"But you are keeping me awake by your chatter a good deal more than they are.

Shut up, the whole lot of you!" There was silence for a time, and then, with a savage exclamation, Diamond sprang out of his berth and thumped on the partition, crying: "Come, gentlemen, it's time to go to bed! You are keeping us awake." There was no response.
Jack went back to bed, but the murmuring continued in the next stateroom, and the rattle of chips could be heard occasionally.
"What are we going to do about it, Merriwell ?" asked Jack, savagely.
"We can complain." But making a complaint was repellent to a college youth, who was inclined to regard as a cheap fellow anybody who would do such a thing, and Diamond did not agree to that.
"Well," said Frank, "I suppose I can go in there and clean them all out." "How ?" "At their own game," laughed Merry, muffledly.
"If anybody in this crowd tackles them that way I'll be the one," asserted the Virginian.
"Then nobody here will tackle them that way," said Frank, remembering how he had once saved Diamond from sharpers in New Haven.
Frank was a person who believed that knowledge of almost any sort was likely to prove of value to a man at some stage of his career, and he had made a practice of learning everything possible.

He had studied up on the tricks of gamblers, so that he knew all about their methods of robbing their victims.

Being a first-class amateur magician, his knowledge of card tricks had become of value to him in more than one instance.

He felt that he would be able to hold his own against pretty clever card-sharps, but he did not care or propose to have any dealings with such men, unless forced to do so.
The boys kept still for a while.