Part 31 (1/2)

”But there is, Dora.”

”You had better go down to the field now. I see the other players are getting ready.”

”But if you are angry at me--”

”Oh, I am not angry, so please leave me alone!” And now Dora turned still further away, while something like tears began to spring into her eyes.

d.i.c.k drew back, for her tone of voice nettled him. He felt he had done nothing wrong. He did not see that look in her eyes, or he would have understood how much she was hurt. He turned, nodded pleasantly to Nellie and Grace, and hurried from the grandstand.

”Where have you been?” asked Tom when he appeared in the dressing-room.

”Up on the stand, talking to the girls,” was d.i.c.k's short answer.

”Anything wrong? You look out of sorts.”

”No, nothing is wrong,” answered the oldest Rover. But he felt that there was something my much wrong, yet he could not tell Tom.

”I didn't do anything out of the way, I'm sure I didn't,” d.i.c.k murmured to himself as he prepared to go out on the gridiron. ”Any gentleman would have found a seat for Miss Sanderson. I suppose Dora saw me talking to her, and now she imagines all sorts of things. It isn't fair. Well, I don't care.” And d.i.c.k whistled to himself, just to keep up his courage. He did care a great deal.

At last he was ready, and he followed Tom out on the field. The Roxley team had just come out, and their friends were giving them a royal welcome.

”Roxley! Roxley!” they shouted. ”They are the boys to win!”

”It's Brill this time!” was the answering rally, and then horns and rattles added to the din, while banners were waved gaily in the bracing autumn air.

d.i.c.k looked toward the grandstand, trying to single out Dora. Instead, his eyes met those of Minnie Sanderson, and she waved both her banner and her handkerchief. He answered the salute, and then turned to look where Dora and the Lanings were sitting. Nellie and Grace, as well as Sam, cheered him, but Dora took no notice. But she waved her flag at Tom.

This last action made d.i.c.k's heart sink, figuratively speaking, to his shoes. How could a fellow hope to play and win with his girl cutting him like that? But then of a sudden he shut his teeth hard.

”I'll win even if she doesn't care,” he told himself. ”I'll not do it for her, or myself--I'll do it for the honor of Brill!”

CHAPTER XVIII

THE GREAT FOOTBALL GAME

It is not my intention to give all the particulars of that game of football between Brill and Roxley, for the reason that I have many other things to tell about. Yet I feel that I must tell something of that great second half, which n.o.body who saw it will ever forget.

In the first half Roxley had the kick-off, and they played such a fierce whirlwind game that before the leather had been on the gridiron eight minutes they scored a touchdown. Then they made another touchdown, and just before the whistle blew for the end of the first half one of their players kicked a goal from the field.

And Brill scored nothing.

More than this, the playing was so rough that two of the Brill eleven and one from Roxley had to retire from the field.

Of course the visitors went wild with joy, and shouted themselves hoa.r.s.e. They waved their colors, swung their rattles, and tooted their horns for fully five minutes, while the silence among the Brill contingent was so thick it could be ”cut with a knife,” as Sam afterward expressed it.

”It's all over,” murmured Stanley with a glum look on his face. ”Their eleven this year are too heavy for us.”

”We can't meet them in ma.s.s play, that's certain,” was d.i.c.k's comment.

”If we are going to gain anything at all it must be by open work.”