pear, and, as they watch,
Thornton says something that betrays a knowledge of Flemming's presence
in the boathouse.

"I'll go you two to one that Flem rows after all," he declares. "Do you
dare take me, Paulding?"

"By the way you say that I should think you were betting on a sure
thing, don't yer 'now," drawled Willis.

"I am," asserted Tom. "I have it straight that Merriwell is not in trim,
and will be laid off. Flemming was called to quarters at the last
moment."

"It'll be a corker on Merriwell if he is not allowed to row, by Jawve!"

"Yes; it will give me no end of satisfaction. That fellow put up the
'Grace Darling' job on me, and Diamond helped him to carry it out. I
have been a guy for the whole college ever since Danny Griswold told
down at Morey's how he fooled me. Some day I'll wring that little rat's
neck!"

"They never could have worked the game if Horner hadn't helped them."

"Of course not; but I have cut clear of Horner. We have separated, and I
never give the fellow a look when we meet. Like the other fools, he is
stuck on Merriwell, and he thought he was doing something cunning when
he helped them work the horse on me."

"If Merriwell doesn't row you'll have a chance to get back at them. You
can say you knew it all the time, old chappie."

"Oh, he won't row to-day, and I'll rub it in when I get the
opportunity."

Within the boathouse, at this very moment, Bob Collingwood was saying to
Frank Merriwell:

"You cannot row in the race to-day, Merriwell. You are out of
condition."

Frank turned pale.

"If you say I can't row, that settles it," he said, huskily; "but I
think you are making a mistake. I can row, and I'll prove it, if you
will give me the chance. You shall have no cause to complain of me."

"But I know you are not fit to pull an oar. You have tried to conceal it
from me, but I know you have a felon on your hand. Am I right?"

"You are right," calmly admitted Frank; "but give me a chance, and I
will row for all there is in me, even if it takes my arm off at the
shoulder."

Collingwood looked into Merriwell's eyes, and what he saw there caused
him to say: "All right, my boy, you shall row if we lose by it."

"If we lose the race it will not be my fault," returned Merriwell.

The Harvard cheer broke from a thousand throats as the Harvard crew came
down the stream and arrived first at the start. Yale followed almost
immediately, and two students who were on a trim little yac