style="font-size:15px;"> 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.
It would probably have amused an outsider if he could have known the great care taken to prevent those students from being harmed by illness or anything else.
They were grown men and able to take care of themselves ordinarily, but from the time they went into training they were like so many children in charge of a nurse.
They were informed as to just what they could eat and what they must let alone. Not one of them was permitted to smoke, and every one of them was required to do just so many hours of exercise of some kind every day.
While they remained in New Haven it was no very difficult matter to see to it that every one of the contestants obeyed the regulations of the managing committee.
In New York it was not quite so easy, for the members of the committee were a good deal occupied in discussing arrangements with the committees from other colleges who were quartered at different hotels.
When it happened that all the committee had to be away from the Murray Hill at the same time, the oversight of the Yale crew was left to Browning, who was the most experienced athlete among them.
There was not much for him to do, for each one of the contestants had a programme of exercise laid out for him.
There was to be just so much walking, and at certain hours, and the rest of the time, except for meals, was to be put in in resting.
It was understood that as often as possible the entire crowd should walk together, and this they did on the first evening after their arrival.
They went up Fifth Avenue to Central Park, and walked rapidly for fully an hour among its winding paths; then they returned to their hotel, had baths, and went early to bed.
During the next day, Tuesday, the contestants were left pretty much to themselves, as the members of the committee were away most of the time.
After one of the meetings with the committees from other colleges, the Yale managers, finding that a number of things had to be done, divided up the work and separated.
Three or four hours later Rowland and Frank met on the way to the hotel where their companions were staying. They reported to each other what they had done, and then fell as usual into discussing the prospects for victory.
"I saw the Cornell tug of war team out for a run," said Rowland.
"Ah! What do they look like?" Frank responded, without much show of interest.
"Beef!" said Rowland.
"Not dangerous, then, eh?"
"Why, no, I presume not. They look as if they could carry you fellows around on one hand, but it seemed to me they were clumsy in their running."
"I don't fear them," said Frank; "I'd heard from some other fellows that Cornell was counting on weight more than anything else, and as you know, I take more stock in head work."
"There's this to think of, though," remarked Rowland, "if a beefy team gets the fall on you by the fraction of a second, you simply can't stand it. That's the time when dead weight will tell."
"The Cornell beefeaters won't get the drop on Yale," returned Frank, quietly.
"No, I guess not, and for that matter, so far as I can hear, there seems to be no doubt in anybody's mind that the real contest will be between Yale and Princeton."
"Have you seen the Harvard men?" asked Frank.
"No, but we know all about them, don't we?"
"I think so. They're a game lot, but I don't think they can stand against us. The fact is, Rowland, I'm thinking more of the other events than of the tug of war just now."
"So? I would have supposed you would be capable of thinking of nothing else."
Frank shook his head.
"The tug of war doesn't worry me a little bit," he said, "but as one of the managers I should feel pretty badly if we fell down on everything else."
"Oh, we're not going to fall down; there are two or three events, you know, in which we are almost certain to win. The high leap, for example – "
"That's just what I've been thinking of," interrupted Frank.
"Why, are you afraid of Higgins?"
Higgins was a member of the freshman class who had shown most unusual power in jumping, and had easily beaten all the other Yale students who had tried for that event.
"I hear that Cornell has a man named Stover," said Frank, "who thinks he can beat everybody at the high jump."
"Yes, I've heard of him, too," Rowland responded, "but what of it? Higgins has broken the record in private practice – "
"That doesn't make it certain that he will do as well at the armory."
"No; but he's in good condition, isn't he?"
"First rate."
"Then I wouldn't worry about him."
"I'm not worrying exactly, and in any case, if our fellows do their best and we get beaten, there's nothing to complain of."
At this point in their conversation the two arrived at the Murray Hill Hotel. They went at once to the suite of rooms that had been engaged for the athletes, and found most of the contestants reading or dozing.
A few were out for a walk. All the students asked eager questions as to the final arrangements and so on. After several questions had been asked and answered, Rowland remarked:
"There'll be hard times in Princeton this winter if the orange doesn't get most of the cups."
"Are the Princeton men offering odds?" asked Browning.
"Not quite so strong as that, but they're putting up loads of money."
"Is the betting any heavier than usual?" asked Frank.
"Perhaps not," Rowland answered, "but if not I must have come across the betting crowd. It seemed as if they had begged and borrowed every dollar they could lay hold of and had brought it here to put up on the different events."
"How is the betting going?" asked Browning.
"I didn't pay very much attention to it, but it seemed to be about even as between Princeton and Yale on the tug of war, and on some of the other events the Princeton men were asking for odds rather than giving them.
"What impressed me most was that it looked as if it
