CHAPTER III
TURNING THE TABLES
"This is growing very interesting," thought Frank, bracing his knees against the stones of the chimney so that he could hold his position easily.
"Why, I thought that Merriwell ranked high, professor?" said Frost.
"He's no fool," growled Babbitt, "and if he would study hard I presume he might lead the class in scholarship, but as it is, he spends most of his time in athletics and skylarking."
"Oh, not quite so bad as that!"
"Yes, it is. He's naturally bright, and by a very little attention to his lessons he's able to get marks that enable him to pass along with fair standing, while most of his time is given to anything but work. It isn't right that anybody should get through Yale so easily; it's bad for the rest of the students."
"I have an idea," said Frost, quietly, "that Merriwell's example isn't regarded as a bad one by other members of the faculty."
"Ah, you're just as bad as the students themselves in your fondness for that scamp!" exclaimed Babbitt. "He seems to fascinate everybody he meets except me."
"Yes, I think you're an exception."
"I believe you are trying to be sarcastic, Frost, but it doesn't make any difference; my mind is set on making an example of Merriwell so that the other fellows in his class who follow his lead will be frightened into studying harder."
"Do you then mean that this examination is aimed directly at Merriwell?"
"Not quite so strong as that. There are others, of course, but he's a natural leader, and I don't at all fancy the easy way he takes things, and then bobs up at examinations with enough knowledge to work out his papers."
"I should think," suggested Frost, "that that was all the professors could require of a student."
"That's because you're young!" snapped Babbitt. "You ought to forget that you've been a student – "
"Excuse me, professor, but I think just the contrary. It seems to me that the more an instructor remembers of his student days the better he will be able to get along with his classes."
"All right, then, you stick to your theory, and I'll stick to mine. Meantime, look at this paper; that's what I asked you to call for."
"Is this the examination paper that you're going to set before Merriwell's class?"
"Yes."
There was then a silence of some minutes during which probably Mr. Frost was studying the examination paper. At last he remarked:
"Well, I've looked it through."
"What do you think of it?" asked Babbitt.
"Do you want my honest opinion?"
"Of course I do! Why else should I get you up here?"
After a slight pause Mr. Frost said: "It seems to me that the examination is very one-sided."
"Eh?"
"Why, it is all aimed at a certain line of work, and doesn't cover anything like all the work done in the course of the year."
"Well, I have my reason for that!"
"I supposed so."
"I know that fellow Merriwell's weakness; I know just where he's likely to be faulty, and if he can pass that paper he'll do better than I think he can."
"Why, Prof. Babbitt," exclaimed Frost in an indignant tone, "it looks as if you were purposely trying to trip Merriwell so as to get him disciplined, or dropped!"
"The faculty can do with him what it likes," remarked Babbitt, crossly, "when I've handed in the marks on this paper."
"I must say it doesn't seem to me to be fair," said Frost.
"I don't care for any opinion of that kind," retorted Babbitt.
"Then I don't see why you asked me for any at all."
"Well, well," and Babbitt seemed to be struggling with his temper, "you and I won't dispute about it. You've got your work and I've got mine. I asked you about this paper because I thought you'd sympathize with me in my design."
"I can't sympathize with you in it, Prof. Babbitt, and I wish if you're going to give an examination that you would give one of the usual kind, including in the questions, problems that cover the entire year's work, and so get an idea – "
"The idea I want to get will come from the answers to these questions, Frost."
"Then I suppose I couldn't persuade you to make up another paper?"
"No, sir; I'm going to take this to the printer at once, and by to-morrow morning the copies will all be here in my room, where I shall keep them until the hour for the examination."
"I'm sorry you told me about it," said Frost.
"Why?"
"Because I think well of Merriwell and the others – "
"I suppose you'd like to warn them of what's coming."
"Prof. Babbitt!"
Frost spoke in a loud tone; he was evidently very angry.
"Oh, well," exclaimed Babbitt, "don't fly in a rage at that suggestion; of course I know that you won't betray any secrets of the faculty. I simply said that I supposed you'd like to warn that rascal, Merriwell."
"You've no right to think even as much as that!" returned Frost, "but you may be very sure that whatever I wish to do I shall not expose the questions on that paper. Good-day, sir."
"Good-day," said Babbitt, and immediately afterward there was a slamming of a door.
Then Frank heard the professor grumbling to himself, but what he said could not be made out. A little later there was the sound of a door opening and closing again. Prof. Babbitt had doubtless started to the printer's with the examination paper.
