llenge
XLIII Doughty Duelist
XLIV A Comedy Duel
XLV Another Kind of a Fight
XLVI Result of the Contest
XLVII Alive!
XLVIII Baby's Heroism--Conclusion

FRANK MERRIWELL'S CHUMS.

CHAPTER I.

FRANK ASKS QUESTIONS.

September was again at hand, and the cadets at Fardale Military Academy
had broken camp, and returned to barracks.

For all of past differences, which had been finally settled between
them--for all that they had once been bitter enemies, and were by
disposition and development as radically opposite as the positive and
negative points of a magnetic needle, Frank Merriwell and Bartley Hodge
had chosen to room together.

There was to be no more "herding" in fours, and so Barney Mulloy, the
Irish lad, and Hans Dunnerwust, the Dutch boy, were assigned to another
room.

Like Hodge, Barney and Hans were Frank Merriwell's stanch friends and
admirers. They were ready to do anything for the jolly young plebe,
who had become popular at the academy, and thus won both friends and
foes among the older cadets.

Barney was shrewd and ready-witted, while Hans, for all of his speech
and his blundering ways, was much brighter than he appeared.

Still being plebes, Merriwell and Hodge had been assigned to the
"cock-loft" of the third division, which meant the top floor on the
north side of the barracks--the sunless side.

The other sides, and the lower floors, with the exception of the first,
were reserved for the older cadets.

Their room contained two alcoves, or bedrooms, at the end opposite the
door. These alcoves were made by a simple partition that separated one
side from the other, but left the bedrooms open to the rest of the room.

Against the walls in the alcoves stood two light iron bedsteads, with a
single mattress on each, carefully folded back during the day, and made
up only after tattoo.

The rest of the bedding was carefully and systematically piled on the
mattresses.

In the partitions were rows of iron hooks, on which their clothing must
be placed in regular order, overcoats to the front, then rubber coats,
uniform coats, jackets, trousers, and underclothing following, with a
bag for soiled clothing at the rear.

On the broad wooden bar that ran across the front of these alcoves,
near the ceiling, the names of the cadets who occupied the bedrooms
were posted, so inspecting officers could tell at a glance who occupied
the beds.

At the front of the par