“I wish that some day you might come to town with Jode and have dinner with me,” said he. “I should esteem it a great pleasure, Merriwell.”
“Thank you, colonel,” Frank answered, “but I’m afraid I shall be too busy here to accept many social invitations.”
“You won’t forget to take the Ophir boys over to the other camp?”
“They can look for us over there almost any day.”
“Good!”
He swung into his saddle, waved his hand, and started at a gallop down the gulch.
“We could have scored,” mourned Handy, “we ought to have scored. Mayburn——”
“I’m glad he fumbled,” interrupted Frank. “As I told the boys before they went on the field, I wasn’t eager to have them win, but I was more than eager to have them keep Gold Hill from winning. We outplayed them, and that’s enough.”
“You got into it yourself in order to study the other team at close quarters?”
“That wasn’t my idea exactly,” Frank answered, “although the experience will probably be a help. Come on,” he added, suddenly shifting the subject, “and let’s take our plunge in the pool.”