k and Handy, gave a delighted cheer. Frank, putting away his
pencil and paper, smiled as he watched them trot away toward the gym.

"Now," said Ballard, with a show of injured dignity, "I wonder if you
fellows can spare a little of your valuable time?"

"What's biting you, Pink?" inquired Frank.

"It's a dream," said Clancy derisively. "Pink has been seeing things at
night, and he has been boiling over to tell us about it ever since this
practice game started. Why don't you get a dream book, you crazy,
chump," he added to Ballard, "and figure the visions out for yourself?"

"Or a joke book," said Frank. "You can do about as much figuring from
that as from anything else."

"Oh, blazes!" exclaimed Ballard. "Don't make light of this dream. I just
happened to remember, since we reached this grand stand, that I've had
it three nights in succession. When a dream comes to you three times
like that it's supposed to mean something."

"Sure," agreed Clancy, wagging his head; "it means that for three nights
you have--er--eaten not wisely but too well. How's that, Chip? Pretty
good, eh?" He straightened up, looked grave, and went on to Ballard;
"Dreams, William, are the result of tantrums in the tummy. You load up a
suffering organ with grub that's so rich it affects the imagination;
consequently, when the razmataz, in a state of coma, projects itself
into the _medulla oblongata_--"

Ballard, yelling wildly, made a jump for Clancy. Merry, however, had
already taken hint in hand.

"That sounds too much like Professor Phineas Borredaile," said Frank.
"Call off the dog, Clan;" and he smothered his red-headed chum and
pushed him down on the hard boards.

"I'll be good, Chip," murmured Clancy, in a stilted voice. "Take your
hands, off my face and let me breathe."

Frank released him with a laugh, and Clancy smoothed himself out.

"I was only expounding," explained the red-headed chap, "and now that
the prof isn't around to do it, a substitute has to take hold."

"Pink isn't the only one who has taken a foolish powder," said Merry.

"And, talking about Phineas, what do you suppose the old fossil is up
to?" Clancy went on, just a shade of anxiety sifting into his tones.
"It's four days now, since he suddenly made up his mind to go over Gold
Hill. What did he go for? And why is he staying away? We haven't heard a
word from him since he left."

Merriwell looked serious.

"All that has been bothering me, Clan," he acknowledg