“I thought I might find you here when I found you were not in your room or on the campus. You are wanted at a meeting of the directors of the ball team.”
Rattleton gave Frank a warning look.
Hardy took hold of Merriwell’s arm and led him away, while Hodge and Rattleton followed.
“It’s a shame to drag Merry into this!” spluttered Harry.
“Into what?” asked Bart, innocently.
“Why, don’t you know? They’re after him to be captain of the ’varsity nine in Hardy’s place.”
“That’s good.”
“Good!” cried Harry. “It’s a conspiracy—a plot—an outrage! That’s what it is!”
“Oh, come off! What are you driving at, anyway? Are you nutty?”
“Not a bit of it, Hodge. I tell you it is a plot to hurt Frank! He’s a fool if he lets them pull him into it after what I have told him! But, for all of his shrewdness about most things, he is easy sometimes. He wants to think everybody white. He is the kind of fellow who will let a chap walk all over him and then play the friend to that sort of a cur. That’s where he makes his mistake.”