Chapter XX: A Welcome Disturbance

“Caught red-handed,” cried a familiar voice.

Margery uttered a little scream.

“Thave me!” cried Tommy, dropping her racquet.

“Sorry to have frightened you, ladies, but glad that it was I who did it rather than some one else,” he said, stepping forward, laughing heartily at their confusion.

“It’s Mr. Disbrow,” cried Harriet. “Oh, we are glad to see you. How long have you been here?”

“Since the beginning of the set. You should be more cautious. How did you know but that one of your opponents might be watching and getting pointers from your practice? You certainly have been applying all the instruction I gave you.”

“It was a mistake,” agreed Miss Elting. “We were all too absorbed to think that any one might be looking on. How did you get here so early?”

“I just arrived, and, after leaving my bag at the hotel, thought I would walk over and have a look at the courts. It is too early for breakfast at the hotel, you know.”

“I am glad. You will now have breakfast with us. The boys have not yet arrived.”

“I did not expect to see them,” chuckled Disbrow. “But tell me, what is new? What do you hear about the other contestants?”

Harriet told him all that they had learned from George Baker, to all of which Mr. Disbrow listened gravely.

“Yes, I have heard as much. It seems a foregone conclusion that the Scott Sisters are going to win the cup. From what I have been able to learn they are accomplished players and have been in training for this match ever since early in the spring.”

“Yes?” Harriet’s eyebrows elevated ever so little. “You have lost your confidence in the Meadow-Brook Girls, then?”

“By no means. From what I have just seen here you girls will give a most excellent account of yourselves, but that doesn’t mean that you will win the cup. I do not see how you could even hope to do so after the very brief time you have spent at the nets. Had you finished?”

“We were going back to camp, but we will put on another game if you like,” replied Harriet.

“I wish you would. You may not find another opportunity when no others are about. After this afternoon I shouldn’t do more than just keep in good form. I mean, do no hard work on the court. Now, if you are ready, you may play a couple of games, keeping the same partners, and paying especial attention to team work.”

They did so, Harriet Burrell’s side winning each time, the two games being watched keenly by the Englishman, but without comment until the games were finished.

“Very good, _very_ good!” he cried, with something more than the usual praise in his voice. “I am satisfied that you have done a great deal more than really could be expected of you. In fact, I may say that I would not have deemed it possible for novices to get in such form as you are showing in so short a time. Do not set your hopes too high, but get as near the top as you can. I shall make it a point to circulate among the players who are here and renew old acquaintances. I may have something further to say on the matter this evening. Oh, no, I am not going to spy on our opponents. I merely want to hear from persons who know what the others have been doing, how they are showing up as to form and skill. I think I shall accept your invitation to breakfast with you. This air has given me an appetite.”

“We have a very good court at the camp,” said Miss Elting after the party had started for camp. “The boys have worked like Trojans to put it in excellent shape. It is a dirt court.”

“That is good. They are a fine lot of boys.”

“Yeth, and Tham bumped hith nothe,” Tommy informed him.

“So I hear. Poor Samuel. He is a most unfortunate mortal, but he is all to the good. That is a fine location for you. You should have some place in which to rest, however. You will have seven minutes after each third set, you know.”

“The teams are to have dressing tents near the courts if they wish,” answered Harriet Burrell. “Mr. Baker is going to put up one for us.”

“Good old George!” approved Mr. Disbrow.

At breakfast, which was a hearty meal in the case of the champion, he offered his criticisms of their playing that morning, making valuable suggestions and giving them a series of instructions regarding their playing when the real test was at hand—that of standing up before hundreds of people and yet being wholly unconscious of their presence.

The conversation was continued after breakfast, then the girls told him of their code of signals. Disbrow said he had observed them when they were playing the second set while he was watching from behind the stand. He agreed that it was an excellent idea provided they did not give too much attention to watching for signals and thus overlook the more important things.

“Harriet ith going to let uth have the thilver polithh and cloth for the cup,” interjected Tommy wholly irrelevantly to the subject under discussion.

Mr. Disbrow laughed heartily.

“I sincerely hope you may have use for the silver polish,” he replied. “To-morrow, I believe, the singles are to be played off. You should see all of them and study the methods of the players critically, especially those whom you are to face in the courts next day. Here come the boys.”

“It’s P. E.!” shouted George the instant he caught sight of the Englishman sitting in the camp. The boys welcomed him boisterously, then George poured out all the news he had obtained. Later on he accompanied Mr. Disbrow to his hotel, where the two discussed the chances of the Meadow-Brook Girls. Neither the champion nor the boy saw any reason to change their opinions on this subject. That the girls might make an excellent showing they agreed, but that they stood any chance at all of winning the championship neither believed.

