“You’re talking pretty big, Foote,” he said, but in a softer tone. “Have you got any ideas for doing him up that way? I’d be willing to help you get that ‘Y’ if you could get rid of Merriwell.”
“I haven’t been talking just for exercise,” said Foote, with a sneer. “I knew you’d have to come to me if you wanted to get anywhere. There’s only one way to beat this fellow—that’s to fight him without letting him know that you’re doing it. The thing he’s got nearest to his heart right now is to beat Harvard in this series, and it’s a tough job, even if Yale has won the first game. He’s planning to use Gray and Taylor in the game here on Commencement Day, and then come back with Phillips on the last day, if Yale happens to lose here. I don’t believe Phillips is good for the extra game here, and, if Gray can’t pitch, it will be a sure thing for Harvard. See?”
“Yes, but Gray will pitch,” said Parker. “And if he doesn’t, what difference will it make?”
“Suppose Gray didn’t pitch,” said Foote, grinning evilly. “Suppose it was discovered that he couldn’t graduate? Suppose the discovery was made by Merriwell himself, and he felt that he had to tell the dean what he had found out? Wouldn’t that rather put him and the whole team on the blink?”
“Go ahead,” said Parker. “Talk common sense. I can’t make out what you’re driving at now at all.”
“Well, suppose Merriwell didn’t tell the dean what he knew,” said Foote. “But suppose some one else did—just in time to spoil Gray’s chance of pitching and getting his degree. Then, can’t you see? It would mean Merriwell’s finish. And you can be sure that that’s just what would happen. This Merriwell talks mighty big, but he’s no better than any one else, and if he finds out something that would spoil his plans, he’ll keep mighty quiet about it, just as any one else would.”
“I begin to get you now,” said Parker. “But this is going to take a lot of doing, my boy. I’ve been up against this chap Merriwell, and you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to get down to breakfast ahead of him. Have you got this little plan all worked out yet?”
“Not quite,” admitted Foote, “but I’m getting there. Gray and Taylor haven’t got as many admirers as you might expect. They dropped a lot of their old friends early this year, you know, and some of them haven’t liked it. Not so much men in college as some fellows in New Haven they used to run around with. And the faculty isn’t any too sure of them either. I happen to know that they were both on the ragged edge at the last exams. They just got through, and there are some professors who said then that neither of them had more than an outside chance of getting through the final exams.”
“What’s the game?” asked Parker. “Are they going to try to do some cribbing?”
“I don’t say they will, mind you,” said Foote, with a wink. “But I’m going to keep my eyes open. And it may be I’ll see something that I’ll feel it my duty to report in the quarters where it will do the most good, you know. Will you go in on this with me? You’ll have to do what I say, and not ask too many questions, you know. When you don’t know what’s doing, you won’t be lying when you say so, remember.”