“No, we’ll play ’em,” replied the coach. “It will mean more and harder practice for the next two weeks, though, and we have a game with that Michigan school Saturday. They’re hard as nails, too, I hear, but maybe it will do our fellows good to get a few more drubbings. It may wake them up, for there’s no denying that the fellows are not playing up to the mark.”
“I’m sure it’s not my fault,” began Tom, a bit aggressively.
“I didn’t say it was,” retorted Mr. Leighton, and there was a sharp tone in his words. “Only we’ve got to play better if we want to win.”
Tom, with a fierce feeling in his heart, put his men through a hard practice previous to a game with the scrub team, and the men seemed to wake up. Pete Backus surprised his chums and himself by knocking a home run.
“That’s the stuff!” cried Tom.
“Work like that wins games,” added the coach, brightening up a bit.
Tom and Phil, in tacit agreement with the rest of the athletic set, had avoided mentioning Sid’s disgrace, but coming home from practice that afternoon, Tom, seeing his chum, curled up in the old armchair, studying, could not help remarking:
“What in the world did you do it for, old man? You’ve put us in a fierce hole.”
“I’m sorry,” spoke Sid contritely.