And he continued to wonder if it were possible that Lynch was in any way connected with the sudden manner in which Dick Merriwell had fallen ill.
CHAPTER XVI.
DICK’S AMAZING HURDLE.
| Fardale. | Positions. | Hudsonville. |
| Burrows | Right end | Fisher |
| Stanton | Right tackle | Tilton |
| Douglass | Right guard | Clove |
| Buckhart | Center | Glennon |
| Gordan | Left guard | Dinsmore |
| Blair | Left tackle | McBride |
| Kane | Left end | Swett |
| Shannock | Quarter-back | Haggerty |
| Nunn | Right half-back | Church |
| Kent | Left half-back | Aiken |
| Singleton | Full-back | King |
Above is the line-up of the two teams that faced each other on Fardale field that Saturday afternoon.
Although it was said that, under the treatment of the doctor, Dick Merriwell had improved rapidly, yet his friends claimed that he was unable to play, and might not leave the hospital for a day or two.
The absence of Dick from the team made some changes necessary, and, on the advice of Frank Merriwell, Substitute Kane was placed at right end, while Don Kent was put in Dick’s position as left half-back.
Uric Scudder noted with regret the absence of Merriwell, for it had been his desire that the fellow he hated should be knocked out by the slugger, Glennon.
"All my trouble for nothing," he thought bitterly. "Wish I had never written that letter. Oh, that wretched letter! It may get me in no end of trouble."
He was troubled and worried, for he could not keep his thoughts from the rotten wharf, beneath which the unlucky boy had disappeared, and before his mental vision seemed to rise the slimy spilings, with the rushing tide gurgling about them. In fancy he saw a gruesome form floating beneath the old wharf, knocking against the spiles and whirled with the eddies of the restless water. He shivered and grew cold whenever he thought of this.
Hudsonville was swaggering and confident, and the captain of the team expressed regret that Merriwell was not on hand to take his drubbing with the rest of the Fardale aggregation.