Tip Top Weekly No. 80: Frank Merriwell as 'Anchor' — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

24 times happens that the position of the ribbon will not vary more than two or three inches during the entire tug. The time is taken, and at the end of four minutes the victory is awarded to whichever team has the ribbon upon its side of the chalk mark. In this pull with Harvard, Frank’s training proved to be of the greatest value. He had laid the greatest stress upon the fall. When the pistol shot came the Yale team dropped like one man to the general eye. It seemed as if the Harvard team dropped at exactly the same instant, but when the excited spectators looked at the ribbon on the rope, they saw that it was fully six inches upon the Yale side of the chalk mark. After the fall there was a silent moment of hard tugging upon each part, but the ribbon did not budge. Meantime Bruce was manipulating the rope that ran around his belt, and keep- ing his eyes fixed upon the Harvard anchor opposite. ‘‘ How is it, Bruce??? whispered Frank. ‘We've got ’em,’’ muttered Bruce in reply. Prank said nothing, for in the course of training he and Bruce had discussed this matter so many times that Frank knew well what policy the anchor would ‘pursue. It is often said that a miss is as good as a mile, and in the case of a tug of war an inch is certainly as good as a yard. It might have been possible for the . Yale team by constant tugging and by occasional surprises to get the ribbon much further over to their side, but that was not the policy that had been decided on. If the team should win, there was Princeton still to be pulled, and every ounce of strength would be needed then; so, having the advantage of Harvard, the boys simply held to the rope, using only enough strength to keep what they had gained. Tt cost them a good deal of effort to keep it. About a minute had passed since the fall, when the Harvard anchor suddenly : FRANK MERRIWELL AS ANCHOR. gave his men the word, and leaned far back upon the floor. It was a mighty tug. Slowly but ap- parently surely the ribbon moved toward the Harvard cleats, Bruce caught the end of the rope ina knot, and niuttered: ‘Fold hard!” The boys did hold hard, but in spite of that the rope gradually slipped through their hands. ‘It can’t last long,’’ whispered Bruce, ‘“keep cool,”? A few seconds of such mighty tugging was indeed all that any team could stand, and presently the Harvard men rested, having gained three or four inches. — To many of the spectators it seemed now as if the ribbon was even with the chalk mark, and the Harvard crew were setting up wild cries of triumph- The Yale team, however, had been lying low. Bruce and his men had simply resisted the Harvard tug like so much dead weight, and the instant that the Yale anchor saw that the Harvard team had come to rest he exclaimed: (Pyll! {>> Then the Yale team gripped the rope and strained at it in earnest. Their effort came like a yank, and in less than three seconds all the space that had been lost in Harvard’s long tug was recovered. So the contest went on to the end. Harvard frequent] y made desperate efforts to get the ribbon on its side of the line, and each time the Yale team had to lose a little ground, but each time they made acomplete recovery, and at the end of our minutes the victory was with the lue. The Harvard team got out of sight as quickly as possible, while the Yale men . went to their dressing room, followed. by the wild cheering of their friends. For the next few minutes the Vale spectators paid little attention to what was going on on the floor. themselves in cheering each member of their team. Puss Parker lead the cheering. He stood in front of the Yale tier and shouted : “What's the matter with Browning 2? An immense chorus responded: They busied connicboo SS (SO)