d Merriwell, brushing the hair back
from his eyes. "I didn't think we could do it in this way. But there are
others."

"You'll be a dandy if you devise a way," declared Little.

Diamond, with his coat off, his vest ripped up the back and his shirt
torn open at the throat, was regarding the jeering sophomores with a
fierce, sullen look. Evidently he was ready for anything. He glanced at
Merriwell, but said nothing.

Frank called the freshmen around him.

"Look here, fellows," he said, "we are bound to go into that park, and
we're going through that gate."

"That sounds well," said Dismal Jones, who wore an unusually long face,
"but I'm inclined to believe we're not in it with that crowd."

"Guess again!" exclaimed Frank. "Now listen to me, and I don't want one
of you to look around. You might arouse suspicion if you did. Close to
the wall there lies a long stick of timber."

"Well?"

"We'll use it."

"How?"

"As a battering-ram."

"To batter down the gate? Why, how are we to get to the gate?"

"The timber will take us there, and it will open the gate. When I give
the word we will rush for it, pick it up, and sail right into the sophs.
I'll bet anything they get out of the way when they see us coming with
that. It will take them by surprise."

"'Rah! 'rah! 'rah!" yelled several of the enthusiastic freshmen.

The sophomores yelled back at them in derision.

"They think we are beaten now," said Diamond, whose face had lighted up
somewhat as he listened to Merriwell's plan. "If we only can get the
best of them that way!"

"We can and we will," assured Frank. "Those who can't get hold of the
timber may look out that they don't hook our men away from it. That is
all."

The freshmen became eager for the effort, but Frank held them back till
he was certain they all understood just what was to be done.

"Are you ready?" he finally asked.

"All ready," was the eager reply.

"Then go!"

The sophomores were astonished to see the freshmen suddenly whirl all
together and rush toward the wall.

"They're going over! They're going over!"

The sophomores shouted their satisfaction and delight, fully convinced
that they had forced the freshmen to abandon all hope of going through
the gate.

Then came a surprise for them.

The freshmen caught up the timber, and Merriwell cried:

"Charge!"

Like a tornado they bore down on the men near the gate, toward which the
timber was directed.

With cries of amaz