CHAPTER XI
MR. BRADY FORGETS
THAT afternoon Don's knowledge stood him in good stead, for with morethan half the first-string players excused from practice, his serviceswere called on at the start, and, with McPhee and Cotter running thesquad, the signal drill was long and thorough. Harry Walton viewed Don'sadvent with disfavour. That was apparent to Don and anyone else whothought of the matter, although he pretended a good-natured indifferencethat wasn't at all deceiving. Don more than once caught his rivalobserving him with resentment and dislike, and, remembering that HarryWalton had been a witness of his unconventional return to hall thatnight, he experienced misgivings. Of course, Harry wouldn't "peach,"but--well, Don again wished anyone rather than Harry had stumbled on thesecret.
But he didn't have much time for worrying about that matter, for CoachRobey went after them hard that day. In the practice game with thesecond team Don started at left guard and played the position untilwithin a few minutes of the whistle. Then Harry Walton, who had beendisgruntledly adorning the bench, took his place. He didn't look at Donas he accepted the latter's head-guard, but Don was well aware thatHarry felt anything but good-will for him. Naturally enough, Harry had,Don reflected, expected to step into Gafferty's place without oppositionwhen news of the extent of the latter's injury had become known, and itwas undoubtedly a big disappointment to him to discover that he had tofight a new opponent. Don could sympathise with Harry, for he hadendured disappointments himself during his brief football career, but itis difficult to sympathise very enthusiastically when the subject ofyour sympathy shows his dislike for you, and Don metaphorically shruggedhis shoulders as he trotted up to the gymnasium.
"It isn't my fault," he said to himself. "I didn't bust Joe Gafferty'srib and I'm not responsible for Robey's taking me on the first team.Walton will just have to make the best of it."
Don couldn't flatter himself that he had played that afternoon withespecial brilliancy, although he had managed to hold his end up fairlywell. The fact was that he had been so intent on getting speeded intohis performance that he had rather skimped the niceties of line-play.And he wasn't at all certain that he had shown any more speed thanusual, either. He awaited Mr. Robey's appearance in the locker-room withsome apprehension, certain that if he had erred badly he would soonlearn of it. When the coach did arrive at the tail of the procession ofpanting players and said his say without once singling out Don forspecial attention, the latter was relieved. He couldn't, he toldhimself, have done so very badly, after all!
Tom walked back to Billings with Don to learn the result of Tim's andClint's embassy to the Cedar Ridge Poultry Farm, for the two hadobtained leave of absence from Mr. Robey and had set forth on theirjourney the minute a three o'clock recitation was finished. Tim wasn'tin Number 6 when they reached it, but he and Clint tramped in soonafter, dusty and weary but evidently triumphant. Tim narrated theirexperiences.
"Missed the three-fifty car, just as I told Clint we would if he didn'thustle----"
"I had to find a cap to wear, didn't I?" interpolated Clint.
"Well, we found the place all right, fellows, and, say, it's somepoultry farm, believe me, dearies! Isn't it corking, Clint?"
Clint grunted assent, stretching tired legs across the floor.
"There's about a thousand acres of it, I guess, and a mile of redchicken houses and runs, or whatever you call 'em. How many hens andthings did he tell us he had, Clint?"
"Eighteen hundred, I think. Maybe it was eighteen thousand. I don'tremember. All I know is there were chickens as far as you could see, andthen some."
"Never mind the descriptive matter," urged Tom. "What did he say? HadJosh been at him? Did he promise----"
"I'm coming to that, dearie. When we found him he was doing something tothat car of his in a cute little garage. And, say, it's aneight-cylinder Lothrop, and a regular jim-dandy! Well, he took us intohis house first----"
Tom groaned in despair.
"----And fed us on crackers and cake and ginger ale. Say, he's got apeach of a bungalow there; small but entire; and a cute little Jap whocooks and looks after things for him. Well, then he took us out andshowed us around the place. Chickens! Gee, I didn't know there were somany in the world! And we saw the incubators and the--what you callthem--brooders, and----"
"For the love of mud!" exclaimed Tom. "Can't you get down to dots? _Isit all right or isn't it?_"
Tim smiled exasperatingly. "Then he showed us----"
Tom arose to his feet and took a step toward him.
"It's all right," said Tim hurriedly. "Everything, Thomas! We told himwhat was up and how we didn't want Josh to find out it was us whoattended Mr. Corrigan's fire party and asked him if he would please notremember what we looked like if Josh asked him. And he said----"
"He laughed," interrupted Clint, and chuckled himself.
"That's right! He laughed a lot. 'You're a little bit late,' he said.'Mr. Fernald called me up by telephone nearly a week ago, fellows, andwanted to know all about it.' 'You didn't tell him?' I yelped. 'No, Icouldn't,' he said. 'You see, you hadn't told me your names, and it waspretty dark that night and somehow or other I just couldn't seem torecall what you looked like! Mr. Fernald sounded considerablydisappointed and like he didn't quite believe me, but that can't behelped.' Say, fellows, I wanted to hug him! Or--or buy an egg orsomething! Honest, I did! He's all right, what?"
"He's a corker!" said Tom, sighing with relief. "You don't supposeCorrigan or any of the others there that night would remember us, doyou?"
"Not likely. Mr. Brady didn't think so, anyway."
"Then it's all to the merry!" cried Tom. "Gee, but that's a load off mymind!"
"Off your what?" asked Tim curiously.
