“That’s a shame!” muttered Berlin Carson, who had heard some of the talk. “I’m a Colorado man, but I think I know what Merriwell’s team can do, and——”
“We cuc-cuc-can do those fellows,” said Gamp, who also was aroused.
“Why, it would be a snap!” chuckled Jack Ready. “All we wanted the game for was to get a little practise.”
“You’re a lot of bluffers!” roughly declared Morley.
“I told you there was nothing in it, Dave,” said Elrich, with an air of weariness. “The boys have not money enough to put up a purse.”
Then Frank felt some one tugging at his elbow, and he looked round to see Dick there, his eyes gleaming and his face flushed with indignation.
“Bet him, Frank!” palpitated the lad. “I wouldn’t stand it to have him talk that way to me! You know father was dreadfully rich, and all his money was left to us. I’ll bet every cent of my part that your team can beat his!”
“Ho! ho!” laughed Morley. “And how much might your part be, kid?”
“Oh, a little trifle of eight or ten million dollars, that’s all,” said Frank, who could not help being somewhat nettled by the insulting manner of the man. “I think it would be quite enough to accommodate you, in case it was staked against anything you could raise at twenty to one.”
It was not often Merriwell said anything like this, but just now he had been provoked to the limit, and he could not refrain.