Ralph Henry Barbour

“ RUSTY BRINGS A FRIEND
“When I left you in the restarong,” began Rusty, “I hied me forth in pursuit of a youth whose countenance I had spied through the window, in short, none other than Sandy Halden. Sandy said he was looking for someone, I forget who, and I said I’d help him look. I believe in helping others whenever it isn’t too hard work.”
“Why that pill, though?” asked Stanley. “Thought you had no use for Sandy.”
“You’re quite wrong then,” answered Rusty earnestly. “To the eager and inquiring mind nothing is useless. Anyhow, you shut up and let me tell this. ”

“ But Dick had other views. Slowing imperceptibly, he let the enemy run even, as he did so catching a questioning look from a pair of wide, straining eyes. Then he swung quickly to the right, shoulders hunched, and went sprawling over and over on the ground. And with him went the enemy. And staggering, almost falling, Findley, the pigskin clutched tightly now to his stomach, crossed the last white line and sank gratefully to the turf.
Somewhere, a great distance away as it seemed to him, there was a subdued roar that sounded like “Findley! Findley! Findley!” ”

“ The Phillipsburg players ended their leaping charge and with downcast faces walked past as Dick jumped to his feet. Someone thumped him tremendously on the back and almost sent him sprawling to earth again, and Trask’s voice howled hoarsely: “Got to hold ’em now, Bates! Got to hold ’em, old man! It’s our game if we can hold ’em!” ”

“ You make the most of that, Halden!”
“You try it!” hissed the other like a villain in a melodrama. “You think you’re somebody, don’t you? Well, you’ll get yours if you try to make a goat of me!”
“Oh, piffle!” said Dick disgustedly, elbowing away. “Keep your temper if you want to play football.”
“Yes, and I’ll be playing football when you’re kicked off,” answered the other.
Dick shrugged and went his way, Halden following gloweringly to the gymnasium. In the locker room, Harry Warden crossed over and seated himself beside Dick on the bench in front of his locker. ”

“ So, at least, Dick thought, and so Stanley declared.
“You’re certain of playing part of the time in the Kenwood game, Dick,” said Stanley. “Stone is the only fellow you’ve got to be scared of, and he isn’t going to last the game through. Cardin is no better than you are now and I miss my guess if you don’t come faster the rest of the season than he does. And Pryne’s only so-so. As I figure it out, you and Cardin are just about tied for second choice quarter, and all you’ve got to do is work like the dickens to beat him.” ”

“ Having crossed the width of the campus, the taxi swerved perilously to the right in front of Parkinson and dashed on until, with a sudden and unexpected application of the brakes, the driver brought it to a tottering stand-still before the entrance of a brick building. The jar aroused Quiggle and he sat up.
“Ah! Home again as we perceive! Back to the classic shades of our dear old Alma Mater!” he exclaimed as he opened the door on his side by the pressure of one bony knee against the handle [16] and seized his bag. “Mr. Bates, I sincerely trust that we shall meet again. ”

“ Some succeeded, most failed, but all were puzzling and unnerving to a team of third- and even fourth-string players, and that Parkinson managed to stave off defeat in that final quarter was scarcely less than a miracle. End runs got away and yet were stopped short of disaster, and always Dick clung to the ball to the last desperate moment before yielding it by a punt. Parkinson didn’t make the mistake of playing only for safety, for a purely defensive game kept up for a length of time takes the heart out of the defenders. ”

“ Now I’m going to start in with the beginning of this last half and use the bench. If you don’t want to get licked, use your heads and play football! You can score if you try hard enough. You ought to score at least twice. And if you let those fellows get close enough to your goal to pull another of those forwards over the line you deserve to lose! You were all asleep, every man Jack of you! Long, where were you when that happened? And you, Gross? And you, Stone? Someone’s got to watch the end of the line, fellows! You can’t all go off visiting like that! ”

“ Then started one of those long and steady marches down the field that, while less thrilling, less spectacular than runs or passes, are far more gruelling. If Parkinson had played slowly before she played so no longer. Never on that field had plays been run off faster, never had backs started quicker or linemen lunged harder. The pace told on the enemy before the thirty-yard line was passed. Dick chose his plays wisely, uncannily, thrusting here and there unexpectedly, trying this end and that and always somehow managing to get his ten yards in four downs. ”

“ Driscoll stand with the fellows?”
“Stand with them? Oh, ace-high, Bates,” answered the other earnestly. “He’s a corker! Don’t you like him?”
“I don’t know him, but it seems to me he’s sort of old for the job. And he doesn’t seem to——” Dick stopped. “Oh, I don’t know, but he acts a bit stand-offish, and football seems so much of a business here! I guess I can’t explain just what I mean.”
Evidently he hadn’t, for Davis looked blank. “He isn’t though,” he affirmed. “Stand-offish I mean. I like him immensely. Most everyone does. And he can turn out good teams, Bates.” ”

