said to the contestants about the matter, for fear that they might get nervous, and so be unfitted for doing their best in the evening's games, The day passed, therefore, very quietly for the Yale athletes. They went in a body to a gymnasium and had two or three hours’ practice, and in the afternoon they had a walk through Central Park. Curtis appeared to be quite himself, except that he was silent, and that he looked solemn. Che other students supposed that this was due to his anxiety about the wrestling match, and no questions were asked, although there were a few good-natured jokes about his nerv- ousness. He took all the jokes quietly, and made no retort. Nothing happened during the day to give the Yale managers any new anxiety. They kept their eyes open all the time for a sight of the bogus Princeton men, but failed to see them. When at last evening came, and they went up to the armory for the great contest, they felt that with the possible exception of Curtis, every man was in good condition. CHAPTER VIII. No PGsh tT, THE GREAT There was an immense crowd in the armory that even- ing. Nearly everybody present was a friend of one or another of the colleges represented ih the contests, and excitement ran high. ; The seating had been arranged so that Yale students and their friends occupied a solid tier of seats upon one side of the hall near the center, Directly across the hall in a similar tier were the stu- dents and friends of Harvard. ; On the same side with Yale was the Cornell crowd; and directly opposite them the Princeton crowd. ; » The rest of the spectators sat as near their favorite college as they could, with the result that long before any of the games began, there was an uproar of college cries, each crowd trying to outdo the others. It seemed as if there would be no lungs or voices left to cheer the athletes; but if any one had such a fear, it must have been because he was not acquainted With students’ voices. _ | _ The middle of the hall was left vacant. All the con- tests were to take place there; and, therefore, in full view of all the spectators. The athletes had their dressing rooms at the ends and sides of the building, and. there were so many -/ OI OEE OTT IEE LEGS PRON EMEA LMI A LET I | WEEKLY. 1 of them that each college had a number of rooms, for itself. rea The Yale managers took: their men up to the armory about a half hour before the call for the first event. Dressing rooms had been picked out in advance and those belonging to the tug-of-war team were put into one room by themselves. The Yale crowd in the audience cheered frantically when they recognized their companions marching across the floor to their dressing rooms. Shortly after that the Princeton men came in, and then there was a wild howling from the other side of the room. So it went on, and so it continued all through the evening, for there was hardly a moment when there was not something going on to arouse the enthusiasm of one coliege or another, and if by any accident there were a hitch in the proceedings, there was plenty of ex- cited students in each faction to stand in front of the tiers of seats and lead their comrades in cheering on general principles. As there were many events, aid many entries in each one, the program was put through rapidly, and as often as possible, two or more events were being contested at the same time. The object sought for by each college was to gain as many victories as possible, but in some events, like wrestling and fencing, where only two men could con- test at a time, it was necessary to have two or three and sometimes four bouts in the same event. This was not the case in such a sport as leaping, for there all the men could compete at the same time, and one set of trials decided the matter. In wrestling it was necessary to draw lots to decide which college should compete first. Then lots were to be cast to decide which college the winner of the first bout should wrestle with, and so on Each wrestling bout consisted of three rounds, with a very short rest between each two. As three rounds at wrestling is likely to tire any but the very strongest man, the next bout was set down a full half hour later on the program, in order to give the winner time to rest. It was the same with the tugs of war. One tug was put upon the program early, in order that the winners of it might have time to recover their breath and be in condition to meet the next. comers. ' It would be an impossible task’ to describe the many events that succeeded each other rapidly that evening. Every one had its interest, yet the tug of war was watched for with the greatest anxiety and excitement. The first thing on the program consisted of the con- tests in high jumping and the first bout in wrestling. The jumpers went through their work at one end of the — floor, whilé the wrestlers struggled at the other. The drawing of lots resulted in putting Curtis, of Yale, against Brant, of Cornell, for the first try. . The Yale managers almost groaned aloud at this piece of ill luck. If there was anybody among the wrestlers representing the other colleges that they feared, it was this same Brant. WE oan He was fully as large and muscular as Curtis, and had easily downed everybody who had met him in his own college. : With Curtis in good condition, the Yale men would have believed that the chances were at least even for his f Ry ht ce Ae ete te er 8 te BY ver yah i! sp ereipanta eta Ten AEN od Saale Bip ee ee . ay aS mek ¥ sally shee yA Xe 2a iP ee 12 i y oF 1 the case were victory; as ras, those who understooc wer ree see the Yale freshman would be turned down Tr Gaiee: Dick and the managers said nothing openly ft is lots were drawn, but they exchanged Mo in pitas just before Curtis went out to See ork. a ick, between set teeth. a luck,” remarked Dick, be Set tee f wich we had sent him back to New Hav en,” grum Een a icttoiiniiea shame,” exclaimed ities (eA = { r i ’t have had a chance to meet Morton, oe cat He could probably throw Morton even if he ce still half full, and that would give him some ki d of a standing, but now he'll go out cae get eared down so dead easy that ie aA augh : iS t rattled. he rest of our fellows will ge ed.” | Olt dani think the rest of them will get rattled, said Dick ties perhaps Curtis won’t be such an easy vic- acne ae ae ‘that he gets at least one fall,” mut- teh cat no time for further talk about’ the matter, d h y went out to the main hall to seé the event. Me he upper end of the floor, Marlin was taking his fi tier at the managers paid little attention to Pa Thi he sed he would win, but they were confident t _ Nese happened he would make a good oe an Sey could not take their eyes from their champion ee was still looking as solemn as if he were a funeral, His face was .rather pale, and he sat inac fait SL Basinae perfectly motionless until the call came to en- iat ae Par ea on the other hand, was ee oe ’ 7 ; raleine with his managers, and his face was pink with health, At the call he bounded from the chair and pranced into the ring nimbly, and as the Yale managers looked him than ever. Pn Oe meses ments and walked, as if he dreaded the ordeal, out to meet his adversary. ; : “That’s right, Curtis,” whispered Dick, as the wrestler passed, “take it easy and don’t get excited. . o : C tis ave Dick a grateful look. It was a ci : Sak unico cy tia word ‘he had received since his fool- A tkcs | tepped quickly : ith Brant, and then stepped q | hae ue Gaon It was a catch-as-catch-can oe Pe fa tases the two big fellows stood warily watch- a ing each other before they advanced. leantime 1 were setting up a chorus me Yale and Cornel s ee Soa to encourage their respective champions. The two got together with a sudden jump that surprised - ey | ould take the offensive, ected that Brant wou ps + b ne ai pe that Curtis decided upon the a policy, for the floor fairly shook when they met and began a : Sa d his heart seemed to eke: JN i *s eyes glowed, and his ora iets © acini ae Ga Ae icin the muscles stand out sf A } is’ arms and back. ; : ; tae ey aga big stuff in that fellow,” he said, half aloud. ing power,” retorted Hall, in “Te ly had staying power, Or ee df ees ieee he's wasted ail that in his jag.” | he words wete hardly out of Hall’s mouth before: - and you'll had been decided by 1 WEEKLY. ie there was a heavy thud, as the two wrestlers went dow”, then a roar arose, for Yale’s man was on top. fol4 Curtis rose quickly and ran to his dressing eae ed lowed by his managers, and Merriwell, who overwhelm x him with compliments, aken He said nothing, but stood up to be rubbed and take! Care Of; 66! :: 5) ha _ “You took him completely by surprise that time, eh 4 Dick. “Now the next time he’ll be on his guard for tal Youll have to pursue different tactics.” ing Curtis nodded. He did not appear to be sufferings from loss of breath or any sort of exhaustion, so ee and the others went back to see how the jumping was get” ting on, ry : ‘ : ific Chey arrived on the floor just as another terrine chorus of Yale cries went up. Marlin had Cleared the bar after every other con testant had failed. ) It was a grand start for Yale. ained, and other was certain The floor One first place a with Curtis’ success it looked as if @ Was quickly cleared of the posts that ez _ been set up for the jumpers, and the Harvard and (OF nell tug-of-war teams caine on for the first pull. jals In this, as in the wrestling, the order of the trial — ; ot. weg While Harvard and Cornell were getting into positio® for their tug, Curtis w | is ; ent out again to the floor for ‘ second set with Brant. As_ Dick Merriwell had predicted, Bramt was vn this time; he waited for Curtis to take the offensive, @ at the latter was slow in doing go, They got together 9°¢ MS last, and for a few Seconds each struggled vainly 1 Overcome the other. : hen they stood still; and those who were oe r special attention to them felt the greatest ext in ment, because the men were evidently tremendously Ra earnest, and very evenly matched. ; nd , After a good deal of dancing about the ring, 3 a. many a vain attempt to bring on a fall, Brant got im a sudden trip that brought Curtis to his knees. sad d Then, exerting all his Weight ahd force, Brant crowde¢ Ae Yale man down until his side was on the floor. re € counted until Curtis’ shoulders ve “§ finely on the floor; and, therefore, Brant Ww di crowding with all his might to prevent his antagonist aber turning on his face, Ce stretched, it is almost impossible to turn him. i It looked as if Curtis y : ; . ™ ° i os (aed . vere trying to get into this PO tion, for then Brant would be beripeliea to stand off and give him a chance to Spring up.,; . ah a Brant, of Course, was Ie) pt mean Over and brought Brant the floor, Then the biilding shook the first bout in Wrestling ; vard had beaten the C ’s 1pom shoulders squarely down sist i with howls. Ne and at the same instant tr Ornell tug-of-war team. bite i. Shot. 8 the rope away from their opponents, Tie oer The Yale men were happy. It seemed now as if Cur~’ tis were certain of carrying off the cup for wrestling. According to the fall of lots he was to tackle Morton, of Harvard, next. pak Morton. was a comparatively slender, but very wiry fellow. He was considerably under Curtis’ weight, and as the latter had shown unusual skill it was thought that the Harvard man would prove an easy victim. So he did, in the first round. Curtis downed him almost as easily as he had turned down Brant, but as it proved that was the end of the Yale mans staying power. He had put all his force into the two sets with Brant and the first with Morton; when it came to the second Set with the latter there was a long, exciting struggle, which ended in Curtis’ going under. He showed his nacre after that, and his limbs quivered when he went out for the third set. He struggled well, and really made a good showing, but the Harvard man downed him at last; and with that defeat Yale’s chances for coming out ahead in the gen- eral tournament were badly damaged. ¢ Nevertheless Dick Merriwell and the managers felt that Curtis had made so good a showing that nobody would suspect that he had disobeyed regulations and -unfitted himself for making the contest. CHAPTER IX. A MEAN TRICK. As might’ be expected, there was 4 big chorus of shouting when the Yale and Harvard teams came out for their trial in the tug of war. Matters had been running rather evenly between the four colleges; each had gained at least one first place, and there was no reason for the friends to be discouraged about the general result. _The Harvard men seeme _ Victory over Cornell as if they had not selves. ; | __ They appeared to have about the same weight as the Yale crew, and were made up in much the same way ; a particularly heavy man as anchor, and three lighter but evidently very muscular fellows upon the TOPE. | It had been decided that the fall should be at a pistol As there are several ways of conducting a tug of War, it will be well to explain that in intercollegiate - games, when held indoors, the contestants always brace exerted them- _ themselves upon cleats. The rope which they hold lies loose upon the floor _ between the two teams, At a point midway between the "two sets of cleats there is a chalk mark on the floor. A ribbon is tied around’ the rope at the point where it