“I shall stay away from the Harvard game,” said Ben Halliday. “I can’t afford to have my feelings harrowed up by seeing the Cambridge gang walk all over Yale.”
“I have an idea that there will be an unusually small showing of Yale men at the game,” said Parker.
“What does Lorrimer have to say about it?” asked somebody.
“Not a word!” cried Halliday. “What can he say? He knows he is to blame for it all.”
“Say, fellows,” he called, “heard the latest?”
“Yes, sah!” cried Mason; “he’s there. Walked upstairs alone, too.”
With a whoop, the men rushed for Merriwell’s room. They stormed up the stairs and came bursting in. They found Frank bolstered up on a couch.
“Don’t mind the door,” he said, with a faint smile, as they slammed it open and came crowding in. “Kick it down if it’s in your way, gentlemen.”
“Merriwell!” shouted Rattleton, catching hold of his hand. “We didn’t expect to――――”
“Ouch!” exclaimed Frank, with a wry face. “Drop that paw! You gave me a yank that hurt my side then.”
“But your rib,” said Hodge breathlessly――“the doctor said it was broken.”
“That was what he thought, but you know his examination was rather hasty.”
“That’s splendid! It gives me great satisfaction, but I have to tell you that the doctors at the hospital informed me the injury was about as bad as a broken rib.”
Hodge’s face fell, and the others looked disappointed and concerned.
“Then you can’t play football?” asked Rattleton.
“But what’s the odds,” smiled Merry, “as long as they were going to keep me in reserve. There are other men who will fill my place.”
“There’s no other man living who can fill your place!” exclaimed Bart.
“Thank you, old man. That’s what you think. It’s plain there are others who do not think that way.”
“They’re fools! We’re done for, Merriwell! We can’t beat Harvard without you! I’ve had my say, and they can do what they like about it so far as I am concerned. I don’t want to play.”
“Don’t talk that way, old man! You must help Yale win! Think how I shall wait for news of the game! If Yale is defeated again this year I’ll be the sorest man on the campus. I’ll be sorer than I am now!”
“That’s being loyal!” muttered Jack Diamond. “Talk about patriotism――that’s it!”
“It shows the kind of a heart he carries round in his bosom,” said Rattleton, in an aside.