“I sincerely hope you may have use for the silver polish,” he replied. “To-morrow, I believe, the singles are to be played off. You should see all of them and study the methods of the players critically, especially those whom you are to face in the courts next day. Here come the boys.”
“It’s P. E.!” shouted George the instant he caught sight of the Englishman sitting in the camp. The boys welcomed him boisterously, then George poured out all the news he had obtained. Later on he accompanied Mr. Disbrow to his hotel, where the two discussed the chances of the Meadow-Brook Girls. Neither the champion nor the boy saw any reason to change their opinions on this subject. That the girls might make an excellent showing they agreed, but that they stood any chance at all of winning the championship neither believed.
“It is simply an impossibility,” declared P. E. with emphasis. “I wish I might look at it in a different light. Perhaps we may change our minds after we see what the other people have been doing, but I doubt it. Have you seen any of the others play?”
George said he had not, but that he had some confidential reports on the work of the Fifth Avenues and the Riversides.
“How are they?” questioned Disbrow eagerly.
“Hot stuff,” answered George, “but very fancy. My, but they handle their racquets well!”
“That doesn’t necessarily make a champion,” suggested Disbrow thoughtfully. “But we shall see. I shall hope to have further information by this evening and still more to-morrow. I say, if I shouldn’t get back before dark, see that the girls play a couple of sets—light practice, mind you—after four o’clock this afternoon. And don’t let them work too hard during the heat of the afternoon. They are pretty fit physically now and I don’t want them to lose form. I think it is safe to say that no team in the tournament will enter the courts in better physical condition than the Meadow-Brooks. They are simply wonderful physically. I leave you to look after these things as I do not wish to take an active part. It would not be best for them.”
George agreed. All arrangements having been talked over and understood between George and Mr. Disbrow, they separated, George to return to camp, the Englishman to spend the day among the tennis people, many of whom he knew, for the tournament had drawn as spectators tennis players of high and low degree.
Almost every person was talking tennis and discussing the merits of the respective teams. Of the Meadow-Brooks little was known. Some had heard of them, most had not, nor had the girls appeared on the streets of the town enough to be identified and placed. They were too busy with the serious affairs in hand to spend any time wandering about the summer resort in idle pleasure.
Every train that arrived during the day brought with it players and visitors. Early in the forenoon girls in white sweaters might have been seen at practice on the tournament courts. The Meadow-Brook Girls were at no time among them, nor were the Scott Sisters nor the Fifth Avenues and Riversides. The latter two were practising on their own private courts and the former were staying with friends and resting preparatory to the battle to be fought perhaps on the morrow.