"But I tell you what I do mean," flashed the leader of the Firsts. "I mean if you had kept your head after Thomas slugged your nose, and sent Buttons against the line, instead of always signalling for the ball to be given to you, the Seconds would have won—or at least made a better showing."
This open charge of both incompetence and selfish desire to carry the ball set Bart beside himself.
"You have no license to talk—your team didn't do wonders," he retorted. "If——"
"Yes, it did! Yes, it did! Sandow held them to no score until he was carried from the field," shouted several of the boys.
But Bart only grew more angry at these emphatic contradictions.
"I don't care what you say or think," he flared. "If that Fred Markham plays on the Baxter baseball team, I won't, and I'm the only decent pitcher in the school."
This defiance threatened to bring the rival factions to blows. But Hal was equal to the occasion.
"I am captain of this team, Montgomery," he declared when he had produced a semblance of order. "I want you to understand that, first, last and all the time. As captain, I shall play the players I want—not the ones you want."
"Humph!"
"If Fred Markham wants to try for second base, he can have all the show in the world, and if he makes good, he'll play the bag in——"