CHAPTER XLIX.A WASTED WARNING.
Another surprise followed. Lynch came out to watch the team practice that afternoon. When Kates failed to appear, Mike asked permission to cover first.
“Let me try it, Merriwell,” he begged.
“You’re asking the wrong man,” said Dick. “I’m not captain of the team. You’ll have to call on Jones.”
“But he won’t give me a show unless you say something. Won’t you say something? You know I can play baseball. The rest of them know I can play, too, but they won’t trust me. It wouldn’t do any hurt to let me practice with the team. Just say a word to Jones, won’t you, Merriwell?”
Thus importuned, Dick trotted over to Blessed and told him of Mike’s appeal.
“That fellow!” growled Jones. “Forwardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.”
“But he has promised——”
“Put no dependence in the promises of such as he. I wouldn’t trust him, Dick.”
“He can do no particular harm in practice to-day. We’re not trying out any signal work. Let him cover first.”
“All right,” growled Jones.
So Lynch got his chance to practice. Although he was not in uniform, he stripped off coat and vest, rolled up his sleeves; and went at it in earnest. His work at first was of an order to cause some favorable comment from the spectators. Not a man in the infieldentertained a friendly feeling toward Mike. For this reason, all sorts of erratic throws were sent over to him. The stops he made were simply marvelous. Time after time he stretched himself on the ground with his toe clinging to the sack and scooped the low ones. Again and again he leaped into the air and pulled down high ones which seemed far beyond his reach. Hot grounders and whistling liners he took whenever they came in his direction. Not only that, but his throwing to second and third and to the plate was little short of perfect.
“There’s the man to cover that hassock,” some one finally cried. “He’s needed.”
Jones, at work in the field, did not fail to notice what was happening, and began to regret that Lynch had been tried.
“If we don’t give him a show, there’ll be a fuss,” muttered Blessed. “Jerusalem! this old baseball team is worrying me to death.”
The report that Lynch had been tried on first reached the campus ahead of the players that night. It caused something of a sensation among the freshmen.
As soon as the news reached the ears of three fellows, they made haste to Mike’s room, seeking confirmation. Bern Wolfe came upon Ditson and Du Boise upon the steps, and the trio sailed in upon Lynch without announcement.
“Say!” cried Ditson challengingly; “what’s this yarn that’s come to our ears?”
Mike, with a towel bound round his head, rose from his chair by the window.
“What yarn?” he asked quietly.
“Why, we understand you’ve been out practicing with the Merriwell crowd.”
“Yes, and we want to know about it!” snapped Wolfe.
“I’ve been out practicing with the team.”
“Oh, you have?” snarled Ditson. “Now, what do you mean by that?”
“I suppose he’s going to try to get onto the team,” sneered Wolfe.
“You couldn’t make a better guess if you had several more tries,” said Lynch coolly.
This seemed to be a staggerer for Bern.
“Wh-what?” he gasped. “You don’t mean it?”
“Oh, yes, I do.”
“Lynch, you’re plumb daffy,” said Ditson. “Why, you’re the last fellow in the world to strike his colors and surrender to that bunch.”
“You’re crazy!” shouted Wolfe furiously. “You know what happened to me.”
“Yes, I know what happened,” remarked Mike.
“They kicked me off the team after giving me a show.”
“For excellent reasons.”
“And you were frothing mad with me because I thought of getting onto the team in the first place. You were furious with Kates, and now you’re going to try for it. That’s too much, Lynch. I won’t stand it.”
“I don’t see how you can help it.”
“I’ll—I’ll tell a few things.”
“You can’t tell anything that’ll hurt me.”
“Oh, can’t I?”
“Not a thing. Do you remember I had you affix your name to a document I had just completed Saturday. Well, that’s a full confession, and it’s now in Merriwell’s hands. In that I took all the blame fora certain affair in which you and I were concerned. You ought to know what I mean.”
“The sig——”
“You can tell these fellows about it if you wish,” interrupted Mike hastily.
“If you’ve told Merriwell, everybody’ll know it. Lynch, you’re daffy. You’re crazy as a March hare.”
“I don’t think so. You’ll observe that I was given a chance to practice with the team to-day. I believe I’ll have still further opportunities. Unless I’m mistaken, I’ll be playing on the team before the end of the season.”
“And where will I be?” cried Wolfe. “It was your scheme that threw me off the team.”
“I’ve explained that, Bern. I’ve shouldered everything.”
Duncan Ditson whistled wonderingly as he sank upon a chair.
“What the devil has happened to you, Lynch?” he asked. “I swear I can’t comprehend it. I agree with Wolfe that you’re bughouse. You’d better hold up right where you are. You’d better not try to get in with the Merriwell crowd. If you do, you’ll find yourself in trouble.”
“Wait a minute, Duncan,” urged Mike quietly. “You’ve called yourself my friend, haven’t you?”
“Yes, but——”
“But now you threaten to quit me. Have you forgotten what I did for you Saturday? Have you forgotten how I saved you from the grip of Shylock Dagett? I am still your friend, Ditson. You may need me again. Wolfe may need me. If either of you need assistance, don’t hesitate to come to me. I’ll do what I can for you. But I can’t listen to your talk now. I’ve got a headache. I wish you would both get out.”
Ditson sprang up.
“I’ll go,” he snapped. “By Jove! I don’t know what the class of Umpty-ten is coming to. Every man in it will be prostrating himself at Merriwell’s feet if this thing keeps up. It’s simply disgusting.”
“That’s what it is!” cried Wolfe, as he followed Ditson from the room, slamming the door behind him.
Mike returned to his chair and sat down with a weary expression, resting his head on his hand.
“I think I’d better go, too,” murmured Du Boise.
“Wait a minute,” said Lynch. “Were you ever troubled with headaches, Hal?”
“I should say so.”
“Had them bad, did you?”
“I certainly did.”
“Ever use any headache powders?”
“Yes.”
“What kind would you recommend?”
“No kind,” answered Du Boise, at once. “They’re good things to let alone.”
“Eh? Don’t they stop the headache?
“Sure they do.”
“Then why——”
“Why let them alone? I’ll tell you. Almost all of them contain cocaine. I acquired the drug habit by using headache powders, to begin with, Lynch. Don’t touch the things. The kind that seem to do you the most good are the most dangerous, for they invariably contain the most cocaine. Cure your headaches in some other way.”
“Much obliged, Du Boise,” said Lynch.
But ten minutes after Hal had left, Mike put on his coat and hat and proceeded to the nearest drug store, where he purchased some headache powders. And intwenty minutes after taking the first powder his headache had vanished, and he was feeling like a fighting cock.
The warning of Du Boise, himself a wreck from the use of drugs, had fallen on barren ground.