Leslie had grown desperate, having come to the conclusion that Frank was not to be cajoled into playing poker any more. He now determined, of a sudden, that he would take another tack, and see if he could not anger Merriwell into coming.
Hodge remembered that Gage had tried to injure Frank in the past, and the dark-eyed plebe was ready to blaze forth in an instant. Although he did not know it, Gage was treading on the very thin crust that covered a smoldering volcano.
Leslie was not warned by the fire that gleamed in Bart"s eyes, for he continued:
"If Merriwell persists in staying away--if he does not show up and give Snell a chance to get square, he is----"
A knock at the door!
It was the regular signal for admittance, and so, after the first start of alarm, George Harris said:
"Open up quickly. It must be Sam, and, if so, there"s something wrong in the wind."
Wat Snell opened the door, and, to their amazement, into the room stepped Frank Merriwell!
It was with difficulty that the boys suppressed a shout of welcome.
Snell quickly closed the door, and then the boys rushed at Frank and shook his hand delightedly.
"You"re a sight for sore eyes!" exclaimed Wat Snell, joyously.
"Dot vos so!" agreed Hans. "You vould peen a sighd for a plind man!"
"I will take back anything I said, and swallow what I was going to say," came from Leslie Gage. "I didn"t think it could be possible you wouldn"t come round again, old man."
"Now, we will have a jolly little racket," said George Harris. "And you want to look out for Merriwell. He is a great bluffer."
"But he doesn"t bluff all the time," supplemented Harvey Dare. "I found out that he held cards occasionally, for I called him a few the last time he was around."
Frank laughed; it was his old, jolly laugh, suppressed somewhat. He seemed like himself once more, as Bart Hodge instantly noted. He had cast off the strain under which he had been for so long, and now Frank Merriwell, mischievous and full of fun, was on deck again.
But this did not quite please Hodge, who watched his roommate closely, his uneasiness growing as he saw how care-free Merriwell seemed. What had brought about such a change? Had Frank thrown his resolutions to the wind?
"I"ve got a supply of coffin-nails," said Snell, as he produced several packages of cigarettes. "Help yourselves, gentlemen. Pa.s.s them round."
Round they went, and when they reached Frank Merriwell he accepted one.
"I am going to be real dissipated to-night," he laughed, as he struck a match and "fired up." "You may have to carry me to my room on a shutter, for I actually am going to smoke!"
Leslie Gage and Wat Snell exchanged glances of satisfaction.
A black look came to Bart Hodge"s face, and he half started up as Frank took the cigarette, acting as if he would utter a warning. Then he settled back in his seat, thinking:
"Let him smoke, if he wants to. One cigarette will do n.o.body harm."
But Hodge knew in his heart that it was not the smoking of one or a dozen cigarettes that was dangerous to Merriwell; it was the breaking of his resolutions--it was the feeling of abandon and recklessness that had seemed to seize upon him.
Not much time was lost in beginning the game, but now Bart insisted on a proper limit.
"What do you say, Merriwell?" asked George Harris. "What kind of a limit suits you?"
"Anything from five cents to the sky," was the laughing reply. "Fix it to suit yourselves."
Once more Gage and Snell exchanged glances.
Bart stuck for a moderate limit, but he finally agreed to make it a dollar, the ante being five cents.
"Vell, uf I had pad luck, I don"d last long at dot," said Hans. "I don"d haf more as four tollars und sefen cends."
"Merriwell won at the start the last time he was here, and he kept the luck straight through to the finish," observed Harvey Dare. "It isn"t often such a thing occurs."
A few minutes later, as Harris beat Frank, the latter said:
"This game starts differently from the other, fellows. I have lost at the beginning, and to keep up the precedent I have established, I must lose all through it."
He said this smilingly, as if he really wished to lose.
As the cards were being dealt, Bart, who sat by his roommate"s side, leaned toward Frank, and softly asked:
"What made you come, old man?"
"Couldn"t keep away," was the reply.
"Well, be careful--keep watch of yourself."
"Not to-night, Bart. I am going to let loose on this occasion."
Frank played recklessly from the start, and fortune fluctuated with him, for he would forge ahead and then drop behind, but he was never much ahead, nor far behind. For all of his careless playing, he seemed to hang about even.
Leslie Gage was too shrewd to try to get at Frank on this occasion, for he wanted Merriwell to win again, so they would get a still firmer hold upon him.
Wat Snell lost steadily, soon beginning to growl, and keeping it up.
Once, under cover of conversation the others were making, he leaned toward Gage and muttered:
"Merriwell is my hoodoo. I can"t do a thing with him in the game."
"Keep cool," warned Leslie. "Never mind what happens this time. We"ll get at him again."
Hans Dunnerwust managed to blunder along and keep in the game by sheer luck, for he did not play the cards for their face value at any time.
Still he made enough to keep on his feet and not have to get out of the game.
"Vell!" Hans finally exclaimed, as he tried in vain to win, "uf I don"d do petter as dot, I vill suicide go und gommit bretty soon alretty."
"By the way, Hans," said Frank, "do you know that the fellow who used to have this room committed suicide here?"
"Shimminy Gristmas!" gurgled the Dutch boy. "You don"d say dot!"
"Yes, I do, and the room is said to be haunted by his spook, which cannot rest in its grave."