“She’s right,” said more than one. “Merriwell knows what he is about. The kid will stay in more than four innings. Let’s call the gentleman with the long green.”
Whereupon there was a hasty plunging into pockets, and the students quickly formed a pool, handing their money over in fives and tens to one of their number.
“Come, come!” cried the man with the dog; “will no one take me? Then I’ll make it three innings. The boy will not be in the box for Yale at the end of the first half of the third inning. Here is a cool hundred that says so.”
A Yale man pushed his way through, saying:
“I think I’ll have to cover your century, sir. Will you be good enough to nominate the stakeholder?”
“You?” sneered the man with the dog, looking at the beardless student. “Why, when did you ever see a hundred?”
“If you’ll put your money up, I’ll guarantee to cover it.”
“Then let’s make it something worth while!” exclaimed the fellow, who had heavy black eyebrows and a deeply lined face. “A hundred is too small. Let’s make it two hundred.”
Now it happened that the Yale men had placed very nearly two hundred dollars in the hands of the man deputized to place the bet, and he at once said:
“That is quite satisfactory to me.”