“So I did, and he won’t. You haven’t any use for Merriwell, have you?”
“Not a bit.”
“Well, you know I haven’t. Watch him—watch him close!”
Frank was about to make his first attempt. The crossbar was placed and, gripping his pole, he started.
Up, up into the air he swung. It was a beautiful sight. The crowd was breathless.
At the proper moment Frank lifted himself higher on the pole to fling his body over the bar.
As he did this the pole suddenly broke beneath him.
Cries of terror came from the spectators as they saw him falling from that height, for it seemed that he was destined to strike on his head and shoulders and sustain serious, if not fatal, injuries.
One thing Frank had learned while practicing the Japanese art of self-defense was to fall in such a manner as to sustain the least injury. Usually a person who finds himself falling becomes rigid and stiff, so that when he strikes he is jarred in every part of his body. The Japanese fall limply, with their muscles relaxed. In this manner Frank fell.