Frank then resumed his trip up the chimney. He had heard no sound from Page's room, and he was just as determined as before to turn the joke upon his classmate.
As he passed the level of Prof. Babbitt's room he saw that the fireplace of the chimney had been closed in the same way as in Page's room, but in this case the door was not a secret one, and at the moment it stood partly open. This was what enabled him to hear so plainly the conversation between the instructors.
When he came to the chimney top he squeezed through without much difficulty, and dropped out upon the roof.
The next question was as to getting down to the street, but to an athlete like Frank, there was little difficulty in that problem.
New Haven is often called the City of Elms. There were a number of these and other trees growing about, and one of them extended its branches toward the roof of this house in such a way that Frank could grasp it.
He took hold of it with the idea of climbing along to the trunk of the tree, and then shinning down, but the branch bent under his weight until his feet were not more than ten feet from the ground.
Accordingly Frank let go and came down with nothing more than a bit of a jar. He had landed in the yard beside the house, from which he saw that an alley led between buildings to an adjoining street.
His hands and clothes were grimy with soot.
"If I should go through High Street this way," he thought, "and should meet Page, he'd have the laugh on me in earnest. I'll just skip out the other way, get into my room and clean up and then give him a surprise party."
Accordingly Frank hastened through the alley and so to his room. He met nobody on the way with whom he was acquainted, and as soon as he was in his room he washed his hands and face thoroughly and changed his clothes.
"So, then," he thought in the midst of this operation, "Prof. Babbitt wants to make an example of me, does he, and he knows my weak points, eh?"
"Luckily, I know my own weak points, too, so far as mathematics is concerned, and in the next three days it strikes me that I can do a bit of grinding that will enable me to give the professor a surprise party. If my guess is right as to the kind of examples that will be put on that paper, I shouldn't wonder if I could give the other fellows a lift, too."
Meantime, Harold Page, having made his friend a prisoner in the fireplace, had gone from his room for the purpose of finding some other fellow whom he might bring back to share in the fun of Frank's discomfort.
As his room was at some little distance from the campus, he did not expect to find anybody on the street near it, so he started on a run in the direction of the college, for it was not his intention to keep Frank a prisoner more than a few minutes.
He had not gone very far before he met a classmate, whose name was Mortimer Ford. Ford was not a very popular fellow, although it could not be said that anybody had anything special against him.
He was acquainted with Frank and the particular crowd that chummed with him, and sometimes took part in their doings, but on the whole he was rather outside the circle in which Frank had been a leader from the start.
If Page had had his wish, he would have met Rattleton, or Browning, or Diamond, or some of the others more closely associated with Merriwell, for he knew that they would enjoy the trick with better humor than anybody else.
When he saw Ford his first impulse was to go and look up somebody else, but Ford called out to him:
"Hello, Page, how long have you been back?"
"Oh, I came back a week ago," Page answered, "and engaged a room, got it in order, and then went away again. I came back for good this morning."
"Glad to see you," and Ford shook hands. "What are you hurrying for?"
"Oh, nothing much," responded Page, awkwardly.
"I didn't know but you were trying to run away from that examination that old Babbitt has got up," said Ford. "Say! that is a nasty blow, isn't it?"
"It will bother a good many of us, I reckon."
They were standing on the sidewalk, and while they were talking Page was keeping his eyes out for some other friend.
There were no other students in sight, and he began to feel a little ashamed of the small trick he had played on Frank.
"I guess I'll go and let him out," he thought, "Ford will do as well as anybody else to see the fun."
So he said aloud:
"Come down to my room a minute, Ford; I've got something to show you."
"I wish it was a case of beer," remarked Ford, falling in with him and walking along, "or perhaps it's something better than that?"
"It's nothing to drink, but it's something better than that, just the same."
"Tell you what I wish it was."
"What?"
"Babbitt's examination paper."
"Great Scott! why don't you wish you owned the earth?"
"I do."
"You might as well wish that as to think of getting hold of Babbitt's paper. There isn't a secret society in Yale, you know, that is closer than an examination paper. There's hardly a case on record where one has been got in advance."
"Oh, I know it," said Ford, in a mournful tone; "of course it's hopeless to think of getting hold of the paper, and I hadn't any idea of trying to, but that's the only thing that's worrying me just now, and so I spoke of it."
"Merriwell doesn't seem to think the thing's going to be very serious," said Page.
"He wouldn't think anything was serious," answered Ford.
Just as they were entering the house where Page had his room, Prof. Babbitt came out. They had seen Instructor Frost go out and turn in another direction a moment before.
