How long the mining magnate from Gold Hill had been enjoying the performance on the veranda, the boys did not know. He had caught Clancy red-handed, however, trying to drive the mercury out of the top of the thermometer.
“It beats all,” laughed Clancy, “what a fellow can make people do just by fooling with a thermometer.”
“The power of suggestion is tremendous,” said the colonel, “if rightly handled. It is so in everything, my lads. Start a train of suggestions properly and, if they lead in the right direction, you can mold nearly any one to your will. But that isn’t what I came over here to talk about.”
The colonel had climbed the veranda steps while talking, and he now shook hands warmly with Merry and his chums. Ballard pushed out a chair for him, and he lowered himself into it with a genial smile, while his eyes roved from one to another of the glowing young faces in front of him.
In some things Colonel Hawtrey was a stern old martinet. The better part of his life had been spent in the military service of his country, and this may have developed the relentless side of his nature. He had a will of iron, backed by a judgment that was apt to make a mountain of errors out of a molehill of mere mistakes.
He was a lover of sports, however, and was the backbone and mainstay of the Gold Hill Athletic Club. He believed that, quite apart from physical prowess, the
169
 right spirit in athletics developed inevitably all a youth’s manly qualities. And he had no patience with any one in whom manliness and personal integrity were lacking in the slightest degree.
That something of an unusual nature had brought the colonel from Gold Hill that afternoon Merriwell was positive. And that it might prove as interesting as it was unusual was evident from the colonel’s manner.
“What’s in the wind, colonel?” queried Ballard curiously. “Clancy, here, is feeling like a castaway on a two-by-four island. If he can’t have a little healthy excitement before long, his pranks will probably get us all into trouble.”
“I’ve got everybody in a sweat around this hotel,” said Clancy; “that is,” he added, “with the kind assistance of Chip and Pink.”
“We’re all in it,” acknowledged Merry. “But what sort of a proposition have you got, colonel?”
“Darrel suggested the idea last night,” returned the colonel, “and it struck me as being a pretty good one. How long before you’re going to leave this part of the country, Merriwell?”
“As soon as the professor and Mrs. Boorland get the money for that mine. The check has to come from the East.”
“Do you think you’d have time to match an Ophir nine against a team from Gold Hill? This would be a very pleasant diversion, it seems to me, and I know it would be highly enjoyed by all the fans in both towns.”
“Bully!” exclaimed Clancy, all enthusiasm on the instant.
“Now you are shouting, colonel!” seconded Ballard, with equal zest.
“Fine idea, colonel!” said Merriwell. “All the big
170
 teams go South for their spring practice, and here in southern Arizona we’ll be getting ahead of them by two or three months.”
“Back at Farnham Hall,” went on the red-headed chap, enthusing more and more as the idea took firmer hold of him, “they’re thinking of skates, and toboggans, and ice hockey, and here we’re planning to go out on a diamond and bang the horsehide through the balmy air. Chip,” and he turned to his chum, “if that letter came from the East before the game, I guess we could delay our start for the North long enough to take a fall out of the Gold Hillers, couldn’t we?”
“Sure,” Merry heartily agreed. “I suppose this game would be pulled off in a few days, colonel?”
“Why, yes,” was the answer, “just as soon as you can pick up a nine. We had thought of playing next Saturday, on the theory, you understand, that we’d have to hurry matters if we succeeded in getting a game with you before you left. If you can stay longer, make it a week from next Saturday, if that suits you better, or any other day that tallies with your convenience.”
“This is Wednesday,” Frank mused, “and that would leave only two days for getting a team together and practicing a little in case we play on the last day of this week. But we’d better make it next Saturday,” he added.
“Good!” exclaimed the colonel. “You’ve run up a long score of athletic victories since you’ve been in Ophir, Merriwell, and I give you fair warning that Gold Hill is going to do its best to give you a parting shot you’ll long remember.”
“Of course,” said Merry, “if Gold Hill didn’t work hard to win, the game wouldn’t be worth while.”
“We’ll have the advantage of you, unless the Ophir
171
 Athletic Club can give you all the players you need who are up to snuff. Our boys will come direct from our own club, and they have been playing ball ever since that football game a few weeks ago. Bleeker, and the rest of those who had gone into camp in the gulch, got back to Gold Hill several days ago, and they have been gingering up on the diamond ever since.”
“It’s a cinch, then, that your team will have a big advantage. I can use a few from the Ophir Club; Clancy, Ballard, and I will play, and then we’ll have to go hunting for the rest of our material. It will be quite a job to get the team together and pound it into any sort............