“And that makes her all the more interesting and attractive. Oh, yes it does! All the girls have been mashed on you, and you’ve turned up your aristocratic nose at them. Now you happen to find one who doesn’t think you are the luminary of the world, and the result is that you’re a goner. Well, well, well!” “Not very well, thank you,” returned Fillmore. “Don’t get a notion that you’re a Solomon. I’m playing my own game with the young lady of the dark eyes. She can’t fool me a great deal, Tom. It’s rather interesting sport. I’m taking care not to let myself get too far gone, for I know it’s hopeless. She’s engaged and soon to be married.” Hackett whistled. “Engaged, eh? But then you know more than one engagement has been smashed. You might cut the fellow out. Who is he?” “None other than Frank Merriwell, the former great Yale athlete.” Hackett whistled again. “That fellow, eh? I’ve met some chaps who seemed to think him the wizard of the world. Let me see, hasn’t he been touring lately with an athletic team and simply eating everything up that he came across?” “Yes, he’s been covering himself with glory in every department of sport. What do you think he’s doing now?” “Give it up.” “Organizing a lacrosse team, with the idea of going after the amateur championship of the United States. He wants a game with us. Of course we don’t have to play him, but I understand he expects to have Onslaw and several other Harvard players on his team.” A third time Hackett whistled. “What do you say to that? Do you want to play him, Fred?” “I don’t mind. His team will be easy for us, and it might give us a chance to rub it into those Harvard chaps some. Besides that, I’ve been thinking, if he really gets Onslaw, it might make an opening for me to even up with that duffer.” “Sure thing, old man! You’ve been pining for such a chance. But the success of Merriwell in other things seems to proclaim it possible that he will succeed at lacrosse.” “Don’t be silly, Hack! Do you fancy a picked-up team can beat us? I guess not! It takes teamwork to play the game, and a team, in order to be great, must work together a long time. We’re at our best now. If we were to go against Harvard again we’d whitewash ’em.” “I believe that.” “I know it. Oh, I don’t fear Merriwell’s team in the least. He’ll have some dubs on it. One fellow is Bart Hodge, who is engaged to Elsie Bellwood, the invalid. She hasn’t wanted him to know anything about her illness, and so it has been kept from him. She thought he would leave Frank, and she says Merriwell can’t get along without Hodge as a catcher in all baseball games, so she kept her illness quiet.” “It’s plain you’re decidedly in favor of playing Merriwell’s team.” “Rather.” “Well, I think what you say about it will go. Have you any positive reason to believe he wants a game with Hopkins?” “Why, yes; Inza—or, Miss Burrage—told me he wrote expressing such a desire. She is anxious for us to give him a game.”