"I suppose you’re glad of it, Eggs?" said Ned Stanton.
Uric’s face flushed as he heard this opprobrious name, and he snarled:
Then he whirled and hurried away, hearing behind him the imitated clucking of a hen, the crowing of a rooster, and a general cackling from a dozen different ones in the group.
"Pards," said Brad Buckhart, who was one of the gathering, "I’ve got a notion in this old noodle of mine that there has been some kind of crooked business. I stayed with Merriwell as long as they would let me, and I heard the doctor whisper something to his brother after he had made an examination. I don’t reckon I’d better state just what I heard, for I didn’t hear it very clear, and I might be mistaken; but it wouldn’t surprise this old Maverick if some sneaking rattler had soaked his fangs into Merriwell on the sly. And if it turns out that way, hanging will be too good for the varmint! We all know Merriwell’s got a bunch of coyotelike enemies hereabouts, though some of them have been singing mighty soft lately."
His words aroused some excitement, and not a little indignation, it being the generally expressed sentiment that somebody deserved the severest sort of punishment in case Merriwell had met with foul play.
And now it quickly became evident that Merriwell had been generally regarded as of prime importance on the eleven, for on all sides were heard expressions of fear concerning the outcome of the game with Hudsonville if Dick did not play.
Not a few positively declared that Fardale didn’t have one chance in ten of winning with Merriwell off the team. Some asserted that too much importance was given to the feats of Merriwell in the past, asserting that another capable fellow in his position, having the same opportunities, might have accomplished fully as much. But this was not the general feeling, and when the report came from the hospital that Dick could not play that afternoon, a cloud of gloom seemed to settle over the academy.
Ted Smart went round telling how happy he was, and begging somebody to kick him just to make him feel still happier.
"Oh, we’ll wipe up the earth with Hudsonville!" he said. "We’ll have a regular walkover now that we’ve been strengthened by the loss of Merriwell! He was a poor man on the team! He never could play the game! Oh, luddy-dah! what a gay old day this is going to be for Fardale!"