“No. But I got hold of a fellow I know who has seen them play a number of times. He says they are wonders, regular Indians with the racquets. I’ve got Charlie Mabie scouting now. He will bring back the news.”
“I hope you will not do anything that isn’t quite right, George,” said Miss Elting deprecatingly.
The captain shook his head.
“No. You’ll find they will be doing the same thing here, or trying to. They will get a hard bump if they do,” he added under his breath. “But you do want to look alive for those Scott Sisters. From all I can learn, they are regular professionals, and those who have seen them play in other matches say they are mighty tricky players.”
“You mean dishonest?” questioned Harriet.
“Well, you might call it that. I mean they would be if they could get away with it. But even so, a player sometimes can turn a trick that isn’t fair and not be caught at it, or else is able to convince the umpire that she didn’t do anything unfair.”
“Nothing of the sort will be done by this team,” declared Harriet Burrell firmly. “But though we shall play fairly, we shall go in prepared to fight to the bitter end, to fight every inch of the way until either we drive our opponents off the court or are driven off of it ourselves.”
“Hurrah! That’s certainly the real hero talk,” shouted Sam.
“Will you please keep still,” admonished George. “I was about to say that I haven’t learned anything of interest about the other teams entered for the doubles. In fact, not much of anything is known here. All of them will be here to-morrow. Perhaps Herrington told you that the singles are to be played off first. Some of the girls in those are to play in the doubles also. You ought to be able to get pointers by watching them play in the singles, learning their tricks and so on.”
“That will be helpful,” agreed Harriet.