CHAPTER VIII.
THE HAUNTED ROOM.
The little party of card players was expectantly awaiting the appearance of Bartley Hodge.
There was to be no feast this night--nothing but cigarettes and draw poker.
Hodge appeared at last, and he brought a disappointment to at least two of the party, for Frank Merriwell was not with him.
Leslie Gage and Wat Snell exchanged glances that were full of meaning.
Sam Winslow was on guard outside, it being his turn to fill that unenviable position.
"Hello, Hodge," saluted Harvey Dare.

"Now we are ready to proceed to business." "Dot vas righdt," nodded Hans Dunnerwust, who was on hand.

"I vos goin' to smoke cigarreds to-nighd dill I vos sick, und haf a pully dime." "Why doesn't Merriwell ever show up again ?" asked Leslie Gage.
"That's it," joined in Wat Snell, "why doesn't he come round and give a fellow a show to win back some of that money he won off us?
Is he afraid ?" "You know well enough that Frank Merriwell is not afraid," said Bart, quickly.
"Well, it looks that way," declared Leslie.
"Yes, it looks that way," echoed Wat.
"Possibly he has too much sense to spend his nights here," said Hodge.
"If I had known that much, I wouldn't have gone back a class.
Merriwell is in the first section, and he is making right along." "Well, he is a different fellow than I thought he was," asserted Snell.
"Until lately, he has seemed quite a fellow for sport, but he is degenerating into a drone." "Such drones are the fellows who get along well in school and in the world." "Bah! Give me a fellow with blood in him!" came contemptuously from Gage.
Leslie had grown desperate, having come to the conclusion that Frank was not to be cajoled into playing poker any more.

He now determined, of a sudden, that he would take another tack, and see if he could not anger Merriwell into coming.
Hodge remembered that Gage had tried to injure Frank in the past, and the dark-eyed plebe was ready to blaze forth in an instant.

Although he did not know it, Gage was treading on the very thin crust that covered a smoldering volcano.
Leslie was not warned by the fire that gleamed in Bart's eyes, for he continued: "If Merriwell persists in staying away--if he does not show up and give Snell a chance to get square, he is----" A knock at the door! It was the regular signal for admittance, and so, after the first start of alarm, George Harris said: "Open up quickly.