“Oh, Bart!” Elsie breathed, when they were alone outside; “I have suffered such terror, for I thought he would kill you! Had he done so, it would have killed me also!”
“Elsie—Elsie, my sweetheart! Then you do love me? Tell me that you love me!”
“Bart, I love you—I love you!”
And so Bart found his happiness as he had wished, without disclosing to Elsie the fact that Frank Merriwell and Inza were engaged.
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIFTEENTH MAN.
The early spring days passed rapidly at the college, and the interest of the students had been for days centered in the date fixed for the elections to the senior societies.
It was five o’clock in the afternoon of the third Thursday in May. In front of the fence the juniors had congregated in a body, and there they waited in solemn and expectant silence. Without doubt, every man in that throng by the fence hoped deep in his heart that it would be his fate to make “Bones.”
Some there were who felt confident, and their confidence showed in their faces; but others were doubtful and nervous, while still others, knowing that their chances were not worth reckoning upon, seemed resigned, as if nothing more than curiosity to watch the rest had brought them there.