“ IN CONFERENCE
“I wish,” said Blash one evening, “that someone would invent a new sport.”
“What for?” asked Sid. “Thinking of taking a little exercise? Ever try checkers, Blash? That’s about your style of a game.”
“Cease your idle chatter,” answered his room-mate with dignity. “I’m not thinking of myself. I’m thinking of Sandy Halden. Sandy is out of a job again. They let him go from the Track Team today. Billy Goode thinks the school can worry along through the year without him as a jumper or half-miler or shot-putter. ”

“ Perhaps the fact that Phillipsburg Academy was a very long mile from the city had something to do with the meagreness of the audience. At all events, aside from the rival cheering sections the stands showed long empty stretches, and Cardin, who shared an end of the bench with Dick, resented it.
“Guess they must think this is a practice game,” he grumbled.
“Well, Mr. Driscoll seems to think so, too,” said Dick. “He says we’re all to have a show before it’s over.”
“He’ll forget that, though,” replied the other pessimistically, “when we need a score to tie or something. ”

“ Stanley was still seated and there was a quizzical grin on his countenance. After a somewhat blank stare, Dick arose and got the book. As he sat down again he said sarcastically: “Much obliged, Stan.”
Stanley chuckled. “Dick, you’ve been sort of spoiled, haven’t you?” he said.
“Spoiled? What do you mean? Just because I asked you——”
“You’re one of those fellows who expect others to do things for ’em, and get away with it. Wish I knew the secret. But it isn’t good for you, Dick. You must learn to run your own errands, and whitewash your own fences. ”

“ My friend is a mighty nice sort and I don’t think he’d mind if I brought you along.’”
“What friend?” asked Dick, puzzled.
“My friend in Wallack Hall,” replied Rusty, with a grin. “Wallack’s the dormitory that looks like a tomb and has ivy all over it.”
“Oh,” said Dick uncertainly. Blash made a derisive noise in his throat and Stanley chuckled.
“Well, Sandy was that pleased! Gee, fellows, it does give one a fine feeling to give pleasure to others, doesn’t it? Sandy was quite affecting. He said I was mighty kind and he wouldn’t forget it and he’d like awfully to meet my friend. ”

“ I thought you were mighty good at it,” said Davis approvingly. “I wish I could do half as well as you did.”
“Well, I can get distance sometimes,” acknowledged Dick, “but I’m just as likely to kick to one corner of the field as the other! Direction is the hard thing.”
“I suppose so, only it’s all hard for me.” After a moment of silence he said: “Do you know, Bates, half my trouble today was that I was scared. I was afraid you’d jump me the way you did Sandy Halden the other day.”
“You weren’t on the squad that day,” answered Dick, puzzled. ”

“ Warden got up. “I wouldn’t be surprised, Bates, if Driscoll took you onto the first squad some day soon. Keep on the way you’re going, will you? Let’s see if we can’t prove him wrong. You know, Driscoll insists that you can’t make a prep-school player from a high-school fellow. He says they always know too much. Think it’s that way with you?”
Dick looked haughty for an instant. Then he smiled. “Why, I don’t believe so, Warden. That’s a funny idea of his, though.”
“He says he’s never had much success with high-school fellows,” said Warden thoughtfully. ”

“ When Parkinson got the ball she attacked as hard as ever, and some of the substitutes won real laurels that afternoon. But at last the end came, after Phillipsburg had thrice won her way inside her opponent’s thirty yards and had once got to her fourteen, and eleven joyous, [162] tired, breathless youths fell against each other and babbled incoherent congratulations.
An hour later players and rooters mingled happily on the home-bound train and in a corner of one car Dick and Stanley and Blash and Rusty crowded themselves in and over and around one seat designed for two persons and made merry. ”

“ Stanley went wearily away along the crowded aisle and Blash reminded Rusty of the tale. “Go on,” he said, “and let’s hear your criminal adventures.”
“Wait till Stan comes back. Don’t I tell you I’m faint from want of food? Besides, Stan’s going to enjoy this yarn. Jumping Jehosophat, I wish we were home and I was eating my supper! Isn’t anyone else starved?”
“We all are,” said Blash, “only we don’t—don’t wear our stomachs on our sleeves!”
Dick laughed and Rusty shook his head wonderingly. “The kid is clever,” he murmured. “Ah, here he comes! ”

