em to be
in the notion of lying down."

"Oh, well play!" grunted Bruce. "We're just airing our little opinions.
I expected to see you in the box Saturday, and I'm disappointed. I
suppose that's all!"

He gave a tug at his pipe and rolled over lazily on the lounge, as if
that settled it.

"Of course we'll play," agreed Diamond. "But I don't like to go into the
game with Badger in the box. I don't like him. The fellow has made
himself an insufferable nuisance. I don't agree with you that he is such
a wonder. He's a very ordinary fellow, with a rich father and a swelled
head. Out West, where he came from, everybody got down on their knees to
him, and here at Yale that sort of business don't go. Nobody cares
whether his father is a cattleman or a cow-puncher. He wants to be
worshiped, and Yale isn't in the worshiping business. Consequently, he's
sore all the time!"

Jack forgot that, when he arrived at Yale a few years ago, he expected
homage on account of his family and pedigree.

"And I don't forget that he went aboard the _Crested Foam_ blind drunk,
and made an ass of himself generally!" said Bruce, rousing again.

"That's one reason Merry wants to give him a show!" said Rattleton.
"Badger has an idea that everybody who knows about it feels just as you
do, and Frank wants to show him that they don't. See?"

"Oh, we'll play, of course!" Bruce grumbled, rolling back again.

"Sus-sure!" declared Gamp. "Whatever Mum-Merry says,
gug-gug-gug-gug----"

"Are you trying to say goshfry?" Danny mildly asked, wetting the end of
an unlighted cigarette.

"Gug-goes!" sputtered Gamp, giving Danny a kick that fairly lifted him
from the floor. "You mum-mum-mum-measly runt, I'll kuk-kill you!"

"Because he's a joker, Danny thinks he is the only card in the pack!"
said Dismal.

"If Merry says we can go into that game next Saturday with Badger in the
box and earth the wipe--I mean wipe the earth with those fellows from
Hartford, we can do it!" Rattleton declared emphatically. "You know he
wouldn't say such a thing if he wasn't sure of it."

"There are only two absolutely sure things, death and taxes," said
Merriwell soberly. "If I put too much emphasis on my belief, I'll have
to withdraw it. I mean to say that I believe we can."

"And that's about the same as saying that we can!" Rattleton asserted.

"I'm only doubtful about Bart," said Dismal, like a prophet of evil.

"He will never catch for Badger!" Diamond declared.