The leapers, too, made daily efforts to jump a little higher or a little farther than they had the day before, while those who made specialties of tricks upon the bar and trapeze spent hours every day in perfecting themselves in their feats. The students talked of little else when they met on the campus, or in one another's rooms of an evening. Four colleges were to be represented in the meet, namely: Yale, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton. The contests were to take place on neutral ground, and for this purpose the big Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City had been engaged. The college year had hardly begun before arrangements for this athletic meeting were under way. As is usual in such matters, where the whole college is concerned, the management was given to a committee of upper classmen. There were three on this committee, Jack Rowland, and Bed Hill from the senior class, and Frank from the junior. It was not Frank's intention to take any active part in the contests, although he was well known throughout the college as a first-class, all-round athlete. It seemed to him better that the contests against the other colleges should be made by those who were specialists in one line or another. He talked this matter over with his particular friends shortly after the term began. "It won't seem quite right to see you out of it," protested Rattleton, "for when we had our sporting trip across the continent you were always coming in at the last minute to pull victory out of defeat, no matter whether we were jumping, running, playing ball or horse racing." "That's another story," Frank replied. "When we were sporting it across the continent there were only nine of us, and we were not all Yale students at that. Here there are several hundred healthy men to choose from. "I don't think there's much doubt that out of all the students now in college there is some one who could beat me at any one thing I might undertake to do, from wrestling to trapeze work." "But," said Diamond, "if you should go into training for any one event, I think you'd come out on top." "And that's what I don't care to do!" retorted Merriwell. "I'd rather be an all-round man than be able to do just one thing; I shouldn't know which to choose if I were to start in training." "But we may lose a cup in some branch of sport if you don't go in." "Oh, no, I think not. Besides that, there's going to be one event in which I can take a kind of share, and where perhaps I can be as useful to Yale as if I were contesting." "What's that?" "The tug of war." "Is there going to be a tug of war?" "Yes, siree!" "Who's going to be on the team?" "Will it be on cleats or on the level floor?" "Will it be on the ground?" These and many other questions of a similar kind were asked so rapidly that Frank had no chance for a reply. At length he explained that the team had not been chosen, and that anybody might be a candidate.