"Oh, a man grows rusty after three months away from the books, you know," answered Ford, "and an examination always makes me nervous, anyway. So long." With this he left the room. "Say, Merriwell," said Page, the moment the door was closed, "I don't know whether to feel obliged to you, or be as mad as a hornet." "I don't see any reason for either feeling." "Well, I am obliged to you for not turning the laugh on me when you had the chance to, and I ought to be mad for your getting out in the way you did." "What should you have shut me in there for," asked Frank, "if you did not expect me to use my wits?" "I just did it on impulse," Page answered, "and had no intention, anyway, of keeping you there more than a few minutes." "It's all right, Page, I didn't mind it a little bit. I went straight out." "I see you did." "Now, see here, Page," said Frank, seriously, "I want to ask a favor of you." "Granted." "Keep that door closed during the next few days." "What, the door to the fireplace?" "H'm! h'm!" "Why, yes, I'll do that, but why? I shouldn't have it open more than a minute or two at a time to show the fellows." "Don't do that." "Not show it to the fellows?" "Not to anybody." "I said I'd grant your favor and so I will, but what in the world is on your mind?" "I'll tell you," said Frank, with a little pause, "after the examination." "Babbitt's examination?" "Yes." "All right I suppose you've got some first-class trick you want to tell, and you haven't got time to get it in shape until the examination is over, is that it?" "That's asking too much, Page. I'll tell you all about it later; meantime, it is a fact that men like you and me have got to put in some pretty hard licks if we want to pass that examination." "Oh, thunder and Mars!" groaned Page, "I've made up my mind not to think of it. It's impossible for me to cram up on a whole year's work in three days." "It might not be necessary to." "How else can a fellow stand a chance of passing?" "Well, suppose we should study just one part of the subject, and let the rest of it go?" "And then there might not be a single question on that subject, Frank." "Yes, and again they might all be on that subject." "It isn't likely." "But it might be so, Page." "Do you mean to say, Frank, that you'd recommend a fellow to take a kind of gambling chance like that on an examination paper?" "Well, not as a general thing, but seriously I do think it would be a good scheme this time. You see, Babbitt is springing this examination unexpectedly, and everybody knows that he's got queer ideas. Now I think it would be quite like him to center the whole examination on one topic." "Why should he do that?" "Well," answered Frank, slowly, "with the idea, perhaps, of catching the fellows by surprise." "He don't need to take all that pains for me," said Page, dismally; "he could floor me if his examination Was made on the simplest things. If I was like Ford, now----"