crosses this mark. : : -. When hts have fallen, it is their object to pull Pu and so bring that _tibbon farther and farther toward their cleats. __ Ina closely contested match it sometimes happens that the position of the ribbon will not vary more than two or three inches during the entire tug. The time is taken, and at the end of four minutes the victory is awarded to whichever team has the ribbon upon its side of the chalk mark. Pe aS In this pull with Harvard, the effect of Dick Merri- Well’s coaching proved to be of the greatest value. He had laid the greatest stress upon the fall, BoB of any college d to be as fresh after their - LIE EE PLE LOT 5 OLR ET DTN EDEL EIA OL A BAGEL AOL LES mt WEEKLY. When the pistol shot came the Yale team dropped like one man, to the general eye. It seemed as if the Harvard team dropped at exactly the same instant; but when the excited spectators looked at the ribbon on the rope, they saw that it was fully six inches upon the Yale side of the chalk mark. After the fall, there was a silent moment of hard tugging upon each part, but the ribbon did not budge. Meantime big Bill Brady, the Yale anchor, was ma- nipulating the rope that ran around his belt, and keep- ing his eyes fixed upon the Harvard anchor opposite. “How is it, Brady?” Dick Merriwell whispered. “We've got ’em,’ muttered Brady, in reply. Dick said nothing; for in the course of training he and Brady discussed this matter so many times that he knew well what policy the anchor would pursue. It is often said that a miss is as good as a mile, and in the case of a tug of war an inch 1s certainly as good as a yard. It might have been possible for the Yale team by con- stant tugging and by occasional suprises to get the ribbon much farther over to their side, but that was not the policy that had been decided on. ; If the team should win, there was Princeton still to be pulled, and every ounce of strength would be needed then; so, having the advantage of Harvard, the boys simply held to the rope, using only enough strength to keep what they had gained. It cost them a good deal of effort to keep it. About a minute had passed since the fall, when the Harvard anchor suddenly gave his men the word, and leaned far back upon the floor. - It was a mighty tug. Slowly but apparently surely the ribbon moved toward the Harvard cleats. Brady caught the end of the rope in a knot, and mut- tered: . “Hold hard!” : The boys did hold hard, but in spite of that the rope gradually slipped through their hands. “Tt can’t last long,” whispered Brady, “keep cool.” A few seconds of such mighty tugging was indeed all that any team could stand; and presently the Harvard — ‘men rested, having gained three or four inches. Dick Merriwell had been watching the work .of Jim Phillips, the husky sophomore, and was pleased with it. Phillips had a bulldog grip and pulled with all his might. To many of the spectators it seemed now as if the ribbon was even with the chalk mark, and, the Harvard crew were setting up wild cries of triumph. The Yale team, however, had been lying low. Brady, and his men had simply resisted the Harvard tug like so much dead weight; and the instant that the Yale anchor saw that the Harvard team had come to rest, he ex- claimed : % “Pull! Then the Yale team gripped the rope and strained at it in earnest. Dheir effort came like a yank; and in ~ less than three seconds all the space that had been lost in Harvard’s long tug was recovered. Ba Pap ei. So the contest went on to the end. Harvard fre- quently made desperate efforts to get the ribbon on its. side of the line, and each time the Yale team had to lose a little ground, but each time they made a com- plete recovery, and at the end of four minutes the vic- tory was with the blue. The Harvard team got out of sight as quickly as pos 14 TIP FOP sible; while the Yale men went to their dressing room, - 3 followed by the wild cheering of their ats aaa For the next few minutes the Yale a ee ‘ the meo ‘ - - a Sey re 1 e little attention to what was going pe on on oi Ave g busied themselves in cheering each membe team. zoe ee A Yale man with a stentorian voice led the cheering. He stood in front of the Yale tier and shouted: ‘ > a rp? “What's the matter with Brady: An immense chorus responded: “He’s all right.’ eee “Nine cheers for Bill Brady! | Then the rah-rahs came rattling forth like volleys from a battery. Dick Merriwell was well pleased ; but the complete vic- tory was not yet won. i _ All the Yale athletes had made a good eee and there was no blame to be cast upon anybody tot losing, with the possible exception of the unhappy Curtis, but there proved to be good men in the other colleges ; and one by one events were decided, with a first place now to “Cornell, now to Harvard, now to Princeton, now to Yale. At half past ten, when nearly all the events had been’ decided, it was still a matter of doubt as to which col- 0 carry away the trophy. lege would carry away the trophy ete The tug of war between Princeton and Yale was set last on the program ; not because it was thought that it would settle everything, but because it was the event ; > most general interest. that created the most gene A A good many unfinished bouts in other sports were being rapidly worked off. fo i AS it ‘avevi near to eleven o'clock, Harvard and Cor- nell gradually lost their grip upon their chance for first place, and, at last, when it was time for the great tug, it proved that Princeton and Yale scored exactly the same number of points. _ ioe oe Therefore the result of the tug would decide whether Yale or Princeton should carry away the tournament trophy. a Fe aa The thing could not have gone better for the re ors at large, but it made the students representing the two leading’ colleges excited and nervous. eee Gey The moment the last unfinished bout was ecided, Dick Merriwell hurried to the dressing room, followed by a other members of the team and the managers, with the exception of Bill Brady, who had already returned to the dressing room. ie Dick halted at the door with a tee ee ¢ ‘3 a Brady lay across the threshold, his right w o en a Mae S a > ent r, W ‘ hand, and glaring across the room savagely, jaws were shut hard together. Ae “For Heaven’s sake, Brady, what’s the matter?” Dick demanded. peat “I’ve sprained my wrist,” Brady declare 4 and by the feeling I guess I’ve sprained my ankle, tog! “How did it happen? oa 4 s ” . S 6é y ; “A dirty trick,” said Brady, “and the pete el w . did it. is somewhere in the room. I manage to ge here at the door so as to grab him if he should run out, and also to prevent you from taking the same fall I did.” The other members of the team and the managers were now at the spot. z “Be careful as you go on,” said Brady. “The floor has at Yale.” WEERLY. ‘ : . . = c c S been sbaped or greased just in front of those ona there, and it won't do for any one else to get Suc) fall as I’ve had.” 2 CHAPTER xX. OFF: THE CLEATS. cr: Pore ” Dick Did you say the fellow was still in the room?” Dice asked, in a low voice ie RE | Lge ‘ 5 n Yes, I was sitting near the door with my head on . when I heard a rustling noise back of me. I Se I was all alone, and turned about to see who had com in. I caught sight of a fellow dodging behind that middle row of lockers.” | “Who was he?” “T don’t know. Never saw him before. I thought ne was a thief who was going through our clothes a watches and pocketbooks: so | made a jump and a for him. Right at the corner of the lockers, my we : slipped and I went dowa, full length, I could ee: helped myself from being hurt even at that, if it had® been that the floor Was so thoroughly greased that my hand slipped, and my whole weight came down on ™) — right wrist. The pain was fearful for a moment, ame — it doesn’t feel very good yet. I saw that it was # . trick.” , “Didn’t the fellow get out?” e- _ No. I was bound that he should be caught faa now, and as there was foo much howling outsice 1 make myself heard, I couldn’t call for help. I drag ae myself to the door here, and if he had made any attemp™ to get by I'd have held him, if it killed me.” “He may have got out of a window.” i think not, or T should have heard him.” “ia “We'll find said Sprague. “But mean while the cal ug of war with Princeto™ Can you - The question w wry face, held up His wrist w et couldn’t pull T out about this,” l is on for the t th a as not completed; for Brady, witl his right arm. Vs as swollen to almost twice its usual $ 1ze. ae a baby,” he said regretfully. ; : The tellows looked ae and Halt ersahed dismally: Sprague,” s ick, in a quick, decisive tone, oon back into the hall and tell the committee of arrangements” that our anchor is disabled. and that we shall have © — have five minutes to get our substitute in order.” | Who in thunder can you substitute?” asked Hall. Jim Phillips.” “Who will take Phillips’ rad “Harry Maxwell Ps place: - He showed up well in the training — “Tm afraid jected. Dick shrugged his shoulders, « f you can think of anybody else in the college, B® — said, “who is bet ter qualified to meet this emergency bring him along,’ | Hall could suggest no one Phillips looked flushed and. “Tt isn’t a “but of taki Phillips isn’t heavy enough,” Hall ob- : eager. 3 Pye question of Winning out now,” said Dic® Part in the tournament. that © committee of arrangements our anchor is disabled, and we must have five minutes time.” : Sprague hur | tied away ee ed- overt and lifted Bra away, and then Dick stepp eg d dy into a chair, ; : One of you fellows,” he said, “find somebody t0 get - ing nearly its whole length. DRM POY a physician. There must be a hundred of them in the , audience,”’ _ There were several other students not connected with the team about the door at this time, and two or three of them started away at once. : ee “Now, then, Hall,’ said Dick quietly, let’s see w nat ‘we can do about this rascal that nd tried to disable us. Hall nodded and stepped into the room. “The rest of you Tete said Dick, “stay at the door and don’t let anybody out.” i _- “Look out for the greased spot, ingly, 3 Halland Dick Merriwell went into the middle of the room, where there was a double line of lockers extend- There were two windows at the end, one of which was down slightly at the top, the other was closed. They looked up at it, and then at €ach other. * “He hasn’t gone ie 1 ‘tone, “Try all the lockers. They eae ae one on each side, opening first ne doors of closets in which they and their companions hac Placed their clothes. Nothing had been disturbed oe ‘s they went, they found nothing but empty tae but présently Dick came to one the door of which he could not open. The handle was simply a knob, and the door “—_ held fast by a Yale lock. Dick looked at it a ae then, drawing back, gave the door a terrific kick squarely ‘upon the lock. oy thin wood broke at once, and ered it fr to bottom. . ; ; At that ak a man dashed out, trted to push Dick _ aside, and make for the door. Dick recognized him at once as one of the men he had seen with Marlin at the Hartman House. : ; __ “No, you don’t!” he exclaimed hotly, catching the ne _ low by the arm and giving him a smashing blow on the side of the head. | Hearing the rumpus, Hall came said Brady warn- another kick splin- ‘ running around the corner just in time to meet the two as they were stagger-_ ing along. He promptly gave the scoundrel Peet "series of blows that dropped Itim to the floor hal stunned. “Come in here,” called Dick, and the students came Crowding into the room. : “Let’s kick him to death!” The students were so angry that they i se suggestion into execution if Dick ha mee: exclaimed one excitedly. might have put d not called a “ond bind this fellow hand and notify the committee of arrangements, and go on with the tug of war.” “Find a cord,” he said, foot. Then we'll A cord was quickly found, and the man was tied so _ thoroughly that there was no possibility that he could es- re Cape, Then, while Dick Merriwell and the others were getting ready for the tug, Hall looked up the committee _ Of arrangements and explained the situation. ah "The matter aroused-a great deal of indignation om ¥ Sides, and an investigation was made, which resu i in showing that the man Dick Merriwell had Sree Was a common gambler, and that there were tnd d ah: others who had put up a great deal. of money on Frince~ ton, and then taken every means they possibly could to _ bring about Princeton’s victory. ae _. They could do this only. by disabling Princeton’s ad- --versaries. It was found that attempts had been bai said Dick confidently, in a low - WEEKLY. to injure both Harvard and Cornell men as well as those from Yale. Two or three of the gambler’s confederates were found in the hall and put under arrest, and the next morning they were taken to a police court on a charge of malicious mischief, for which they were severely punished. As it was perfectly certain that no Princeton man had had any hand in the matter, or any knowledge of it other than had been given to the managers by the Yale team, nothing was said about it at the time, for every- body was anxious that the tug of war between Yale and Princeton should be pulled on its merits. The master of ceremonies announced that an acci- dent had happened to Yale’s anchor, and that James Phillips would take his place, and that Harry Maxwell