Frank Merriwells Reward | Page 5

be defeated?"
"Look here, Bruce!" said Merriwell firmly. "I don't want to hear you talk that way! We are not going to be beaten. We will wallop Abernathy's men, and don't you worry. We can do it all right!"
"Isn't that the crack team of Hartford?" demanded Diamond.
"Yes. Nothing better over there, I think."
"Then there will be no dead-easy business about it. They're not going to lie down and let us walk over them, just for the purpose of stiffening the spine of that Kansan!"
Jack Diamond was disgusted with the outlook.
"Have I said that they are easy?" Merriwell asked. "I only said I felt sure we could defeat them. And we can. Badger is a good pitcher. You know that. And if he loses his nerve, I shall very promptly take his place. There will be no monkeying. You are the fellows that seem to be in the notion of lying down."
"Oh, well play!" grunted Bruce. "We're just airing our little opinions. I expected to see you in the box Saturday, and I'm disappointed. I suppose that's all!"
He gave a tug at his pipe and rolled over lazily on the lounge, as if that settled it.
"Of course we'll play," agreed Diamond. "But I don't like to go into the game with Badger in the box. I don't like him. The fellow has made himself an insufferable nuisance. I don't agree with you that he is such a wonder. He's a very ordinary fellow, with a rich father and a swelled head. Out West, where he came from, everybody got down on their knees to him, and here at Yale that sort of business don't go. Nobody cares whether his father is a cattleman or a cow-puncher. He wants to be worshiped, and Yale isn't in the worshiping business. Consequently, he's sore all the time!"
Jack forgot that, when he arrived at Yale a few years ago, he expected homage on account of his family and pedigree.
"And I don't forget that he went aboard the Crested Foam blind drunk, and made an ass of himself generally!" said Bruce, rousing again.
"That's one reason Merry wants to give him a show!" said Rattleton. "Badger has an idea that everybody who knows about it feels just as you do, and Frank wants to show him that they don't. See?"
"Oh, we'll play, of course!" Bruce grumbled, rolling back again.
"Sus-sure!" declared Gamp. "Whatever Mum-Merry says, gug-gug-gug-gug----"
"Are you trying to say goshfry?" Danny mildly asked, wetting the end of an unlighted cigarette.
"Gug-goes!" sputtered Gamp, giving Danny a kick that fairly lifted him from the floor. "You mum-mum-mum-measly runt, I'll kuk-kill you!"
"Because he's a joker, Danny thinks he is the only card in the pack!" said Dismal.
"If Merry says we can go into that game next Saturday with Badger in the box and earth the wipe--I mean wipe the earth with those fellows from Hartford, we can do it!" Rattleton declared emphatically. "You know he wouldn't say such a thing if he wasn't sure of it."
"There are only two absolutely sure things, death and taxes," said Merriwell soberly. "If I put too much emphasis on my belief, I'll have to withdraw it. I mean to say that I believe we can."
"And that's about the same as saying that we can!" Rattleton asserted.
"I'm only doubtful about Bart," said Dismal, like a prophet of evil.
"He will never catch for Badger!" Diamond declared.
"I think he will!" sputtered Rattleton. "He will see it just as we do, after Merry talks with him. Of course, we don't any of us love Badger, but what's the difference?"
"Let 'er go!" cried Bink, holding up his hands as if they gripped a bat. "Of course, we'll play ball!"
"Of course!" said Dismal. "We'll pitch Bart out of the camp if he makes a kick. The fellow that balks on that, when he understands it, is 'fit for treason, stratagem, and spoil!'"
Shortly after, Merriwell met Hodge on the campus, coming from the fence. He saw at once that Bart was "steaming."
"Look here, Merriwell," said Hodge, bristling with indignation. "It surely can't be true that you're going to put Badger into the pitcher's box next Saturday?"
Frank took him by the arm and turned with him away from the crowd.
"Yes," he answered, "I have promised to do that."
Hodge's face grew black with wrath.
"You've made a fool of yourself!" he roughly declared. "I wouldn't believe it. I said it was a lie, and I threatened to thump the face off of Donald Pike because he told it. Say, Merry, you don't really mean it?"
Frank had dropped Bart's arm, but they still walked on together. It was easy to see that he did not like Hodge's tone and manner.
"I must say you are outspoken and far from complimentary," he observed.
"I know I don't talk like this to you often."
"That's right. If you did, I'm afraid