there are several other fellows who can twirl quite as well as
he."

"They think they can, but I have my doubts."

This kind of talk did not satisfy Thornton, and he snapped:

"I must say I didn't suppose you were one of that cad's sycophants,
Parker! I fancied you had more stamina than that. Next thing you'll be
saying that when his horse won the 'free for all' at Mystic Park it was
something more than luck."

"From what I have heard, I presume there was a great deal of luck
connected with that affair, but that is outside college sports. I did
not see the race, but I have heard that all sorts of tricks were tried
to put Merriwell's horse out of the race."

"So his friends have reported; but I take no stock in it. If he ever
enters that horse in another race he will lose his socks betting on the
beast."

"We were talking of rowing a short time ago," said Emery. "Let's return
to our mutton. Thornton was kicking because Merriwell has made a try
for the eight, and seems to stand a good show of getting there. I don't
see where Thornton's growl comes in. He can't pull an oar."

"But Flemming can," came quickly from Tom; "and he was sure of a
position on the eight till Merriwell went for a place. Like Pierson, who
captained the ball team last season, Collingwood seems to be stuck on
Merriwell. That's why he has thrown Flemming down."

"But I thought Merriwell's ideas about rowing did not correspond at all
with Collingwood's ideas?" said Tad Horner, with unusual gravity. "When
Merriwell was captain of the freshman crew, he introduced the Oxford oar
and the Oxford stroke. He actually drilled a lot of dummies into the use
of the oar and into something like the genuine English stroke. Everybody
acknowledged it was something marvelous, and one newspaper reporter had
the nerve to say that the freshmen had given the 'varsity crew a
pointer."

"Oh, yes," grated Thornton, bitterly. "The newspapers have advertised
Merriwell at every opportunity. Remember what a howl they made when he
stopped that runaway horse and rescued Fairfax Lee's daughter. Any one
would have thought the fellow had done a most marvelous thing, and since
then he has been taken into the very swellest New Haven society, and he
is lionized as if he were something more than a mere snob. It makes me
sick!"

"There is still some mystery about the fellow," said Parker. "How did he
happen to know so much about the Oxford stroke?"

"I've heard that he was at