“Well, I have with me a certified check for ten thousand dollars, and I believe the cashier at your bank will recognize it as good. If you are not running a bluff I’ll step out to the bank with you and deposit my check in the hands of one of the bank officials, with the understanding that I am backing Frank Merriwell and you are to put up a similar sum to back your own team. Now you put up—or shut up!” Cameron was somewhat surprised, but he recovered quickly, still confident that Doom was still bluffing. “Come on!” he almost shouted. “Come out to the bank! I can raise ten thousand dollars if your old check is good. I’ll do it, too! It will be like finding a small fortune.” The man from Chicago was ready to go. “But wait a moment,” said the manager of the local team. “I want to tell you something. I hate to be fooled, and it makes me very disagreeable. In case I accompany you to the bank and find this is what I believe it to be—a bluff—you’ll be very sorry. I warn you that you’ll leave Cartersville in such a condition that you’ll require medical attention for some time to come.” “Come on, man,” said Doom, with curling lips. “You are wasting your breath. You’ll find I am in earnest, although I fancy you are the one who will squeal.” Together they left the hotel and started for the bank. The man who had sold Doom a cigar and overheard this conversation ran out after them and told what had happened to a number of loiterers who were in front of the hotel. Immediately these loiterers hustled away after Cameron and Doom, greatly excited over what they had heard. “Ten thousand dollars!” exclaimed one. “Cameron will make a fortune off this first game!” “I don’t believe it!” declared another. “Nobody is fool enough to bet Cameron ten thousand dollars.” “The man is joking,” was the opinion expressed by a third. “Then it will be a mighty poor joke for him when Carey Cameron is done with him,” said the first. Outside the bank they lingered and waited. Cameron and Doom were inside a full quarter hour, but finally they appeared. Immediately the crowd besieged the manager of the local team to know if such a bet had really been made. “Sure thing,” nodded Cameron, with a smile of confidence. “This gentleman had a certified check that was good, and I covered it. There is a wager of ten thousand dollars on the result of the game to-day.” The report spread like wildfire. In less than an hour, it seemed, every man, woman, and child over six years of age in Cartersville knew of the amazing wager that had been made. The report was wired to surrounding towns and carried into the country in various ways.