Lester Chadwick

“ There was a gasp of surprise that went around the chapel like a wave of hysteria among a lot of girls.
"Twenty thousand dollars!" whispered Tom Parsons.
"Randall can never pay it," remarked Sid, who sat next to him.
Dr. Churchill waited for the murmurs to cease.
"I need hardly add," he continued, "that it is out of the question for us to pay this sum. Yet, if we do not, we may lose all that we hold dear," and the president seemed much affected. "However, we have not given up the fight, and there may yet be a loophole of escape. You may now go to your classes." ”

“ Out on the field were the players, nearly two score of them, for each college had plenty of substitutes.
"It's going to be a game for blood, all right," murmured Tom, who, standing with his three chums, watched Boxer Hall at practice. "Look how they get into play on the jump."
"Oh, we can do it, too," declared Phil.
"They've got some good kickers," announced Sid, critically.
"So have we," fired back Phil, who seemed to resent any implied slight of the Randall team.
"Have you heard where Langridge is going to play?" asked Frank Simpson. ”

“ There was now not a player betwen the Canton man and the goal line. Like mad, his friends leaped to their feet, and sent cheer after cheer ringing into the air.
"Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown!" was the frenzied yell.
"After him!" shouted Captain Woodhouse. "Don't let him touch it down, fellows!"
He was running desperately, but speed was not his strong point. Tom Parsons, however, was on the alert. There was not many who could beat him at the scudding game, and he tore off over the white marks after the cadet, with a fierce desire to pull him down in his tracks. ”

“ That chair never walked away by itself. And it's too heavy and awkward for one fellow to carry alone. We've got to get busy and find it."
"We sure have," agreed Phil. "Why, the room looks bare without it; doesn't it?"
"Almost like a funeral," came mournfully from Sid, as he sank into the depths of the sofa. And then a silence fell upon the inseparable chums, a silence that seemed to fill the room, and which was broken only by the ticking of a fussy little alarm clock.
"Oh, hang it!" burst out Tom, as he loosened his tie and made the knot over. ”

“ Tom almost snapped.
"They won't rub it in—they'll know how we feel," went on the quarter-back. And to the credit of Ruth, Madge and Mabel, be it said that though they were Fairview girls, and their college had downed Randall, which had not happened in a blue moon before, they never so much as "looked" the triumph they must have felt. They knew the bitterness of defeat, and—well, they were wise little damsels.
They talked of anything but football, though the reference to Phil's injury and to Sid's illness naturally verged on it. ”

“ I hope you don't go lame," put in Sid. "The team is crippled enough as it is."
"Oh, I'll be all right," asserted Tom. "All it needs is a rest and some liniment."
"I wrenched my knee a bit," spoke Phil, "but it doesn't bother me now."
"And I'd like to get hold of the fellow who rubbed my nose in the dirt," came wrathfully from Sid. "I must have chewed up about an ounce of it."
"It's good for your digestion," asserted Tom, with a wry face. "But say, fellows, doesn't it strike you as rather queer that we didn't get a hint about our missing chair and clock?" ”

“ Look at him!" cried Phil, with his head half way through a clean shirt. "Say, you'd think he was going to a coming-out party, instead of to a Fairview frat. dance. Oh, Tom, is my back hair on straight?" and Phil, who had uttered the last in a shrill falsetto voice, tried to look at the after-portion of his shock of football hair.
"Say, when you fellows know how to act like gentlemen instead of like a bunch of rough-necks, I'll talk to you," spoke Sid, with dignity. "I asked you a question, Tom." ”

“ Dr. Churchill started. Mr. Zane hurriedly whispered to him, explaining that it was only the name of Langridge that thus met with disapprobation. The venerable president raised his hand for silence.
"Men of Randall," he said, solemnly, "that was unworthy of you."
The hissing stopped instantly.
"And so our college is in danger," continued the good doctor, after a pause, "but we must face it bravely. We will not give way to it. We will meet it like men! We will fight the good fight. We will——"
"Three cheers for Randall College and Dr. Churchill!" ”

“ Truly enough there was no big, old-fashioned, easy chair in the window.
"Maybe it's in the other," suggested Frank. "I told you I wasn't sure whether it was the left or right window."
Phil darted across the doorway.
"It isn't over here, either!" he cried, as a rapid survey of the contents of that window disclosed the fact that it contained only some brass warming pans, a broken spinning wheel, some andirons and fire tongs.
"Perhaps it's inside," came from Frank. "This fellow changes his window goods every other day to attract trade. Let's go in." ”

“ The Latin words came sweetly over the field from the cohorts on the big stand—"Aut Vincere, Aut, Mori!"—"Either We Conquer, or We Die!"
"Might as well die, as to be defeated," thought Sid, bitterly. The ball came back to him. Like a flash he was in motion. The big Californian, as he had done before several times in the game, opened a hole so fiercely that the opposing players seemed to shrink away from him.
Forward leaped Sid, with all the power of despair. Forward! Forward!
"There! See!" cried Bean Perkins. "He's through the line! He's going to make a touchdown—the winning touchdown!" ”

“ First thing we know we won't have anything left," and he looked down at the sofa on which he was stretched out, as if to make sure that it would not take wings unto itself, and fly out of the window.
"Was the room locked?" asked Phil.
"Sure," spoke Tom. "Whoever came in must have used a false key."
"They're taking lots of risks," was Sid's opinion. "How could they tell but what we'd come back any minute and catch them red-handed?"
"Well, this is no joke," insisted Tom. "We've got to do something. It's too much to have the chair and clock disappear the same day. ”

