"A longer body swing is certain to make a difficult recovery," said Browning. "That is plain enough."

"Not if the men are worked right and put in proper form," declared Hartwick. "I have been told that the English long stroke and recovery is very graceful and easy, and that it does not wear on a man like the American stroke."

"By Jawve! I think that's right, don't yer know," said Paulding.

"What you think doesn't count," muttered Tad Horner.

"With such a stroke and swing the men are bound to recover on their toes," a.s.serted Browning.

"Oh, rats!" said Punch Swallows. "What does that amount to, anyway, in a case like this? We are talking of this tub load of freshmen as if they were the 'Varsity crew. What's the use? It won't make any difference what kind of a stroke they use. They are mighty liable to use several different kinds, and they won't be in it at all, my children. Let's go down to Morey's and oil up."

"Go ahead," said Hartwick, grimly. "But you will think over what I have said after the race comes off."

The boys put on their caps and trooped out, laughing and talking as they went.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MERRIWELL AND RATTLETON.

"Harry!"

"h.e.l.lo!"

"You've got to stop smoking those confounded cigarettes."

Harry Rattleton let his feet fall with a thump from the table on which they had been comfortably resting and turned about to stare at Merriwell, his roommate. His face expressed astonishment, not unmingled with anger.

"Will you be good enough to repeat that remark?" he said, exhaling a cloud of smoke and holding his roll daintily poised in his fingers.

"I said that you must stop smoking cigarettes."

"Well, what did you mean?"

"I am in the habit of saying what I mean," was the quiet answer as Frank scanned the paper over which he had been pondering for some time.

Harry got upon his feet, shoved one hand into his trousers pocket, and stared in silence for some seconds at Merriwell. That stare was most expressive.

"Well, may I be jotally tiggered--I mean totally jiggered!" he finally exclaimed.

"You'll be worse than that if you keep on with those things," a.s.serted Frank. "You'll be totally wrecked."

"This is the first time you have had the crust to deliberately tell me that I must do anything," growled Harry, resentfully. "And I feel free to say that I don't like it much. It is carrying the thing altogether too far. I have never told you that you must do this thing or you mustn't do that. I should have considered that I was beddling with something that was none of my misness--er--meddling with something that was none of my business."

Frank perceived that his roommate was quite heated, so he dropped the paper and said:

"Don't fly off the handle so quick, old man. I am speaking for your own good, and you should know it."

"Thank you!" sarcastically.

"But I am in earnest."

"Really?" and Rattleton elevated his eyebrows.

"Come now," said Frank, "sit down and we will talk it over."

"Talk it over, eh? I don't know why we should talk over a matter that concerns me alone."

"Your dinner did not set well. I never saw you so touchy in all my life.

You know I am your friend, old man, and there is no reason why you should show such a spirit toward me."

"I don't like to be told what I must do and what I mustn't by anybody.

That's all there is about it."

Harry did sit down, but he lighted a fresh cigarette.

"Well, I suppose you will have your own way, but I want to explain why I said what I did. You know we are out to beat the sophs in the boat race."

"Sure."

"Well, in order to do it every man of us must be in the pink of condition. You are not drinking, and Old Put doesn't know how much you are smoking. If he did he would call you down or drop you. It is pretty certain that Gordon would take your place."

"Well, I suppose you are going to tell Old Put all about it? Is that what you mean?"

"Not exactly. But you know I have as much interest in the makeup of our crew as Old Put, although he is the man who really has charge of us."

"Well?"

"If I were to say so, you would be taken out and some one else would fill your place."

"And would you do that?"

"Not unless forced to do so. You should know, Harry, that I am ready to stick by you in anything--if I can."

"If you can! I don't understand that--hang me, if I do! If I have a friend I am going to stick to him through anything, right or wrong!"

"That's first rate and it is all right. If you get into any trouble, I fancy you will not find anybody who will stand by you any longer. But this matter is different. You are in training, and you are not supposed to smoke at all, but you get here in this room and puff away by the hour."

"What harm does it do?"

"A great deal."

"Get out! It doesn't make a dit of bifference."

"That's what you think, but I know better. At Fardale I had a chum who smoked cigarettes by the stack. He was a natural-born athlete, but he never seemed quite able to take the lead in anything. It was his wind. I talked to him, but he thought I didn't know. Finally I induced him to leave off smoking entirely. He did it, though it was like taking his teeth. It was not long before he showed an improvement in his work. The improvement continued and he went up to the very top. He acknowledged that he could not have accomplished it if he had kept on with his cigarettes.