Part 23 (2/2)
Osgood threw back his head and smiled. The moonlight, full on his rather handsome, aristocratic face, showed that smile to be touched with bitterness, even with self-scorn.
”I'm a bluffer, Nelson-a thoroughbred bluffer,” he declared. ”Intuition told you as much. All along I knew you were one fellow in Oakdale that I had not fully blinded. Piper, with all his natural shrewdness-and we'll admit that he's naturally shrewd-was deceived in me.”
”What are you talking about, Osgood?” exclaimed Jack. ”Why are you telling me this stuff, anyhow?”
”I don't know just why, but I'm telling it to relieve my mind. Perhaps it will relieve me in a measure, anyhow. I had no thought in the world of talking to you this way when we paused here a few moments ago, but suddenly an irresistible impulse came upon me. Something seemed to say, 'You may as well tell him, for he sees through you, anyhow.' Do you know, Nelson, I've hated you. Yes, that's the word. I hated you because I couldn't deceive you, and that's why I longed to do something to hurt you.”
”You what? Of course I know I benched you in that Wyndham game, but I had--”
”You should have benched me before,” exclaimed Osgood. ”You should have fired me from the nine.”
”Fired you? Why, you were one of our best players. You really knew more baseball than any one else on the team. You were valuable.”
”Even if I could play better baseball than Hans Wagner himself, I was a bad man to have on the team, for I was trying to create insubordination, distrust and a disbelief in your ability as captain.”
”I-I knew Shultz was ready to kick against my authority at any provocation,” said Nelson, bewildered; ”but you always seemed so decent and--”
”Shultz!” exploded Osgood. ”Why, he was simply carrying out my scheme. I let him think it was mainly his idea, but all the time it was mine. I fooled him, just the same as I did the others. When I perceived that you did not trust me, and when I became convinced that you thought me something of a fraud, I was bitterly determined to down you. I set about ingratiating myself into the good will and esteem of certain fellows on the team-certain fellows I felt confident I could sway to my will. Never mind who they are, Nelson, for they weren't wise to the depth of my game. Still, I knew I was getting them, one by one, just where I wanted them. I knew that in time, when I should be ready to make a split on the nine, I could swing them to my side and carry the majority of the players with me. That was my object, Nelson. I intended to make trouble on the team, break it up under your leaders.h.i.+p, and then suggest reorganization, with the purpose of being chosen captain in your place.”
Nelson leaped to his feet. ”Why, you miserable scoundrel!” he cried furiously. ”So that's what you were up to! I did smell a rat. I did think you were up to something underhanded. So that was it, eh? You're a sc.r.a.pper; you can box, they say. Take off your coat!”
Osgood made no move to rise. ”We're not going to fight,” he a.s.serted calmly. ”Did you think I was telling you this in order to provoke a fight?”
”I can't understand why under heaven you told me, anyhow.”
”Simply because I was determined to relieve myself of some of the load I've been carrying. Simply because in the last few hours I've come to see the full meaning of my dirty scheming. Oh, I don't suppose you believe me, but that's the reason-anyhow, it's a part of the reason. And I'm done with it all, no matter what may happen to me to-morrow.”
His breast heaving, his hands clenched, Nelson continued to stand glaring down at the calm, abject fellow before him. And there was something so genuinely abject in Osgood's appearance that gradually Jack felt his rage oozing away and leaving him.
”Sit down,” invited Ned once more. ”I'm not half through. As long as I've begun on this thing, and said so much, I'm going to tell you more, although it's likely you'll hold me henceforth in the most complete contempt. You spoke of Shultz a moment ago. Do you know he's not the sort of fellow with whom I can have any real natural bond of sympathy?”
”I've always wondered at your chumminess with him,” said Nelson slowly, reseating himself. ”He's so different. You're a gentleman, while he's plainly of the most plebeian and common stock.”
”He's no more plebeian and common than I am,” declared Osgood instantly.
”But his family-he comes of a most ordinary family.”
”So do I.”
”You? Why, you have some high-grade ancestors behind you on your mother's side, at least.”
”I wondered if you believed that, Nelson. If you did, it's plain you did not see through me completely, as I fancied.”
”What? Do you mean to say that--”
<script>