The students touched their hats to the professor, wished him good-morning, and passed in.
Prof. Babbitt grumbled a surly reply, and turned away toward the college.
Page wondered as he went upstairs whether Frank had kicked down the secret door to the chimney.
"It would be just like him," he thought. "Confound him! I wouldn't much blame him if he did!"
The minute he came into the room he glanced at the chimney.
"It's all right," he said to himself, and he felt a little triumphant. "It isn't often a fellow can catch Merriwell, and although it's a small kind of a trick, it will be something to speak of hereafter."
"Well, this is a snug sort of place," remarked Ford, looking around the room. "The ceiling is a little low, but the window seats are broad and you've got soft cushions. I don't see anything the matter with this; where's your bedroom?"
"Over there," responded Page, pointing to a door. "What do you think of this?" and he pointed to the chimney.
"It takes up some room," was Ford's comment; "but you've got plenty of that to spare."
"You know what it is, don't you?" asked Page.
"A chimney, I suppose?"
"Exactly, and it follows that it's hollow."
"I suppose so, unless it's been filled up."
"It hasn't been filled up," said Page. "When they put modern heating into the house they closed up the fireplace that was here, and I had some notion of opening it again, but I've decided not to."
He spoke now in a loud tone of voice, hoping that Merriwell would hear him.
"Why not open the fireplace?" asked Ford.
"Because I've got a pet that I want to keep there."
"A pet?"
"Yes. It's just the place for it – "
"What is it, a big dog?"
"No, though it's big enough."
"Queer place to keep a pet," remarked Ford. "How can you get him in there?"
"Why, he's in there already."
"What! Now?"
"Certainly."
"I don't hear anything."
Page was on the broad grin, and Ford crossed the room out of curiosity. He struck his hand smartly on the chimney, whereat Page exclaimed:
"I wouldn't do that, you might frighten him."
"But what in the mischief have you got there?"
"I'll show you in a minute. Now, then, old boy, want to see the light? Does you want to come out for a little time?"
Page spoke soothingly as if he were addressing a small cat.
"Shall I let him come out?" he went on, mockingly; "shall I let him have a little taste of fresh air and sunlight, poor thing?"
He listened as he spoke for some sign of Merriwell and it bothered him a little that he got no reply.
Ford looked on in wonder.
"Don't be so long about it!" he exclaimed. "Open up the thing if there's any way to do it, and let's see what you've got."
"All right, then; don't be frightened if he should run out suddenly," answered Page.
He put his hand on the knob of the secret door, and threw it open; then he stepped back, smiling broadly.
"There isn't anything there!" exclaimed Ford.
"What!" and Page got down on his knees and thrust his head into the fireplace.
Of course he realized in an instant what had happened. He knew that Merriwell must have climbed out at the top.
"Great Scott!" he thought, "if Frank should know that I brought a fellow up here to see the foolishness, how he would turn the laugh on me."
"Has the thing, whatever it is, vanished?" asked Ford.
"Gone completely!" answered Page in a tone of disappointment. "He must have flown out of the top of the chimney."
Ford got down, too, and looked up.
"Why, yes," he said, "if it was a bird, of course it would get out that way. You ought to have known better than to put a bird in such a place. What was it, a parrot?"
"No, not exactly," said Page. "I guess I won't say what it was until I've made some search for it."
At this moment there was a knock at the door. Page, still on his hands and knees, answered "Come in."
The door opened and in walked Frank Merriwell.
CHAPTER IV
READY FOR THE TEST
Page got up looking very sheepish.
He expected that Frank would begin to turn the laugh on him. Nothing of that kind happened, for the first moment Ford and Frank were speaking together.
They had not met since the close of the last term, and they shook hands in a friendly way, and made polite inquiries about each other's vacations.
"What have you got here?" asked Frank, then, stepping toward the fireplace with a queer look at Page.
The latter had not the nerve to answer.
"I suppose it used to be a fireplace," said Ford. "It looked when I came into the room just as if there was no opening into the chimney at all, but this door fits very closely."
"Were you trying to use the chimney as a telescope when I came in?" asked Frank. "I saw you were both on your knees, looking up."
"No," replied Ford, "Page had something in there, he won't say what it was, some kind of a pet, I believe, and it has flown out."
"No wonder," remarked Frank, dryly; "it would be a pretty poor kind of a pet that wouldn't fly out of a place like that."
"If it was an unusual kind of a bird," suggested Ford, "why don't you give notice of it to the police? It sometimes happens that they recover missing pets."