"It's all right if Harry Walton keeps quiet," said Don. "If he gets totalking----"
"If he does I'll beat him up," said Tim earnestly. "But he won't. Hewouldn't be such a snip, in the first place, and he wouldn't dare to inthe second."
"N-no, I guess not," agreed Don. But his tone didn't hold muchconviction. "Only, if----"
"I'll tell you fellows one thing," announced Tom vehemently.
"Don't strain yourself," advised Tim.
"And that," continued the other, scowling at the interruption, "is thatno one gets me into any more scrapes until after the Claflin game!"
"Gee, to hear you talk," exclaimed Tim indignantly, "anyone would thinkwe'd tied you up with a rope and forcibly abducted you! Who's idea wasit, anyway, to go to the village that night?"
"Yours, if you want to know! I don't say I didn't go along willinglyenough, Tim. What I do say is--_never again_! Anyway," he added, "notuntil football's over!"
Morgan's School, which had defeated Brimfield the year before, 6 to 3,came and departed. Brimfield took the visitor's measure this time, and,although she only scored one touchdown and failed to kick goal, thecontest was far less close and interesting than the score would suggest.Brimfield played the opponents to a standstill in the first half andscored just before the end of it. In the third quarter Coach Robey begansubstituting and when the last ten minutes started the Maroon-and-Greyhad only three first-string fellows in her line-up. The substitutesplayed good football and, while not able to push the pigskin acrossMorgan's line, twice reached her fifteen yards and twice tried andnarrowly missed a goal from the field.
On the whole it could not be said that Brimfield's performance thatblustery Saturday afternoon was impressive, for she was frequentlycaught napping on the defensive, showed periods of apathy and did morefumbling, none of which resulted disastrously, than she should have.Tim Otis had a remarkably good day and was undeniably the best man inthe backfield for the home team. Carmine played a heady, snappy game,and Don, who played the most of three quarters at left guard, conductedhimself very well. Don's work was never of the spectacular sort, but athis best he was a steady and thoroughly reliable lineman and veryeffective on defence. He was still slow in getting into plays, a factwhich made him of less value than Joe G
afferty on attack. Even HarryWalton showed up better than Don when Brimfield had the ball. Butneither Gafferty nor Walton was as strong on defence as Don.
Walton had been very earnestly striving all the week to capture theguard position, but the fact that Don had been played through most ofthe Morgan's game indicated that the latter was as yet a slightfavourite in Coach Robey's estimation. During the week succeeding theMorgan's game the two rivals kept at it nip and tuck, and theirteam-mates looked on with interest. At practice Mr. Robey showed nofavour to either, and each came in for his full share of criticism, butwhen, the next Saturday, the team journeyed away from home and playedCherry Valley, it was again Don who started the game between Thayer andThursby and who remained in the line-up until the fourth period, bywhich time Brimfield had piled up the very satisfactory score oftwenty-six points. In the final five minutes Cherry Valley managed tofool the visitors and get a forward pass off for a gain that placed theball on Brimfield's fourteen yards, and from there her drop-kicker putthe pigskin over the cross-bar and tallied three points. The game wasuninteresting unless one was a partisan, and even then there were fewthrills. Brimfield played considerably better than in the Morgan's gameand emerged with no more important damages than a wrenched ankle, whichfell to the share of Martin, who had taken Rollins's place in the lastperiod.
Joe Gafferty came back to practice the following Monday, but was missingagain a day or two later, and the school heard with some dismay thatJoe's parents had written to Mr. Fernald and forbidden Joe to play anymore football that year. Joe was inconsolable and went around for thenext week or so looking like a lost soul. After that he accepted thesituation and helped Mr. Boutelle coach the second. That second had bythat time been shaken together into a very capable and smooth-runningteam, a team which was giving the first more and more trouble everyday. Coach Robey had again levied on it for a player, taking Merton tothe first when Gafferty was lost to him, and again Mr. Boutelle growledand protested and, finally, philosophically shrugged his shoulders. Aweek later Merton was released to the second once more and Pryme, whohad been playing at right guard as a substitute for Tom Hall, was triedout on the other side of centre with good results. Pryme's advent as acontender for the left guard position complicated the battle between Donand Harry Walton, and until after the Southby game the trio ofcandidates indulged in a three-cornered struggle that was quite prettyto watch.
Unfortunately for Don, that struggle for supremacy threatened to affecthis class standing, for it occupied so much of his thought that therewas little left for study. When, however, the office dropped a hint andMr. Daley presented an ultimatum, Don realised that he was takingfootball far too seriously, and, being a rather level-headed youth, hemended his ways. He expected, as a result, to find himself left behindin the race with Walton and Pryme, but, oddly enough, his game was in nodegree affected so far as he could determine. In fact, within a few daysthe situation was simplified by the practical elimination of Pryme as acontender. This happened when, just before the Southby game, Tom Hall,together with eight other members of Mr. Moller's physics class went onprobation, and Pryme was needed at right guard.
I have mentioned Tom's probation very casually, quite as if it was amatter of slight importance, but you may be sure that the school viewedit in no such way. Coming as it did little more than a fortnight beforethe big game, it was looked on as a dire catastrophe, no more and noless; and the school, which had laughed and chuckled over the incidentwhich had caused the catastrophe, and applauded the participants in it,promptly turned their thumbs down when the effect became known andindignantly dubbed the affair "silly kid's play" and blamed Tom veryheartily. How much of the blame he really deserved you shall judge foryourself, but the affair merits a chapter of its own.