“Confound Sterndale! I’m sick of him! He is letting this city cad manage him.”
“Of course he is, but he’d get hot in a minute if anybody told him so.”
“What makes you think Renwood wants to get you off the eleven?”
“Why, he’s been throwing out hints. He’s said there were some fellows on the team who were no earthly good.”
“I heard him say that!” grated Don; “and he meant me, too!”
“He may have meant you for one, but I am the other.”
“How do you know?”
“Oh, I took pains to get near enough to overhear some things he was saying to Sterndale after you left the field. They didn’t see me, but I heard this sneak Renwood say outright that he thought the eleven could be strengthened by filling my place with somebody else. I felt like punching his head then and there, but I just kept still and didn’t let anybody know what I had heard.”
“I couldn’t have kept still.”
“That’s where you’re foolish. He said I smoke too many cigarettes. Just as if that had anything to do with my playing! What rot! And he even declared that I lack nerve, so that I would weaken in a hard game.”