“Sure, I do! Why not? Weren’t we all putting our minds on getting on the team? You and Clif and me? Well, look what happens! Stu Evans gets laid up so he can’t play! If that isn’t up to us and――and our ‘Work and Will’ stuff, I’ll eat my hat! And that guy Cox was an outfielder, wasn’t he? Huh?” “I don’t know what he was,” replied Clif, frowning. “He never played much, I guess. He was generally on the bench. Anyway, you can’t say his accident helps me any! And, as for the other――” “Sure, it helps you! You’ve got one less fellow to fight, haven’t you? How do you know Tusks didn’t have Cox in mind for one of the outfield jobs? No, sir, I’m through. There are some things――forces, or whatever you want to call them――that we don’t understand, and it’s a mighty safe thing to let them alone!” “But, Tom, for the love of limes,” exclaimed Loring, “think a minute! We didn’t put our minds on Evans and Cox. We were willing Mr. Wadleigh to――” “It doesn’t matter,” interrupted Tom stoutly. “The thing got away from us, I suppose. It didn’t stop at Tusks. It went on and slammed those two fellows into a ditch. Why, heck, there’s no telling what it might do next! First thing we knew there might be an influx, or whatever you call it, of measles or――or typhoid or something and the whole blamed batting-list would be nix!” By degrees they argued him away from his conviction, but it required time and eloquence, and even after they had succeeded it was evident that Tom retained mental reservations and was only partly reconciled with the psychology program. A few days later it was learned that neither of the absent players had been seriously hurt, but the fact remained that they were both lost to the second team for several weeks. On Tuesday Tusks tried both Roe and Tom at second, and each showed so poorly, Roe at fielding and Tom at batting, that there was little to choose between them. When the second met the first Roe scored two errors, one a fumble of an easy liner and the other a wild throw over Scott’s head. For his part, Tom accepted five chances well but was a miserable failure on his two trips to the plate.