would take Phillips’ place. There was a good deal of dismay at this in the Yale ranks, for although everybody had a good deal of con- fidence in Phillips, all knew that a change in the make- up of a team at the last moment is likely to be disastrous. Nevertheless, Phillips was greeted with a big cheer when he went out to the floor and wound the end of the rope around his belt. There was then a breathless moment, while both sides waited for the pistol shot. When it came, the eight men went down at the same instant, It was evident that the Princeton team had observed the success of the Yale men in dropping, and had determined not to let them get an advantage in that way. The ribbon stood exactly at the chalk mark, and the first few seconds of violent pulling failed to budge it | more than a hairsbreadth in either direction. The great audience stood up and cheered as they had not done since the evening began. It was a delight to see two teams of strong young men so evenly matched in strength and skill. On the Yale side there was fear that Phillips’ weight would be against them in the end, and not a few called attention to the fact that the Yale team had already pulled once, while Princeton was perfectly fresh. _ These things were thought of, too, on the Princeton side, and that made the wearers of the orange more confident, As in the former pull, there was a short period of rest after the first,tug. The anchors eyed each other warily, and: the men lay on the rope, crossing their legs over it, and waiting for the signal to tug again. Jim Phillips saw the Princeton anchor whispering to the man in front of him. Phillips was on his mettle, and was wary. “If that’s a command to pull,” he thought, “it’s given too openly, and it’s probably a dodge to throw us off our | . guard.” | : It seemed to be so, for the Princeton men gave on sudden yank at the rope, and then lay still. The yank did not stir the ribbon, and it did not call out any answering pulls from the Yale men. Many of — the spectators wondered at this, and began to set up shouts to Phillips to order a pull. _ But Phillips remained perfectly quiet, paying no atten- ; tion to the shouts around him, apparently not hearing In fact, he was not more than half conscious that them. there was anybody in the room except the three men di- rectly in front of him and the four adversaries on the opposite team. meu pikes 16 he POP Dick Merriwell, watching him anxiously, felt that his judgment of Phillips was being vindicated. A full minute passed, during which there was some pulling by each side, and still the ribbon remained squarely over the chalk mark. The spectators left their seats, so great was their ex- citement, and in spite of the efforts of the policemen who were stationed in the hall, crowded down upon the floor until they were within a few feet of the opposing teams. Old men in the crowd who had graduated from college before Jim Phillips and his companions were born, were quite as excited as the younger men. “Don’t let it be a draw, Phillips,’ shouted one white- whiskered man, waving his hat frantically. - “Princeton! Princeton!’ came in a big chorus from the other side of the room, as the Princeton team lay . closer to the floor and pulled at the rope with might and main, The muscles of their arms and shoulders stood out like whipcords and the perspiration started from their brows. They were doing their best, to say the least, to prevent a draw. It was a splendid tug; the ribbon at last began to move. It took its course slowly and by little starts and halts toward the Princeton side. | The palms of the Yale men fairly burned as the cord slipped by.. It was not much, but as before, an inch at the end of four minutes would be as good as.a yard. Jim Phillips’ face was set in an expression of intense determination, and the perspiration stood out upon his brow, too, although he was exerting little force. Phillips was like Dick Merriwell—of the do-or-die kind. / Inch by inch he was paying out the rope from his belt, a thing that had to be done in order to prevent his crew from being pulled to. their feet. Phillips was also waiting his opportunity; it ‘came as he had foreseen, just at the instant when the Prince- ton men had exerted all the force of which they were capable. » He knew when this minute had arrived, not by any expression upon their faces, but by the fact that the Princeton anchor hastily caught his end of the rope in a knot in order to. hold the advantage that had been gained. ; Then Phillips said, in a tone that could not have been heard by any of the spectators: i. “Now, boys!” . On that instant the three Yale men who had been lying almost on their backs, sat’ up, made a quick grab at the rope a few inches in front of where they had been hold- ing it before, and with all the force that they could muster. . The Princeton anchor, who had supposed that the Yale men were exhausted, was taken completely by sur- prise. He had knotted his rope and could not pay it out as the opposing tug came; the result was that -while there was yet a full minute to spare, the Princeton team stood ‘up suddenly, pulled squarely off the cleats by the vic- -torious sons of Yale. ak eg _ The shouting changed on the instant; there had been a wild, triumphant howling on the Princeton side because the ribbon had gone fully fifteen inches beyond the chalk mark: | Ee Now it traveled so rapidly toward the Yale side that there was’no measuring the distance ; that did not matter, XY Naa / WEEKLY. SNC RCA TI ‘ anyway, for when a team forth f Kedc . oF a Sr eres of miles ; to the west is the great wall stands eit ies, Silent, towering, and grand. Pike’s Pea bathed in oer rte its snowcapped crest alternately a - Sun YM te ; i ; P clouds. 8 Poppee from sight in the J To the Eas ‘ vasterner, standi 11 Gt was SWehiderund.< oe standing at the foot of the hill, it Wa Aud tHsciee y, 1€ Massive formations of nature aw stisteptible. 4 children, and Carson was not the least Of these. He filled his lungs with the dry, invigorating air : § air, and thought ‘ ‘oh at the moment seemed petty Boot We Rash With He crossed the bro passing the buildings machinery they contained of the hill, before the found himself conf ronte which one to enter Ww behind him. ’ well-dressed young m curiously, a smile of face. pre: ok and toiled up the steep’ incline, brick office building, There he hen the clatter of hoofs sounde an, dismounted, and looked him ove" \ ‘ | / a * \ my FOO ae a OEM A toe Kb She Pom er ipeanee is pulled squarely off the ring of wavering, dry grass, stretches > fleecy: = and small compared to this place: — alive with the roar and crash of the 43} , and finally stopped at the crests ee d by two doors, and was debating ; Instinctively he turned. The rider, a tr”, — \ g a recognition finally coming into M15 cleats, the tug is done. oe (Sst a Merriwell had the double satisfaction of se “ ae win the general trophy, and of meetiB a | S sstully a seri (ae the Racial. _ Serious emergency that: had occurred ty Tt sport which he had undertaken to manage, eh ee a great evening for Yale, and one that all | who were students in th i il ‘ e college at that time W never forget. Brey CoH lec It was even Ce a ‘ 1s even a greater day for th ig sophomore, aii oS Jim Phillips. ‘ e young: Sep fae i tio ae one could have been more highly gratified than - 1x Merriwell, the famous ‘Yale coach. pH THE END. wey: on ee exciting mystery story is that which est fits a ” the next issue of this weekly, under the. , iis i ine Merriwell’s Plan; or, Tim Phillips’ Initia- i “Do it No) revelations are here made concermmg = Ss «ata is oa not canines; just members of a Yale secret een ee a andish pranks, barbarous noises, hair-rals- wey. ve = S, nick-o’-time rescues, and a whole lot of fantasti a Titers cee ceremonies are described as part of the ee Sfadene-¢ ee neophytes who wait to become Dogs. # ey eo cae a s himself in mortal danger—an event not 0” ete and subj ar imitiation program, A’ villain is discovered al he a to a process of “reform” that cures him Ee oleae th villainous practices. The universal coach are sities we ald of the society jtist when his service W. rahiece: s Poke and a gréat week’ of fun ends ve tae ey : S very good story is N i ilk be! iige out March 2d, ~ . story is No. 829, and will at al Te )-10 pe HE PRECIPITATOR. 4 ae By CECIL WHITTIER TATE. D LE SET i . . : aA the side seeing stoup ot red, iron-sheathed buildings on ni Universal erties Mente Hill composed the plant of the ania am aod Reduction Company. The mill is lo- ae Byala i town of Navaho Springs, about forty miles; #h io eMrORT: EhOme the Outta sc te ae ks . enemy ‘Universal obtains ite nek fe Creek mines, whence et ake The place has ; its Ore for treatment, Cem, tees 8k et tae fect: : Pan saie location, lying on, the ei a Ly : %; to the east 2 david aa: tao te LE oe ee eye Wy monotonous sove st the beundless prairie wit Py / h | . FIP Tor “Blame me, if it isn’t little Carson!” he exclaimed, _ Stretching out his hand. i __ arson grasped it. “‘Jim Whiting, >> ~~ rable,” he said. Src Bay _- “What are you doing out here, Billy ? : asked Whiting. _. + I thought that you were still at the old ‘col. _ “Graduated—iast June.” , hiting tied his broncho to the tethering post, and _ led the way into the office, where he seated himself at a desk, comfortably disposing his feet thereon, and’ mo- |. "toned Carson to a chair. They talked for some time about “God’s country,” as Whiting called the East, and then turned to personal matters. &3 Bs “So you’re looking for a job, eh?” sage _ ying his friend keenly. “What can you do, Bil y! : Well, my ‘pigskin’ says I’m an engineer, he said mod- __ estly; “but I guess chemistry is my specialty. i. i “When can you start in?” inquired the other abrupt y. _. Carson looked at his friend wonderingly. What do You mean? What are you in this place’ he spore ,,_"Oh, I’m assistant superintendent of this ee 1e eee. -Utliversal: - l’ye:a job in the precipitating scp. . _ Where they precipitate the gold from the solution—which S$ open. You'll be the head of one of the shifts. Ae fair job. Pay good. But it’s dangerous work, Billy, A you'll have to keep a level head on you. Have to ‘stanc _ 4 pretty mean ‘stink’ of chlorine—that’s our protess-— but you'll get accustomed to it. Will you take it! ues Carson looked out of the window a moment. ! - a oy Was not the kind of a place he wanted, right there in 5. body of a mill among a crowd of uncouth ee es ably; but—he felt the thin roll of aaa o = me and remarked cpameot t that it was all he haa. "Yes, Jim, I'll take it,” he said. ae “All Hight Be here to-morrow, seven sete Yring overalls and jumper, also buckskin eel hi me Jickson—he’ll be your first helper, and Pll tell hin ght to put you onto the job.” yeni __., Carson nodded, expressed his thanks, and aaa AS Whiting sat watching the small figure striding down a ' Aull, and a smile crept about the corners of oe — : Little Billy Carson,” he muttered ; wonder 1 ahi Stand up against the work. Thunder, ag lent 3 it into him? But he always was a plucky little devil. res, I'll bet on Billy.” a4 x Carson was see and had always borne the eee Of “Little Billy,” for, besides being short, he w fe 1 Ot body. .He was always faultlessly dressed, and is Ca _ Was almost foppish. His face was oval, like a er s, va Small, finely molded features, and he had steady had Cees "y Whiting remembered that some one at college ue tig 2 described Carson as an “overgrown boy ee ne ad all laughed, Carson blushing ee o ses them laugh the more. But he was untal ng’ 8 Natured, smart as a whip, and a prodigious worker. Carson took up his work the following ae =i, Tather, started to collect information as to sie ee si » Was done, He found that the precipitating oe ahs / OCcupied one end of the largest building in the p was _ Around its four sides were a number of puge Bore d tanks; some of them tall and broad, others long ie Slender, according to their several uses. In some _ these tanks the precious solt _ iM others the gold was precip! _ Stal filter presses, in the mid : _ tamed many pounds of gold sulphides. by all that’s remark- fox inquired Whiting, ey tated from the liquid. Sev- dle of the department, con- The place was | “Heavens!” gasped Carson, ‘Dickson will be killed!” _For an instant a savage joy took possession of him; his enemy and rival would be killed; and then—then the manliness within him asserted itself. Ina moment confusion reigned in the department. Whiting was just leaving for the night, and had entered the place to give Carson some instructions, In a flash he realized the situation and sent a man off for some Tope “Dickson will be killed, though. That gas works fright- fully quick,” he said to Carson. | Together they climbed to the top of the tank, followed by the rest of the precipitators, Hours passed, it seemed, before the messenger returned with the rope, which, how- ever, was at length procured. They peered into the tank, but could distinguish nothing in the inky blackness ; for _ Dickson, in his struggles, had broken the electric light. _ Ife was in there, they knew, but whether dead or alive al feared to guess. Meanwhile, the noxious odor spread | through the building, and several of the men, unable to stand it, hastily returned to the floor. a : “Wet your handkerchief, Jones, and