has astounding luck."

"Do you think it is all luck?"

Bart looked surprised.

"Why, to be sure. The fellow plays a square game."

"Why should he? You know, as well as I, that he is not square by
nature."

"That's right; but his cards are cut every time, and he doesn't know
enough to put 'em up."

"There are other ways of cheating besides putting the cards up."

"That's true, but I do not believe Gage is on that lay. He simply has
beastly big luck."

"Perhaps."

"You do not think so?"

"I do not know. You will remember that Gage has no particular love for
either of us, and we have both lost heavily."

"Do you mean to quit playing?"

"Possibly."

Hodge looked doubtful, for he now understood how strong must be the
temptation for Merriwell to follow the game.

Frank completed dressing, and left the academy. He turned his
footsteps in the direction of Snodd's, but still he had no intention of
going there. Keeping under the brow of the hill, he passed around to a
large grove in the rear of Snodd's buildings.

It was early October now, and the air was bracing and exhilarating, for
all the afternoon was mild. The trees were flaming with color, and the
leaves had begun to sift down. In the grove squirrels romped and
chattered.

It seemed good to Frank to get away alone under the shadow of the
trees. New strength and new life came to him, and new resolves and
determinations formed themselves unsought and unbidden in his mind. He
felt that it was a privilege and a blessing to be alive.

Had he felt free to meet Inza then, he would have been quite happy.

He flung himself down beneath a great tree at the edge of the grove,
where he could see Snodd's buildings. For a long time he lay there,
thinking and dreaming.

Suddenly he started up. Three figures were leaving the buildings and
coming toward the grove. He saw they were three girls, and he
instantly recognized one of them as Inza. The others were Belinda
Snodd and one of the village girls, with whom Frank was slightly
acquainted, Mabel Blossom, generally known as May Blossom.

"They are coming here!" exclaimed Frank. "They must not see me!"

He arose hastily, and scurried away into the grove, and he did not stop
till he had reached the shore. There he sat down amid some rocks, and
remained a long time, as it seemed to him.

But he could not resist the temptation to steal back and see if the
girls were still in the grove. He finally