CHAPTER XX
A NEW CONSPIRACY.
Foote had been so supremely confident of the success of his plan to disgrace Gray, that he had inspired an equal degree of confidence in Parker. When, therefore, they saw the senior go out in the last inning of the game with Harvard and perform his remarkable feat of striking out the whole Harvard side, they had been completely staggered. They were nervous, too, and, as soon as the game was over, made their way back to New Haven.
“You’re a false alarm, Foote,” said Parker bitterly. “You make promises as fast as you can talk, but I notice that you’re not so quick when it comes to making good on them afterward. I thought you said you had it fixed so that Gray couldn’t possibly pitch. You took enough chances, going into Dwight Hall that way last night—that’s one sure thing.”
“You’re a lot of use,” stormed Foote. “You stand around and talk about what I do, but I notice you never start anything yourself—and, when you did, you got caught at it. I’ve got enough on my hands to worry me now, without listening to you. If that plant went wrong, it means that they got onto the fact that Gray hadn’t turned in a blank paper, after all, and that means, too, that they must know that some one switched his book around.”
“For Heaven’s sake!” said Parker, almost admiringly. “You had your nerve with you, all right. Was that what you did?”
“Yes,” growled Foote, “and I’ll be in a nice pickle if they catch me, too, won’t I? I suppose you’ll step up and take your share of the blame—not! I can just see you doing a decent thing like that.”
“I guess I’ll go as far in that direction for you as you would for me,” said Parker angrily. Parker had plenty of courage, of the animal sort. It was morally, not physically, that he was weak. And Foote, who was really terrified at the failure of his scheme, was playing on this weakness of Parker’s.
“I want to get those leaves back,” said Foote. “I didn’t want to have them on me, in case of any accident, so I hid them in Dwight Hall. Now I’m afraid they’ll find them, if they think there’s any reason to look for them, and then the fat would be in the fire for both of us.”
“You were a fool to leave them there,” said Parker, glad of a chance to reproach Foote for something, as Foote had been reproaching him since they had formed their sneaky and treacherous alliance. “How do you expect to get them back?”
“I can’t go after them myself,” said Foote. “It would be too risky. You stand in all right with Merriwell now—he doesn’t know that we’re working together. Why can’t you try to get them? That would be the best of all. I’ll tell you just where they are.”