Part 15 (2/2)
”You refused to give me a hint. You threw me down hard, on my own resources. I saw all those hundreds of people demanding that Gridley win,” retorted Dave. ”What could I do? I had to make the fellows do something like what they've been doing under d.i.c.k Prescott, or confess myself a dub. I couldn't lean on a word from you, d.i.c.k. So you fairly drove me into planning something that would either carry off the game or make us look like chromos of football players. You wouldn't say a word, Prescott, that would take any of the blame on yourself! So didn't you force me to win!”
”That's ingenious, but not convincing,” retorted d.i.c.k, as the two chums stepped into dressing quarters. ”To tell you the truth, Dave, I think a good many people now believe that you ought to be the regular captain.”
But Darrin only grinned. He knew better.
Some of the fellows tried to praise Fenton to his face.
”Quit! You can't get away with that,” chuckled the fast little left end. ”Some one had to take that ball and drop it behind Hallam's goal line. I was the one who was ordered to do it.
If I hadn't, what would you fellows have said about me?”
By the time that the Hallam Heights young men were dressed several of them came to the Gridley quarters, Forsythe at their head.
”We want to shake hands,” laughed Forsythe, ”and to make sure that you have no hard feelings for what we tried to do to you.”
d.i.c.k and Darrin took this in laughing goodfellows.h.i.+p.
”If you call this your dub team to-day,” continued Forsythe, a bit more gloomily, ”we shudder to think what would have happened to us had you put in your regular line-up.”
”There isn't any dub team in Gridley,” spoke d.i.c.k quickly. ”All of our fellows are trained in the same way, by the same coach, and we stake all our chances on any line-up that's picked for the day. It was hard on you, gentlemen, that my knee put me out for the day. Darrin is twice as crafty as I am.”
”Oh, Darrin is crafty, all right,” agreed Forsythe cheerfully.
”But, somehow, I like him for it.”
On some of the side streets Gridley boys were allowed to light bonfires that evening, and there was general rejoicing of a lively nature. From the news that had come over concerning the Hallam Heights team there had been a good deal of fear that Gridley would, on this day, receive a set-back to its rule of always winning.
CHAPTER X
Leading the Town to Athletics
”Mr. Morton, we want a little word with you.”
”All right---anything to please you,” laughed the submaster, looking at d.i.c.k and Dave as they came up to him in the yard at recess.
”We've been thinking over a plan,” d.i.c.k continued.
”It has something to do with athletics, then!” guessed the submaster.
”Yes, sir,” nodded Dave.
”High School athletics, at that,” continued Mr. Morton.
”There you're wrong, sir, for once,” smiled Prescott. ”Mr. Morton, we've been thinking of the High School gym. It's a big place.
Pretty nearly three hundred gymnasts could be drilled there at once.”
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