throw it up here, shouted Carson to one of them. The man did so, an Carson thrust the soaking cloth into his mouth. “I'm going down after him, Tim,” he said. Ae Whiting shook his head. “It'll kill you, Billy’ VU |. go—lI’m used to it—though it’s sure death to go into that hole.” a Carson’s face wore a look of determination, as hese ie replied: “No, you don’t, Jim; I sent him down, and Phin get him out.” . Whiting gazed at his friend curiously. Then suddenly he reeled backward, overcome by the large quantity OF the gas which he had inhaled ‘while looking into the ahd ike . There were still two men left with Carson- Ber I’m going down,” he said to them, . “Pull up the: TOpe:” oie when I signal.” i He walked to an open window over the top of the tank, and put his head out, filling his lungs with the pure night ait. While he was there, and it was but a moment, many ~things flashed across his mind. He thought of his home and the mother he had left; and then of Eleanora Stone, — and once more the savage feeling é6f hate for his rival, who had done jso much to. belittle him, took possession of the man., He gazed at the wonderland about him. — Above were the stars; off there was the great, ragge¢ mountain wall, silhouetted against the moon. In the pres- — f this gem of Colorado scenery he felt small and ence O mean, and the evil thoughts which had all but consumed him a moment before gradually faded away. No, she loved the man and he would save him for her sake.s As for himself, it did not matter, he would probably | die like a tat in a hole, but—she would know that he was ‘no coward, and perhaps she would be sorry—afterwatd. A hand touched his shoulder gently, “It was Miss_ ‘Stone, who had realized the situation, and had come Up to the top of the tank. . : fom i eating “Don’t go down there,” she pleaded; “the men say that” _ Howard is dead. Don't kill yourself.” Ae He looked at her wonderingly, and then replied simply “It is my duty, I sent him down there. He may not _ be dead. I must go, Eleanora.” eae ental Hom ga oo ” LTE cl OP bs : | Once more he filled his lungs with the pure air, and WEE ibtioned ‘her to keep her head out of the window is - — to escape the gas, and then he went to the mouth of t - hole. He hastily put the rope under his arms, and os e _ it fast about him, tossing the other end to the men. - e “he gathered up the other rope, and ‘slipped through the ole. es i Down the ladder v0 the darkness he plunged, but it Seemed a long time before his foot touched the bottom. € inhaled a breath of the stuff, and it seemed as though 2 heavy weight was pressing against his lungs. ar KS feverishly began searching for Dickson, finally oar er lying with his face against the side of the tan — f dragged him out, ahd hastily tying the ee at ; nglishman’s limp arms, signaled oe. = He hough he was in the body up. Gradually they ha Carson felt a sensation of loneliness, as t _ the depths of an abyss. he weight about his lungs see ey € struggled to get to the ladder. | Stretched out)his hands and felt for t “ '! were it not for the peat, ‘i a foe: ‘ee Instantly. Why didn’t they pul ht eae | tealized that he ea dragging the rope about : ne _ for they had lost théir hold upon their end, ae aE sh allen into the tank. He seemed to have been exe Ours, and no attempt had been made to unr oe ad they forgotten him? He shouted, a renee seemed strange and hollow, and that confounded gas kep i Tr ‘dn’ Ss n Pressing against his lungs. Why didnt ee ne a Off the valve instead of pumping the deadly s _ | the tank? es He ran ab Zh F r nd re Pe out wildly now a 5; r - |) Steadily growing weaker. He tore and pe aay oe | ™ a mad endeavor to find the ladder. | a but it € heard a thump against the wide, OF SF ; Seemed muffled and distant. ise | 1ad He tried to struggle over to wee je oT hae it “Sounded, but somehow, he couldn't unders . the floor. y happened, he found that he was lying flat ee cian His nose touched the cool slime at the {?? : [ : iene fanoy? Why, | maven KAS a, : It just comes to me naturally. Ag gee desperate things with soused mackerel, smo ae » and salt cod, while the rest of us went a on _ Some Billy or Jimmie dropped a poge ee ™) it lying idle, tried to catch perch, an ee of us had » WEEKLY. 21 Billy or Jimmie trolled with a worm for pike, for there were earthworms on the island, and we wondered how they got there, never having seen any swim. The rest of us sat in a row with rods in a line and talked learnedly of split bamboo, gaffs, and landing nets. “Stretch” Leonard caught a fish. “Time for supper, boys!” called Guffy; and some Ilse or Harry rowed over to the mainland for milk, which Guffy assured us was indispensable in his cooking. Ike or Harry, or whoever he was, came back with no milk, but a story that excited us. He had gone toa farm- house, It was on the farm where one of us had insulted the cow. Some one had begun shouting the moment that he appeared, and the violence of the shouting had made him’ so thoughtful that he had gone no nearer. Well, let them shout; they were jealous of us, living on our island, enjoying ourselves, while they pushed old hoes and plows. And, in spite of even Guffy, we did enjoy ourselves. You know how a brown branch of dead pine will burn. We trimmed off a pile of branches. A spark in its midst leaped through the dried needles and spread with a roar. It was night, but we were in a patch of light, while Guffy used the only lantern to go on cooking—experimenting with ham, and finding out how many things might be done with boned chicken, lamenting because he had not the bones for soup, really wanting us to go ashore and take the bones away from a chicken, to see what he could do with them. But never mind Guffy, who would surely bankrupt us in time; the rest of us told stories. Curiously enough, most of them were respectable stories. We were away off on an island in a great lake. To be sure, there were farms, but we thought only of the woods on shore. There was no older person to keep us in order. There was no law among us, and because we were on an island we seemed to be away from things as things are. It was the water; perhaps the trees; perhaps the rocks. We felt gentle and quiet around the fire. We began to call one another “pard,” and all that sort of thing, thotigh in the city most of us had never been very good friends, simply clubbing together because one has to know some one, you know, ave sang, “Comrades, comrades, ever since we were boys!” . We really were. We certainly were, though there had been a hundred.quarrels among us, some so lasting that only trees and rocks and water could patch them up. We sang that we were comrades; and an old pine tree or an old bald rock made it real. Guffy cried from the kitchen: ‘‘Great! It must have been in me all the while, but I never suspected how I could cook!” We suspected a good deal, but could prove few iden- - tities, as we forced ourselves to try his latest compound. We crept into bunks, and there was a shower of thumps. Shoes were coming off. aes , In the morning the.admiral manned his fleet, and we went out in the scows. Going nowhere in particular ; just wanting to know what was behind the first point of land, — or splash around on the beach, or perhaps row up the creek to see what came next. Four men with shotguns cried: “Keep off!” ‘: ; Keep off? That seemed rather a remarkable command. Instead of keeping off, we went on rowing. A shotgun stood on the beach. They iP TOP was fired to our left. We were astonished by-the wide- spread jumping of tiny fountains from a muzzle not wider than an inch; then we realized that business was meant. The admiral directed that the fleet should go to the point. Three men, one with a rifle, cried: “Keep off !” We tried the mouth of the creek. “Keep off !”’ We kept off. Several times during the day we tried to row to the mainland. “Keep off !” We kept off. Then we were prisoners. For some unknown reason, perhaps until a sufficient force to attack us could-be gath- ered, we were held on the island. And, so far as we knew, our only crime*was that one of us had insulted a cow. What kind of a cow? Why such a susceptible cow? Now, you know how young fellows are. You know just how great is their conceit. That any one or any number of any ones should makeus prisoners hurt our self-respect so that we were—why, we were terrific! Each one of the twelve felt himself not one of twelve, but all twelve put together. We'd do this! We'd do that! ‘We did nothing. Along the shore shotguns sprouted. And we cared nothing for fishing; we cared nothing for swimming; all that we wanted was to get away from this island that we had so very much wanted to get to. Only one of us was without excitement. Said Guffy: “Great! Come try succotash and marma- lade.” There was a growing crowd on the beach; it grew until night, and then along the beach was the flashing of lanterns. ; ; We thought of sending the admiral alone with a white flag to patch up the difficulty, if possible. Prisoners on that wretched little island! We had a hundred yards of freedom in any direction, yet we paced up and down in batches of three. Four batches paced up and down with the feeling that one would have if a pris- oner on a whole continent. . ; Billy Scrubbs had seemed to be our leader, but the sit uation created big, fat Jeb Heffles, For we were starving after the third day. Every can had been opened by our wicked, wasteful cook—and we were starving! To be sure, we could catch fifty, sixty~-who knows how many? —fish a day. But just because there was nothing re- served in the larder, we were stire we were starving, though perch, and even lake trout, pushed out their noses all around us. Lag Time? Never tell one of us that life is short! Min- utes were long, slim things divided by seconds ticking reluctantly. Hours? We were sure that there could not be more than six or seven in an ordinary lifetime. We played poker for our rebate slips until Hamilton got them all and hasn’t worked since. /*st to help along the time, we dug a hole in the center of the island, where the earth was soft, merely to see how deep we could dig. We paced in batches of three, and no batch would speak to another except unpleasantly. Night came on, and lanterns twinkled as they moved alongshore behind trees here and there. We were watch- i b WEEKLY. ing lanterns, wondering how far they would go and where they would go next, when Jeb Heffles could stand it no longer. Said Jeb: “Fellers, just give me Tommy’s revolver. That’s all I want! We'll swim over to the mouth of the creek, where the lantern shows the last outpost. Tl kill that fellow, and all of you be primed to swear it was self- defense.” Never before had any of us taken part in a killing. It was very interesting. Jeb might do it, but to each of us a twelfth ofa notch would be accredited. Said Jeb: “The scows would be spotted, so we'll swim to the mainland in a bunch, and here’s an old door for a raft to pile our clothes on.” It was a dark night. The only stars that twinkled were the red and blue and green ones on the shore; and we piled our clothes on the raft, so that in the dark to pick out the right shoes or coats or anything else would be impossible. . There was not a splash as we sank cautiously into the water, which seemed many degrees warmer, with no sun to warm it. We swam together, all twelve of us, two dragging the raft behind and Jeb Heffles with his hands or with his nose pushing a cracker box ahead. In it was the revolver. We kept Guffy in the center, because a half-mile swim might be too much for him. Tf it should be, there were eleven close by to help him, even if they could never quite forgive him. We whispered and called softly to assure ourselves that no one had fallen behind. or on we went, white dashes flitting through dark water, Dea . shore seeming to make jagged shadows even It was hard work for Guffy, but he spoke only once. He said: ‘What a shame T used up all the vanilla be- fore I could try it with sauerkraut!” He ie : es your breath, and just wait till we get , Guity! but we kept close to him, and out | fastest swimming was no faster than his slowest. Our knees grated shore, and a red 1 away. on sunken rocks; we had reached the antern was not more than fifty feet eee Hh easel out of the water without a sound erful fellow, a fit match for any man us at the time was th weve or so to dress first. with not a second to w out clothes he would b But what struck | It was/nothing like modesty, but ae et e helpless and a match for no one. | e slipped through the trees and won a little’ battle without fighting. Hec: # ee g. e called softly, < sach of us, scram — bling into some on WY ant gach Os Hee and the light of the lantern. Jeb was fondking his revol power, yet ashamed kind of way feet: 667 ‘Now, you know what T’ll do defense, you know! know !” And the m moved his ha , Why, ev ae ona ! This man, even in his fear of Jeb’s “ aved us from him as if excommunication Of something like it had befallen us. A F } ver, as if recognizing its to appear melodramatic. In a silly 1€ was saying to a man with a gun at Ins © to you! Now, it’s self Now, don’t try any tricks, xy i > seemed to shrivel away from him, ands ands as if to ward off the rest of us. — . en the cow could not have been more insulted f sete itt sa oo ne ripping, bearing his cracker