Broadwood

“ A dormitory or a recitation hall?” asked Joe.
“Search me,” answered Paul Rand. “There’s a Broadwood fellow over there. Let’s ask him. He probably Knowles Hall about it.”
While the laughter elicited by this witticism was still convulsing the crowd, four Broadwood fellows came through the doorway and descended the steps, viewing the sightseers with surprise and curiosity.
“Well, it’s certainly a beautiful building,” said Joe loudly and earnestly.
“I never saw a finer one,” agreed Rand. “But then, Broadwood is full of beautiful things.”
“It’s a real privilege to live here,” continued Joe. ”

“ Broadwood!” shrieked the Green’s supporters.
“That right?” asked Alf. Dan nodded.
“Then we’re dished!”
“Hold on, Alf, there’s another fellow just behind him. Never say die!”
Yardley’s cheers drowned Broadwood’s now, for the second runner was all in white and the distance between him and the man ahead was not so great, after all. The crowd flowed over onto the road, amid the appeals of the officials for “Track, please! Track! Everyone off the road! Let them finish! Give them room!” ”

“ Granting then what seems to be the case, that Broadwood’s defense is fully equal if not superior to Yardley Hall’s, the outcome of the struggle will depend on which team can show the strongest attack. A tie score is by no means beyond the realm of possibility, but here at Broadwood coaches and players alike agree that if the Green doesn’t come out of the fray victor by the margin of at least one touchdown they will be greatly surprised.’”
“Business of looking surprised by Broadwood coaches,” murmured Ned, snapping his knife shut and worming his belt back into place. ”

“ For it isn’t like Payson to get cold feet; he isn’t a quitter, not by a long shot! Anyhow, it worked. We had the worst case of slump I ever did see last Saturday, and now every fellow’s on his toes again, and just aching for work. If we keep it up we’ll give Broadwood the biggest surprise of their lives on Saturday. I wouldn’t be surprised if that licking that Pell School gave us turned out to be a very fortunate thing. We’re all hot under the collar about it. We want to get back at some one, and Broadwood’s the only victim in sight. Yes, I believe there’ll be a whole lot doing Saturday! ”

“ Short’s [224] ability at center handicapped Broadwood, for that tall youth was able, nine times out of ten, to put the ball in any direction he pleased. Usually it went to Tom, who played right forward, and who was so quick and certain at passing that the ball was under Yardley’s goal before the defense was aware of it. But after the first ten minutes of play Broadwood’s captain worked an improvement in the work of his team. They covered better and Tom found that his opponent had taken on the semblance of a leech and was always at his elbow, no matter how hard he tried to shake him off. ”

“ She has in Reid, Raynor and Rhodes—the Three R’s, as Broadwood calls them—an exceptionally good back-field trio. They have plenty of weight, are exceptionally quick and have so far proved extremely hard to stop. The only occurring criticism of the Broadwood back-field that will start the Yardley Hall game is that, composed, as it is, of players whose strong point is plunging, it can afford but little variety of offense. ”

“ Then Broadwood gathered herself together and tightened up her defense. Her men for a while covered so closely that not even Tom could get away, and the ball hovered around the middle of the floor. Then one of the Yardley players was caught holding and Broadwood, amidst shouts of joy from the wavers of the green flags, scored a goal from foul. For several minutes there was no more scoring. Twice Yardley had the ball under her rival’s basket. Once a poor shot lost them the score. ”

“ Broadwood sent over a good big number of “rooters” armed with flags, who did noble work with their lungs. But as Yardley had turned out almost to a man, the odds were too great in a contest of noise. The gymnasium was packed and jammed, downstairs and up, and the singing and cheering began half an hour before the time set for the game. Broadwood used one of her football songs with good effect. The verses didn’t amount to much, but the refrain, howled by a hundred throats, was always effective:
“Oh, what’ll we do to Yardley, to Yardley, to Yardley? ”