"Oh, I guess I won't say anything about it," responded Page, blushing furiously.
Frank could not control his laughter, so he threw himself into a window seat, and looked out, having his back to the other two.
"What are you laughing at, anyway?" asked Ford.
"Oh, at my thoughts!" chuckled Frank. "I think Page ought to offer a thousand dollars or so reward for his missing pet."
"You hold your tongue, Merriwell," said Page, "and some time or other I'll make it right with you."
"Are you two fellows putting up some kind of a job on me?" exclaimed Ford, suspiciously.
"Oh, no, on my honor!" exclaimed Frank, quickly. "I was just thinking of a little joke that you don't know anything about."
"Aren't you going to spring the joke?"
"No, I'm going to keep it to myself."
Page looked immensely relieved, while Ford, after a doubtful glance at both of them, turned his attention again to the chimney. He pushed the secret door back into place and then opened it again.
"Mighty funny idea, isn't it?" he said, half to himself. "Certainly, nobody would ever believe that that fireplace could be opened without a pickax."
"I supposed it was solid," responded Page, "and got at the secret entirely by accident."
"Opens easy, doesn't it?"
Ford kept opening and shutting the door.
"If this was in the olden times," he said, "when men had to hide from enemies, what a racket it would be to shut one's self in here and then climb out through the chimney."
Frank turned his back again to conceal his chuckle, while Page answered that he thought it would be a good scheme. Then he added:
"I think I'll take the door down and make a fireplace of it."
"And not get your bird back?"
"No. Hang the bird!"
"Well, of course, that's for you to say. As for myself, I'm going to get over to my room and look up mathematics for a while."
"I shouldn't think you'd need to," said Frank.
"Oh, a man grows rusty after three months away from the books, you know," answered Ford, "and an examination always makes me nervous, anyway. So long."
With this he left the room.
"Say, Merriwell," said Page, the moment the door was closed, "I don't know whether to feel obliged to you, or be as mad as a hornet."
"I don't see any reason for either feeling."
"Well, I am obliged to you for not turning the laugh on me when you had the chance to, and I ought to be mad for your getting out in the way you did."
"What should you have shut me in there for," asked Frank, "if you did not expect me to use my wits?"
"I just did it on impulse," Page answered, "and had no intention, anyway, of keeping you there more than a few minutes."
"It's all right, Page, I didn't mind it a little bit. I went straight out."
"I see you did."
"Now, see here, Page," said Frank, seriously, "I want to ask a favor of you."
"Granted."
"Keep that door closed during the next few days."
"What, the door to the fireplace?"
"H'm! h'm!"
"Why, yes, I'll do that, but why? I shouldn't have it open more than a minute or two at a time to show the fellows."
"Don't do that."
"Not show it to the fellows?"
"Not to anybody."
"I said I'd grant your favor and so I will, but what in the world is on your mind?"
"I'll tell you," said Frank, with a little pause, "after the examination."
"Babbitt's examination?"
"Yes."
"All right I suppose you've got some first-class trick you want to tell, and you haven't got time to get it in shape until the examination is over, is that it?"
"That's asking too much, Page. I'll tell you all about it later; meantime, it is a fact that men like you and me have got to put in some pretty hard licks if we want to pass that examination."
"Oh, thunder and Mars!" groaned Page, "I've made up my mind not to think of it. It's impossible for me to cram up on a whole year's work in three days."
"It might not be necessary to."
"How else can a fellow stand a chance of passing?"
"Well, suppose we should study just one part of the subject, and let the rest of it go?"
"And then there might not be a single question on that subject, Frank."
"Yes, and again they might all be on that subject."
"It isn't likely."
"But it might be so, Page."
"Do you mean to say, Frank, that you'd recommend a fellow to take a kind of gambling chance like that on an examination paper?"
"Well, not as a general thing, but seriously I do think it would be a good scheme this time. You see, Babbitt is springing this examination unexpectedly, and everybody knows that he's got queer ideas. Now I think it would be quite like him to center the whole examination on one topic."
"Why should he do that?"
"Well," answered Frank, slowly, "with the idea, perhaps, of catching the fellows by surprise."
"He don't need to take all that pains for me," said Page, dismally; "he could floor me if his examination Was made on the simplest things. If I was like Ford, now – "
"Oh, Ford doesn't need to worry, of course. He led the class in mathematics last year, didn't he?"
"Yes, and the year before, too. The idea of his being worried about the examination is all nonsense."
"I know it is," said Frank, "except that he's got his ambition up to keep at the lead; that's a natural ambition and decent, and I suppose he'll do a lot of grinding to get ready for the exam."
