“I guess the college can run without your help,” said Baldwin. “You didn’t appear very anxious to help it last spring.”
“We have just admitted that we believe we were wrong, Baldwin,” said Larry. “It seems to me we are offering whatever we have—and Mr. Haxton is judge of what is best for the team and the school.”
“You seem to think you can win a place on this team as easily as you can one with those niggers and Japs at the ranch,” sneered Baldwin. “You’ll find the decent fellows here will not stand for it—or for you.”
“Hold on, Baldwin, hold on,” remarked Paw Lattiser mildly. “Seems to me, from what I’ve heard, someone else is trying to run things.”
“What have you to do with this, Lattiser?” snapped Haxton, who resented the patronizing calmness of the veteran. “I’m running this team.”
“Well,” replied Lattiser quaintly, “I admit that—although from the last two years’ showing you have little enough to boast about. The point is this: I gave these youngsters some advice last fall; told them they were here to work for the honor of the school and not for their own reputations. I overheard them planning to come and offer their services, so I thought I’d stroll down and see if they were right when they claimed, last year, that they were not wanted.”
“We want players who can play—and are willing to do right,” said Haxton. “We’ve had enough swelled-headed players who think they can run the team.”
“You’re the judge of their ability,” remarked Lattiser. “But it seems to me you’re judging the ability of these four youngsters in rather an off-hand manner, since you’ve never even seen them play. There is a feeling among the students now that the teams are not being chosen with a view to the best results—and if this idea spreads it will not help Cascade as an athletic school—or any other way.”
“Any student is at liberty to try for the team,” assented Haxton sulkily.
“You’re not going to let them”—— Baldwin stopped in the midst of his angry question. He, as well as Haxton, recognized the power of Paw Lattiser over the students, and he checked himself through fear of arousing the placid veteran to action.