“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Already they say I run the team as I choose, that I have worked all my friends on to it, and that it is not fair. I am going to keep out of this affair and let the boys settle it as they like.”
Brad Buckhart pulled hard for Hardy, but he found it difficult to unite Dick’s friends on that candidate. It was only by convincing them that Chester would surely win if they did not unite that he succeeded.
There was a third candidate who entered the field late in the day. It was Joe Savage.
Now, Savage was known to be friendly in his talk toward Dick Merriwell, and many of Dick’s friends regretted that he had not decided sooner to take a hand in the struggle. As it was, the most of them had been pledged to Hardy by the energetic and wily Buckhart.
Brad had grown confident as the time for the meeting drew near.
“If all the fellows who have talked favorable stand by Hardy, we’ve got that Arlington crowd buried,” he said.
But Buckhart had to learn that pledges and fair talk may not always be relied on, a fact that many a defeated politician has discovered to his sorrow.
The Arlington workers continued their efforts right up to the time the meeting was called to order.
Elmer Dow, who had managed the basket-ball team once, was chosen chairman and mounted the platform. Having called the meeting to order, he suggested that a committee of three be chosen to count the votes, for it was already settled that the candidate should be elected by written ballot.
Instantly Buckhart was on his feet, proposing the name of Dick Merriwell. Somebody hissed. That hiss was enough to start an uproar. In a twinkling it was demonstrated that Dick had plenty of friends—in fact, that the great majority of those present were his friends.