"That's it," said Prof. Babbitt, "and I had one hundred and forty-six papers. This is very extraordinary."
He glared savagely about the room, his glance resting longest upon the desk where Merriwell sat. Frank was already busily engaged in working out the first problem.
Most of the other students had already gone to work, but some of them were idly watching to see what the professor was going to do, and hoping that he would postpone the whole examination.
This may have been in his mind; but if so, he thought better of it.
"We shall have to go on," he said, presently. "I will write out two papers for those who are short."
He did so, and in the course of a few minutes all the students were at work.
Frank could not help but smile when, after a rapid glance at the problems on the paper, he saw that he had hit exactly the subject chosen by the professor to floor him. The questions were all confined to the one topic which he and his friends had been studying on.
"Now, unless they lose their heads," he thought, "they'll all write a perfect paper."
He had previously warned them not to be in a hurry during the examination.
According to the custom at Yale a written examination of this kind lasts for three hours, that is, three hours is the longest time during which any student is allowed to work at the problems.