"The fellows say he was dead easy with Hartwick, but that Evan would not let up on Merriwell."
"Well, Hartwick was forced to leave college, anyway, and I"d like to make Frank Merriwell do the same thing."
"Wish you might. It would give some of the rest of us a show."
"If he"s played on the eleven this fall, I should have been forced to put my money on Yale. Now we"ve got a weak team, and I have put up something on Harvard as soon as this. I am getting all the bets I can before it is generally known that Yale is weak."
"What if Merriwell should be taken on?"
"There is no danger of it, and he couldn"t play the whole game, anyway.
As full-back, however, he would have strengthened Yale"s weakest point.
It is remarkable, but we haven"t a man besides Merriwell this season who is fully qualified to play the position."
"What"s the matter with the new man?"
"Marline?"
"Yes."
"He"s a grand-stand player. All he cares about is to do something pretty to win the admiration of the ladies. He will work for Marline, and not for the team. Mark what I say. The team was weak enough when it went against the Indians, but it is weaker still with Halliday at quarter and Marline at full. Harvard is better than she was last season, when we beat her by a fluke, and she will walk right over our team. Put your money on Harvard, Gordan, and you will win everything."
"h.e.l.lo!" exclaimed Walter, suddenly. "What"s up now?"
"Cook is talking with Merriwell, that"s all."
"That means something."
"Get out! Cook is coach, but he isn"t running the team."
"I tell you it means something! See--Cook calls Forrest. Now the captain of the eleven is coming over. See that! They are talking together. I tell you that means something, Harris!"
Gordan was excited, and he seemed to impart his excitement to his companion. With the greatest eagerness they watched the little group.
Perhaps the trio spent ten minutes talking, and then there was a move that added to the excitement of Gordan and Harris.
"What"s Merriwell going to do?" asked Sport, catching his breath.
"Do!" exclaimed Walter, in deep disgust. "Can"t you see? He"s going to practice!"
"Practice? Great Scott! That means----"
"That means that he is sure to play on the eleven!"
Gordan and Harris were not the only ones interested in Merriwell"s movements.
Tom Thornton, who had once been an enemy to Frank, and was now very friendly toward Rob Marline, the new man, who was expected to play full-back, was watching Cook, Forrest and Merriwell.
In catching a ball, Marline ran past Thornton, who asked:
"What"s up over there, Rob? Why are those fellows talking with their heads together?"
"I don"t know," was the answer. "Maybe Merriwell wants to get onto the eleven."
"If he wants to, he"ll do it."
"He can"t. Positions all taken."
"Somebody"ll be fired."
""Twon"t be me."
"Don"t be so sure of that," thought Tom, but he did not speak the words aloud.
After a little Merriwell was seen preparing to practice. Halliday was at it already. Happening to be near Ben, Thornton heard him observe to a player:
"I"ve done the job for Yale this time. Got Merriwell back. They will have to thank me for that."
"Got him back?" said the other. "Why, how is that? Where will he play?"
"Full-back, of course."
"But Marline."
"Marline will be given a chance to rest."
Thornton nodded.
"Knew it!" he muttered. "Rob is a good fellow, and this isn"t a square deal. He won"t be given a show. Merriwell is all right as a player, but he has no right to refuse to play and then come on after things are fixed and knock some other chap out. I"ll tell Rob."
So, at the first opportunity, Thornton told Marline what he had heard Halliday say.
Marline was from South Carolina, and he was proud as Lucifer. In fact, his manner of always speaking of South Carolina as the "one" State in the Union was often little short of exasperating. He was haughty and overbearing, proud of his birth, inclined to boast, and utterly blind to his own shortcomings.
No one questioned Marline"s courage. He came from a family noted for courage and daring. His great-grandfather was a patriot officer of Revolutionary times, and his father had won a commission in the Confederate Army in the War of the Rebellion. The blood of fighters and heroes ran in Marline"s veins.
For all that, there was no one at Yale who could make himself more offensive than the boy from South Carolina. He had a way of sneering at everybody and everything outside his native State, and when he set out to call anybody down, the most withering and biting sarcasm flowed from his tongue.
Marline was smart intellectually, but whimsical and set in his notions and beliefs. Once let him express an opinion and he would not confess himself in the wrong even when absolute proof lay before him. Instead, he was pretty sure to want to fight the fellow who offered the proof.
As an orator the youth from South Carolina had no superior in college.
He was strong in argument, and it was through him that Yale had succeeded in wresting from Harvard the honors in the annual debate.
With the professors he stood unusually well, as he was regarded as a brilliant scholar, and he had never been known to take part in any of the students" carousals.
Marline"s face grew dark as he listened to Halliday.
"They can"t drop me without playing me at all," he said, harshly.
"Can"t! Guess you don"t know Walt Forrest. He wouldn"t hesitate a second if he thought he could improve the team. He doesn"t allow his feelings to interfere at all with the discharge of what he thinks is his duty."