He hasn't done a thing to me but win every time I
have held up a hand against him of late."

Frank said nothing, and had there been a light in the room, Bart would
have seen that his face bore an expression that was anything but one of
satisfaction.

Merriwell did not sleep well during the few hours before reveille. His
slumber was filled with dreams, and he muttered and moaned very often,
awaking Hodge once or twice.

"I guess he is still playing," thought Bart.

At reveille Frank was, as a rule, very prompt about springing out of
bed and hurrying into his clothes and through his toilet. On the
morning after the game, however, he continued to sleep till Hodge
awakened him by a fierce shaking.

"Come, come, man!" said Bart; "turn out. Are you going to let a little
thing like last night break you up?"

Frank got up wearily and stiffly.

"I didn't sleep well," he said.

He was quite unlike his usual spirited self.

"Get a brace on," urged Bart. "You want to be on hand at roll-call."

Finding it was necessary to "get a brace on," Frank did so, and was
able to leave the room in time to go rushing down the stairway and
spring into ranks at the last second.

After breakfast, as Bart was sprucing up the room, and Frank was vainly
trying to prepare himself for the first recitation, but simply sat
staring in a bewildered way at the book he held, the former said:

"You don't know what a slick trick you did last night, Merriwell! Why,
I'd given almost anything if I had been the one to soak Snell in that
fashion."

Frank put down the book, and rose to his feet, pacing twice the length
of the room. All at once he stopped and faced Bart, and his voice was
not steady, as he said:

"You didn't mean any harm, old man, but you did me a bad turn last
night."

Bart stared, and asked:

"How?"

"By taking me where I could sit into a game like that. I am going to
tell you something. I have one great failing--one terrible fault that
quite overshadows all my other failings and faults. That is my passion
for cards--or, to put it more strongly and properly, my passion for
gambling."

Bart whistled.

"You don't mean to say that you have a failing or a fault that you
cannot govern, do you?" he asked.

Frank put out one hand, and partly turned away. Instantly Bart sprang
forward and caught the hand, saying swiftly:

"There, there, Merriwell--don't notice it! I didn't mean anything.
You are sensitive to-day.