CHAPTER XVIII
Larry Gets Some Facts
Bill Krag refused to regard Larry’s disappointment over being debarred from the Cascade College team as a professional as a serious matter. He listened to Larry’s long tale of his wrongs with a smiling face, and when the story was done he threw back his great head and roared with laughter. Larry, who had just arrived from college for the long vacation, was hurt and sought refuge in sullen silence.
“Buck up, Larry boy,” he counseled. “I know it’s tough, but ten years from now you’ll sit down and wonder why you thought it amounted to anything.”
“I expected you, at least, to sympathize with me,” pouted Larry.
“Say,” laughed Krag, “if it’s sympathy you’re looking for you’ll find it a scarce article. As a matter of fact, I’m glad it happened.”
Larry stiffened angrily and bit his lip.
“I’ll tell you why,” said Krag more seriously. “It’s what you need. You’re getting better experience at college than most boys do. The experience is better than the honors you could win playing ball. You’d forget the honors in three or four years, and you’ll never forget this experience. You’re learning in school what you’ll get up against as soon as you get out”——
“But it isn’t square,” protested Larry.
“If you’re going to kick on everything that isn’t square in this world you’ll go through life kicking,” retorted Krag, grinning. “The thing to do is to get proof that you’re not a professional, then go back and show them you are all right by taking your medicine and still remaining loyal.”
But Major Lawrence, on his return home, did not view the matter from Krag’s viewpoint. He flared into hot rage at the injustice of the attack upon his ward, and declared he would withdraw all his donations from Cascade, and teach that faculty a lesson. When he heard that Harry Baldwin was suspected of furnishing the Golden University committee, through Wallace, with the information, he grew purple in the face, and stormed around the bungalow, declaring war on the entire tribe of Baldwins. His outburst against Barney Baldwin and his son made Larry Kirkland squirm uneasily, for he had an engagement to call upon Helen Baldwin at Rogue River ranch that evening and he had hesitated to mention that fact to Major Lawrence, fearing an outburst.