“Merriwell had to have a first baseman and an assistant pitcher. Ambitious as he is, as much as he likes to show off, he can’t do all the pitching. Toleman was sulking, and the team just had to accept Kates. That’s plain enough. You didn’t have a chance of forcing yourself in the way Sam did.”
“Oh, don’t tell me that! I don’t believe it. I got there once. What have I made by listening to your plans and plots? I’ve lost the chance I had, and even though they can’t prove anything against me I’m under suspicion. You’ve said you would clear me, but never yet have you made a single promise good.”
“Now, hold on!” snarled Lynch, his red hair seeming to bristle. “That’s just about enough from you. Haven’t I been doing my best? Wasn’t I putting myself out on your account last night, and didn’t it come near being my finish?”
“I told you that was a preposterous scheme before we started in upon it. You were the only one in the crowd who thought it would amount to anything.”
“For a lark. It was to have some amusement with Tucker that those masquerade costumes were stolen and worn. I was against that piece of business, but Ditson had been drinking, and he was ready for any piece of recklessness. Give him a couple of drinks, and you never know what he’ll do.”
“Well, you’re about as ungrateful a runt as I ever saw!” declared Lynch bitterly. “I wash my hands of it. I’m through trying to help you. If you want to, you can go tell every one that you gave away the team’s signals.”
“I don’t know what you’re likely to do. Why, I’ve even convinced our own bunch that Tucker was the guilty one instead of you. They believe it.”
“They pretend to,” muttered Bern, “but I’m not sure they do.”
“To tell the truth, a fellow can’t be sure of much of anything with them,” growled Mike. “Look at the way they skipped me last night! Wasn’t that fine? You did the same thing. You dusted out with the rest and left me to the mercies of the Merriwell bunch, or to roast.”
“And in such a case you’d leave a friend lying unconscious to be burned to death, would you?”
“I didn’t know you were unconscious. I was having troubles enough of my own. I didn’t know what happened to you.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what happened. About four of those fellows, including Merriwell himself, jumped on me in a bunch. One of them hit me over the head with a piece of lead pipe or something like that. That was the last I knew until I found myself lying on the floor, almost choked by smoke and nearly roasted by fire.”