Joe nodded assent.
“I’ve worked myself half sick trying to brace him up,” he said. “But he’s taken a bitter dislike to me since he was displaced as captain of the team. He only responds in monosyllables, or oftener yet with a grunt. He’s such a crack player when he wants to be that I’ve been hoping he’d wake up and change his tactics.”
“Same here,” said McRae. “He’s been with the team for a long time, and for that reason I’ve been more patient with him than I otherwise would. But there comes a time when patience ceases to be a virtue, and I have a hunch that that time is now.”
“You may be right,” assented Joe. “I’m sorry for Iredell.”
“So am I,” replied McRae. “I’m sorry to see any man throw himself away. And that’s just what Iredell is doing. If it were only a slump in his playing, such as any player has at times, it would be different. But it’s more than that. I’ve had detectives keeping track of him for the last week or two, and they report that he has been drinking and frequenting low resorts. You know as well as I do, that no man can do that and play the game. So I’m going to bench him for a while and see if that doesn’t bring him to his senses. If it does, well and good. If it doesn’t, I’ll trade him at the end of the season.”
“That’ll mean Renton in his place,” said Joe, thoughtfully.
“Do you think he measures up to the position?” inquired McRae.
“I’m inclined to think he will,” affirmed Joe. “Of course, he isn’t the player that Iredell is when he’s going right. But he’ll certainly play the position as well as Iredell has since we returned from the last trip. He is an upstanding, ambitious young chap, and he’ll play his head off to make good. He has all the earmarks of a coming star. With Larry on one side of him and Jackwell on the other, and with you and me to drill the fine points of the game into him, I think he’ll fill the bill.”
“Then it’s a go,” declared McRae. “I’ll have a talk with Iredell to-night. You tell Renton that he’s to play short to-morrow, and that it’s up to him to prove that he’s the right man for the job.”
Joe did so, and the young fellow was delighted to learn that his chance had come.