e 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. Pass 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 nobody 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 k