“That came near knocking me out. You were so set against cigarettes yesterday that——”
“You fancied I’d never change my mind. There is an old saying, ‘it’s only a fool who never changes his mind.’”
Don lighted one of the cigarettes, while Leon watched him with a sly, satisfied smile.
“You may not like the first one very much,” said the inveterate smoker, “but you’ll find they’ll grow on ye, and you will like them more and more, till, after a while, you won’t want to get along without them. I tell you they are great stuff.”
With the lighting of that first cigarette, a reckless sensation of indifference stole over Don, and he began to feel that, considering the circumstances, he had not done anything worth worrying about in deceiving his father and telling him a falsehood. In a few moments he was telling himself that cigarettes truly were, as Leon had declared, soothing to the nerves.
“They’re not so bad,” admitted Don; “but I’ll have to give this room a good airing, so aunt will not smell the smoke.”
“And you better not smoke too much of the first one,” Leon warned, craftily. “As you’re not used to ’em, it might make your head feel queer. After a while, if you keep it up, you can smoke as many as you like without noticing it at all. In fact, one or two will be just no satisfaction; more of an aggravation.”
“How long had you been outside?” asked the doctor’s son.
“Ten minutes, anyhow. I wanted to have a talk with you. I’d come over last night after leaving the club, but I thought you’d be abed. I wanted to tell you about the nasty trick this fellow Renwood is playing on me. I knew he had it in for me, and I tumbled in a minute when Sterndale proposed giving Harry Carter a trial in the line. I pinned him right down and asked him where he proposed trying Carter. When he said right or left tackle I knew what that meant, for Linton is solid as right tackle. If Carter shows up all right, I’m to be kicked out, and Carter goes in as left tackle. Renwood is at the bottom of it, the dirty cad!”
His companion’s words brought a feeling of surprise to Don Scott, who immediately recalled the broken bit of conversation he had overheard the previous evening as he crouched behind some bushes directly after leaving the football field. Hearing Sterndale speaking at that time of giving Carter a trial on the eleven, he had felt certain the new man was to be given the position made vacant by his resignation from the team; but now Bentley’s statement seemed to cast a new light on the captain’s intention.