“First base.”
“Come off!”
“I am in earnest.”
“Why, I am too fat, Frank—I am not in condition. Such a thing is ridiculous!”
“You are large, but you might be fatter than you are. I know you can train down swiftly. A week of hard work will pull you down at an astonishing rate.”
Bruce groaned.
“It might; but I should not live through it,” he said, as he struck the match and prepared to light the cigarette.
Frank blew out the match and took the cigarette from Browning’s fingers.
“I am talking business to you now,” he said, almost sternly. “You are going to work systematically to-morrow to work off your flesh, for I may want you on the ’varsity nine. When you are in condition, you are a better man than Parker on first, while Parker is a better man than Faunce in the field. One trouble with the nine is that several of the men are not playing in their proper positions.”
“But you are not going to have the nerve to switch them around! You will not have the crust to fire some of them and take on new men?”