replied Ford, "Page had something in there, he won't say what it was, some kind of a pet, I believe, and it has flown out."
"No wonder," remarked Frank, dryly; "it would be a pretty poor kind of a pet that wouldn't fly out of a place like that."
"If it was an unusual kind of a bird," suggested Ford, "why don't you give notice of it to the police? It sometimes happens that they recover missing pets."
"Oh, I guess I won't say anything about it," responded Page, blushing furiously.
Frank could not control his laughter, so he threw himself into a window seat, and looked out, having his back to the other two.
"What are you laughing at, anyway?" asked Ford.
"Oh, at my thoughts!" chuckled Frank. "I think Page ought to offer a thousand dollars or so reward for his missing pet."
"You hold your tongue, Merriwell," said Page, "and some time or other I'll make it right with you."
"Are you two fellows putting up some kind of a job on me?" exclaimed Ford, suspiciously.
"Oh, no, on my honor!" exclaimed Frank, quickly. "I was just thinking of a little joke that you don't know anything about."
"Aren't you going to spring the joke?"
"No, I'm going to keep it to myself."
Page looked immensely relieved, while Ford, after a doubtful glance at both of them, turned his attention again to the chimney. He pushed the secret door back into place and then opened it again.
"Mighty funny idea, isn't it?" he said, half to himself. "Certainly, nobody would ever believe that that fireplace could be opened without a pickax."
"I supposed it was solid," responded Page, "and got at the secret entirely by accident."
"Opens easy, doesn't it?"
Ford kept opening and shutting the door.
"If this was in the olden times," he said, "when men had to hide from enemies, what a racket it would be to shut one's self in here and then climb out through the chimney."
Frank turned his back again to conceal his chuckle, while Page answered that he thought it would be a good scheme. Then he added:
"I think I'll take the door down and make a fireplace of it."
"And not get your bird back?"
"No. Hang the bird!"
"Well, of course, that's for you to say. As for myself, I'm going to get over to my room and look up mathematics for a while."
"I shouldn't think you'd need to," said Frank.
"Oh, a man grows rusty after three months away from the books, you know," answered Ford, "and an examination always makes me nervous, anyway. So long."
With this he left the room.
"Say, Merriwell," said Page, the moment the door was closed, "I don't know whether to feel obliged to you, or be as mad as a hornet."
"I don't see any reason for either feeling."
"Well, I am obliged to you for not turning the laugh on me when you had the chance to, and I ought to be mad for your getting out in the way you did."
"What should you have shut me in there for," asked Frank, "if you did not expect me to use my wits?"
"I just did it on impulse," Page answered, "and had no intention, anyway, of keeping you there more than a few minutes."
"It's all right, Page, I didn't mind it a little bit. I went straight out."
"I see you did."
"Now, see here, Page," said Frank, seriously, "I want to ask a favor of you."
"Granted."
"Keep that door closed during the next few days."
"What, the door to the fireplace?"
"H'm! h'm!"
"Why, yes, I'll do that, but why? I shouldn't have it open more than a minute or two at a time to show the fellows."
"Don't do that."
"Not show it to the fellows?"
"Not to anybody."
"I said I'd grant your favor and so I will, but what in the world is on your mind?"
"I'll tell you," said Frank, with a little pause, "after the examination."
"Babbitt's examination?"
"Yes."
"All right I suppose you've got some first-class trick you want to tell, and you haven't got time to get it in shape until the examination is over, is that it?"
"That's asking too much, Page. I'll tell you all about it later; meantime, it is a fact that men like you and me have got to put in some pretty hard licks if we want to pass that examination."
"Oh, thunder and Mars!" groaned Page, "I've made up my mind not to think of it. It's impossible for me to cram up on a whole year's work in three days."
"It might not be necessary to."
"How else can a fellow stand a chance of passing?"
"Well, suppose we should study just one part of the subject, and let the rest of it go?"
"And then there might not be a single question on that subject, Frank."
"Yes, and again they might all be on that subject."
"It isn't likely."
"But it might be so, Page."
"Do you mean to say, Frank, that you'd recommend a fellow to take a kind of gambling chance like that on an examination paper?"
"Well, not as a general thing, but seriously I do think it would be a good scheme this time. You see, Babbitt is springing this examination unexpectedly, and everybody knows that he's got queer ideas. Now I think it would be quite like him to center the whole examination on one topic."
"Why should he do that?"
"Well," answered Frank, slowly, "with the idea, perhaps, of catching the fellows by surprise."
"He don't need to take all that pains for me," said Page, dismally; "he could floor me if his examination Was made on the simplest things. If I was like Ford, now – "
"Oh, Ford doesn't need to worry, of course. He led the class in mathematics last year, didn't he?"
"Yes, and the year before, too. The idea of his being worried about the examination is all nonsense."
"I know it is," said Frank, "except that he's got his ambition up to keep at the lead; that's a natural ambition and decent, and I suppose he'll do a lot of grinding to get ready for the exam."
"I'd grind, too, if I thought there'd be any use in it."
"I