“ But Broadwood must play about the sort of game we played yesterday. Her backs are heavy, line-smashing fellows and Saturday’s game will be pretty much all what you just called ‘straight football.’ On the whole, Vinton, we didn’t do so badly to hold Nordham to three scores yesterday. She might have run us off our feet with that tricky game of hers.”
[246]
“Has Broadwood some good kickers this year?” asked Gerald.
“She’s still got Rhodes,” said Dan. “You remember him last year, don’t you?”
“I don’t believe,” said the coach, “that we need fear goals from field. ”

“ At a little distance Payson, Merriwell and Simms were in consultation. The rest of the team had taken the field and the footballs were already flying through the air.
“Someone ought to kick him out,” said Harry, fixing the Broadwood youth with hostile regard.
[136]
“We might kidnap him,” suggested The Duke dreamily. “Anyone got a gunny-sack handy? We could tie him up in it and drop him into the Bosphorus—I mean the Wissining.”
“What we should have done,” said Davis, “is to have sent someone to watch Broadwood play Nordham to-day. If it’s fair for them it’s fair for us.” ”

“ Had a private tutor for Gerald and watched him every minute. Broadwood Academy wanted to get the kid, too, Herb. I guess that’s one reason Toby wanted him here; we always like to get ahead of Broadwood, you know. Well, to make a long story short, as they say, Dan has the cheek to tell John T. that if he wants to make a man out of his boy the only thing to do is to send him to Yardley. And John T. thinks it over awhile and finally agrees to do it if Dan will take Gerald to room with him and look after him; warm his milk for him and cover him up at night, and all that sort of thing, you know. ”

“ In reality, however, each school entertained a deep-seated respect for the other. While Yardley graduates were likely to go up to Yale to complete their education, Broadwood traditions favored Princeton.
But while Broadwood usually excelled at hockey, garnered a full share of the track and field honors, proved herself as good as her rival at baseball, and accepted defeat on the gridiron only after the gamest battles, she was weak at cross-country running and had been beaten each of the few times that she had met Yardley. ”

“ See how Broadwood pales with fear,
Knowing we will never yield!
Wave on high your banner blue,
Cheer for comrades staunch and true;
We are here to die or do,
Fighting for old Yardley!”
They sang it at the top of their voices as they came down the hill, arm in arm, and crossed the meadow toward the village. There was no one to hear, and they wouldn’t have cared if there had been. Tom Dyer sang the bass, Alf Loring the tenor and Dan Vinton whatever was most convenient, since about the best he could do in a musical way was to make a noise. ”

“ I’d like to be able this evening to assure you all that we are going to win on Saturday, fellows, but I can’t. Frankly, to my mind this year’s contest is more in doubt than any contest for two years. I don’t know whether we’ll win or lose, fellows. Broadwood has a far better team than she had last year. She’s farther advanced, is playing together well and is powerful. In weight she has the better of us. ”

“ His reply to the taunt was so gentle that both Gerald and Kendall stared in surprise. “I can take a licking as well as the next fellow,” said Cotton quietly. “But I do think it’s a shame to keep good players off the team and get beaten for it by Broadwood.”
“The team’s no worse than last year’s,” replied Gerald, regaining his good nature, “and [103] that was good enough to lick old Broadwood, my friend.”
“Yes, by a goal from the field! Broadwood had you beaten before that.”
“What’s the odds? A field goal is a field goal, and we won. And we’ll do it again this year.” ”

“ Gerald was angry clean through and Alf was scowling into the bottom of his glass.
“Who’s this fellow Pennimore?” asked one of the Broadwood lads.
“He’s a rich guy that lives over on the point. He’s got a son at Yardley. The kid tried to get into Broadwood but couldn’t pass, and they say the old man promised to pay off the school debt at Yardley if they’d take the kid. ”

“ We’re proud of you because you play good football and won the Broadwood game for us last year. And because you kept Forest Hill from shutting us out yesterday. We’re proud of any fellow here who does what he’s set to do and does it well, [173] but when a fellow wins a game from Broadwood for us we put our heads in the dust and say, ‘Walk on us, O Conqueror!’”
“That sounds silly,” objected Kendall.
“Then it’s the way I say it. It really isn’t silly. Look here, didn’t you want to run out and hug Dan Vinton last Spring when he hit out that two-bagger that tied the Broadwood game? ”

