ere?"

"I didn't know. I was dreaming."

"Well, if you are going to be this way often, I'll have to take out a
life insurance policy or quit you."

"Don't mind. I'll be all right in the morning. Oh, hang the luck!"

Then the passionate Southerner turned over with his face toward the
wall. Collins smoked a cigarette to quiet his nerves, after which he got
into bed once more. At intervals he could feel the bed shake, and he
knew Diamond was shivering as if he had a chill.

In the morning Diamond was not all right. He was ill in bed, and it was
necessary to call a physician, although he protested against it. His
eyes were in wretched shape, but when the doctor questioned him, he
persisted in saying he had injured them by falling downstairs.

Of course he could not appear at chapel or recitations, and he sent in
an excuse.

Then Mr. Lovejoy came around to investigate.

Now, Mr. Lovejoy was most mild and lamblike in appearance, and one would
have thought never in all his life had he indulged in anything that was
not perfectly proper.

But appearances were deceptive in the case of Mr. Lovejoy. When a
student at Yale he had made a record, but he had been fortunate, and he
was never detected in anything the faculty could not approve. By those
who knew him he was regarded as a terror, and by the faculty he was
looked on as one of the most quiet and docile students in college.

When Cyrus Lovejoy became an instructor he did not forget the days when
he had been a leader in scrapes of all sorts, and he was not inclined to
be prying into the affairs of students under him. Not only that, but he
could be blind to some things he accidentally discovered.

So when Mr. Lovejoy reported that John Diamond's eyes, being naturally
weak, were inflamed by too close application to his studies, especially
in the evening, no one thought of investigating further. The doctor, it
was said, had forbidden Diamond to attempt to study for several days,
and had ordered him to wear a bandage over his eyes.

Two or three evenings after the fight a party of freshmen gathered in
Merriwell's room, for they were beginning to realize that Frank was
likely to be a leader among them.

"I say, fellows," cried Dan Dorman, who was sitting on the sill of the
open window, with a cigarette clinging to his lips, "do you know what
Diamond is doing?"

"He's doing his best to cure those beautiful eyes of his," said Bandy
Robinson.

"I'm giving it to you s