Dashleigh leaped to his feet and danced with joy, while Phil wished to hug his big brother.
“He’ll keep his lead now!” declared Bert to Phil. “Don’t you fear about that!”
Merry was not smiling. He knew that overconfidence might prove a great mistake, and yet he was determined to win if possible. However, his first ball slipped from his fingers and barely knocked down a single pin on the corner.
Dashleigh wanted to whoop again, while Browning felt like thumping somebody. Only Buck Badger remained perfectly unshaken in his belief that Merriwell could not fail to win.
Frank was deliberate in his movements, and he placed the next ball to a fraction of an inch. The result was the complete collapse of the pins and a spare for him in his last box!
Dashleigh’s heart went into his boots, while Phil Starbright simply sat down on a bench, gasping.
“Twenty in the ninth; one hundred and twelve total,” said Bert huskily. “I’m afraid that does the trick!”
The pins were up, and Starbright prepared for the last effort. His first ball brought everybody to his or her toes, for it went straight and true into the proper place, and down crashed nine pins.
“Hooray!” yelled Phil, leaping up. “He’s going to do the same thing! He’ll get a spare, too!”
But now Starbright found himself shaking a bit. In this respect he lacked Merriwell’s nerve, for Frank was always the coolest and steadiest when the critical moment came.
“I must do it!” thought Dick, but in his heart there was a faint fear that he might fail. He sent the ball straight toward the pin, and several cried:
But the ball curved the least bit, brushed the pin, caused it to move off the spot at least half an inch, but left it standing.
Dashleigh collapsed and seemed disheartened until he made a sudden discovery.
“Hold on!” he shouted. “Merriwell has but one ball left! He should have rolled that one off before Dick. There is a bare chance left if Dick gets that last pin.”
“Why, it’s plain enough,” declared Bert. “Frank has one hundred and twelve in his ninth box, hasn’t he?”
“That ten goes into the last box, together with what he gets on the next ball.”
“What if he gets only one? He’ll have one hundred and twenty-three. Dick has that already. If Dick gets that pin, Merriwell must have two to tie and three to win. It often happens that a man doesn’t get but one or two on one ball. Get that pin, Dick!”