able, and smothered exclamations
of astonishment came from the boys.

His hand contained no more than a single pair of four-spots!

"Then you do not mean to call me?" asked Prank.

"Of course not! Think I'm a blooming idiot!"

"The pot is mine?"

"Yes."

"Well, I will allow I played this hand for all it is worth," said the
winner, as he turned his cards over so all could see what they were.

Wat Snell nearly fainted.

Merriwell's hand was made up of a king, eight spot, five spot, and one
pair of deuces!

It had been a game of bluff, and Frank Merriwell had won.

CHAPTER V.

FRANK'S REVELATION.

"Great Caesar!" gasped Harvey Dare. "Will you look at that! That is
what I call nerve for you! That is playing, my boys!"

Wat Snell rose slowly to his feet, his face very white.

"It's robbery!" came hoarsely from his lips.

"Steady, Snell!" warned Harvey Dare. "You were beaten at your own
game--that's all."

Snell knew this, but it simply served to make his rage and chagrin all
the deeper.

"I am not a professional card player," he said, bitterly, "and I am no
match for a professional."

He was more deeply cut by the manner in which he had been beaten than
by the loss of his money.

"Nor am I a professional," came quietly from Frank Merriwell's lips, as
he quickly sorted from the pot the money he had placed therein. "I
simply sized you up as on the bluff, and I was right. I don't want
your money, Snell; take it. I set into this game for amusement, and
not with the idea of beating anybody to any such extent as this."

Snell hesitated, and then the hot blood mounted quickly to his face,
which had been so pale a few moments before.

"No, I will not take the money!" he grated. "I take the offer as an
insult, Merriwell."

"No insult is intended, I assure you."

Snell was shrewd enough to know he would stand little chance of getting
into another game of poker with that company if he accepted the money,
and so he made a desperate effort to control his rage and play the
hypocrite.

"I don't suppose you did mean the offer as an insult, Merriwell; and I
presume I was too hasty. I am rather quick at times, and, as Dare
says, I was beaten at my own game, which made me hot. You had nerve,
Merriwell; take the money--keep it."

The words almost choked him, but he pretended to be quite sincere,
although his heart was full of bitterness and a longing to "get even."

It was some time before Fr