“No, no! Run you in captain of the nine.” “Oh, is that what you are driving at?” “Yes. I am dead on to the grooked came--I mean the crooked game!” Harry was so excited that he twisted himself badly. “What is the crooked game?” asked Frank. “You are talking in enigmas.” “It’s a plot!” “What kind of a plot?” “A plot to put you in disgrace.” “How?” “Everybody most seems to think the team we have now stands no show of winning the pennant.” “Well?” “That’s why they want to run you in captain.” “Think so?” “Know so. I’m willing to bet Phil Hardy paid that doctor something to forbid him from playing. Hardy is a sharp one. He saw Yale stood no show, and he was sick. He wanted to get out, and he took that way of crawling.” Frank shook his head. “I don’t want to think that of Hardy,” he soberly said. “I don’t want to think any man that much a sneak. No, Rattles, you are dead wrong about Phil.” “I’m red dight--I mean dead right!” excitedly declared Harry. “You have too much confidence in human nature. You never will think a man crooked till it is proven for you, and then you don’t like to believe it.” “What’s the use?” said Frank, quietly. “I dislike to have my confidence in human nature shattered--I refuse to have it shattered. I know there is more good than bad in the world. The person who is forever looking for the bad is the one who never sees the good, and he has no one but himself to blame. I am no pessimist.” “But you are a thundering fool sometimes!” blurted Rattleton. “I don’t care a continental if you punch my head for saying so, but you are a fool sometimes!” Instead of showing anger at these plain words, Frank beamed in a sunny manner, his red lips parting to show his gleaming white teeth. “You are jolly original to-day, old man,” he said, merrily. “You surprise me.” “Oh, say!” snapped Harry. “There isn’t anything to laugh about. I am in earnest. Now, look here, Frank, I want to tell you something. By chance I heard some of your particular admirers talking about you.” “Who were they?” “Gordan, Gooch, Pooler, Paulding and Marline.” “Marline’s all right.” “I should think so!” burst forth Harry. “He’s the fellow who was going to kill you!” “In a fair duel.” “Oh, he’s a bloodthirsty dog!” “He has seemed friendly enough since our encounter.” “Hasn’t dared be any other way. He was in the gang, and he doesn’t like you any too much. He thinks you are holding your head too high, and he’d like to see you taken down several pegs.” “Well, what were they saying?” “Saying Hardy got out because he saw Yale did not have a show this season. Saying that you would be made captain, and that you’d get all the blame for Yale’s hard luck. They laughed over it like fiends. Oh, they were having a jolly time to think how it would pull you down.” Frank’s lips closed and were pressed together. A hard, resolute look settled on his face, and still he smiled. There was confidence in that smile, and there was scorn in it.