“It is simply an impossibility,” declared P. E. with emphasis. “I wish I might look at it in a different light. Perhaps we may change our minds after we see what the other people have been doing, but I doubt it. Have you seen any of the others play?”

George said he had not, but that he had some confidential reports on the work of the Fifth Avenues and the Riversides.

“How are they?” questioned Disbrow eagerly.

“Hot stuff,” answered George, “but very fancy. My, but they handle their racquets well!”

“That doesn’t necessarily make a champion,” suggested Disbrow thoughtfully. “But we shall see. I shall hope to have further information by this evening and still more to-morrow. I say, if I shouldn’t get back before dark, see that the girls play a couple of sets—light practice, mind you—after four o’clock this afternoon. And don’t let them work too hard during the heat of the afternoon. They are pretty fit physically now and I don’t want them to lose form. I think it is safe to say that no team in the tournament will enter the courts in better physical condition than the Meadow-Brooks. They are simply wonderful physically. I leave you to look after these things as I do not wish to take an active part. It would not be best for them.”

George agreed. All arrangements having been talked over and understood between George and Mr. Disbrow, they separated, George to return to camp, the Englishman to spend the day among the tennis people, many of whom he knew, for the tournament had drawn as spectators tennis players of high and low degree.

Almost every person was talking tennis and discussing the merits of the respective teams. Of the Meadow-Brooks little was known. Some had heard of them, most had not, nor had the girls appeared on the streets of the town enough to be identified and placed. They were too busy with the serious affairs in hand to spend any time wandering about the summer resort in idle pleasure.

Every train that arrived during the day brought with it players and visitors. Early in the forenoon girls in white sweaters might have been seen at practice on the tournament courts. The Meadow-Brook Girls were at no time among them, nor were the Scott Sisters nor the Fifth Avenues and Riversides. The latter two were practising on their own private courts and the former were staying with friends and resting preparatory to the battle to be fought perhaps on the morrow.

It was after dinner that evening before Earlington Disbrow turned his footsteps toward the Meadow-Brook camp. He was not highly elated over what he had learned that day, but showed nothing of this in his face or manner when he called on the girls. The boys were still there.

George reported that the girls had had a very satisfactory day’s practice, but that the Tramps had had difficulty in keeping spectators and curious players away from the place. The Tramps had literally thrown a circle about the Meadow-Brook Girls’ court, permitting no one to pass within the circle while practice was in progress.

“Will they play to-morrow?” questioned Dill.

“No. Mr. Herrington does not think it advisable. It will undoubtedly be late in the afternoon before the singles are run off, so he has decided to start the doubles on the following forenoon at ten o’clock.”

“What do you wish on the question of team-mates?” he asked, turning to Miss Elting.

“We have been leaving that to you.”

“Then I will offer my suggestion. I have talked it over with George and he agrees with me. I believe the best results can be obtained by arranging it as follows, Miss Burrell and Miss Thompson to play together, Miss McCarthy and Miss Holland to act as team-mates. Of course, Miss Thompson is not as heavy as I wish she were, but she makes up for that in a measure by her alertness. Have you any objections to the arrangement?”

“Indeed not,” answered the guardian. “You have expressed my own ideas on the question. None of the girls has expressed any preference, but I know they will be satisfied.”

“I for one am,” answered Harriet promptly. The other girls announced themselves as pleased with the arrangement.

“Then we will call it settled. I wish we might be drawn so that you girls could play the weaker teams first.”

“We do not wish any favoritism,” declared Harriet. “If we can’t win fairly and on our merits, we prefer to be beaten.”

“That is the sportsman-like spirit. That is the spirit that should prevail in all contests, as I am certain it will in this. You are going to be in hot company. I have learned something more about the playing of the Scott Sisters. They are fine players. I am not belittling your work, mind you. You play a splendid game—a marvelous game for the time you have been practising, but you must remember that one has to go through a few public matches before one learns to play well before people.”

“Yeth, we underthtand,” nodded Tommy.

“Then you think we shall not win?” questioned Harriet.

“I do not wish to discourage you, nor do I think you will so construe what I have to say. I think you will play a very fine game and that you will not win the booby prize, but as for winning the cup, for the life of me I don’t see how you are going to do it. There! It’s out now.”

“You are one of those perthonth who have to be thhown, aren’t you?” lisped Tommy Thompson after a moment of deep silence following the discouraging announcement. “I gueth that we thhall have to thhow you.”