Rattleton nodded.

“That’s right,” he said.  “He may deny it, but I know I am not off my trolley.  He didn’t want Piersan to see you work because he was afraid you would show up so well that Pierson would nail you for the regular team.”

“And you think that is why I have been kept in the background so much since the season opened?”

“I am dead sure of it.”

“Putnam must have a grudge against me.”

“No, Frank; but he has displayed selfishness in the matter.  I believe he has considered you a better man than Gordon all along, and he wanted you on the team to use in case he got into a tight corner.  That’s why he didn’t want Pierson to see you work.  He didn’t want to lose you.  But he was forced to use you to-day, and you must have satisfied Pierson that you know your business.”

“Well, Harry, you have thrown light on dark places.  To-morrow I will have a little talk with Put about this matter.”

“That’s right,” grinned Harry; “and Pierson is liable to have a little talk with you.  You’ll be on the regular team inside of a week.”

CHAPTER XXXI.

What Ditson wanted.

On the following day the great topic of conversation for the class of ’Umpty-eight was the recent ball game.  Wherever the freshmen gathered they discussed the game and the work of Gordon and Merriwell.

Gordon was a free-and-easy sort of fellow, and he had his friends and admirers, some of whom were set in their belief that he was far superior to Merriwell as a pitcher.

Roland Ditson attempted to argue on two or three occasions in favor of Gordon, but nobody paid attention to what he said, for it was known that he had tried by every possible means to injure Merriwell and had been exposed in a contemptible piece of treachery, so that no one cared to be known as his friend and associate.

Whenever Ditson would approach a group of lads and try to get in a few words he would be listened to in stony silence for some moments, and then the entire crowd would turn and walk away, without replying to his remarks or speaking to him at all.

This would have driven a fellow less sensitive than Ditson to abandon all hope of going through Yale.  Of course it cut Ditson, but he would grind his teeth and mutter: 

“Merriwell is to blame for it all, curse him!  I won’t let him triumph!  The time will come when I’ll get square with him!  I’ll have to stay here in order to get square, and stay here I will, no matter how I am treated.”

Since his duplicity had been made known and his classmates had turned against him Ditson had taken to grinding in a fierce manner, and as a result he had made good progress in his studies.  He was determined to stand ahead of Merriwell in that line, at least, and it really seemed that he might succeed, unless Frank gave more time to his studies and less to athletics.