CHAPTER XIII.
THE "CENTIPEDE" JOKE.
"Sh!" "What's up ?" "There's a carmine haze on the moon." "That's clear as mud! What's the racket ?" "You room next to Mulloy and Dunnerwust ?" "Yes." "Well, you will hear the racket just about the time taps sound." "But I want to know what's up," persisted the second speaker, whose curiosity was aroused.

"Has somebody put up a job on those two marks, Mulloy and his Dutch chum ?" "You've guessed it." "Who ?" "Guess again." "Merriwell." "Right.

Take your place at the head of the class." This hasty and guarded conversation was carried on between two plebe cadets who had met in a corridor of the academy "cockloft." The first speaker was a jolly-faced little fellow, whose name was Sammy Smiles, and whose companions had failed to invent a nickname for him that fitted as well as his real name--Smiles.
The other boy's name was also Samuel, or the first part of his name was Samuel; but the cadets declined to have two Sams among the plebes, and so Samuel Winslow had gradually come to be known as "Poke." "What's Merriwell up to now ?" asked Poke, a look of delighted suspense on his face.

"He's making things rather lively round here lately." "You bet!" grinned Sammy Smiles.

"There's more fun in him than there is in a barrel of monkeys." "But what's he up to now ?" reiterated Winslow.