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 "All right. I'll come right to the p'int. I s'posed you was ruther interested in our baseball team, and I didn't cal'late you'd do anything to hurt it."

"You were quite right," said Bent.

"Well, if that's the case, why have you been tellin' that Tom Locke is a college pitcher from Princeton? Why did you go and put such a notion into the noddles of the Bancrofters? What made you give Mike Riley such an idea?"

The young man frowned.

"Who says anything of the sort? I have never mentioned this fellow you call Locke to Riley, or any other Bancroft man. I wish you would explain how you got the impression that I had."

Cope told of Riley's visit and his threat, Bent listening with great interest, which the expression of his face indicated.

"You're the only person 'round here," the storekeeper concluded, "who has said anything about Tom Locke bein' anybody 'cept what he calls himself. You come to me and tried to pump me 'bout him. You said you'd got the notion that Locke was Hazelton, of Princeton. Now, somebody put Riley onter that, and if it wasn't you, who was it?"

"I'm unable to answer your question, Cope;