“ Miss Tyler and Miss Harrison began a series of gay nothings, and Ruth was soon drawn into the conversation, to which Tom, Phil and Sid contributed their share.
"Oh, tell us about the clock and chair mystery, boys," begged Ruth, when they had left the place where they had partaken of hot chocolate. "Phil said something about it, but I had to drag it out of him like a lawyer cross-questioning a reluctant witness.'
"My! Listen to Portia!" cried Madge. "But we should dearly love to hear about the queer happenings." ”

“ Boxer won the toss, and there was a momentary feeling of disappointment at this, but it soon passed away, for there was no wind, and little advantage to be gained by selecting a goal.
"I'm glad we've got 'em on our own grounds," remarked Tom, in a low voice.
"Yes, that's one advantage," agreed Phil. "Oh, if we can only win, old man—if we only can! Then Randall will come into her own again, and down all her enemies."
"We're going to win," said Tom, simply, as if that settled it.
Boxer elected to defend the south goal, which gave the ball to Randall to be kicked off. ”

“ Once more Randall, after some scrimmages during one of which Tom got the ball, began the rushing tactics, and this time with such fierceness and energy that inside of five minutes his mates had shoved Sid Henderson over the line for the. first touchdown. Holly Cross kicked the goal, and there was a wild riot of cheers.
"That's the way to do it; eh, Kindlings?" cried Tom, capering about in delight.
"We'd ought to have done it twice over in this time," was the somewhat unsatisfactory response. "If we don't look out, they'll score on us." ”

“ With a hissing sound, the chemical streams from the extinguishers spurted upon the blaze. The fire died down around the edges of the big hole that had been burned in the floor, but in the centre there was hot flame.
"Can we get it under?" panted Sid, who, having emptied one extinguisher—a small one—ran after another.
"We've got to!" declared Phil, trying to shield his face from the fierce heat.
"If we can only keep it down until the fellows come with the hose, we'll do all right," gasped Tom, choking from the smoke. ”

“ Whether it was the unexpected compliment paid to him, or a feeling of commisseration for the four culprits was not made known, but, at any rate, Proctor Zane inflicted absolutely no punishment on Dutch and his mates. He did not even refer to the subject again, though Professor Tines was seen in excited conversation with him. Perhaps the trouble in which Randall was involved, and a feeling that he was not as well liked as he might be, influenced Mr. Zane.
So Dutch and his three chums breathed easier, and the football team blessed its lucky stars that it was to lose no more men. ”

“ Outside could be heard excited yells and shouts, and the rumble of the hand hose carts as the sturents rushed them toward the chapel.
In a short time Tom and his chums were being assisted by scores of their mates, who, in all sorts of nondescript garments, formed a strange contrast to our four heroes, in their immaculate dress suits—no, not immaculate any longer, for they were dripping from the chemicals, they were dirty and smoke begrimed, and Tom and Sid's garments were scorched in several places by the sparks. ”

“ Do you imagine that all Moses and the others have to think of is football?" demanded Phil. "I tell you, fellows, this is a serious matter. I'd hate to see old Randall done away with."
"So would we all," declared Kindlings. "But maybe we'll win in court, just as——"
"As we didn't against Fairview, but as we're going to do against Boxer Hall!" interrupted Tom, with energy, and then he saw Ruth beckoning to him, as she stood with her chums, most bewitchingly arrayed in a fur coat. "Come on!" called Tom to his friends, and soon they were escorting the girls home. ”

“ Wondering what motive Phil could have, Tom did stroll over to where, down in the front part of the stand, the odd student was screwing some hinges on the doors of a row of boxes, the seats in which sold for higher prices than the ordinary ones. Lenton was a strange lad. He was bright in his studies, and his taste ran to matters scientific. He was eager in the physics and chemistry classes, and had made a number of ingenious machines and pieces of apparatus to illustrate the forces of nature. ”

“ The doctor looked at the swollen ankle, felt of it gently, thereby causing Phil to wince with pain, and then announced:
"No playing for you, Clinton."
"But I've got to play, doctor. I've got to be in the game against Fairview Saturday. That's three days off. Won't it be well then?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Well enough to play if I wear a leather protector?"
"If you play, you may be out of the game the rest of the season," was the solemn answer. "I must forbid it. You may do yourself serious injury. What you need is complete rest." ”

“ It was this knowledge which made the players, coach and captain a trifle nervous, for so much depended on the final struggle that was close at hand.
Would it be Randall or Boxer Hall that would carry off the honors of the gridiron?
"Well, we'll play our heads off, that's all I can say," remarked Tom, as he glanced over the sporting pages of a paper. "I see that they're trying some new kicking game at Boxer."
"Yes, they're always after fads," declared Phil. "But straight football, with some of the old-fashioned line bucking, such as we play, and two halves, are good enough for me." ”

“ The janitors were sent for, to remain on guard and place boards over the hole in the floor.
"Don't you think he has nerve, to tell us to report to him, after what we did?" asked Tom, when, following a rather restless night, he and his chums were on their way to services the next morning. The chapel was not so badly burned, but that it could be used.
"Zane? Oh, he's all nerve!" declared Sid. "I almost wish we'd let it burn!"
"Shut up, you anarchist!" cried Phil. "We'll take our medicine." ”