THE FENCING-BOUT.
There was a buzzing hum of excitement round that table when Merriwell and the strange athlete with the scarred face had disappeared into the dressing-room.
All had seemed to feel that something unusual was to take place at this feast, but not one of them seemed to have suspected anything like this.
Merriwell had a way of doing remarkable things, but the termination of this “athletic dinner” was an event to be long talked of at Yale.
And the fact that Roland Packard had been permitted to sit at that table was also very surprising, for Merriwell had permitted it, knowing all the time the fellow was Roland, while others had supposed him Oliver, with the exceptions of the youth with the scarred face and Bart Hodge.
But a short time elapsed before Frank and the stranger both appeared, attired in light suits fit for almost any athletic task.
Hodge and Packard were the seconds, and, for the time, Bart put aside his intense hatred for the medical student who hated Frank—that is, he put it aside enough to confer with Packard and come to an understanding about what was to take place.
It had been the intention of the plotters to make the fencing-bout the last thing to take place between Merriwell and the stranger, and preparations had been made for the use of a special foil, from which the button could be snatched when the time came for Hawkins to puncture Frank through the right shoulder; but this discovery of the plot by Merry upset all these plans, and Packard was compelled to agree to Bart’s demand that the fencing-bout should be first and the boxing-contest last, with a wrestling-match between.
The students gathered about the table moved their seats so that all could look into the adjoining room with ease.
As the principals and their respective seconds drew aside for a moment before the fencing-bout, Packard said to Hawkins in a low tone: