rank believed Wat Snell was a sneak, but he did not fancy it would be
at all necessary to accept the fellow as a friend just because they had
met under such circumstances. He meant to use Snell well, and let it
go at that.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed their clandestine feast. It was a luxury a
hundred times dearer than a feast from similar things could have been
had there been no secrecy about it and had it been perfectly allowable.

They gorged themselves till they could eat no more, and the contents of
the box proved none too plentiful for their ravenous appetites. When
they had finished, nothing but a few crumbs were left.

"There," sighed Harvey Dare, "I haven't felt so full as this before
since the last time Harris had a box."

"Nor I," said Wat Snell, lighting a cigarette. "Have one, Merriwell?"

Frank declined to smoke, but his example was not followed by any of the
other lads. Each one took a cigarette and "fired up."

"You ought to smoke, Merriwell," said Dare. "There's lots of pleasure
in it."

"Perhaps so," admitted Frank; "but I don't care for it, and, as it is
against the rules, it keeps me out of trouble by not smoking."

"It's against the rules to indulge in this kind of a feast, old man.
You can't be too much of a stickler for rules."

"It doesn't do to be too goody-good," put in Snell, insinuatingly.
"Such rubbish doesn't go with the fellows."

"I don't think any one can accuse me of playing the goody-good," said
Frank, quietly. "I like fun as well as any one, as you all know, but I
do not care for cigarettes, and so I do not smoke them. I don't wish
to take any credit to myself, so I make no claim to resisting a
temptation, for they are no temptation to me."

"Lots of fellows smoke who do not like cigarettes," assured Sam Winslow.

"Well, I can't understand why they do so," declared Merriwell.

"They do it for fun."

"I fail to see where the fun comes in. There are enough improper
things that I would like to do for me not to care about those things
that are repugnant to me. Some time ago I made up my mind never to do
a thing I did not want to do, or did not give me pleasure, unless it
was absolutely necessary, or was required as a courtesy to somebody
else. I am trying to stick by that rule."

"Oh, don't talk about rules!" cut in Dare. "It makes me weary! We
have enough of rules here at this academy, without making any for
ourselves."

"Come, fellows," broke in Hodge; "l