“Well?”

“We’ll use it.”

“How?”

“As a battering-ram.”

“To batter down the gate?  Why, how are we to get to the gate?”

“The timber will take us there, and it will open the gate.  When I give the word we will rush for it, pick it up, and sail right into the sophs.  I’ll bet anything they get out of the way when they see us coming with that.  It will take them by surprise.”

“’Rah! ’rah! ’rah!” yelled several of the enthusiastic freshmen.

The sophomores yelled back at them in derision.

“They think we are beaten now,” said Diamond, whose face had lighted up somewhat as he listened to Merriwell’s plan.  “If we only can get the best of them that way!”

“We can and we will,” assured Frank.  “Those who can’t get hold of the timber may look out that they don’t hook our men away from it.  That is all.”

The freshmen became eager for the effort, but Frank held them back till he was certain they all understood just what was to be done.

“Are you ready?” he finally asked.

“All ready,” was the eager reply.

“Then go!”

The sophomores were astonished to see the freshmen suddenly whirl all together and rush toward the wall.

“They’re going over!  They’re going over!”

The sophomores shouted their satisfaction and delight, fully convinced that they had forced the freshmen to abandon all hope of going through the gate.

Then came a surprise for them.

The freshmen caught up the timber, and Merriwell cried: 

“Charge!”

Like a tornado they bore down on the men near the gate, toward which the timber was directed.

With cries of amazement the alarmed sophomores broke and scattered before the oncoming freshmen.

Crash!

The timber struck the gate, bursting it open instantly, and the triumphant freshmen swarmed into the park, cheering wildly.

“Hurrah for ’Umpty-eight!” yelled Bandy Robinson, turning a handspring.  “We are the boys to do ’em!”

“Hurrah for Frank Merriwell!” shouted Harry Rattleton, his face beaming with joy.  “It was his scheme that did it.”

“Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!” roared the freshmen. “’Rah! ’rah! ’rah!”

Then Frank felt himself lifted to the shoulders of his enthusiastic admirers and carried to the home plate of the ball ground, where the freshmen cheered again and again.

The sophomores were filled with rage and chagrin.

“That was the blamedest trick I ever heard of in all my life!” declared Andy Emery.  “We weren’t looking for anything of the kind.”

“And we have Merriwell to thank for it!” snapped Evan Hartwick.  “He’s full of tricks as an egg is full of meat.”

“By Jawve!” said Willis Paulding, who had managed to keep out of harm’s way during the entire affair.  “I think somebody ought to do something to that fellaw—­I really do, don’t yer know.”