“The boys have got wind of something, Chip,” said Handy, “and they’re all up in the air. I think we’d better break camp and go in to town.”
“I think so, too,” said Merry. “We ought to have a week’s work on the home field before the game with Gold Hill.”
“Why,” spoke up Brad, “I thought that was all off.”
“So it was,” laughed Merriwell, “but I’ve got a hunch that it will be on again before long.”
During supper he repeated for the Ophir lads the same account that he had given to Mr. Bradlaugh at Dolliver’s. As might have been expected, the recital was greeted with delight by all the campers, and the demonstration wound up with a volley of cheers for Ellis Darrel.
It was quite fitting, perhaps, that Colonel Hawtrey should arrive at Tinaja Wells during the cheering. As he strode through the half gloom and into the light of the cook fire, he pulled off his hat and waved it about his gray head.
“You’re cheering my nephew, Ellis Darrel,” he shouted, “and I reckon I ought to be allowed to join in. Now that you’re done with Darrel, why not give three rousers for Merriwell? Come on, boys, all together!”
With that, the cañon fairly rang with a hearty three times three and a tiger. When silence finally settled over the camp, the colonel, still keeping his hat in his hand and his place by the fire, made a brief address to the Ophir fellows:
“I have come here this evening,” said he, “for the purpose of apologizing to Merriwell. I misjudged him, and because of that I crowded him pretty hard in a talk I had with him early in the afternoon. He took it well, and didn’t pitch into me. I suppose,” and the speaker laughed, “that he kept hands off on account of my gray hairs.
“During our conversation, if I remember, I told Merriwell that there would be no further competitions between the Gold Hill and the Ophir athletic organizations, and I declared, in pretty strong terms, that there’d be no football game next Thanksgiving Day. Well, I’ve changed my mind about that. The two clubs are going to meet and mingle in all the contests the games committees can arrange for. And we’re going to act like true sportsmen, every one of us, just as the chip of the old block has acted during his trouble on account of the coyote dog. ‘Fair play and no favor,’ that’s the idea, and we’ll stand up to it as firmly as Merriwell has done. I reckon that will be all.”