"Oh, we thought we had a soft thing, that's all. If we'd dreamed we had a hard race coming, we'd won all right." "That may be, but I am not so sure. Still, if Merriwell could do so much with a lot of freshmen, what might not be done if the same methods were used with the 'varsity crew?" "Bah!" cried Thornton again. "That sort of rot makes me sick! Bob Collingwood has his own ideas, and he will not accept suggestions from any one, although I think he was a fool to throw down Flemming for Merriwell. Flem did great work on the football team, and he is in condition to make a special effort at rowing this spring, while Merriwell is obliged to play ball as well." "I don't see how Merriwell does so many things and does them so well," confessed Tad Horner. "Oh, he is one of the chaps who has the nerve to try anything, and will stumble through anything after a fashion. Nine times out of ten those fellows are never heard from after they leave college. The fellow who takes some branch of athletics at college and sticks to it is likely to select some line of business when he has graduated, and stick to that. He is not diving into everything, and making a success of nothing." "But Merriwell seemed to be diving into everything, and making a success of everything. He is put up differently than most fellows." "He showed his caddishness in introducing the English oar and stroke when he was captain of the freshman crew. He would ape things English, and in that line he makes a failure, at least." "By Jawve! that is wight, don't yer 'now," drawled Willis Paulding, who had visited London once on a time and endeavored to be "awfully English" ever since. "He has not cawt the English air and expression, don't yer understand. He--aw--makes a wegular failyaw of that, deah boys." "Oh, say!" cried Tad Horner, "don't pile on the agony quite so thickly, Paulding. It is nauseating!" "Merriwell may not try to ape English manners and speech," said Thornton, "but he is a cad, just the same, and the friends he has made here at Yale are a lot of thin-blooded, white-livered creatures. Look at them! There is Bruce Browning, once called 'King of the Sophomores,' but cowed and bested by Merriwell, to be afterward dropped a class. There is Jack Diamond, a boastful Southerner. He forced Merriwell to fight, but fawned about Merriwell's feet like a cur when whipped." "You lie, sir!" By the open door a supple, well-built, dark-faced lad sprang into the room. His eyes were flashing, and his teeth came together over his words with a click. It was Jack Diamond himself! CHAPTER X. A FIGHT AGAINST ODDS. "Diamond!" "Great Scott!" "Here's trouble!" The lads about the table sprang to their feet, giving utterance to these exclamations. Willis Paulding was the only one who did not say anything, and he failed to speak because the sound seemed to stick in his throat.