been very successful in the tug of war, whether pulling against other colleges of against outside athletic organizations.
It had happened that three very strong men in a certain class had gone onto the team in their freshman year and had stayed there ever since.
That was greatly to the advantage of the Princeton team, for with three men on it who were perfectly used to each other, and who had had a great deal of experience, the team was not only powerful, but it made every other team afraid of it.
There is a great deal more in this than those who are not athletes imagine. A team that has the reputation of always winning is apt to strike terror to the hearts of its opponents and rattle them so that they cannot do their best.
Princeton naturally was very proud of its tug of war team and perfectly confident of carrying off the prize for that event. This was understood not only at Yale, but at Harvard and Cornell, and at each of these three colleges there was a determination to "down" Princeton if possible.
So it happened that when the managing committee at Yale announced that they would examine candidates for the tug of war team, there was so much interest in it that a perfect mob of students gathered at the gymnasium eager for a place upon the rope.
Rowland and Hill, the senior members of the committee, were inclined to dismiss the whole crowd and then quietly pick out four men according to their own judgment, but Merriwell opposed this policy.
"There may be perfect giants concealed in that crowd," he said, "and if there's only one, we want to discover him. Give them all a trial."
"But it would take weeks," exclaimed Hill, "to arrange those men in teams and make them pull against each other until we could sift out the best four!"
"I don't think we need to have them pull against each other to find out what they're worth," Frank responded.
"What other way is there?" asked Rowland.
"I have an idea that I can sift that crowd in a week."
"Well, then, you'd better try it."
So it was agreed that Frank should undertake to examine the candidates for the team, and to superintend its training.
His plan for examining the applicants caused a good deal of amusement at first, but it proved to be remarkably effective as well as a great time saver.
In a tug of war, as in many other sports, it is not only brute strength that tells, but quickness and skill. Frank believed a good deal more in the head work of tugging than he did in solid muscle.
"If a man can't drop right every time," he declared, "he isn't fit for the team. If he can drop right, he's got the making of a tugger."
To test this he had a rope fastened securely to a post, and the candidates in squads of four took hold of this rope and dropped half a dozen times at Frank's command. He gave brief explanations of what was necessary for them to do, to each squad before giving the word; then he watched the men go down, showing them where they had been in error and had them try again.
It took no more than half a dozen minutes for as many trials and then another squad was brought on.
In this way he easily tested from thirty to forty men an hour, and so in the course of three days had given every candidate for the team a chance.
After that it was an easy matter for him to strike off the list fully three-quarters of the candidates; that left from twenty to thirty who might still be useful.
These men he tried in groups of four also, but continually shifted the men from one group to another so as to find out which of them worked together to the best advantage.
At length, after ten days of patient examination in this way, he had Rowland and Hill come behind the screen and watch the efforts of six men who had been selected as the best team workers in the whole college.
The matter was discussed very frankly, not only by the members of the committee, but by the candidates themselves, for everybody was anxious that the best possible team should be selected and nobody would have been offended if he had been left off.
It was decided at last that Bruce Browning should be the anchor of the team. He had been Frank's choice almost from the start, for he was heavy and cool, and from past experience Frank knew that Bruce could be quick if it was necessary.
It is the anchor in a tug-of-war who does the head work for the team.
"I'd rather have a good anchor and three weak men," said Frank, emphatically, "than three giants on the rope directed by an anchor who is either excitable or slow."
Everybody agreed that Bruce was just the man for the Yale anchor, and after a good many trials Taylor, of the senior class, and Jackson, of the sophomore, were assigned places on the rope; that left one vacancy.
Merriwell recommended that the other three men who had stood the test so far be trained equally, so that two at least could rank as substitutes in case of sickness or other difficulty.
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.
