ime on one of the rowing machines.

A great deal of speculation had been aroused by Bob Collingwood's
determination to take Merriwell upon the 'varsity crew.

It was known that Collingwood was a thorough believer in the American
oar and American stroke as opposed to the shorter-bladed Oxford oar and
the longer English stroke.

Collingwood had ever seemed thoroughly satisfied with Yale methods, and
he had expressed his scorn of the Oxford method of placing the seats on
alternate sides of the boat.

It was generally presumed that Frank Merriwell was thoroughly English in
his ideas and beliefs, and it was thought that he was altogether too set
to give up what he fancied was right, even though he might get on the
crew by so doing.

Still some one had been forced to give in, and there was much
speculation about it. Then came the rumor that Yale was to have an
English coach, and the tongues of the gossips began to wag furiously.

"It's a great triumph for Frank Merriwell!" cried Danny Griswold to a
party of friends gathered in the gym.

Danny was flushed and perspiring from recent violent exertions on the
bars. Some of the group about him were in training suits, and some were
in street dress.

"Also a triumph for good old 'Umpty-eight," declared Ben Halliday, with
satisfaction.

"How is that?" asked Bandy Robinson.

"Why," answered Halliday, "it was the freshman crew of 'Umpty-eight
that, under Merriwell's instructions, adopted the Oxford oar and stroke
and defeated 'Umpty-seven at Saltonstall. Do you see?"

"Vanity, vanity," quoth Dismal Jones, with the air of a Methodist
preacher of old times. "They who exalt themselves in high places shall
be cast down. Beware of false pride and the swelled head."

"Oh, you are always croaking!" exclaimed Lewis Little.

"I think it is a mistake to run off onto English methods," said Burn
Putnam. "Harvard has done that, and they'll say we are following
Harvard's example."

"What if they do say so?" yawned Bruce Browning, lazily. "What do we
care, so long as we win the race at New London?"

"But we can't win this year," declared Walter Gordan, who had been
swinging the clubs, and was flushed from the exertion. "It strikes me it
is a crazy scheme to attempt to change the oars and the stroke at this
late day. Harvard has been hammering away at her crew since last fall,
and it will be in perfect trim when the New London race comes off, while
Yale's crew will be all broken up