"And just at that minute Mr. Phillips came around the corner and almost bumped into us!" A cry of consternation burst from the lips of his companions. "Mr. Phillips!" groaned Lent. "Did he hear what Bixby said?" asked Sandy, his face a yellowish-green. "I'm afraid he did," admitted Anderson. "He was going to speak to us, to say 'good afternoon' I suppose, but he stopped short with his mouth wide open. Then he looked at us as though we were snakes or something and marched on without saying a word. The game's up! We're done!" CHAPTER XX In Desperate Plight There was a moment of panic-stricken silence as Aleck Anderson's words sank in. Sandy was the first to speak. "Of all the rotten fools!" he burst out. "You fellows ought to have a guardian." "That's enough of that," replied Aleck hotly. "Another crack like that and I'll give you a belt in the jaw." Sandy quailed before the threat, for he was a physical as well as a moral coward. "Come, come now," put in Lent soothingly. "There's no use of either one of you fellows going on like that. We're all in the same boat. Let's be sensible and cool off." "We'll have plenty of time to cool off," grumbled Aleck, resuming the seat from which he had risen. "In fact, that's all we've got left to do. We're through!" "I'm not so sure of that," vouchsafed Sandy. "In the first place, we're not dead sure that Phillips heard you. If he didn't, we're just where we were." "Don't kid yourself," relied Aleck "I know from his actions and the look in his eye that he heard us, all right." "Well, admit that he did," went on Sandy. "What do you suppose will be the first thing that he'll do?" "Change the signals, of course," affirmed Anderson. "Then the old ones will be no good. We'll have nothing to bargain with." "Not unless we get the new ones," said Sandy. Aleck guffawed. "Swell chance!" he said scornfully. "Do you suppose they're going to publish them in the town paper?" "Don't talk rot," adjured Sandy irritably. "There ought to be some way for us to get them on the quiet." "Ought!" sneered Aleck "You're talking like a ham sandwich. They'll watch over those signals like a mother over her baby. No one outside the team can get near the field." "Ed Bixby--" began Lent Stewart. "Ed Bixby neither," snapped Aleck "You know as well as I that he's barred from athletics for the season." "I wasn't thinking of the field," put in Sandy. "What were you thinking of then?" asked Aleck "The gymnasium," replied Sandy. "That's where Phillips will bring up the matter of the changes. Now we know how that gymnasium's laid out. Look here. Listen!" The three boys had their heads together for a long time after that, and when they separated they were in a far more cheerful mood than they had been an hour before. The day after the Bass Lake game, Mr. Phillips called his charges together in the gymnasium of the school.