“ Broadwood Academy at Yardley on the 23rd. Of course the Broadwood game was the contest for which coach and players, and in fact the whole school, were bending their energies, but there was a strong desire on everyone’s part to get through the season with a clean record, something that had not happened for three years. So far there had been no defeats, but Brewer A. A. was always a tough proposition, since the players, mostly mill hands, were a sturdy, hard-fighting lot and were coached by a professional who was not over-careful as to the tactics employed by his charges. ”

“ As there are few living correspondents better equipped to judge events in war, and as it is the pride of more than one general to obtain his views and accounts of the actions he witnesses, I will quote a bit of his editorial of April 5th, in which he touches upon the Sanna's Post affair: "Perhaps never (p. 333) in the history of British campaigns have our soldiers shown more splendid courage, more dogged resistance and greater coolness. General Broadwood has covered himself with glory by the masterly way in which he extricated his little force from a veritable death-trap. ”

“ Dan continued, “‘Broadwood is more than averagely strong. O’Brien, at center, although light, is undoubtedly one of the cleverest players in his position on any preparatory school team.’ (“That’s a fact,” interpolated Dan.) ‘O’Brien was a substitute last year, but played part of the Yardley Hall game. The guards are new men this year, but have proved excellent on the defense. The same may be said of the tackles, one of whom, Weldon, played his position last season. At the ends Broadwood has Captain Bishop and Furniss, with Thurston and Donnelly as substitutes. ”

“ From almost every window a green flag with its white B fluttered, while the front of the gymnasium, which was on the way to the field, was draped in a great green banner with the word Broadwood spelled along its length in startling white letters two feet high.
The automobile had eaten up the miles in quick time and Mr. Pennimore’s party was on the scene before the bulk of the audience had arrived. They found a place for the car at one corner of the field, but Gerald and the others voted to see the contest from the side line nearer the middle of the gridiron. ”

“ As soon as our reinforcements had crossed the river, General Broadwood was forced to retire; and his troops came hurrying through Koorn Spruit both on the right and on the left of our position. We fired at them as they passed us, and took several more prisoners. Had I but commanded a larger force, I could have captured every man of them. ”

“ The result was that Broadwood, amidst the cheers of her adherents, piled up six more goals, and the disastrous contest ended with the score nine to one in favor of the Green. Broadwood cheered Yardley and Yardley cheered Broadwood and the visitors ran for the gymnasium. The crowd of Yardley “rooters” were sad and subdued. Joe Chambers produced the only laugh from the end of the game to the time they were rattling homeward in the barges when he declaimed mournfully:
“Oh, Yardley had a hockey team ”

“ Broadwood has not developed the running game this year to any great extent, and, with the exception of Saunders, who is as yet an almost unknown quantity at quarter, and who may possess possibilities in this line that he has not yet shown, what end-running talent she has lies with her second-string backs.’
[286]
“That,” observed Dan, interrupting himself, “is rot. Raynor never made a yard at straight line-bucking in his life. He’s a typical dodging back, and he cut off about seventy yards in the Nordham game on runs outside tackle. ”

“ It [Pg 62] meant escape from a life that had already begun to cast long shadows. But her home people saw the thing in a very different light. In their opinion there was a wide gulf between the respectability of Broadwood House and the licentious freedom of Chelsea. Joe and Eliza were at one with Aunt Annie and Aunty Harriet in saying “No” to the proposal.
Mistress Mary, however, was now rising sixteen with a rapidly developing character of her own. Therefore she did not let the strength of opposition daunt her. She set her mind firmly upon Park Street and Madame Lemaire ”

“ I know nothing more—but I smell evil. I also would go to Tours.”
Henry started, and his hot eyes flashed.
“Not you, lad! Pierre is safe there, but you—you would not be!”
“It is said,” Geoffrey observed blandly—but with a covert glance at his mother—“that he has an enemy who hates you also, troubadour.”
Cercamon turned his blue-green eyes full on the boy, as if seeking to probe his heart.
“What mean you, lord Count?” he asked.
Mathilde cut in between them.
“He means nothing, save that he is a fool who will some day die of his folly! Play with the ladies, girl-face; men wear weapons.” ”