Merriwell, Frank (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
At the call he bounded from the chair and pranced into the ring nimbly,
and as the Yale managers looked him over they felt worse than ever.
Mellor got up slowly and walked, as if he dreaded the ordeal, out to
meet his adversary.
"That's right, Mellor," whispered Frank, as the wrestler passed, "take
it easy and don't get excited."
Mellor gave Frank a grateful look. It was the only encouraging word he
had received from his managers since his foolish scrape.
He shook hands with Grant, and then stepped quickly back to his
position. It was a catch-as-catch-can match, and for an instant the two
big fellows stood warily watching each other before they advanced.
Meantime Yale and Cornell were setting up a chorus of howls to encourage
their respective champions.
The two got together with a sudden jump that surprised everybody.
It was expected that Grant would take the offensive, but it seemed that
Mellor decided upon the same policy, for the floor fairly shook when
they met and began a mighty struggle.
Frank's eyes glowed, and his heart seemed to rise to his throat as he
watched the muscles stand out on Mellor's arms and back.
"There's big stuff in that fellow," he said, half aloud.
"If he only had staying power," retorted Hill, in disgust, "but he's
wasted all that in his jag."
The words were hardly out of Hill's mouth before there was a heavy thud,
as the two wrestlers went down; then such a roar went up as the building
had not yet heard, for Yale's man was on top. Mellor rose quickly and
ran to his dressing-room, followed by his managers, who overwhelmed him
with compliments.
He said nothing, but stood up to be rubbed and taken care of.
"You took him completely by surprise that time, Mellor," said Frank.
"Now the next time he'll be on his guard for that, and you'll have to
pursue different tactics."
Mellor nodded.
He did not appear to be suffering from loss of breath or any sort of
exhaustion, so the managers left him with his trainer to see how the
jumping was getting on.
They arrived upon the floor just as another terrific chorus of Yale
cries went up.
Higgins had cleared the bar after every other contestant had failed.
It was a grand start for Yale. One first place had been gained, and with
Mellor's success it looked as if another was certain.
The floor was quickly cleared of the posts that had been set up for the
jumpers, and the Harvard and Cornell tug of war teams came on for the
first pull.
In this, as in the wrestling, the order of the trials had been decided
by lot.
Leaving the tug of war for the moment, we will glance at Mellor's
further work as a wrestler.
While Harvard and Cornell were getting into position for their tug, he
went out again to the floor for his second set-to with Grant.
As Frank had predicted, Grant was wary this time; he waited for Mellor
to take the offensive, and the latter was slow in doing so. They got
together at last, and for a few seconds each struggled vainly to
overcome the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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