“Past time.”
“Well, we’ll have to let the freshies go it the best they can. I guess the sophs have got them, all right. It’s too bad, after Merry has given them so much of his time.”
“This business has been hanging fire right along,” said Bart. “I knew there were some men who meant that the freshmen should not win, anyhow. I think Merriwell knew it, too, and I’m sorry he should let those chaps get ahead of him. They’ll have it to crow over for a month.”
Carson sat down.
“It’ll be the first time Frank has been tripped up,” he said.
If any one of them had turned about and looked behind them at this moment he might have seen two fellows who disappeared into a thick mass of shrubbery, amid which they met.
“The trick is done,” said one. “That’s why there is a delay about the start. Give me the notes you hold against me, Snodgrass.”
“Wait a little, Arnold,” said Ben Snodgrass. “I’ve ceased paying in advance since I forked over twenty-five plunks to Buster Bill, and he failed to carry out his part of the bargain.”
“He did the best he could. It wasn’t his fault.”
“Yes, it was.”