CHAPTER XXIV.
FANNING THE FLAMES.
Leon was waiting for Don at the first corner when the latter started for school the following Monday morning. As usual, he was puffing a cigarette. The sight of him angered Don, who would have hurried straight on without speaking, but Bentley joined him, saying:
“I was watching for you, old man. Got something to tell you. I went down to the club-room after your dad came in on us so jerky Saturday night, and I found all the gang there, weeping over their defeat. It would have done you good to see them. A big lot of cry-babies! They had something to say about you, too.”
He had hurried on with his words, being shrewd enough to observe that the doctor’s son was in no very agreeable mood, and, as he anticipated, the final statement aroused Don’s curiosity, although an attempt was made to conceal it.
“What do you suppose I care what they say about me!” growled the dark-eyed lad, with a toss of his head. “They can say any old thing they like.”
But he slackened his pace somewhat and did not try to shake off his unwelcome companion.
“They were saying every old thing,” asserted Leon. “I tell you, they gave you a raking down behind your back.”
“That didn’t hurt me any. I wasn’t on their old team, so they couldn’t blame me for their defeat.”
“But they did, just the same.”
Don stopped short and looked at Bentley, his face growing hard.
“How the dickens could they do that?” he snapped.
“Why, they said you acted like a fool in getting your back up and leaving the team. They said they were glad enough to get rid of you, but they’d ought to have fired you in the first place. As it was, you left at a bad time, making it necessary to shift the men around, so there was no time to get the team back in shape, and, for that reason, you were responsible for the loss of the game.”
Leon told this lie glibly and with a show of truthfulness that aroused no suspicion in the mind of the hearer; but the falsehood did the work Bentley wished it to do, and the black look deepened on the rather handsome face of Don Scott, marring his good looks and making his aspect repellent.
“Who said this, Bentley?” he demanded, harshly. “Was it that treacherous snake, Renwood?”
“Sure thing,” nodded Leon. “He blames it all onto you, but he ain’t the only one. The others agreed with him, and I told them what I thought of it. I don’t often get right up and speak out in meeting,” the fellow went on, “but I couldn’t keep still this time, so I said enough to get them all mad at me. Now, I hear that they’re going to kick me out again. What do you think of that, Don?”
“I think it serves you right for going back onto the team,” was the unsympathetic answer.
“What? You say that after I stood up for you? Well, I never thought such a thing of you, Scott!” Leon assumed an injured air, giving Don a look of deep reproach.
“The trouble with you is that you’re altogether too shifty,” said the doctor’s son. “When you do a thing, stick to it. But I’m not kicking at you. I’d like to hit Renwood for wagging his mouth about me so much!”
“It’s what you ought to do. Of course he would deny it, but you know what he is. Why, he even denied to you that he meant you when he said there were some men on the team who were no earthly good, but he’s laughed about it since, saying he didn’t think you’d tumble to yourself so quickly.”
A sound of grating teeth came from Don’s mouth, delighting Leon with the knowledge that he had reawakened to the full extent the hatred of the dark-eyed youth for Dolph Renwood.
“There’ll come a day of settlement!” Scott panted.
“Now that he is sore on me, you can’t imagine what he proposes to do,” snickered Bentley. “Why I have it straight that he’s going to come to you and try to get you back onto the eleven, just so he can kick me out.”
“Let him come!” cried Don. “That is what I want. I’ll tell him a few things!”
They had proceeded up the hill till they were in sight of the white academy, which showed through the trees of the grounds. Now, fully satisfied with himself and what he had done, Bentley stopped, saying:
“Perhaps we’d better not go up together. The fellows have charged me with carrying things to you, and they may suspect that I’ve put you onto Renwood’s game. You go ahead.”
So Don walked on and Leon came up later. Knowing Bentley as he did, it was rather surprising that the doctor’s son permitted himself to be deceived by the fellow; but he was ready to believe almost anything bad of Renwood, which, with his hatred and prejudice, blinded his sense of perception.
Renwood had not arrived at the academy and did not appear till a few moments before the beginning of the morning session, giving him no opportunity to speak with Scott, in case he desired to do so. That noon, however, the coach of the eleven was talking with Chatterton beneath one of the large oaks near the entrance to the grounds, when Don came through the gate. Perceiving Scott, Dolph immediately advanced toward him, calling:
“I’d like to speak with you, Scott, if you’ll wait a minute. We can talk here without being overheard by the fellows up by the steps.”
“I have nothing to say to you that I’m not willing anybody should hear,” declared Don, holding himself in check, for Leon’s warning had informed him what was coming, and he was glad of the opportunity to again express himself to this fellow whom he hated with all the intensity of his nature.
“Still, it’s better to talk the matter over out here away from the others,” said Dolph, rather nervously, his manner seeming to betray to the boy with the searching eyes a self-consciousness of guilt. “I am in hopes we can come to an understanding.”
Don said nothing, but continued to watch Renwood’s face.
“There is something about me,” Dolph continued, seeming troubled to find words to express himself, “that caused you to take a strong dislike to me almost the first time you saw me. I knew it, for you are not a chap to conceal your feelings. I have some pride and spirit of my own, and I’m not the kind of a fellow to try to curry favor with those who dislike me, for which reason I had very little to do with you till the football team was organized, and I was selected as coach. Then it became necessary for me to have some dealings with you. One thing I want to claim right here is, that I never tried to injure you in any way.”
