The committee and the members of the team suggested that Frank himself should take the vacant place on the rope. "Everybody knows you've got the muscle and the head, and with you and Bruce on the rope, we'll have as perfect a team as possible." Frank hesitated a little before accepting this suggestion, but he finally yielded, for without conceit he felt that he could be more useful than the others, and he had a natural eagerness to take an active part in the contest. Nevertheless, he continued to direct the training of the team, using Rattleton as a substitute on the rope while he stood by and gave orders. In this way he got the men so that they could fall at the word and fall right, and when this had been gained he took Rattleton's place and gave over the direction of the movements of the team to the anchor. After that there was a good deal of practice in pulling at voluntary teams from among the students. It proved that there were no four students in the college who could stay on the cleats half a minute against the team that Frank had selected and trained; so practice teams were made up of five, six, and sometimes eight men. The dead weight of eight men proved to be a little too much for the regular team, although the latter was never pulled off the cleats. All in all the Yale students were greatly satisfied with their tug of war team, and as the time for the intercollegiate contests approached their confidence grew. They believed that they would be able to get away with Princeton, and it did not seem to strike them at all that the other colleges were in it. CHAPTER IX. HUNTING FOR A FRESHMAN. The contests were to take place on a Wednesday evening. On the Monday previous all the Yale athletes went to New York. Special permission from the faculty had to be obtained for this absence from the college, but there was no difficulty in getting that, as there is hardly a professor at Yale who does not have a strong interest in athletic events. As New Haven is but two hours' ride from New York, it might have been possible for the students to attend to all their duties on the Wednesday, and still get to New York in time for the events, but that would never do for the contestants. Nobody knows better than men who train how easy it is for an athlete to get thrown out of order by a change in diet and air. The finer the training the greater care there has to be. Therefore, the managing committee for Yale felt that it was absolutely necessary to give the contestants at least two whole days in New York City, in order to get used to the slight change that would result in their leaving familiar quarters in New Haven. Students who were not contestants in the intercollegiate sports were not allowed to leave New Haven so early, and so it was a comparatively small party that went with Frank and the other members of the committee to rooms that had been engaged for them in the Murray Hill Hotel.