box. Big, poW7 at he had to give a valuable minute —— aste, Jeb seemed to feel that with- ._ 7 of e . e ~ 5 : e else’s clothes, traced him by his voice TEP ae nf Were excited, and crowded around; that is, all but ‘uy? Who looked at a treetop and said: : ot Wonder how coffee would go in beet stew. mid Jeb: “Now, you don’t want to try any tricks, , tow! But where’s the nearest railroad Leet €te about tired of this sort of thing. Wheres the rest Station? You've got to show tis.” -Said the man: “I'll show you, and only 4 °P My gun, and keep it pointed at me, but don't touch and don’t come nearer than twenty feet. The sta- ain't three miles away.” And he led us to the sta- Without trying to trick us. had ehcaped, and our vacation had been enjoyable nN, after all; still, there was something that oF fated to know, standing there waiting for the train, ta oe OWs in short fellows’ trousers, and long-armed fellows W Sleeves ending above their wrists. _ «pe 28ked him what all the trouble was. iis the poM't touch me! Just keep away, is all I ask ! ‘a ” fy had smallpox in town, and you came along and too me quarantine camp 1"? ol, some of us edged away and ,cach fearing that some one els re alive yet! ve] €re even planning another vacatio : : ave one without any germs in it. too glad to. some of us sprang e would infect him. n, though this time By CHARLES KROTH MOSER. CHAPTER I. PLOT TO INJURE M’WHORTER. ; red warmly The May sun glowe uy E > blowing gently Se aed focbll all. the It wa 2ut of ‘Tom ae Sa glorious day. a sky of sapphire, and a so aie, the bosom of the lake, seeme ns with the new wine of spring: 3G am © high, red board faves around the Rav a eat P ark was specked and dotted with fee : ih res of small boys, who clung to the top igs 1 set “tS and teeth, watching the great baseball oo & ae “Inside ; they looked like magnified flies clinging S of a sugar cask. ; Side the fence twelve thousand hum Stands to suffocation, and flowed Moring streams along the side lines. iter, and flanking right and left fields, mesiaerh ily » Carriages, carts, coaches, automobiles, vic orca Need pectin hones were flocked togethe! i ea. ah Ot Say equipages that half encircled oss tal ue Shion had awakened from the drowse © ee ed Tpntted out en masse on the bright spring dey i os Hi u Hontist between the ee Ae champion- hip Mnati Red Eagles, in the semifinals of the che . Series, Re eS ‘esterday the first game of the three had been played, ; i “ narative ease, put oy € Chicagos had won with compara f the Red cher 0 an pisses YOUne Ota in, his ‘What a splendid young animal he is!” she exclaimed. “Took at his shoulders, and the way his head rests on the strong, round neck. It’s too bad I can’t see his features more distinctly.” , The other girl laughed. “Your first baseball game and you’re romancing al- ready, Louise! What a susceptible creature you are! Are you affected so by a well-set-up coachman, and does a brawny coal heaver with nice eyes make your heart go. pit-a-pat, too?” : “I’m not romancing,” said Miss Chandler, with a rather ‘frigid assumption of dignity ; “‘and my heart is not flutter- ing a little bit. Nonsense. But I do.admire big, splendid- looking men, and if that man only wore some of those long drapery things instead of a gray unifoum, he would look like a Greek god. I’m not sure I don’t like him bet- ter as he is. Anyway, I wish there were more of the men in our set with proportions like his. And I’m sure his, face must match his figure, too, although I can't see it very clearly.” Her friend’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Oh, very well,” she said demurely. “Perhaps after the game we can drive around to his hotel and have Lefevre arrange to introduce you. Don’t you think you could arrange the matter, Lefevre?” she asked the chauffeur. . Miss Chandler lowered the glasses and turned some- what haughtily. “Helen, I pre——” = The sharp crack of bat against ball cut short her sen- tence, and the two girls turned their gaze to the diamond. They saw the missile sailing toward them, speeding through the air like a thing of amazing life. With a long tzo-o-om! and a sput! at the end of if, the ball fell almost under the wheels of their car. A wiry fielder ina blue blouse and red stockings dashed madly in through the throng of carriages, searching for it. But the eyes of the two girls never fell for a moment upon him. Every face in the park was turned excitedly toward the dia- mond, where two figures were coursing madly around the bases amid the screams of ten thousand throats. ‘ ¢ McWhorter had waited until the pitcher of the Gilt Edges had sent him the ball he wanted. Then with un- erring aim he had smashed it far into right field, where he knew its quick capture would be more than difficult. Lanagan, spurred on by the ferocious coaching of little Babbitt, raced over third base and flung himself across the home plate for the first run of the game, while even WEEKLY. the Chicago tooters were forced to shout their praise. But McWhorter made no halt at second. Without a glance behind, he tore on around to the third station, running like a thoroughbred, until there came the warning shout from Babbitt: = “Slide, Mac, slide!” Quick as thought he hurled himself on his breast, and allowed his momentum to carry him to the bag, even as the baseman stooped to tag him with the ball. | Oh, wasn’t that. splendid?” cried Miss Chandler to her companion, .as she sank back into the seat with flash- ing eyes and reddened cheeks. “It was one of the finest things I ever saw. Did you ever see such tremendous force, such energy, in a man?” A moment later Ziegler, raging in his heart at his rival’s beautiful hit, lost control, and hurled a wild ball that passed his catcher’s mitt. McWhorter spurted home for the second tally, and only some unlooked-for break could lose the game to the Red Eagles. When the Chicagos came in from the field, a tall, dapper, handsome young man, with marks of dissipation. lining his bold features, strolled over to the players’ bench. As he passed it he carelessly whipped the skirts of his Ne, frock coat» twice with his cane, drew his hand over the — | front of his silk hat as a signal, and walked on into the little dressing room beneath the grand stand. Presently Ziegler, still black-browed and sullen-eyed, Se a followed him, The two stood alone in the room. Look here, Zieg,” the man in the silk hat said; after glancing around to see that there were no eavesdroppers;, youve just got to fix that fellow at the end of this game. It can’t be put off any longer. If he plays to-morrow tt means that Cincinnati will surely win; we simply cant beat them with him pitching and knocking the hide off the balls the way he does. And if they win, it means I’m ee iia that means you're ruined, too,” continues ites as man, with a meaning look at the pitcher. plexity. “I know it does, Mr, Knox,” he answered ; “and I'd like to do it well enough. I hate him on my own account worse than you do, He did me the meanest trick a man could once, and I’ve never forgotten it. The dirty squealer! But I'd hate to do him up right here in front of the whole town. It would queer me with the fans, and oe ~ “Nonsense,” said Knox. “F 3 ¥ Ss bar ee it nox. “Everybody knows you have ah in for him, and that he doesn’t love you any too much. You can fix up some scheme to make it look like a pet sonal quarrel; call him a few names, and when he comes. back at you, knock his head off with a baseball bat. fs You've got a nz a name for a nasty te 3 ad eae . : as emper, < re fans Wt charge it to that. p per, and the ought to be able to get y ing, eh?” seis Sac ae, Me fe one eenee know that. But I don’t like t0 . me in the papers, and have everybody down OF — him here in “the park, “Why can’t Wee loafing around town, an¢ — me for smashing My till to-night, when he’s Taye a gang jump on him somewhere and maul him into SOap« Bregses YOU can hire-a lot of 22% 2 cp r ao it,” interrupted the well-groomed young eee o ee S Just it. If somebody would break iis € outside, or we kidnaped him, or anything drew his brows together in a scowl of pet Besides, I’ll s nt jut of Sr ee stand right by you to 8% | eG as ee there should be any. If it comes t' a snowdown, 1 guess a director in the National League — ou a pretty good job for the ask- — i 4 TIP TOP WEEKLY. m “a happen to him to lay him up, the whole tan tribe a the leaguers would say that we had done it in order im out of the game. And while, maybe, they Prove it, still there’s a lot of people know that € counting on these garnes to pull me out of a bad the thing would make unpleasant talk that would “ai My future plans. \ eb here. Suppose, when you sa i n Ing, you give him a lot of talk that gets him riled. © Make When he tries to get back, say something that will You Noes have to fight. Why, he’s so much bigger than You ict there isn’t < 1 on the grounds wont see that 79 just } ta man ¢ gre peligee 4 cing lad to hit him with a club in self-defense. it‘ Chica 1, man. He'll go to the hospital for a few days, 0 te will win the game to-morrow, and you ll be e bod Ndred dollars richer than you are right now. /\n Whit will be the wiser. You can't make a mistake. . ing Mp Ziegler, but half convinced, was pondering the Tunnin ver in his mind, the little ump of a mascot came ed 8) § mM, Searching for him. Zs capt'in wants to whisper > the lad cried. come to bat in the sumpthin’. in yr year, “ ca od it, M r. Knox, I'll do it,” said Ziegler, ae td. fh a decision, as he followed the youngster bac = ges tr : bench, “But I expect you to back me up and Hoye Out. of the scrape. That durned McWhorter's ht take a it . : foe popular with these fools, and they mig ee Ve a E handle me sort of rough if I hurt hag Better Wick . Uunch of cops standin’ around close to al rest me PS after I’ve landed on that guy.” , thing,” answered Knox, walkin the press stand to “jolly” the newsp@ g nonchalantly per meni. CHAPTER II. : | ” A. GoopD “STUN: struggled strentr 1 had ignomini- rried them and ble use of their superb Belnviece’ fits eg te Ziegler’s teammates had Usly © solve McWhorter’s delivery, 4” ailed. The Red Eagles’ two runs Wo Purr / atts ed them to make the best possi>) Dee ae. ability, but Browne, the Chicagos erratic oa ils . ‘Pia disheartened them by striking a ee ; le wily twirler had deluded him into thi Hej base MtZ,'the second man to the eS Babbitt’s error—the overeaget ©", ad ep thtown his pick-up high over Lanagan s nea Skipped down to second on Owens sacrifice. ‘ bas f the ilt it..the viking- Jescended second baseman Oo ns : ‘s Swedish accent ari uric 28les, was down with hi ete frantic advice to Heintz to “Stole avay off oo hig bei: m1 !” when Ziegler approached Be ee ike a tik... 2°W with Knox. Pinkey was at the a 2 © and one ball called. » Just wanted to say, Zieg,” said ain’ Pitcher encouragingly on the back, | , aL 2 a pas sig! 5 ef et sore because that Di . 2 h It wasn’t on fault, and, anyhow, aces _; ‘lappen. He won't get hol ithe. ck ~ nex Id and we'll just go in and eat ’em Up. Prwene POY, we'll knock those inshoots of his into the lake . ‘\h, it’s all off this time, though; that little pop fly t erty ’s’ll never get over third.” mtlide, "didn’t ; Raines ran back three steP®> and it droppe d reached’ first little shortstop d—and bat, ha Harrison, slapping “that this game % Jost, neither. fellow socked out such snugly into his upheld glove. Heintz had been too slow in separating himself from second, and he died there. Ziegler pitched like a demon in the last inning, and salted his opponents away in a barrel almost in one, two three order. He stopped Raines’ hot liner with his left nand, fanned Wilson, the third baseman, in four pitched balls, and only let Jones reach first on a lucky bunt With two strikes called on Lanagan, he suddenly caught Jones trying to steal second, and shot the ball over to re first baseman, who tagged the daring runner out. Cincinnati’s two runs in the eighth ie lea 7 ghth represented her As they came in from the field, Zi i i . . € 1 McWhorter, said, in a quiet tone: ee oe “You dirty squealer, I’ll get even with you!” The big fellow stopped, looked him over slowly, and shook his blond head in taunting laughter. _ “Oh, I guess not. A scamp of your type couldn’t hurt me if he tried. Sore because you are licked?” Ziegler sprang toward him with clenched fists, You big stiff He stopped. McWhorter had squared his broad shoulders menacingly, and every one could see that there was enmity in earnest between them It was enough; the crowd would be prepared for what followed, and perhaps it would take Ziegler’s part. Wait—till after the game,” he said, in a voice choked with anger, and walked on toward the home plate. a eee the press stand, strolled over toward 11m. “Good stunt!’ he said approvingly. “ : ; gly. “But don’t y~ ie till oe moment, Zieg. Oi course, if ieee a chance t is n’ aa : pull this game out ahead, we won’t need any “What’s the row, Zieg?” queried s ne , lege qu several players fr the bench. That, big dub kidding you? Ain't pot es head all swelled up ‘bout that little three-bagger, is he? You chaps must ‘a’ had trouble before; they say Mac’s a pretty good fellow, even if he did learn his baseball _ at es oe guess all those college chaps have got heaps of trouble findin’ hats bi ir cocos, all right.” Gee ne “THe’s a stool pigeon, that’s what he i if i e is; but if he me any more of his fresh guff, I'll break his sack er swered Ziegler, disgustedly watching Lewis’ sky-scraping fly drop into the left fielder’s paws. “You bet we’ve had tréuble before, and I’m not taking any more off him.” “Keep your shirt on,” said Andrews i ‘Ss, the catcher, choos- ing a pene a ash from the pile of bats. “inte get into the game; I'm going to knock can’ find it with a inacane eo The crowd was shouting for Chi . : Ss licago to wake u find the ball. . Andrews was noted as a enc stickier a the grand stands broke into an ovation as he walked to- ward the plate. The urchins clinging to the high fench Ao fresh hold on the top, and daringly dropped over on the inside, slipping by the blue-coated policemen with the skill that comes only with long practice. Sor — shoulders, whirled his arm in a half circle from behin his knee, an whistling toward the plate. ymin coulen wei se Crack! | - The ball whizzed along the i ing li the ground, ricochetting like smooth stone over the quiet waters of a pond. “tt aod past the first baseman and out into the right garden for a clean hit, while Andrews scooted a rod past the first station before he could check his swinging strides R 26 TIP... LOP “Good work, Andy! That’s the stuff!” yelled the crowd, and even the ladies clapped their hands, to the im- minent danger of splitting gloves. “Tet’s have another now, Zieg,” called out Harrison, as Ziegler faced the pitcher. “Hit it out, and I'll bring you home. Why, we’ve got three runs right here, and that’s all we need!: It’s in our pocket, boys!” Andrews, playing well off, watched his’ chance, and burned the cinders for second as McWhorter pitched the ball; the catcher put it down to Thorpe, but the baseman was slow, and Andrews made his steal good. “Now soak it, Zieg; soak it hard!” the players cried, and the big crowd almost held its breath. | But at the next delivery the sphere curved wide, and the umpire shouted “Ball!” as he had before. “Why don’t you send one over, you cheap skate?” Zieg- ler called out angrily. >The next came swift and true, and the batter tipped it into the catcher’s mitt. “Stri-ike-ah one!’ Andrews, crawling forward, wary as a fox, suddenly dashed for third and slid safely to the bag. Arising to his feet, he danced watchfully out a few yards toward home. McWhorter eyed him narrowly, then sped the sphere over the home station. Ziegler swung wild. “Stri-ike-ah two!” The catcher tossed the ball back to Mac, who muffed it and let it roll toward little Babbitt. The shortstop am- bled forward, scooped it up, and feinted to toss it to the pitcher... Suddenly he sent it like a rocket across to third, and Raines, stopping it, caught the runner off. Andrews dashed for home, but he was trapped ; three times he raced back ‘and forth from third to home, but each time the ball beat him. At last he made a desperate slide for home, but Hendricks stooped and tagged him. “Out!” said the umpire. Two outs, two strikes on the batter, and the bases empty! The game was lost for that day, and it was time to begin to-morrow’s game. A low whistle, which he knew came from Knox, told Ziegler to start the new _contest. It was his custom to stand unusually close to the plate. As-the ball came shooting in, he leaned forward a bit, just as the curve reversed, and»had it been two inches lower, it would have struck him under the throat. McWhorter saw his movement and strode toward the ‘umpire. . . . - “J want to call your attention, Mr. Umpire, to this man’s action. He deliberately tried to get hit.” : “You're a liar,” yelled Ziegler. “I did nothing of the BORG ES Oo NA oe McWhorter’s face burned a vivid red, but he held in his temper. pic? . “That’s all right for the present,” he answered. Then, turning again to the official: “I’m not a kicker, but we want a,square deal, and propose to stand for our rights. If this man does that again I expect you to punish him, Mr. Umpire.” atone Phere ( “I ‘did not see any such’ action,” said the official; “but I warn you, Ziegler, that I won’t stand for that sort of thing. Cut it out!” é The crowd was howling for them to vball.. “Get Khevgame over go on and play _ ba !’ the fans cried, as they pre- - pared to rush for the exits. ie _ MeWhorter returned to a re the box, while a stream ‘of © WEEKLY. vulgar epithets and angry words from Ziegler’s lips fOh lowed, him. Taking care that he should not deliver it — too high, the pitcher drove an inshoot straight at the plate, and at the level of his hip pocket. / Swaying unsteadily on his feet and pretending to stunt ble accidentally forward, Ziegler threw the upper half a his body over the bag. The ball struck him squarely on the thigh. He started toward the base, neglecting to drop his bat.. But McWhor- ter rushed toward him. 4a “Mr. Umpire,” he cried, “ You 1% surely e : ried, “that was deliberate. oat Baas re out, Ziegler,” said the umpire. “I——" >) M os a loud scream of rage Ziegler rushed upot =~ ey jorter, flinging the heavy bat above his shoulders. — cr ying ob pigeon, I'll fix you!” ea c raised his arms, but tl ingi t him boll att He heat t the swinging bat caught hl | Without a groan the in O nan.) a heap on the turf, young pete tumbled dow J a whole held at once became a seething flood of tu “Shen e oe men. Women screamed and cried sae tok, and “Oh, he’s murdered!” The players Of ie Mit tee Ziegler, engaging in a free- : ht, and literal ie he players, rally hundreds crowded around t : ae ick Mopen Lynch him! Beat him to death!” 8 € noisy-lunged kids and a few hyper-excitab S os nee pushed his way through the angry crowd | Ti anes policemen at his back, The bluecoats drew ee te s, and soon cleared a space around Ziegler; 2° _ Kn clustered about him to protect him from the mob, — ee gave him a dry wink, e negro uffaw “nN: btu ee res unce: town, an’ they naive Bese . d ine oe o’ de longes kind o’ time. Dey don’ ee au eae dey don’t hab none o’ dem dens we sell no —_ hyeahbouts: No, sah!’ dens o’ nickquity “Look here, you pull eas ; et-thieving nig tell me ther ‘ g nigger, do you m Shetek co wie 3 theaters and no shows in this to = REN oe ill a few hours without being d oa ath with the wail of a deacon’s prayer?” g done to ee young man S prayer?” roared the Such language from a | a Northerner down an ar a3 rner would hav ath ay eee of dishes on ais head, but obo ee ae irawl on his tongue it was a compli aii? Acc C i. y grinned his appreciation oe ’assah—yassah, Ah was ry ssah, Ah was a-comin’ t a show dow : oe dat. Dey got ania 6a ae toe de Lycekum Apery House bie e Je gods’ Se Past Ah was dah, too, las’ nig a de gods’ roos’, sah.” » too, las’ night, up in “What is it lik s e, then—or ‘is y : ’ S 7 2 - , you ham-colored coon ?” you done fergit dat,’ too, “No, sah, Ah ain’ : No, sah, Ah ain’t fergit dat ier bett, what was at. It’s Mister Jeems Kyor- fascia “side geen pe ses prize fighter, cha Ah wif a quality 1 it was like dis: He get hisself i hab life fe oe y of wif heaps o’ money, an’ Fo 14 were him ha b o mahry her. But she bein’ qu i ae yearth es i a spo’tin’ man what’s 0” de ae ow she doan’ like di keen gs his hyar’ mahryin’ pone = Set ines a ae spo’tin’ mens, nohow. Dey has nee ity lady jes’ ei aS aN but bimeby dat ne J J S / p 1erse f S| 7 * man, kase : ; she gotter m good dat eee an’ w’uk so ha’d an’ es tink he de estes’ man dey i a got de stuff in him, an’ dat’s all sl Se ee rod es « , st sne want ‘ ’ Sa ie Se ae is + man. So dey gits corel ee tae! 5S way i x 1 ou ays, Ah reckon dey do, kase Al ahried at de eres. , 1 done fergit : Amused by th e negro’s a4 fanned into any isles Casta aah of the play, but not through the town in search aes a McWhorter strolled eh ta iat Wa vidence to a ma oro ; ' as (ne jority a its inhabitants were in the or ee hone } 454 dit s r in the aortic: 1 * was a difficult task, but after tw Bs ei? g, his verdict favored the cemeterie res S. Rolling sluggishly along betwee ) ; n tw ics Ga os ee ee eRe eee Readily: throu oe ts as if in dirty dreamfulness i : Gal dish tine pe the mountains to the southward . ed waters steep the dwellers along its banks se 28 THR POP with the wine of lethargy, and all things but nature seem to sleep. All the towns along its course until Chattanooga is reached are squalid, with dirty streets and straggling houses. The people take life as they find it, and they find it very easy——until one of the terrible feuds for which East Tennessee is famous arises, and then the passions of the simple mountain people break and rage in blind fury like one of their mountain storms. McWhorter wandered around the nearly deserted, ill- lighted streets without finding a single incident to interest him, The flaring yellow sign above the Lyceum Opera House led him to stop there for a moment, but he de- cided that his time prevented him from seeing the whole play, and he was in no mood for half a one. At the end of two hours he was back at the depot, with but twenty minutes to wait while his train was being made up. On the platform he again encountered the little negro messenger boy. The small son of Ham eyed him with evident admiration, and walked in circles around him from every point of vantage. McWhorter was amused. “How did you know, pickaninny, that telegram was for me?” he asked the boy. “You didn’t bawl out.” “Ah done seen yo’ name in de Atlanty papahs, sah, an’ - Ah done seen yo’ fortygraft, too. An Ah knowed yo’ wus in de smokah, kase all de baseball mens rides in de smokah eb’y time, sah,” the little scamp answered acutely. Just then the local from Asheville came rolling in from its lazy race with the waters of the French Broad River through the rugged western North Carolina mountains. Among the passengers who streamed out and onto the platform were three women, who appeared to be traveling as a party. One of them was an elderly lady, whose stately bearing and patrician face spoke eloquently of her station in life. At her side a tall young woman, evi- dently her daughter, walked with strong, graceful strides, while behind them another female, no less evidently the maid, came along with a small hand bag. A porter, liter- ally loaded down with cases, grips, and luggage, brought up the rear of the party. As they passed MeWhorter, the pitcher chanced to catch a full view of the young girl. He caught his breath with a quick gasp. _ “By George! what a glorious girl!” he exclaimed, under his breath, following her with his eyes. Such a face, ‘such a poise of the head, such grace and womanly vigor in each line of her figure! Every movement of her body as she walked suggested-character—revealed it—and she was to pass him, like the flight of a bird through the dusk, to _yvahish forever in the darkness! _ He rushed after them, keeping his eyes on the girl until | the party took seats in the waiting room. Satisfied that they were not to end their journey with Knoxville, ‘he determined to find out where they were going. The im- pe pulsive fellow hardly knew why he did this, or what good it would do him; he only felt that he must find out, must learn all he could about this girl, a single glimpse of whom had stirred him more than all other women had ever Mote So kon tye ies ae A half dollar deftly ‘bestowed upon the porter who had carried their baggage brought him pleasant informa- — tion: ~ “Dey gwine to road, ‘lessen wait foh de express in de mawnin’,” said the porter. “Having learned that they were to be on the same train wae) a eere ie aad seat "3 1c Washin’ton, an’ dey come f’um Ashe-. _ ville, but Ah doan know why dey didn't take de ytither ‘twuz kase dey wuz a-huhryin’ too much toe | en eee Se en = DB a Ana IEDR PST RL OCIS md taan on ete WEEKLY. with himself, McWhorter decided not to intrude himself further into their notice, and sought his sleeping car. Shortly after he had settled himself comfortably in his seat the three women entered and took the two berths just behind and across from him. When the train drew out from under the sheds he was overjoyed to find that the women and himself had the entire car to themselves, al- though the other sleepers were fairly well filled with pas- sengers. The train rushed on through the night toward the dis- tant V irginia line, soon leaving behind the muddy Ten- nessee and slipping through the narrow mountain gorges at the side of the swirling, crag-lashing Holston. Each minute they climbed higher, sped through hills more lonely, and into that inexplicable streak across the South- ern States from Alabama to West Virginia, wherein civil- Revlon has reached only a primitive stage and then stag- _For the first hour the young man tried bravely to keep his attention fixed on a magazine; the girl sat behind him, and he could not see her without turning his head—which he would not do—but several times he had the feeling that her eyes were boring into the back of his neck. ya At last he left his seat and began pacing up and down the aisle of the car. For the first time in his life he realized that he had nerves ; their tingling made him misef- . a able, and he seemea powerless to stop them. pag Only once did the eyes of the young woman rest full upon his face, and that was when he paced toward her the — first time. After that she seemed utterly oblivious to his presence. But McWhorter’s gaze swept every detail of WS She was eveh her whenever he passed down the car. more beautiful than he had thought her. | A heavy mass of brown, rich hair, gray eyes that were Ne large and expressive, with delicately penciled brows and — lashes, a broad forehead, a nose finely molded, and high _ at the bridge, with a firm chin, and a mouth that might have graced the countenance of Juno—such were her fea- — tures ; and the slender, supple lines of her figure, but half concealed under the gray cloth of her traveling dress, matched them, at bo a McWhorter felt an absurd longing to know who ghey: was, to make her acquaintance ; and he had a sort of blind | hope that something—some accident, or a deftly executed design of his own—might happen to put him at her — service. His restless pacing in the aisle brought him an occa> sional glance of curiosity from the elder woman and open looks of admiration from*the maid, but the girl who filled - his thoughts gave him no more attention than she might — ad bestowed upon the regular intrusions of the traim The porter came forward to make up the berths, and the young lady stopped him with a gesture. _is there a dining car attached to this train?” she asked ban: ae Dey doan’ put on de diner twell we gits to ~ When will that be?” i r : Two o'clock in de mawnin’, miss.” : | The girl turned wearily to her mother. “I’m so hungty I den’t know why I didn’t think to get something at the station. Did any one ever hear of poorer accommodation et railroads offer to passengers? It’s ridict iw slg beh ee SE sabre ae Nk wade I oT ally wished thi Pee a h a 2 cin ern means of extracting a sandwich | nd 1a. ata Ao TIP TOP WEEKLY. 