There was one man who came back with a heart overflowing with bitterness. Pink Pooler had made bets right and left that Yale would not win the pennant that season. He had offered all sorts of odds, and he felt that he would be in a bad hole if Yale did win. Yale played Harvard on Yale field to follow the Princeton game. Now that the blue had won over the orange and black there were enough fellows with money to bet that Yale would down Harvard. Pooler had received a “straight tip” that Harvard was coming with a powerful team, and he raked every dollar he could raise to back her as a winner. Pooler firmly believed Yale had won the Princeton game by a fluke. Harvard must come out ahead in the game on the following Saturday. If not by fair means--well, there would be a way to fix it! Much talk was made about Merriwell’s double-shoot. Hodge was enthusiastic over it. He declared Merry would paralyze the Harvard men with that curve. Frank retired Hal Faunce from the team. He put Puss Parker in right, and placed Bruce Browning on first. Then he pulled in Joe Costigan from left field and restored him to third base, the position he had played the previous season. “Who will he play in left?” That was an open question. He practiced with both Gamp and Walling in that position. Walling showed up poorly, while Gamp, tall, “gangling” and awkward, made some remarkable catches. Walling was placed on the bench, and Gamp was installed in left. Old players looked on aghast. Surely Merriwell was crazy. Gamp was not a practical man. Browning might go to sleep on first. What sort of a team was Frank getting together? Merry did not pay any heed to what was being said. He took his team out for practice every day. He worked them hard. He drilled them on team work. He had them so everyone understood the code of signals which he introduced. Pooler went out day after day to see them practice. He was deeply interested, and not a few fellows believed his interest came from patriotic motives. He was sizing up the nine, and, as the day for the game with Harvard approached, he became more and more nervous. “I can’t lose this time!” he thought. “It will ruin me! Merriwell is the moving spirit of the whole team. With him out of the way, Harvard would have a walk-over.” With him out of the way! That thought kept running in Pink’s head. How could Merriwell be disposed of so he could take no part in the game against Harvard? Pooler fell to scheming. He formed plan after plan, but discarded them all. He thought of trying to drug Frank on the field, but that had been tried too many times. It was dangerous, and it might not prove successful. “No,” he decided, “I will see that he is cooked in advance.” He went into town, and was seen talking with some lads who seemed rather disreputable in appearance. Friday came. Among the first to reach the park for practice was Merriwell and Hodge. Frank was going to pitch to Bart a while before all the team assembled on the field.