"I'd grind, too, if I thought there'd be any use in it."
"I believe there will, Page, and if you don't mind following my lead, I'll tell you what subject to grind on."
"Do you mean to say that you're going to cram up on just one part of it?"
"Exactly, and what's more, if you'll agree to it, I'll come over here with my books and we'll grind together. We'll get Browning, Rattleton and Diamond, and one or two others in our crowd, and do the job together."
"It's a bully idea!" exclaimed Page, "if it would only work. Gee! but wouldn't it be just great if we should happen to hit on the topic that old Babbitt has chosen and every one of us write a perfect paper?"
"I can't think of anything that would suit me better," Frank answered.
"Then let's try for it. It's just a chance, but I'm with you, Merriwell."
"All right, then, and you'll remember you're to say nothing about that fireplace, and you're not to open it until after the examination!"
"I'll remember, but you won't forget to tell me what it all means?"
"I'll let you into the whole business after Babbitt has examined the papers."
It was not a very difficult matter for Frank to persuade his closest friends to join him in preparing for the examination by studying hard on one particular topic.
They were so in the habit of following his lead that although they all regarded the effort in the same way that Page did, that is, a gamble, they were willing to take the chances if Merriwell was.
Frank was almost perfectly certain that it was not a gambling chance, because he remembered well enough how he had been faulty in that topic at the spring examination, and if Babbitt was going to try to trip him, that was the subject surely that he would select for his purpose.
Three days was none too long for the boys to refresh their memories on the subject and prepare themselves well on this one topic.
They started in in the middle of the afternoon and worked together under Frank's direction until dinner time.
He proved to be as hard a task master as Babbitt himself could have been. The boys were not exactly surprised at that, for it was natural for Frank to do with all his might whatever he undertook, but they joked him a good deal while at dinner about turning professor.
"That's all right," Frank answered, "you can have your joke. If we come out on this as I expect to, you'll be glad enough that you adopted my plan."
"I must say I rather enjoy it," said Diamond, frankly. "Studying by one's self is dull work, but when there are half a dozen or so grinding away, somehow the time passes more quickly."
In the same way they worked until late that night, and began again early the next morning.
Diamond offered the use of his room as a meeting place, and Puss Parker, who had been let into the scheme, suggested that they come to his room, too. Frank said no.
"We began in Page's room," was the way he put it, "and we might as well work it out there."
"His room is so far out of the way!" grumbled Browning.
"A little walk won't hurt you any," responded Frank. "I'd much rather keep at it there, for I'm used to the room."
So it was agreed that the grinding should continue at Page's, and it did until the day of the examination.
They had other duties to perform, of course, during these days, but the regular work of the college had not entirely begun, so that most of their time could be put in to preparing for their examination.
They allowed none of the other students to interrupt them, and for that matter, most members of the junior class were grinding in much the same fashion.
They had only one caller during the entire period. This was Ford, but he did not find them at work. They were just returning to the room from dinner on the evening before the examination, when they met Ford leaving the house.
"Ah, Page, I was just up to see you."
"Sorry I wasn't in," Page responded. "What was it, something special?"
"Oh, no," answered Ford, a little doubtfully, with a glance at the others in the party; "let it go until some other time."
"If it isn't important, then," said Page, "I wish you would, for we fellows are – "
"Sporting your oak, are you?"
"That's it exactly. We're trying to get up on mathematics and so we don't admit any callers."
"All right, then," said Ford, "I'm doing much the same at my own room. Good luck to you."
Frank did not keep the boys at work late that evening. They had pretty well covered all the ground that he had chosen, and he believed that they would be better able for the test the next morning, so at ten o'clock he ordered them to their rooms, and they obeyed as readily as if they were a crew training under their captain for a race.
At nine o'clock the next morning all the junior class assembled in one of the big rooms of Osborn Hall. Prof. Babbitt was there ahead of them with a number of assistants to look out for keeping the students in order and to prevent any possible attempt at cheating.
The students found their places by means of slips of paper on the top of each desk. Merriwell was a little amused to notice that he was placed far from the friends with whom he usually associated.
"I wonder if Babbitt thinks I would cheat?" he thought.
There was a bundle neatly done up in brown paper on the professor's desk at the head of the room. He stood near it until all the students were in their places, each with a pad of blank paper before him, and a number of sharpened pencils.
Then the professor broke the string with which the bundle was tied, and calling up his assistants, handed them several papers each to distribute.
They were the papers from the printer containing the fatal questions.