A Quarter-Back's Pluck: A Story of College Football

  CHAPTER XXIV

  GERHART HAS AN IDEA

  Phil's sister hurried down from the grandstand to greet him.

  "Oh, Phil!" she cried. "Did you get hurt?" for she saw him limping, andshe held out her hands to him.

  "Just a little twist," he explained. "Not worth mentioning. How are you,Madge?" he went on, after patting his sister on the shoulder, and heheld his hands eagerly out to Miss Tyler.

  "Fine!" she exclaimed. "Oh, wasn't it a great game?"

  "For us," put in Tom, who had greeted Ruth, and now turned to the othergirl.

  "Good afternoon, Tom," spoke Madge, and Tom fancied there was just atinge of coldness in her voice. She continued talking to Phil.

  "Did you think you would win?" asked Phil's sister of Tom as she lookedeagerly up into his face.

  "Well, not all the while," replied the left-end. "Once or twice I beganto think we'd lose. But you can't down Randall."

  "No; it takes Fairview to do that, not Boxer Hall," put in Madgequickly.

  "Now, be nice--be nice!" pleaded Phil with a laugh. "I thought you werea friend of mine, Madge."

  "So I am," she replied gaily; "but I can't help saying that."

  "We'll beat you next time," went on Phil, and he dodged back to escape alittle blow which Madge aimed at him with her small flag. Then the twolaughed. Tom, who was chatting with Ruth, heard them, and he half turnedto see what was going on. He was just in time to see Phil grasp bothMadge's hands, and his face turned red. Ruth noticed it, and she said:

  "Phil and Madge seem to get on well together."

  "Almost too well," was Tom's thought, but he said nothing and changedthe subject.

  "Well, Tom," said Phil at length, "I suppose we'd better go dress likerespectable citizens. You've got a spot of mud on your nose."

  "And you have one on your ear," added Ruth. "I think Tom--I mean Mr.Parsons--looks quite artistic with that beauty spot."

  "We can dispense with the 'Mister,' if you like, Ruth," said Tomboldly.

  "Oh!" laughed Ruth. "I don't know what my brother will say. Eh, Phil?"

  "Oh, I guess it's safe to call 'Dominie' Parsons by his front handle,"said Phil. "He's warranted not to bite. Go ahead, sis."

  "All right," she agreed with a laugh. "There--Tom"--and she hesitatedprettily at the name--"better run along and wash up."

  "Will you wait here for us?" asked Tom. "We'll take you over toFairview, then, eh, Phil?"

  "Surest thing you know!" exclaimed the quarter-back. "That is, if Madgeis agreeable."

  He looked at her. She blushed just a trifle, and, with a little gesture,answered:

  "If Ruth insists on having her brother, why----"

  "But I don't want my brother!" cried Ruth gaily. "Whoever heard of asister walking with her own brother? I'm going to let you have him, andI--er--I----" She paused, blushing.

  "I'll fill in!" cried Tom quickly.

  Madge looked at him, but said nothing.

  A little later on Tom, beside Ruth, and Phil, walking with Madge,started for the trolley to Fairview. As they were crossing the campus,which was thronged with players, visitors and some of the Boxer Hallteam and its supporters, Wallops, the messenger, came along with atelegram in his hand.

  "Is that for me?" asked Phil eagerly, and his face was pale, while hisvoice trembled. His sister looked quickly at him. Evidently she fearedthe same thing he did.

  "No; it's for Professor Tines," replied the messenger, and Phil breatheda sigh of relief as Wallops passed on.

  Garvey Gerhart, who, with Langridge, was standing near Phil at the time,started. Then a curious look came over his face.

  "Langridge," he asked the sophomore, "have you anything to do?"

  "Nothing special. Why?"

  "Well, if you haven't, come along with me. I've just thought of anidea."

  "They're mighty scarce," retorted the former pitcher. "Don't let it getaway."

  "Take a walk over by the chapel, and I'll tell you," went on Gerhart."There isn't such a crowd there."

  Phil and Tom, with the two girls, were soon on the way to theco-educational college. The trip was enlivened by laughter and jokes.Madge and Phil seemed very good friends, and, as for Tom, though hewondered at the sudden companionship that had sprung up between thequarter-back and the pretty girl he had once been so anxious to get awayfrom Langridge, he could not help but congratulate himself on knowingRuth. Still, he could not altogether understand Madge. He had been fondof her--he was still--and he knew that she had liked him. The slendertie of relationship between them was no bar to an affection thatdiffered in degree from cousinly. Yet Madge plainly showed her likingfor Phil. Could it be, Tom thought, that she was jealous of him, andtook this method of showing it? He did not think Madge would do such athing, yet he felt that part of her gaiety and good spirits, when incompany with the handsome quarter-back, were assumed for some purpose.

  "If it wasn't that Ruth is such a nice girl, and that Phil and I aresuch friends, I'd almost think that he and I were--well--rivals,"thought Tom. "Oh, hang it all! What's the use of getting sentimental?They're both nice girls--very nice--the--the only trouble is I don'tknow which I think the nicer."

  The two chums left the girls at the Fairview College campus, for it wasgetting late. Tom shook hands with Ruth, and then walked over to Madgeto say good-by. She had just finished speaking to Phil.

  "Well, when can your 'cousin' come over to see you again, Madge?" askedTom with a smile.

  He held out his hand, but Madge affected not to see it. Tom feltuncomfortable, and then, as if she realized it, she said to him:

  "Well, 'Cousin' Tom, I don't know that you'll _care_ to come over to seeme again," and with that she turned and walked away.

  Tom remained staring after her for a moment. Then, with a shrug of hisshoulders, he wheeled and joined Phil, who had been a silent witness tothe little scene.

  "Say, aren't girls odd?" asked Tom.

  "Very," agreed his chum. "But you said that once before, you know."

  "No; did I?" asked Tom, and he was rather silent on the way back toRandall.

  Meanwhile, Langridge and Gerhart had spent much time strolling about thechapel walk. It was getting dusk, and the fading light of the perfectfall day was shining through the wonderful, stained-glass windows of thelittle church. The long casements, with representations of biblicalscenes, were a soft glow of delicate hues. But the two lads had no eyesfor these beauties.

  "I think that will put a crimp in his playing!" Gerhart remarked, as hepaused to light an oriental cigarette, or, rather, something that passedfor one.

  "But it's risky," expostulated Langridge. "If it's found out, and it'ssure to be, you'll have to leave college."

  "I don't care. I'd be willing to, if I could have my revenge on him forkeeping me off the team. I don't like it here, anyhow. The other game Iput up on him didn't work, but this one will."

  "And when will you try it?"

  "At the last and deciding game. The way I figure it is that the finaltussle will come between Randall and Boxer Hall. I'll be ready with itthen. It will certainly knock him out."

  "But it may lose us the game and the championship."

  "What do I care! I'll be square with Clinton, and that's what I want. Igot the idea when I saw how frightened he was when Wallops had thattelegram. Don't you think it will work?"

  "Sure it will work. It's a great idea, but--but----" and Langridgehesitated. "It's a brutal trick, just the same."

  "Oh, you're too chicken-hearted. Come on and I'll buy you a drink. Thatwill put some life in you."

  "All right," said Langridge weakly, and he went.