“Tho did I,” chirped Veazie. “I think he’th a wegular wuffian! If I could do tho jutht ath well ath not I’d never become tho beathtly stwong ath he ith. I wegard thuth stwength as thimply bwutal.”
“Brutal is the word, chummie,” agreed Ollie Lord. “There ought to be a law to prevent any man from training till he is so much stronger than other men. It isn’t fair to the other men.”
“Don’t talk like asses!” growled Skelding. “You know that either one of you would gladly be as strong as Merriwell if you could; but he’s not the only athlete in the world—or in Yale, for that matter. It’s this bowing down and worshiping him that gives me a pain! Why, I could be just as strong and skilful as he is if I’d deny myself drinks and smokes and good things to eat and keep working away every day to put myself in form. But I like a little booze, I enjoy a cigarette, I like to stuff my stomach full of good things, and I won’t pelt away with dumb-bells, clubs, chest-weights, and such things every moment I get from my studies. What’s life good for if a fellow has got to be a regular slave!”
“I with you wath ath thmart ath Merriwell,” lisped Lew.
“Well, I thought I was once,” confessed Gene; “but I found it was no use for me to try to buck against a fellow like him who kept at his very best all the time. I’m not fool enough now to try to fight him with my fists. If I found another good way to get in a lick at him I might try it.”
“That’s the only way to jar him,” said Tilton Hull, his high collar holding his chin very high in the air. “Let’s go up to Rupert’s room and talk it over.”
“Yeth, yeth!” urged Veazie. “I feel the need of a thigawette and a dwink of wine thince Gene had that wow with that low fellow Hodge. That dithturbed my nerveth.”
So they passed from the campus, and the sun seemed to shine more brightly when they were gone.
Bart Hodge had shaken hands with Frank during the rush and crush of the students to reach Merriwell, but he did so silently and withdrew at once. He had been ready enough to defend Merry from his defamers a short time before, but he was not among those who made the greatest hurrah over Frank’s return to college.
After a while Merry looked round for Hodge and saw him standing quite by himself on the outskirts of the throng. The expression on Bart’s face was not one of happiness; indeed, he seemed sad and depressed.