"I did."
"That settles it."
"Yes, that settles it!" grated Roland Ditson as he walked away. "Parker didn't lie, and Pierson has intimated that Merriwell may be given a trial on the Varsity nine. If he is given a trial it will be his luck to succeed. He must not be given a trial. How can that be prevented?"
Then Ditson set himself to devise some scheme to prevent Frank from obtaining a trial on the regular nine. It was not an easy thing to think of a plan that would not involve himself in some way, and he felt that it must never be known that he had anything to do with such a plot.
That night Ditson might have been seen entering a certain saloon in New Haven, calling one of the barkeepers aside, and holding a brief whispered conversation with him.
"Is Professor Kelley in?" asked Roll.
"He is, sir," replied the barkeeper. "Do you wish to see him?"
"Well—ahem!—yes, if he is alone."
"I think he is alone. I do not think any of his pupils are with him at present, sir."
"Will you be kind enough to see?" asked Ditson. "This is a personal matter—something I want kept quiet."