Ditson’s doubled disgust for Robinson came principally from the fact that big Rufe had at one time seemed inclined to favor the anti-Merriwell crowd. After becoming manager of the team Robinson had flopped, cutting out Duncan and his associates.
“Well, I had my chance to make good and nail myself fast to the team,” Wolfe hastily continued. “I meant to do it. I was in earnest, for I love baseball more than any other sport. Lynch became infuriated with me. You know what he thinks of Sam Kates. Kates got his chance on the team the same time I did. He’s stuck there.”
“But he made a beautiful mess pitching that Highbridge game,” smiled Duncan, filliping a bit of ash from his cigarette.
“Oh, as a pitcher Sam is erratic. He’s a wizard one day and a slob the next. That experience will teach them better than to rely on him, even against the weaker teams. As I was saying, Lynch put up that Hudson job. He got me to make out a list of the teamwork signals. He told me how we could make money by handing the signals over to Newhouse, the Hudson manager. But I didn’t propose to have those signals turning up in my handwriting, and so we engaged a bummer to get them typewritten for us. In order to doubly cover our tracks, we actually fooled Newhouse into believing that Tucker was the one who gave him the signals.
“Lynch made the bargain with Newhouse, and arranged that I should meet the man on a certain dark corner, and give him the typewritten document. I kept the appointment, wearing an old ulster, with the collar turned up, and a wide-brimmed hat pulled low down over my eyes. When Newhouse inquired if my name was Tucker I said yes. That’s the way the trick was worked. It was a mighty rotten piece of business, but Lynch was to blame for it all. He drove me into it. I’m satisfied that Merriwell got at the truth, and that’s why I was bounced from the team and Tucker taken back. You can’t blame me, Ditson. You see the kind of a fix I was in. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to.”
Duncan tossed the butt of his cigarette into the open grate.
“I see,” he said, with a shrug of his shoulders; “and I’ve been thinking all the time that Tucker did it. I’ve been despising Merriwell because he kept Tucker on the team. I must acknowledge that you and Lynch fooled me, all right. I’m sorry to learn that Tucker was not the traitor.”
“I didn’t want to be a traitor,” said Wolfe. “Do you wonder I’m sore on Mike Lynch? I tell you I love baseball. I’m not playing, and Lynch is to blame for it. Now he suddenly has a spasm of virtue, and it looks as if he might get a chance to play on the team himself. Think I’m going to stand for that? Not on your life! Say, I’m going to make a howl. I’m going to rip up things generally.”
“Are you?” smiled Ditson, as he selected and lighted a second cigarette. “I wonder how you’re going to do it. It seems to me you’re in a tight corner, and you haven’t much chance to make a disturbance. Didn’t I understand Lynch to say he had written a full confession of his errors and sent it to Merriwell?”
“That’s what he says.”