!" laughed Frank. "I beg your pardon for leaving you in such a
manner, but you know you had become so very unsociable that I had to
do----"

Pierson made a weak gesture, and interrupted with:

"Don't apologize for that--it was the agreement that one should run away
from the other, if possible, on the way back. You had a right to do it."

"What is all this about?" asked Rattleton, in a mystified manner. "What
have you fellows been doing?"

"Don't you know?" cried Paul, amazed.

"No, I don't know," declared Rattleton. "Frank walked into the room a
short time ago, went into his bedroom, took a sponge bath and changed
his clothes, and we have been telling stories since then."

"Took a sponge bath?" shouted Pierson, popping bolt upright.
"Jerusalem. You talk as if he had been here half an hour! I will admit
that this beats anything I ever experienced!"

Then he flopped down on the couch again, as if utterly overcome.

CHAPTER XXXI.

AN INCENTIVE TO WIN.

Paul Pierson had made a discovery that night, and, before he left, he
told Frank Merriwell to put himself into condition to enter one of the
races at the Madison Square Garden tournament in New York.

"You seem to be in pretty good condition now," he said, with a grim
smile; "but you know whether you can improve your condition or not. If
you can, do it, for you are liable to be pitted against men who will
give you a decidedly hotter time than you have ever struck."

"All right," said Frank, quietly. "You'll find that I shall be in shape,
and I'll do my best to be a credit to Old Yale."

"You have been a credit to Yale ever since the day you entered college,"
said Pierson, sincerely. "To-night has settled one thing in my mind. I
believe you are a wonder in almost anything in the way of athletics."

"Oh, not a wonder!" said Frank. "But you can be sure that I am bound to
do my level best in anything I attempt."

"I know it! I am not sure I'll be able to get you on, but I am going to
try to run you into the one-mile race. We have some men for the shorter
dashes, but do not seem to have but one man besides yourself who can be
considered for the mile run. He has been in training for some time, and
the committee had nearly decided on him. Now I am satisfied that you are
the better man, but I'll have to satisfy the others."

"I want you to bear witness that I have not worked to fill the place of
any other fellow."

"It might be better for Yale if you woul