Rains was smiling and confident.
"If there is anything I can do, I can jump," he told Bascomb, in an aside. "I will beat him by a foot, at the very least."
"I hope you will beat him by a yard!" muttered the big fellow, sullenly. "I want to see him taken down. He has been a leader long enough."
"Oh, I will manage to win some of his glory away from him before the spring campaign opens," said Rains, confidently. "Don't you worry about that; but," he added, swiftly, "don't repeat my words to anybody. I am not going to boast, but I am going to do something. That's the proper way."
"Sure," nodded Bascomb. "I guess you can do it, too."
In his heart, however, Bascomb did not feel at all sure that Rains would prove the victor in the jumping contest.
"Merriwell is the hardest fellow to beat that I ever saw," he told himself. "It doesn't seem possible to down him, and keep him down. If one seems to get the best of him for a bit, he bobs up serenely directly, and comes out on top. It is just his luck!"
If Bascomb had said it was just Merriwell's pluck he would have hit the truth, for Frank, besides being physically capable, was endowed with any amount of determination, having a never-say-die spirit that would not give up as long as there was a ghost of a chance left to pull out a winner.
In the words of the boys, "Merriwell was no quitter."
"Ready," called the fellow who had been chosen for referee. "Rains will set the stint."