sion of
satisfaction on his face was complete.

"Who said Merriwell was going down?" squealed Danny Griswold, in
delight. "Somebody fooled himself that time!"

Thornton bit his lip, muttering some fierce exclamation beneath his
breath.

Of them all no person was more astonished than Fred Flemming. He lay
dazed and wondering, scarcely able to realize that he was flat on his
back and his enemy across his chest.

Frank arose hastily, his face quite calm and expressionless. He did not
betray satisfaction or triumph, but his manner indicated that what had
happened was no more than he had fully expected. He had confidence in
himself, which any one must have to be successful, but still he was not
overconfident, which is a fault quite as much as timidity.

Flemming sat up. He had felt himself lifted from his feet with a
twisting movement, and he had felt himself whirled in the air, but still
he could not understand how the feat had been accomplished.

Shame caused the hot blood to rush into his face, and he ground his
teeth together, his whole body quivering.

"It was an accident--it must have been an accident!" he told himself. "I
tried to throw him so heavily that I overreached myself."

The look on Merriwell's face cut him like a keen knife and made him feel
a fierce longing for the next tussle.

"They actually think he threw me, when I threw myself," was his thought;
"but I will undeceive them in a moment. Next time I will drive him into
the earth beneath me! There'll be no further miscalculation."

Thornton was at the side of his friend.

"How in the world did you happen to let him take a fall out of you in
that manner?" whispered Tom, in extreme disgust.

Flemming's lips curled.

"Bah!" he returned. "He did not do it!"

"No? But you were thrown! Explain that."

"I was not thrown."

"Yes, you were, my dear fellow! Heffiner has given Merriwell credit for
winning the first fall."

"I made a misjudgment in the amount of strength I should use on the
fellow, and I turned myself in the air," declared Fred.

"Is it possible?"

"Of course it is!" hissed Flemming, who saw the incredulity in the face
of his friend. "He is even easier fruit than I imagined."

Thornton brightened up somewhat, although not fully satisfied.

"You must not let him accomplish it this time."

"I tell you he did not accomplish it before!" came bitterly from the
crestfallen and furious youth. "I will convince you of that in a mome