Pass them round." Round they went, and when they reached Frank Merriwell he accepted one.
"I am going to be real dissipated to-night," he laughed, as he struck a match and "fired up." "You may have to carry me to my room on a shutter, for I actually am going to smoke!" Leslie Gage and Wat Snell exchanged glances of satisfaction.
A black look came to Bart Hodge's face, and he half started up as Frank took the cigarette, acting as if he would utter a warning.

Then he settled back in his seat, thinking: "Let him smoke, if he wants to.

One cigarette will do nobody harm." But Hodge knew in his heart that it was not the smoking of one or a dozen cigarettes that was dangerous to Merriwell; it was the breaking of his resolutions--it was the feeling of abandon and recklessness that had seemed to seize upon him.
Not much time was lost in beginning the game, but now Bart insisted on a proper limit.
"What do you say, Merriwell ?" asked George Harris.

"What kind of a limit suits you ?" "Anything from five cents to the sky," was the laughing reply.

"Fix it to suit yourselves." Once more Gage and Snell exchanged glances.
Bart stuck for a moderate limit, but he finally agreed to make it a dollar, the ante being five cents.
"Vell, uf I had pad luck, I don'd last long at dot," said Hans.