“That’s all right. Somebody had to talk. The team is being worked to death. Anybody that knows anything about football knows that. The men know it, but Merriwell was the first and only one who has dared say so.”
“Hurrah! hurrah!” cried the students. “What’s the matter with Frank Merriwell?”
“He’s all right!” thundered a great chorus of voices.
Somebody, wishing to arouse another expression of sentiment, cried:
“What’s the matter with Steve Lorrimer?”
Quick as a flash, Danny Griswold squealed:
“He’s got bugs in his garret!”
This aroused laughter and applause. All kinds of talk was made on the campus that night. Merriwell was discussed from a hundred different standpoints. The great majority of the students were friendly toward him, and they were highly indignant over the manner in which he had been treated.
A knot of Frank’s admirers gathered and told anecdotes about him. One of them related how, that very day, after being dropped from the eleven, he had lifted old Mother Muggs from the slippery sidewalk and carried her home in a cab.
“That’s not all he did, fellows,” said a voice.