"Oh, very well," smiled Merry, "we'll cancel the engagement now, and I'll step in here and telephone the Wellsburg _Herald_ to that effect."

"That's right, Frank," put in Gallup, "don't fool with 'em a bit."

Silence gave the Vermonter a queer look.

"You seem rather anxious, my friend," he drawled. "No doubt you'd like to have the game canceled. You appear to be frightened. No, we won't cancel it, Merriwell; we'll accept your umpire. But I want to give you fair notice now that we'll stand for no partiality on his part. We'll have a fair show, or we'll make trouble. If he tries to rob us, he'll get thumped."

It was Frank's turn to laugh.

"I wouldn't advise you or any of your players to attempt to thump any one on Farnham Field," he said. "If you do, you'll precipitate a riot, and I don't believe you'll like what'll happen. Don't threaten me, Mr.

Silence. I don't like it, and I may take a fancy to cancel the game anyhow."

"Oh, go ahead!" sneered Silence. "I know you're frightened! Cancel it if you like, and I'll tell the facts to the Wellsburg _Herald_. I want you to understand that this game means something to me."

"Indeed! Why, yesterday you entered into an agreement to play in Bloomfield with the greatest reluctance. You didn't seem to think it would pay you."

"It won't pay as far as the gate receipts go. Of course we expect to take the entire gate money, but I'm not fussing about that. I've made a little wager on this game, and I propose to win it."

"Is it possible you found some one in Wellsburg who was willing to back us against your professional team?" questioned Merry.

"Oh, yes, I found some one in Wellsburg who was willing to do that,"

answered the man, again glancing toward Gallup.

Ephraim was worried, for he feared that Silence would break his agreement not to tell about the bet. He frowned and shook his head a bit, without being observed by Frank.

"I've promised you a square deal, Silence," said Merriwell. "If you'll take the trouble to inquire, you'll find plenty of people in this little city who will a.s.sure you that I always keep my word. We're due home at dinner, and we'll have to drive along. Good day, sir."

Toots chirruped to the horses, and they were off.

"I don't fancy going back on an agreement with any one," observed Merry, "but I'm rather sorry that we made arrangements to play that team. Those men are professionals, and they're not in our cla.s.s. It's evident Silence is a gambler. Gambling ruins any sort of a game. The man who bets money is liable to take 'most any questionable advantage in order to win. Betting is bad business anyway you look at it. It ruins a man's fine principles."

"Yeou don't think that allus happens, do ye, Frank?" asked Gallup.

"Don't yeou believe some decent fellers bet occasionally?"

"Oh, yes, occasionally. But the man who gets into it in a small way is pretty sure to keep it up. If he wins, it baits him on to repeat. If he loses, he feels that he must take another chance to get even. I saw many bad results of gambling both at school and at college. At Yale lots of young fellows who had no right to do so made bets on baseball, football, and other games. In most instances the money they risked had been supplied by their parents. They knew their parents would not countenance gambling, yet they gambled. It was not honorable. No man has a right to risk money on which any other person has a claim. Now, for instance, you, Ephraim, would have no right to risk your money on an uncertainty of this sort. You're married. You have a child. Both your wife and child have claims on the money you possess. Were you to wager that money and lose it, you would be robbing them of their just rights. I presume you've thought of this matter?"

"Never thought of it that way," mumbled the Vermonter huskily. "S'pose I should put my money into some sort of business and lose it. Would that be robbin' Teresa and the youngster?"

"That's a different thing. Business is business. No man has a right to plunge into a reckless venture, but if it seems legitimate and he has investigated it carefully, he cannot be blamed if the venture proves a failure. The best and shrewdest men sometimes fail in business enterprises. I've never yet seen a genuine gambler who was thoroughly upright, conscientious, and respected by decent people. I have seen gamblers who were honest to all appearances, but they were not respected. There's something degrading in gambling. The man who gambles is compelled, as a rule, to a.s.sociate with a cla.s.s of men who have no standing in respectable society. He places himself on their level. Now, you, Ephraim, would not care to be estimated on the same level as Casper Silence. He's not a man you would invite to your home, introduce to your wife, and dine with at your table."

