“No.”
“Then what is the reason?”
“You know well enough!” snapped Bern bitterly. “You know I had my chance to get on the team, and I landed there, too. Only for your great scheme to knife Merriwell, I’d be playing on the team now.”
“Now, hold on—hold on. Don’t always try to shoulder everything onto me.”
“I’m telling you the truth, and you know it!” cried Wolfe, smashing his clenched right hand into his open left. “If I’d refused to listen to your scheme, I’d be playing shortstop and Tucker would be on the bench.”
“Bah! bah! What are you giving us?”
“Bah! bah! Bleat away. It’s a fact. Merriwell was ready to use me. He did use me. I played in that Hudson game until I got spiked.”
“And you haven’t played since,” grinned Lynch.
“Because Merriwell and his friends are dead sure that I was concerned in the giving away of Umpty-ten’s signals. That was your plan to hurt Merriwell, but it never harmed him a bit. Instead of that, it swamped me, all right, all right.”
“What right has Merriwell to keep you off the team? There’s never been anything proven against you, has there?”