Part 12 (1/2)

Then followed practice in falling on the ball in such a way as to shelter it with hands and knees, while avoiding having one's breath knocked out by the fall; running with it tucked under the arm so securely that no grab of the enemy can dislodge it; getting down under kicks fast enough to take advantage of any fumble by the enemy in trying for a ”fair catch;” getting a quick start the moment the ball was snapped back, and a dozen other elemental features that const.i.tute the alphabet of the game. The boys had practiced these things a hundred times before, but they can never be done too often or too well; and to-day under the new stimulus they outdid themselves. Each tried to surpa.s.s his fellows and worked as he had never worked before.

After an hour of this, they were lined up for two ten-minute sessions with the scrubs. The play was sharp and snappy and every move was followed by keen and critical eyes that nothing, however trivial, escaped. By the time the team had rolled up twenty points and held their opponents scoreless, the volunteer coaches knew pretty well the defects that would have to be corrected, and just what work was cut out for them.

The coach was immensely pleased. Once more he saw daylight ahead.

”What do you think of them, Butch, now that you've clapped your eyes on them?” he asked, as they strolled off the field.

”All to the good,” said Ames, sententiously. ”Of course it's far from being a finished team as yet, but you've got some first-cla.s.s material to work on. You're a little weak at the end of the line, and right tackle can stand a lot of improvement. But all the fellows seem willing, and that goes a long way. I didn't see one that appeared to be holding back.”

”That fullback of yours is a peach,” broke in Hadley. ”He comes pretty near to being a team in himself. If he once gets a start, there's nothing that can ever catch him.”

”He's the fastest man in college,” replied Hendricks. ”He's the fellow that carried off the Marathon at the Olympic Games in Berlin. And he's as game as he is speedy. You ought to have seen the way he stood McAlpin on his head when we played the Army. That fellow was as big as a house and as full of grit as a gravel path, but he wasn't one-two-three with Wilson. If all the boys were like him I'd have the champions.h.i.+p won right now.”

”What made a hit with me,” commented Lawrence, ”was that cla.s.sy bit of dodging when he went down the field for sixty yards toward the end of the game. At least six of them tried to stop him, but he slipped by them like a ghost. And yet he ran almost in a straight line. All the dodging was done by the swaying of his hips and shoulders. A man that can do that comes pretty near to being the king of them all.”

”You haven't any kick coming on your center and quarterback either,”

broke in Allen. ”Jove, they're a pair of dandies. They work together like a well-oiled machine. They're playing with their heads as well their feet all the time. They've got the snap-back and the forward pa.s.s down to perfection. And they're a stone wall when it comes to the defense.”

”Two of my very best,” a.s.sented Hendricks, ”and as sandy as the Sahara desert. It's around those three that I've had to build up my team.”

”Those three,” all unknowing of the comments that were being made on their work, were at the moment engaged in getting their bath and rubdown, never more grateful than just now after their strenuous labors of the afternoon.

”That was a course of sprouts for fair,” remarked Tom when they were putting on their clothes.

”They certainly put us through our paces,” a.s.sented d.i.c.k. ”I haven't been so tired since the Army game.”

”Just what we dubs needed,” affirmed Bert. ”Did you notice the snap and pepper in the team? It's the first time for a week that we've known we were alive. We're going to be a real football team after all. 'The cat came back,' and why shouldn't we?”

”I suppose it was due to that lot of 'old grads' looking on,” surmised Tom. ”Gee, when I thought of all those fellows leaving their work and traveling hundreds of miles for the sake of the old college, it made me ashamed of myself. I felt like going through a knot hole and drawing the hole in after me.”

”Same here,” said d.i.c.k. ”And they can bully-rag me all they like.

There'll be never a squeal from me. I'll work my head off to show them that we're fit to wear the Blue.”

”Hear! hear!” exclaimed Bert. ”That's the real tobasco. And I'll bet there isn't a fellow on the team that doesn't feel the same way.”

They were still stirred by this feeling of elation when, after a hearty supper, they reached their rooms. What was their surprise on opening the door to find Axtell sprawled out in a chair, his feet upon the window sill. He grinned affably.

”Come right in and make yourself at home,” he greeted.

”What are you doing here, you old flunker?” laughed Bert.

”Take back them cruel woids,” demanded Axtell. ”Flunker,” he went on meditatively, ”it hath a right knavish sound. Beshrew me, if I fling it not back in the teeth of any caitiff knight that dare put such shame upon me.”

A great light dawned upon them.

”What!” cried d.i.c.k. ”You old rascal. You don't mean to say that you've worked off your conditions?”

”You speak sooth,” was the reply, ”albeit your wonder at the same pleasureth my pride but little. For less than that my sword hath ofttimes drunk the blood of churls.”