Frank Merriwells Reward | Page 5

it, you'll have to go ahead. I'll band sty you--I mean I'll
stand by you! I'll do my best to hold down third, no matter who is
pitching."
Frank gave Rattleton a grateful look.
"You're always loyal, Harry!"
"Oh, I suppose that all of us will have to accept it, and do the best we
can," Diamond admitted, "but I don't like it, and that's flat. None of us
has fallen in love with Buck Badger!"
"We'll be bub-bub-bub-beat worse than any old drum!" grunted Gamp.
"Everlastingly thumped!" wailed Danny.
"I don't know that I can get up enough interest to do much good on
first," grumbled Bruce, who was as little pleased as any one.
"What's the use of going to the trouble of playing when you know at
the start that you're to 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!'"
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