29 ghted scenery Up 0 ea coffee, at least, from the moon-li beggars tpping ; "t ee ‘But since wishes aren’t horses, Tt’s tox ~ meditated. auighter, a Louise,” the older woman answered her ay like this ut then it is too bad that we had to run Wish Siste? and just when the spring 18 SO beautiful, er Eugenia would have her sinking spells at Te “ere oppo ; * OPportune times; she always chooses a moment reach her. Men 1 : nd, wait a a inconvenient for any one to © ; ne'll’be as w ' ely as not, when we do get to New York, °F one of f l as ever and arraying herself outlandishly n're hun re everlasting pink teas. But I’m sorry €at till oo » for I don't see how we're to find anything Mey! breakfast.” hat ag rolled into his berth with the thoughts of i t chaotic + interesting girl named Louise still running “ttm of the ails through his mind. But the monotonous tion of are wheels along the steel rails, the lulling f movi € swaying car, and that soothing sensation at. Bee n and on through space without a single effort Tapped | ing brings, soon Solded his thoughts away an D 11m 1n sleep. Tea, 5 WwW a sang in his ears to t @ diamo ope stood in the pi 48 playin nd, where the turf was thick and green. He “Tiz0n w § an important game, and all the world to the Was tryin as white and speckled with a sea of faces. He Us & to pitch his best, but each time hrew bac i strange i ith a cane an ot wildly away from the a frock coat and a silk , he accompanying hum of tcher’s box in the center 4 g behind him struck & The sphere so that it sh but the strange man had on The 7 pitcher could not see his face. ‘ Mephisto Fern came rushing Up, in the red tights of uth Pheles, horns on his head, 4 horrible leer 10 his guth and eyes, ave been ‘throwing’ the ‘ Ziegler screamed, gas for a bunch of games is teeth in the hing h st ae you have,” the dreamer answered. med the manager and the stockholders. the Satanic figure, Tais- 4“ bove the dreamer’s head. ae have at © . a ca You lie!” shrieked *4€ Saw ede bloody wat club a T8-a. escending ; then——— Mews: Grennd| Thud! oy Ig and eee sat up in his berth, Made and aking in every timber. stop pressed his face against the .. The train ‘Not ped in a cut, and the sheare bu e mountain A, et arm’s length from his berth. had ota a: - turned to slip his clo Molee of e rear door of the car Ope? Don’ . mountaineer: ; Pini, none o’ you-uns poke yet head outen ugh 8, ‘thouten ye wanter git ed! RE we em, Jake, an’ I'll keep ‘em aes. holdup. In the heart of ‘the, Appalachian’ Ete less: mountaineers, were PIayiNS the dangerous © after the fashion of the desperadoes of the West- Plains, : Ae SAA € Bethorier tried to collect his thoughts ; . Te ahah gang? Had they wrecked the train? bar’, going to pillage: the passengers women ¢ th, too—in each car? . as ought of the girl, her mother, he car quiver- e window his pajamas, he thes over d the drawling an them air how many in? And and cae the maid, who Git along occupied the berths on both si ! ee ak ita “i oth sides of the car just behi : e bandits molest tl i eee R : he 1e€m row ee ts chivalrous examples of the Wiooee ey asted that they “never made war on w eres ee dren? women and chil- His answer came i é in the screams of slic Sue Ginsu) GbE screams the mé a aha in sobs of terror out of an up ee ve € em tones of a man mingled with natn eee eff ete Pn little-fool! We-uns won't est ss you-ms don’t make no rumpus. H pester ye hone y’ bles! . and out yer val- The red blood in th A e blond young gi : . eee But what? A ion, ee eee He must ¢ berth on the opposite side rah gun, oice came from ease do not disturb her and my mot! 3 a oe valuables here.” her, sir. I have McWhorter could feel r rather than hear tl it 1 J ? > < , 1 a step toward the speaker’s resting plac« e bandit take the curtain. place and pull aside “Hand ’em out, tl : ‘ , then, my purty al. An’ bizness, mind, By cracky! ye aire ieee: pate funny as purty I’d kiss ye _A long figure in blue paj : pajamas suddenly sl cur : shot Nae a a hesth opposite, like a Pe ioe He aot eas on the bandit below the hips TI a 1p like a paper d 4 - bie oe of the sginae! Fig SO A SENG Oe ang! ; ; cts = a pistol of the robber at the door i Se Baie aang! Rt of the man ies io ' ! bang!—the revolver in t V ja Tt . a O V el 1 7 nk auch qd sincke aad Hentning. Hashes hee oe ‘pr ions wh a sudden smudge of red care 7 se er’s yellow hair and then dripped “a oe ahi a ‘ coat na the bandit beneath him iny spots is own huge hand was gri : a $ gripped about. ; : Bee ees a shackle of steel. He held ee dangled help! an toward the ventilators, and the r i gl | helplessly in its fingers. Now he gave i SY OES errific twist; the man uttered a groan oe ve it a quick, er oWh ped to the floor. pain, and the McWhorter seized it instan | istantly, and a ra . ee ar ee him, He ‘sent ae an ari ga e e door, then. broug! ae acros : ght the wea eas $ a ee of the man beneath him She nen See ne muscles relaxed and his eyes a ‘cal ae th nis, feet, with the smudge Sfiel sie ane maed the | schtg of his face, the young raat atte re eek eta ae his pistol as hun ere arksman; but fortunatel : i Shine : it hatiiral ‘weapon was the cau wa spa ieien - he ior pte and when its eeabers ee La Saw 1S towerin blo m4 : - Te 7 y od-s ; one down upon him and bit a few fet waa ta geht and dashed out upon the platform away, he as os — runner in the Western League foll e tracks, dodging here and slipping i i nder ‘cars there, while the shots from other bandits and tl ne chorus. Lanterns wer i i s were flashing, guns spitting fire and sulphur ous-smelling smoke into the pi i ih e pitchy night, whi ing rows of car windows vented ine Sian (er Fiebt ened women and silhouetted i aor sun against th round of night and dark forms of fear ene te ane anc * from the platform. Re ae Bits m McWhorter’s car had aroused railr d 3 f -Th ’ j ¥ . oa . 30 eae men and travelers to action; all was confusion and the riot of battle—the noises and the color were like those of a pit in the nether regions. CHAPTER IV. AN INVENTORY OF INJURIES. Stumbling, bumping his head against car wheels and iron rods, tripping over ties and wiping charred cinders out of his eyes as he ran, McWhorter pursued his quarry without heeding the tumult about him. But he was no match for the nimble-footed son of the mountains who “was running for life and liberty, and they had scarcely cleared the end of the train when the man darted into the brush and sped like a rabbit up the steep slopes. When his pursuers gave up the chase and returned to the train, his robes de nuit spattered with blood, red mudstains, and cinders, the battle was over. In the bag- gage car the train crew was grouped around a brakeman sitting on a trunk; a doctor was cutting the shirt sleeves from around the boy’s limp, red-dyed arm. On an up- ended suit case near, the mail clerk sat, gritting his teeth while the conductor and another pulled taut a hasty band- age around his forehead. “Gee! ain’t it lucky you two fellers was the only ones hurt on the train, an’ youse no worse’n a smashed shoul- der an’ a slice otter your scalp?” exclaimed the fireman, as McWhorter stopped beside the car. In the interest over the wounded, nobody noticed him, and he walked on toward his own coach. Inside the sleepers every one was by this time either fully dressed or making strenuous efforts to be. Most of the cars were filled with the noisy hum of loudly talking, excited people, but when McWhorter reached his own car he found only the three women and the porter gathered in a whispering huddle around his berth. As he approached them he suddenly remembered that he was clad in a most unbecoming costume for ladies to behold, and he would 4 have turned to hide his confusion by flight, but they saw * \him before he could escape. “Oh, he’s killed! He’s all bloody!” screamed the fool- ish maid, at the sight of his’ face. McWhorter stared at her wonderingly, and uncon- sciously raised his hand to his cheek. It was wet, and for the fitst time he knew he had been wounded; he ran his fingers through his hair and then laughed as he felt the slight cut where the bullet had nipped his scalp. “Not much, > der if I shall ever taste any coffee again; it seems ages ~ must have passed since the last cup, and I think if I ever _ do have a chance to drink another I won't st op wtih an exhausted. Oh, for something to ‘eat! Just anything» will do.” McWhorter arose. “I'll bet I find you’ something to eat,” he said, and despite her protests he left the car. _ When he returned, less than an hour later, he was smil- _ ing rather foolishly as the timid boy whistles to keep his courage up. ex - “T don’t know how ; ; w you'll take to this,” he said; “but — if you’re game I think we can have something to stop T went foraging around through _ TIP TOP WEEKLY. a Pres and hills till I struck a cabin where some ‘sort Mimans have their being, and 1 tried to make a dickes u eee to cook us some food. But both the old woman 1 out of <* moonshine-distilling husband are scare’ ©". it ay senses by what has been going on here to-nig ae are afraid if they have anything to do with ts 4 1 8et into trouble—either be suspectea of a hand in taal , or of having informed on the robbers, oF may 88 of that sort, I fancy, And so they wouldn't 0 our coming near their little old log’ hut or to on *aything for us. But I did persuade em out of © Coffee and lean bacon, some cold corn bread and - Sugar, some plates and a frying pan. So if you * You'd like to try a camp-fire supper 1m the woods t}——__?? ee will T!” exclaimed the girl joyously. “How per- Y delightful! We can have a picnic by moonlight. Gear! the thought of that coffee and the smell - ! make me hungrier than ever: Do let tis go a ; Mother, isn’t this just too romantic? A holdup 4 . train, a terrible fight, with, lots of gore spilled Hobedy killed, and then a midnight supper by a 4 te in the woods! And we thought this hurry-Up omer wont Eugenia’s bedside was going to be so tire- Som Isn't it romantic?” ; 5. uSthing in mother’s face made it appat no means her en ent that she fat daughter’s views, but by oe Moubtedty was romantic, the good lady appear ies within herself, but such adventures Te S ‘ana ©* YOung man do not always lead to happy rests mec tly are not generally favored by the an ! om Mm the Blue Book. However, she wisely re “aay an; xpressing her disapproval, ‘and allowed the big i ay to assist her from. the car. :Vhorter led the way down the cut t in through the luxtirious grow ep eckle, and they followed 4 -tim of a gurgling little stream. Pe ey dipongh ibe hls for a little distance pel ae oo es leaping brightly from a brush fire oe e in t of hazel bushes, festooned with clamber A Vines. Anticipating’ theit acceptance of a Sa ‘i Only possible dissolution of their hunger, ait ta os Made his fire and set some brook water to Ba old coffeepot before infor NS tor supper a A h, it’s so Becatifil 7 exclaimed Miss Lote the *tself on a fallen log beside her mother, hae Wandered nearer the fire to inspect the woods i a —a f ‘bow from the brook, pile Rarity wn atos with a crevice 17 the © crude shape of a horseshoe, o a little path th of mountain laurel this until they came m.. Up its bank he v a» ; “ejaculated McWhorter RE hed oe om his pocket and commencec to s | pe As, beautiful, The moon seemed to stand Se be ah shoulders \of the hills, the air edie ee With the odors of a spting mign’» the een Whispered audibly when the wind stirred ie g ves, an tented ati merny, BIC AS er. The beauty ri y os : eg eaves, and the brook nip aha Hyer €d along to keep its tryst ee aga exduiisite dra- re fell ove ej in ell over their 7 indy disagreed 3 hiding beneath its fo Vr : empted robbery. ay horter constituted hit ; Protest from the others. ble thoughts ‘of Coit eh cook and scullery maid img “Perhaps two of them ¢ ming the ladies of at least realized that in letting him do it they were allow- ing him the greater pleasure in the picnic. When the water boiled he made the coffee.and set it aside’ fried the strips of bacon in a sooty iron frying pan, and’ warmed over the’ cold corn bread by laying it on some green hickory boughs stretched across. the: glowing entyire: The three women sat ‘on the fallen birch log, idly kick- ing the pebbles at their feet into the stream, while the young man poured the black beverage into heavy porce- lain cups, and, in a word, served supper. There were no knives nor forks nor spoons nor nap- kins, but McWhorter whittled some skewers or sharpened sticks, from a hickory sapling, and these served. the double duty of forks and spoons. The viands need no garnishment where hunger serves as sauce. Soar The supper in the woods was turned into a gay ban- quet by the light chatter of Miss Louise and the rol- licking spirits of the baseball pitcher. They drank ina- provised toasts to foolish subjects, railed merrily at their situation, and found outrageous fault with their lack of the comforts of a first-class restaurant when suppering after a real-life performance in the mountains. ° Even the elder woman unbended from her rigorous at- titude of propriety, and joined the laughing jest and banter of the others. But all the while not once did either of the ladies mention their names or offer any’ suggestion as to who they were or display any curiosity as to who their host and escort might be. McWhorter thought of it several times. He knew ‘that under any ordinary circumstances it was his right to make himself known; but he swore under his breath that, after all that had passed, if the ladies did not elect, to ‘honor him with their passing acquaintance he would 'go without it to the end of time. , _“Confound it!” he thought once during a period of silence, “the old lady’s studying me, and she can’t find my place. I’ve got so many curves and angles and rough corners she can't seem to fit me in any’of the stations shi knows anything about. Well, I’m hanged if I’m odie to help her out any!” Let it go at that.” OO ay _But when, toward the end of the feast, he bethought him of some of the gay airs of old Princeton, and began to roll out the songs of his college days ina deep Shichi the. mother of his new-found “divinity” began to sit np and take notice. The smiles she beamed upon him ‘nd her evident appreciation of his hearty Sn Bic Her sons will giy i ah i Three thes HER cee civ ae ud attested the fact that she felt»:much better, -A Princeton man is always a gentleman, unless he has degenerated. _At the end of his song, McWhorter arose and*held up his coffee cup. . “Here’s to old Princeton, Heayen bless her!” he said boyishly. Then his mood changed, and he laughed ‘ou cae a as bandits of ‘Tennessee! Long may they live to ro e mele olic— i - naeoks fun and frolic!» cunt me acne fo: Se A long period of silence seemed to fall upon the com- pany after that. There seemed to be ‘no reason for pro- longing their stay away from the train, and yet the ladies _ not *stir. oe aor busied himself washing their eee rth i i a Miss Louise fidgeted nervously, an unusual thing for a nk or type, and several times logked anxiously at 3 her, mothers » he older woman's face was a study in ia- ee , me A 32 Tif FOr decision. When the silence became unendurable her brow suddenly cleared, and the younger girl gave a sigh of rehef, “Sir,” the mother began without preamble, “my daughter and I are under much obligation to you. I think it is time we were introduced. I am Mrs. Chandler, of New York City, and this is my daughter, Miss Chandler. \We should be pleased to exchange cards with you.” McWhorter, who had peeled his coat while he was pre- paring supper, and had until the moment utterly forgot- ten that he had failed to don it again, now arose and with the utmost gravity scrambled into the garment without a word. When he had buttoned it from waist to throat he stood before the ladies with his hat in his hand and bewed as solemnly as a butler in a drawing-room. “Madam,” he said, handing her two of his cards, “per- put me to present to you and Miss Chandler myself—Mr. Orvall Rawls McWhorter, of Atlanta, Georgia, and other places too numerous to mention.” Though his burlesque was a mockery upon her own manners and she recognized it as such, Mrs. Chandler could not help being amused at the young man’s audacity, and her laughter chimed with her daughter’s. Seeing that he had not lost his case, the young man flung his hat down beside the birch log and flung himself alongside. “Let’s not spoil a picnic by making it a pink tea,” he said, and the former informal relations were resumed immediately. The wrecking crew was hard at work getting the de- railed train back to its track when the party reached their car again, and broad streaks of gray, lengthening across the eastern sky, denoted the coming of the dawn. The incidents of the night as well as the strong coffee they had imbibed had driven sleep from the eyes of all of them, but Mrs. Chandler and the maid confessed to being tired. Miss Chandler, expressing a desire to watch the wreckers at work, was escorted by the young Georgian around’ the scene, while her mother and the maid sat in the car. It was, like every other incident of the night, a sheer joy to him. But the remainder of the trip to Washington was not of unalloyed delight to McWhorter. To begin with, the news of the holdup had traveled on hours ahead of the train, and there were reporters galore at every. large sta- _ tion, seeking to interview everybody. More through what he considered good fortune than by any acuteness of his own McWhorter’s share in the episode was not generally known throughout the train, and at his request the ladies promised to say nothing. . A couple of big silver dollars properly placed in the porter’s hand, with a few words in his ear, had an as- tonishing effect on his tongue, and for once that agile / member of a porter’s make-up forgot to wag. As much as possible, the baseball exponent kept himself concealed ; even before he understood why, he had a feeling that too much advertising would not boost him to any great ex- tent with Miss Chandler, and especially not with her mother. | But it was not until after they had left Lynchburg that _ he began to feel really uneasy. He had bought the Rich- . mond papers there and was sharing them with Miss Chandler, who sat in a seat opposite. The back page of the paper which she was reading was filled with half-. tones and drawings of ball players, racing men, prize fighters, and descriptions of the leading sports of the day. McWhorter, looking across, saw them and was studying Pe REDEEM ES SS ey TERE SS SS WEEKLY. the illustrations with interest when Miss Chandler noted his expression, “Of course you are interested in sports and sportsmen,” she said, smiling casually. “AH men are. I am very fond of amateur sports myself and delight in the college con- . tests. But I don’t think professional sports are worth while. They become a business then, and they do not add anything to the world’s sum of knowledge or wealth. Professional sportsmen, I think, are a very common-look- ing lot of men.” McWhorter felt himself grow alternately hot and cold all over. It did not lessen his discomfiture when after a little pause -she asked: “What sport are you most interested in?” “Baseball,” he answered frankly; then added: “But I used to play football at Princeton, and was very fond of the game.” The next instant he regretted this piece of voluntary information; for Miss Chandler showed an embarrassing acquaintance with college gridiron heroes who. were num- bered among his old friends. Suddenly fearful that they , should discover too many mutual friends, he steered the conversation around to other topics. But he was not to escape so'easily. Late in the after- noon, as they were approaching Richmond, the historic old capital of Virginia, Miss Chandler suddenly looked up from a close scrutiny she had been furtively making of the big fellow in the opposite seat. “There is something very familiar about you,’ she said. “I know I’ve seen your shoulders before, and the way your head rests on your neck continually suggests | the thought that we’ve met somewhere. But I’m sure we haven’t; your face is less familiar, and yet I seem to have seen it, too. can’t understand it, and I don’t re- member where it could have been. I seldom forget people whom I’ve seen, and least of all a man of your striking appearance. When were you at Princeton?” In the classic language of the fans of the prize ring, McWhorter “‘stalled” her cleverly. His answer was so indefinite it told her nothing, and he was relieved when she began to point out the beauties of the landscape. “Gee!” he thought, “if some smart Aleck of a Washing- ton néwspaper man has stuck my face in his infernal sheet to-day I’m all the salad with her—I don’t think! It’s up to me to murder that newsboy when we get to. Richmond, I'll have to stall her off till we reach Wash- ington, anyhow. Then ‘skidoo’ for mine in a hurry be- fore some of that bunch fall all over me in the depot trying to pass the glad hand.” , fs The very thought of what it meant to him—might mean ,_ to him—sent a chill up and down his backbone: San ee Si TO BE CONTINUED, <>< << re “TIP TOP” AND A SELF-MADE MAN, January 41 1912. Street & SmitH, New York. GENTLEMEN: You may think it strange that a man of forty- two should be reading boys’ stories, but it is a fact that I am that old and have read Tip Top. since I was a boy. I started out in life without education or money, and, of course, 3 4 without friends. I have made my own way and have plenty of this world’s goods this New Year’s Day, also a fine wife and three fine boys, one in his third year of high school, and I will credit most of my success to Tip Tor. Respectfully yours, - Ladysmith, Wisconsin. J. L. Ryatt. ALL OF THE BACK NUMBERS OF TIP TOP WEEKLY THAT CAN NOW BE SUPPLIED 511—Dick Merriwell in the Ring. 512—F rank Merriwell's New Idea, 513—Frank Merriwell's Trouble. 514—Frank Merriwell's Pupiis. 515—Dick Merriwell’s Satisfaction. 516—Dick Merriwell’s Discernment. 517—Dick Merriwell’s Friendly Hand 518—Frank Merriwell’s New Boy. 19—Frank Merriwell’s Mode. 20—Frank Merriwell’s Aids. 21—Dick Merriwell’s Visit. 2—Dick Merriwell’s Retaliation. 353 Dick Merriwell’s Rival. 524—F rank Merriwell’s Youn 525—Frank Merriwell’s Fast Nine, 526—Frank Merriwell’s Field. 527—Dick Merriwell’s Reprisal. 528—Dick Merriwell Dared. | 529—Dick } Merriwell’s Dismay. 530—F rank Merriwell’s Son. 531—F rank Merriwell’s Old Flock. r re 598—Dick Merriwell’s Influence. 599—Frank Merriwell’s Worst Boy. 600—Frank Merriwell’s Annoyance. 601—F rank Merriwell’s Restraint. 602—Dick Merriwell Held Back. 603—Dick Merriwell in the Line. 604—Dick Merriwell’s Drop Kick. 605—Frank Merriwell’s Air Voyage. 606—Frank Merriwell’s Auto Chase. 607—F rank Merriwell’s Captive. 608—Dick Merriwell’s Value. 609—Dick Merriwell Doped. 610—Dick Merriwell’s Belief. Woods. g Crew. 611—F ra Merriwell in the Mar- 691—Dick Merriwell’s Dandies. Athletic 612—Frank Merriwell’s Fight for 698—Dick Merriwell in the Blk Fortune. 613—Frank Merriwell on Top. 614—Dick Merriwell’s Trip West. 615—Dick Merriwell’s Predicament. 616—Dick Merriwell Valley. in Mystery 532—Frank Merriwell’s House Party 617—Frank Morriwell’ s Proposition. 5s 33—Dick Merriwell’s Summer Team 584—Dick Merriwell’s Demand. 537—Frank Merriwell’s Proposal. 538—Frank Merriwell’s Spook- hunters. 539—Dick Merriwell’s Cheek. 540—Dick Merriwell’s Sacrifice. 541—Dick Merriwell’s Heart. 542—F rank Merriwell’s New Auto. 543—F rank Merriwell’s Pride. 544—Frank Merriwell’s 618—Frank Merriwell Perplexed. 619—F rank Merriwell’ . Suspicion, 620—Dick Merriwell’s Gallantry. 621—Dick Merriwell’s Condition. 622—Dick Merriwell’s Stanchness. 623—Dick Merriwell’s Match. 624—Frank Merriwell’s Hard Case. 625—Frank Merriwell’s Helper. 626—Frank Merriwell’s Doubts. 627—Frank Merriwell’s “Phenom.” > Vise roval. 673—Dick Merriwell’s Flier. 9—Dick Merriwell at Forest Lake. bos Dick ae ey ’ pe 674_Frank Merriwell’s Bullets. 743—Dick Merriwell in Court. 594—Dick Merriwell’s Warm Work. 67! Miao ene ee “hi an oe OP ies 145—Dick eae ore os > ne —Fran erriwell’s Rane . T45— rell’s , aoa aT ache ee ee ora dick Merriwell’s E es e tar oe ae iw ed Speer eas —_— *s Vanishing. 678—Dick Merriwell’s Developmen 7—Dic erriwell’s Enigma. Bor Dick Wiracch ‘Adrift. hy 679-_Dick Merriwell’s Bye. 748—Dick Merriwell Defeated. 587—Dick Merriwell, Lion Tamer. 588—Dick Merriwell’s Camp-site. 589—Dick Merriwell’s Debt. 590—Dick Merriwell’s Camp Mates. 591—Dick Merriwell’s Draw. 810—Fr ane Merriwell’s Warriors. 811—Frank Merriwell’s Appraisal. 812—F rank Merriwell’s Forgiveness 813—Frank Merriwell’s Lads. 814—Frank Merriwell’s Young Aviators. 815—Frank Merriwell’s Hot-head. 816—Dick Merriwell, Diplomat. 817—Dick Merriwell in Panama. 818—Dick Merriwell’s Perseverance. Young PRICE, FIVE CENTS PER COPY If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your news-dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office. Postage-stamps taken the same as money. STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, 79-89 SEVENTH AVE., NEW YORK