There was curling scorn in the movement of Don’s lips, but he continued silent, apparently waiting with some impatience for Renwood to finish. Dolph saw and understood the expression on the face of his enemy, but he pretended to take no note of it, hurrying on with scarcely a break:
“When Sterndale was making up the team, I suggested that you be tried in the position you were given, one of the most prominent and difficult places on an eleven. I had observed that you could run like a deer, could dodge and handle yourself gracefully, and I fancied you possessed, or could develop, other requirements that would make you a first-class man at half. I made one mistake,” the coach confessed, “for, in instructing the team, I did not take into consideration the fact that you might be easily angered, so that you would quit the eleven and refuse to come back. I don’t think I quite understood you in that respect. Anyhow, you got mad with me, which has raised hob with everything. I used you just exactly the same as I did others on the team, but you seemed to think I had some spite against you. You were wrong, Scott; I had nothing in the world against you.”
“By that,” said Don, with a sneer, “I presume you infer that I was wholly to blame for everything that occurred? When you jumped on me and made your insulting remarks to me before the eleven and the whole crowd of spectators, I had no right to resent it! I should have curled up and taken it, like a meaching cur! But I’m not that kind of a huckleberry! I don’t belong to the whipped-cur breed, Mr. Dolph Renwood!”
“I made a mistake,” Dolph again acknowledged, still speaking calmly. “You must remember that I belonged to a city team, and that team was coached by a professional. You should have heard him talk to us! Why, there wasn’t a man in the whole bunch that he didn’t give a tongue-lashing. If I had begun to talk that way to the boys here——”
“You started in,” declared Don. “Just because a professional coach could talk that way, you tried to show off by doing so; but you found out it wouldn’t go in this town, and so you had to come down some. That’s about the size of it.”
Renwood’s face had been pale, but now a sudden flush burned in his cheeks, making it plain that Scott’s words and bearing were arousing his pride and anger.
“Let’s not talk of that,” he cried, perceiving it would do no good. “We were beaten at Highland, Saturday, and the eleven must be strengthened somehow if we are to stand a show with them when they come here next Saturday. If we had you back in your old position, I think there would be a chance of making the team strong enough to meet those fellows. I confess that I’m sorry I offended you. I’ll even apologize if you demand it! I’ll do anything to make the team strong enough to beat Highland.”
Don laughed harshly. “You don’t know me, Renwood,” he declared. “I have said I was done with you, and I mean it. I’ve said I’d show you up as a sneak and a traitor, and I meant that, too! I know you for just what you are. You pretend that you are anxious to beat Highland. Bah! You’re hand-and-glove with Phil Winston, the Highland coach. You owe him favors, which you are trying to pay by throwing down Rockspur. I know it! That strikes home, doesn’t it! Wait—keep still! I’m going to say all I have to say to you right here and now. You must think me a soft fool to come back onto the team with you after what I know about you! You know that I know it, too! You know I know you slashed the suits and cut up the football in the dressing-room under the grand-stand! Yet you had the crust to face me and try to paste that onto me! As far as you have been able you have hurt me, for the most of the boys are idiots enough to believe I did that job. Now, you are sore on Bentley because he happened to get a touchdown in the Highland game, and you want to dump him off the team. You see that you must do something to hold your grip with the boys and make them believe you are trying hard to put a winning eleven on the field, and so you’ve planned to dump Bent and make a bluff at doing something all at one lick. Renwood, you’re so thin I can see through you like window-glass. Some day all the fellows will see through you. I’ve told you just what I think of you, and you can chew on it.”
Don was about to turn away, but, panting and pale, Dolph caught him by the arm, huskily exclaiming:
“Stop! I’ve got something more to say to you! I see I’ve made a fool of myself for nothing. I might have known you were unreasonable and obstinate enough to keep the thing up. Talk about bluffing! You are the champion! After stealing my knife right from under my nose in the club-room, you saw a way to hurt me, as you fancied, and you went up to the field and slashed the suits and cut up the football with that knife, which you left there so that it would seem I did it. Then you told a preposterous story about encountering me in the room and tried to make the boys believe I attempted to stab you. I was willing to overlook all that, not because I forgave you, but because I was anxious for the good of the eleven; but now I want to tell you just what I think, as you have pretended to tell me. You’re a miserable——”
“Dolph! Dolph!” cried a voice, and Zadia, having entered by the gate, accompanied by other girls, rushed between the two panting lads, who were about to fly at each other’s throats. Putting a hand against the breast of each, she held them apart with all her strength, gasping: “You shall not! You shall not! Stop this minute. Remember your promise to me, Don Scott!”
Don did not draw back immediately, but at last he took his eyes, full of intense rancor, from the face of Renwood and turned them upon Dolph’s pretty, trembling, imploring sister. Swiftly he melted before her entreating gaze, but he could not resist the impulse to hurl a last savage shot at the fellow he hated.
“Some time, Renwood,” he said, “your sister will not be at hand to come between us. Then look out for yourself!”
With which, he turned toward the academy.