“Oh, say! let me have a hundred, somebody!” Dashleigh begged.
“The New London man was a fool to offer such a wager!”
“I think so myself; and a ‘fool and his money’ are likely to be soon parted. But the idea is out, somehow, that Frank is afraid to accept the challenge and will not accept it under any consideration. They say he values his reputation as a successful leader of athletic-teams more than he does his father’s money; that five thousand dollars is nothing to Charles Merriwell, and a defeat of his polo-team, made up as it is of his close friends, would be everything to Frank. So, the fools are silly enough to think Frank won’t play, and that they’ve got a cinch.”
“You’re sure, then, that Frank will accept?”
“Why, of course he’ll accept! If I didn’t know him so well I’d think he was holding off this way on purpose to get big bets out of the proposition. He will accept the challenge to please his father. Nothing else would make him do it, probably; but that will.”
“Say! somebody lend me two hundred dollars!” Dashleigh begged. “If I thought my folks would do it, I’d telegraph them to forward me two or three months’ allowance in advance. But they wouldn’t. You’re going to put up money on the game, too?”
“Sure!”
Jack Ready did not go away from the rooms of the chums empty-handed; and not long after, when all arrangements had been made and other sources laid under contribution, Bertrand Defarge, Don Pike, Roland Packard, Gene Skelding, the members of the Chickering set, and many others who had been flashing their “rolls” under the nose of every friend of Frank Merriwell, found their offered bets covered, and were bantered to lay wagers on the game.
It was a night of excitement, for in all the places of resort for students, and in many other places as well, the challenge of the New London men and the probable action of Frank Merriwell, together with the bets that were being offered and made, were almost the sole topics of conversation.
Dade Morgan went to his rooms smiling and elated. He had worked out the plan given to him by Dion Santenel.