A third time Hackett whistled.
“What do you say to that? Do you want to play him, Fred?”
“I don’t mind. His team will be easy for us, and it might give us a chance to rub it into those Harvard chaps some. Besides that, I’ve been thinking, if he really gets Onslaw, it might make an opening for me to even up with that duffer.”
“Sure thing, old man! You’ve been pining for such a chance. But the success of Merriwell in other things seems to proclaim it possible that he will succeed at lacrosse.”
“Don’t be silly, Hack! Do you fancy a picked-up team can beat us? I guess not! It takes teamwork to play the game, and a team, in order to be great, must work together a long time. We’re at our best now. If we were to go against Harvard again we’d whitewash ’em.”
“I believe that.”
“I know it. Oh, I don’t fear Merriwell’s team in the least. He’ll have some dubs on it. One fellow is Bart Hodge, who is engaged to Elsie Bellwood, the invalid. She hasn’t wanted him to know anything about her illness, and so it has been kept from him. She thought he would leave Frank, and she says Merriwell can’t get along without Hodge as a catcher in all baseball games, so she kept her illness quiet.”
“It’s plain you’re decidedly in favor of playing Merriwell’s team.”
“Rather.”
“Well, I think what you say about it will go. Have you any positive reason to believe he wants a game with Hopkins?”