“ Twelve thousand——’”
“Shut up!” laughed Dick. “That’s awfully like it, though! And the picture of the burning barber-shop is thrown on the screen in red.”
“Always! Just as a picture of the Whirlpool Rapids taken from an airplane is always blue. There are certain laws that can’t be—Well, here we are. Keep your hand out of your pocket, Dick. This is Blash’s treat. When Blash shows the least sign of paying for anything, for the love of mud don’t stop him! I’m all for the encouragement of miracles! Better get ’em reserved, Blash; there’ll be a crowd tonight!” And Rusty winked gravely at Dick. ”

“ For all-round work, though, our captain, Bob Peters, is the star of the team. He plays right end, and he’s a wonder at it. Talk about getting down under punts! Gee, Sum, he’s under the ball from the minute it’s kicked, and he seems to always know just where it’s going, too. But he’s just as good on defence, and the way he handled the opposing tackle yesterday was a marvel. He’s a dandy captain, too, for all the fellows swear by him and would do anything he asked them to, I guess. ”

“ It cannot be truthfully said that Dick Bates was overwhelmingly surprised when he reached the railroad station that September morning and found fully a score of his schoolmates assembled there. Wally Nourse had let the cat out of the bag the day before. Wally was one of those well-meaning but too talkative youths such as we have all met. But Dick played the game perfectly this morning, descending from the carriage—Mr. Bates was one of the very few persons left in Leonardville who could afford an automobile and still drove horses—with an expression of questioning surprise. ”

“ At first the men moved hardly faster than a walk. Then, having presumably learned their duties, they were allowed to trot. It seemed to Dick that he was burdened with the stupidest aggregation on the field, and one of the backs, a shock-haired, long-nosed youth named Halden, outdid them all. No matter how many times Halden was walked through a play, the instant speed was called for he forgot all he had learned. Finally, after he had “gummed up” a simple two-man attack on left guard for the third time, Dick’s exasperation found voice. ”

“ If a forward-pass develops on his side his place is under the ball. Right half-back plays about three yards back, between his guard and tackle. Full-back occupies a similar position on the other side, ready to go in or out, as play develops. He and left tackle must look after the opposing tackle and end. Behind him, more to the right and well back, is the left half. The quarter, of course, is up the field. Chancellor will almost always punt from that formation, but she may fake, and it is those fakes you must watch out for. Full-back must be especially alive. ”

“ That would please your dad, wouldn’t it? And how about mentioning that you’ve made the Banjo and Mandolin Club? Think that would help any?”
“You go to the dickens,” grumbled Dick. “The trouble is, dad’s easy-going as you like until he gets his back up. Then you can’t argue with him at all. He will do just as he says he will unless I make him understand that I’m working as well as playing. If,” he added ruefully, “he learned about the Banjo and Mandolin Club he’d probably send me a ticket home!”
“But you played football when you were in high school, didn’t you? ”

“ You’re the doctor, Dick. If you can do it better the way you are doing it, I say keep on. Of course, in a real game you’ll probably find sometime that your back isn’t where you expect him and there’ll be a mix-up, [207] because when you’re excited you do funny things. Take Gaines, now. He has a great way of trying to beat the ball and goes loping away from position before you’re ready to toss to him. That means he has to slow up or lose the pass. If you stand so you can see your backs as the ball comes to you you know how to act. ”

“ With the coach’s encouraging thump on his shoulder to remember and the knowledge that his father and Sumner and the others were wishing [286] him luck, Dick raced on with every nerve tingling and a big, hot desire in his heart to vindicate their faith in him. Bob Peters hailed him joyfully. Bob was as happy as a clam, despite an ensanguined nose. “Ata boy, Dick!” he sang out as Dick came up. “Look who’s here, fellows! What do you say?” ”

“ Football took up a great deal of Dick’s time and much of his thought, but he managed to maintain an excellent standing in each of his courses and thus won the liking of most of the instructors with whom he came in contact. With Mr. Matthews, who was Dick’s advisor, he was soon on close terms of intimacy. The instructor was one of the younger faculty members, a man with a sympathetic understanding of boys, and tastes that included most of the things that boys liked. He had a passion for athletics and was one of the Nine’s most unflagging rooters. ”

“ At intervals the trainer summoned one of the candidates and sent him off, usually prescribing a round of the running track first. Dick was glad he did not have to swallow that medicine today, for the weather was extremely warm and humid. He thought that the candidates averaged both heavier and older than he had expected, and he wondered if by any chance his lack of weight would be against him. One of the quarter-backs out there, chasing a squad about in signal drill, was, however, no bigger than he, and possibly no older. Dick guessed he needn’t trouble about lack of weight. ”