"Not by a blamed sight!" growled the Vermonter.

"Another bad feature of gambling is the effect on the individual who indulges in it. It spoils his taste for legitimate money making. If he's successful for a time as a gambler, the regular methods of making money seem tame and insipid to him. Very few, if any, thoroughbred gamblers ever acc.u.mulate a fortune or a competence and retain it. Once the germ of gambling gets into their blood, they never quit. Let them make a small fortune, and they're determined to double it. Let them make a large fortune, and they still pursue gambling for the excitement there is in it. In the end, nine out of ten go broke. If others depend On them, they bring hardship and suffering upon those dependent ones. Most gamblers die poor."

"It's logic, begobs!" put in Mulloy.

"You both know," pursued Frank, "that the loss of a few hundred dollars on a baseball game would not mean a great deal to me. I might have made a wager with Casper Silence. Had I lost the bet, it would not have brought immediate hardship or deprivation on any one. It was not the mere loss of a hundred or a thousand dollars that restrained me. It was the principle of the thing--I looked at that. I figured this thing out years ago, and that's why I've been opposed to gambling. More than once I've been tempted to set aside my scruples when some blatant, loud-mouthed chap has challenged me and shook his money in my face. Such a thing stirs my blood. It's mighty unpleasant to have one of these chaps accuse me of lacking nerve. I have one consolation, however. It's not a sign of nerve or courage to be led into anything wrong through the taunts of another. Usually it's a sign of cowardice. The boy who does a hazardous and unwise thing simply because a companion dares him to do it is the one who lacks nerve. He lacks nerve to say, 'No, I won't.'"

"I guess yeou're right, Frank," confessed Gallup dolefully. "By hemlock!

I've been dared into a lot of tomfool things in my day. Next time anybody tries it on me I'm goin' to remember what yeou've jest said.

I'll say no, by thutteration, and I'll say it mighty laoud, too!"

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

A FRIEND WORTH HAVING.

They arrived at Merry Home in time to wash up and sit down to dinner with the rest of Frank's jolly house party.

"It peen some red-hot paseball practice we put into us this afternoon, Frankie," said Dunnerwurst. "Py Chorge! Der game vill play us to-morrow on."

"We'll have to play the game to win, boys," said Merry. "This Rover baseball team is no ordinary wandering aggregation. It's composed of professionals with records."

He then told them about the players who made up the Rovers. There were many exclamations of surprise, for these men were known by reputation to nearly all of Frank's friends.

"Waugh!" cried Badger. "It's a whole lot plain We're going to have a hot rustle to-morrow. I'm seething to get into that game. That's whatever!"

"It'll seem like old times," rumbled Browning.

"I hope you're not worried about the game, Frank?" questioned Diamond.

"We've been practicing team work for a week, and we ought to do a good turn at it."

"Oh, I'm not worrying," smiled Merry. "We can't win every game we play.

There's something in being good losers."

Hodge frowned.

"Never heard you talk like that before, Frank," he said. "Seems to me you think we're going to lose."

"Dot game vill nefer lose us der vorld in!" cried Dunnerwurst. "How coot it dood it? Vill der ball not pitch you to-morrow, Frankie? Vid you der box in, der game vos as good as skinched. Yah!"

Ephraim Gallup had little to say, and his appet.i.te seemed unusually poor. Teresa noticed this, and she began to worry about it.

"You must be seek, Ephraim," she whispered. "You do not eat enough to keep the bird alive."

"I'm allus that way jest before a baseball game," he declared. "Don't yeou mind it, Teresa. Don't yeou pay no 'tention to me. I'm all right."

After dinner, however, she drew him aside and persisted in questioning him.

"There ees sometheeng on your mind," she said. "You cannot fool your Teresa."

"Oh, fudge!" exclaimed Gallup. "There ain't nuthin' on my mind. I ain't gut mind enough for that. I'm too big a dratted fool, Teresa."

"I nevaire hear you talk that way before. Ees eet the babee? That must be the trouble, Ephraim--you worree about the babee."