style="font-size:15px;"> So saying, he knelt and entered the fireplace. Once inside it was easy to stand upright, for the chimney was broad, and as he looked up he could see that it ran with a slight incline clear to the roof.
"There's nothing to prevent a fire from being built here," he said, with his eyes turned upward. "Such a chimney as this would draw like a furnace."
Page made no response.
"I declare," Merriwell added, "it makes me wish that winter had come so that I could see a roaring old blaze of logs here. Doesn't that strike you about right?"
As Page made no response, he turned to look at his classmate, and then discovered that the secret door to the fireplace had been closed.
With his eyes turned upward and seeing the little patch of light at the top of the chimney he had not noticed that the light from the room had been shut off.
"Hello, there!" he called, feeling along the wall to find the door. "I'm no freshman."
There was no sound from Page's room. Frank found a match in his pocket and struck it. From inside it was easy enough to distinguish the outlines of the secret door that concealed the fireplace.
It was not possible, however, to discover any way by which it might be opened. The latch was the kind used on doors, but strong, and with no knob on the inside.
Frank pushed against the door with some force. It did not yield in the least degree.
"Seems to me," he thought, "that Page has a queer idea of fun to lock me in like this. I've a good mind to kick the door down."
He thought a moment before deciding to do this, and reflected that it would hardly be a good-natured way of treating the joke.
If Page meant to have some fun with him by making him a prisoner, the joke would be all the more successful if Merriwell should get mad about it and break open the secret door.
"I think," thought Frank, "that I'll get even with Page for this in a way that will surprise him."
His match went out just then and he began to feel in the darkness of the stones that made the chimney. They were untrimmed stones, so that the interior surface was very irregular.
Just above his hand, but within reach, was an iron bar crossing the chimney; it was put there to bind the walls.
Frank drew himself upon this and then, being in the narrow part of the chimney, was able to work his way upward by clinging with hands and feet to the rough edges of the stones.
It was slow progress, but not difficult, and sure. The only question would be whether the opening at the top of the chimney would be large enough to permit of his crawling through.
He had got about halfway up when he halted in his journey. He had heard voices, and he recognized both of them.
He knew that he was on the level of the room above Page's, and he realized that the sounds of talking came to him distinctly because there was a fireplace there that connected with this same chimney.
The voices he heard were those of Prof. Babbitt and Instructor Frost.
"The fact is, Frost," Babbitt was saying, "I'm aiming this examination at certain men in the class, and I've no hesitation in saying so. There's that fellow, Merriwell, for example; I'd like to force him to do more studying."
CHAPTER III
TURNING THE TABLES
"This is growing very interesting," thought Frank, bracing his knees against the stones of the chimney so that he could hold his position easily.
"Why, I thought that Merriwell ranked high, professor?" said Frost.
"He's no fool," growled Babbitt, "and if he would study hard I presume he might lead the class in scholarship, but as it is, he spends most of his time in athletics and skylarking."
"Oh, not quite so bad as that!"
"Yes, it is. He's naturally bright, and by a very little attention to his lessons he's able to get marks that enable him to pass along with fair standing, while most of his time is given to anything but work. It isn't right that anybody should get through Yale so easily; it's bad for the rest of the students."
"I have an idea," said Frost, quietly, "that Merriwell's example isn't regarded as a bad one by other members of the faculty."
"Ah, you're just as bad as the students themselves in your fondness for that scamp!" exclaimed Babbitt. "He seems to fascinate everybody he meets except me."
"Yes, I think you're an exception."
"I believe you are trying to be sarcastic, Frost, but it doesn't make any difference; my mind is set on making an example of Merriwell so that the other fellows in his class who follow his lead will be frightened into studying harder."
"Do you then mean that this examination is aimed directly at Merriwell?"
"Not quite so strong as that. There are others, of course, but he's a natural leader, and I don't at all fancy the easy way he takes things, and then bobs up at examinations with enough knowledge to work out his papers."
"I should think," suggested Frost, "that that was all the professors could require of a student."
"That's because you're young!" snapped Babbitt. "You ought to forget that you've been a student – "
"Excuse me, professor, but I think just the contrary. It seems to me that the more an instructor remembers of his student days the better he will be able to get along with his classes."
"All right, then, you stick to your theory, and I'll stick to mine. Meantime, look at this paper; that's what I asked you to call for."
"Is this the examination paper that you're going to set before Merriwell's class?"
"Yes."
There was then a silence of some minutes during which probably Mr. Frost was studying the examination paper. At last he remarked:
"Well, I've looked it through."
"What do you think of it?" asked Babbitt.
"Do you want my honest opinion?"
"Of course I do! Why else should I get you up here?"
After a slight pause Mr. Frost said: "It seems to me that the examination is very one-sided."
"Eh?"
"Why, it is all aimed at a certain line of work, and doesn't cover anything like all the work done in the course of the year."
"Well, I have my reason for that!"
"I supposed so."
"I know that fellow Merriwell's weakness; I know just where he's likely to be faulty, and if he can pass that paper he'll do better than I think he can."
"Why, Prof. Babbitt," exclaimed Frost in an indignant tone, "it looks as if you were purposely trying to trip Merriwell so as to get him disciplined, or dropped!"
"The faculty can do with him what it likes," remarked Babbitt, crossly, "when I've handed
