ne of the greatest days and nights that Rally
Hall had ever known. Fred had won his spurs and established his footing
firmly in the school. He had been popular from the first in his own
dormitory, but now he was known and liked by all the boys at the Hall.

Except, of course, by Andy Shanks, Sid Wilton, and a few of their
stripe. Andy, if possible, hated him now worse than ever. It had been
gall and wormwood for him when Fred had made the touchdown.

He, himself, had had an ambition to play on the team. He was big and
heavy enough for a place in the line. But he was stupid in getting the
signals and slow in running down under kicks. Besides, he was a trouble
maker on the team, disobeying the captain and quarreling with the other
members. They had tried him for a while, but he was of no use, and both
Granger and Professor Raymond had ruled him out.

So that he was doubly angered at Fred for having made a brilliant
success where he had scored a dismal failure. He had hoped to put Fred
in bad repute with the boys by giving him a beating. But since that day
on the campus when Fred had defied him and dared him to come on, he had
lost all ambition in that direction.

But he was more determined than ever to crush him by hook or by crook,
and he cudgeled his slow brain to find a way that would be safe for
himself and disastrous to Fred.

As the weeks went by, however, and nothing occurred to him, he began
almost to despair.

But the Evil One is said to "look after his own," and as the Christmas
holidays drew nearer, Andy had an inspiration.

The winter weather set in unusually early, and the air was sharp and
stinging. A score or more of the boys were down in the gymnasium,
chinning the bar and swinging in the rings.

"If this kind of weather keeps up," said Melvin, "it won't be long
before we have skating. There's ice forming on the lake now, down near
the edges."

"Over the ice-bound lake we fly,
Swift as the wind and free,"

chanted Tom Eldridge, as he made a flying leap from one horizontal bar
to the next.

"'Swift' all right, but it won't be 'free,'" grumbled Billy Burton. "I
won't feel 'free,' till I get those awful examinations off my mind.
They'll be here now in less than a week, and I can't think of anything
else."

"They'll be pretty tough, do you think?" asked Fred.

"Tough!" broke in Slim, "they'll be as tough as a pine knot. Professor
Raymond is a shark on algebra. He'd rather solve a probl