“And until this year you were not captain,” replied Mr. Haynes coldly. “I’m sorry, Harven. I wish things had turned out differently. Perhaps I’m not wholly free from blame, but, frankly, I don’t know how to handle you, my boy. I hope we’ll come together presently. Meanwhile I’m here for just one thing. You know what that is. And I propose to accomplish that thing. I want your help, need it badly, but, with it or without it, I’m going to be coach of this team and hold the reins.”
Stuart jerked to his feet and stared down on his host with white face and angry eyes. “You refuse to fire Le Gette, then?” he demanded tensely.
“I do, Captain Harven. I refuse most decidedly.”
“Suppose I say, then, that I won’t work on the team with him?”
“You can’t,” answered the coach earnestly. “You have a duty to the school, just as I have toward my employer. Clashes between you and me, my boy, must not be allowed to damage the prospects of the team. We’ll fight our battles together off the field and not, as you say Le Gette did, make the innocent suffer.”
Stuart’s eyes fell, but the hostility was still in his voice as he answered: “All right, sir. I’m just as keen as you are for having Manning win this year. You needn’t lay all the blame on me, though, for not coöperating. You treated me rotten from the first. I shan’t forget that. I guess you’ve got the Athletic Faculty behind you, so there’s nothing for me to do but lie down and play dead! I’m not going to fight you. If I asked for a show-down I guess the team would be on my side, all right, but I’m not playing baby. I’ll see it through because it’s my team as much as it is yours, even if you don’t think so. There’s one thing, though, I’m promising myself, Mr. Haynes. When the season’s over I’m going to give myself the satisfaction of telling you just what I think of you!”
“When the season’s over I’ll be ready to hear it, Captain Harven,” answered the coach quietly.
Stuart went out wishing mightily that slamming the door would not be beneath his dignity.