am inclined to
doubt if it is an easy thing to spoil that fellow. He hasn't put on airs
since coming to Yale, has he?"

"No."

"Instead of that, he has lived rather simply--far more so than most
fellows would if they could afford anything better. He has made friends
with everybody who appeared to be white, no matter whether their parents
possessed boodle or were poor."

"That is one secret of Merriwell's popularity. He hasn't shown signs of
thinking himself too good to be living."

"Yet I have it straight that he has a fortune in his own right, and he
may live as swell as he likes while he is here. What do you think of
that?"

"It may be true," admitted Pierson. "He is an original sort of chap--"

"But they say there isn't anything small or mean about him," put in
Collingwood, swiftly. "He isn't living cheap for economy's sake. You
know he doesn't drink."

"Yes. I have made inquiries about his habits."

"Still they say he opens wine for his friends now and then, drinking
ginger ale, or something of that sort, while they are surrounding fizz,
for which he settles. And he is liberal in other ways."

"He is an enigma in some ways."

"I have heard a wild sort of story about him, but I don't take much
stock in it. It is the invention of some fertile brain."

"What is it?"

"Oh, a lot of trash about his having traveled all over the world, been
captured by pirates and cannibals, fought gorillas and tigers, shot
elephants and so forth. Of course that's all rot."

"Of course. What does he say about it?"

"Oh, he simply laughs at the stories. If a fellow asks him point-blank
if they are true he tells him not to let anybody string him. He seems to
regard the whole business as a weak sort of joke that some fellow is
trying to work."

"Without doubt that's what it is, for he's too young to have had such
adventures. Besides that, there's no fellow modest enough to deny it if
he had had them."

"Of course there isn't."

In this way that point was settled in their minds, for the time, at
least.

There was no band to welcome 'Umpty-eight back to New Haven. No crowd of
cheering freshmen was at the station, and those who had gone on to
Cambridge to play and to see the game got off quietly--very quietly--and
hurried to their rooms.

Merriwell was in his room ahead of Rattleton. Harry finally appeared,
wearing a sad and doleful countenance.

"What's the matter, old man?" asked Frank as Harry came in and flung hi