Frank Merriwells Chums | Page 6

lads. Each one took a cigarette and "fired up."
"You ought to smoke, Merriwell," said Dare. "There's lots of pleasure
in it."
"Perhaps so," admitted Frank; "but I don't care for it, and, as it is
against the rules, it keeps me out of trouble by not smoking."
"It's against the rules to indulge in this kind of a feast, old man. You
can't be too much of a stickler for rules."
"It doesn't do to be too goody-good," put in Snell, insinuatingly. "Such
rubbish doesn't go with the fellows."
"I don't think any one can accuse me of playing the goody-good," said
Frank, quietly. "I like fun as well as any one, as you all know, but I do
not care for cigarettes, and so I do not smoke them. I don't wish to take
any credit to myself, so I make no claim to resisting a temptation, for
they are no temptation to me."

"Lots of fellows smoke who do not like cigarettes," assured Sam
Winslow.
"Well, I can't understand why they do so," declared Merriwell.
"They do it for fun."
"I fail to see where the fun comes in. There are enough improper things
that I would like to do for me not to care about those things that are
repugnant to me. Some time ago I made up my mind never to do a
thing I did not want to do, or did not give me pleasure, unless it was
absolutely necessary, or was required as a courtesy to somebody else. I
am trying to stick by that rule."
"Oh, don't talk about rules!" cut in Dare. "It makes me weary! We have
enough of rules here at this academy, without making any for
ourselves."
"Come, fellows," broke in Hodge; "let's get down to business."
"Business?" said Frank, questioningly. "I thought this was a case of
sport?"
"It is. You mustn't be so quick to catch up a word."
The table was cleared, and the boys gathered round it, Hodge producing
a pack of cards, the seal of which had not been broken.
"You'll notice that those papers are all right," he said, significantly.
"Nobody's had a chance to tamper with them."
"What do you play?" asked Frank, to whose face a strange look had
come on sight of the cards.
"Oh, we play most anything--euchre, seven up, poker----"
"Poker?"
"Yes; just a light game--penny ante--to make it interesting. You know

there's no interest in poker unless there's some risk."
The strange look grew on Frank Merriwell's face. He seemed in doubt,
as if hesitating over something.
"I--I think I will go back to the room," he said.
"What's that?" exclaimed several, in amazement. "Why, you have just
got here."
"But I am not feeling--exactly right. What I have eaten may give me a
headache, and I have a hard day before me to-morrow."
"Oh, but we can't let you go now, old man," said Harris, decidedly.
"You must stop a while. If your head begins to ache and gets real bad,
of course you can go, but I don't see how you can get out now."
Frank did not see either. He had accepted Harris' hospitality, had eaten
freely of the good things Harris had provided, and the boys would vote
him a prig if he left them for his bed as soon as the feast was finished.
It would seem that he was afraid of being discovered absent from his
room--as if he did not dare to share the danger with them.
Frank was generally very decided in what he did, and it was quite
unusual for him to hesitate over anything.
There is an old saying that "He who hesitates is lost."
In this case it proved true.
"Oh, all right, fellows," said Frank, lightly. "I'll stop a while and watch
you play."
"But you must take a hand--you really must, you know," urged Harvey
Dare. "Our game is small. We'll put on a limit to suit you--anything you
say."
"I do not play poker, if that is your game."

"Don't you know how?"
"Well, yes, I know a little something about it, but I swore off more than
a year ago."
"Nobody ever swears off on anything for more than a year. Sit in and
take a hand."
Still he refused, and they finally found it useless to urge him, so the
game was begun without him, and he looked on.
The limit was set at ten cents, and it was to be a regular penny ante
game.
There was some hesitation over the limit, which Bart named, winking
meaningly at one or two of the fellows who seemingly started to
protest.
Surely there could not be much harm in such a light game! No one
could lose a great deal.
The first deal fell