CHAPTER IXLANNY EXPLAINS
Dick was a very busy person those days. He had not deceived himself into thinking that coaching the High School Football Team would entail but little time and effort. His mistake had been in underestimating the amount of labor and time involved. Actual outdoor work took up a good two hours and a half every day save Sunday. Then at least five evenings a week Lanny and George Cotner, and often one or other of the players besides, met at his house and discussed progress, made plans, corrected mistakes, worked out formations and plays and conducted a sort of general football conference. This lasted anywhere from one to two hours, and after the others had gone Dick had to settle down at his books. Fortunately the senior year at high school was, in comparison with the years gone before,fairly easy, and Dick usually managed to do a good part of his preparation during the day, between classes. If he had not he would have been forced to yield either his position as football coach or his attendance at the High School!
But even the period in the afternoon and the one or two hours in the evening did not comprise all the time given to football, for Dick found that it was impossible to clear his mind of gridiron affairs at other moments. They obtruded when he tried to study, even when he was at his meals and often kept him awake at night when he should have been asleep. He was forever pulling out the little black note-book he carried in a vest pocket and jotting down a memorandum in it, and he got so he even went off into thought-trances when folks were talking to him! As when one evening at supper his sister Grace consulted him with regard to some problem connected with the new heating system which he was having installed in the cottage. Dick listened with apparent attention, his eyes on his plate, until Grace had finished. Then he surprised that young lady by looking up and remarking thoughtfully: “That end-around play won’t go unless we can keep the ball out of sight until the runner reaches the line.”
Grace declared that he was losing his mind.
One of Dick’s duties was to follow the progress of the Springdale High School Team as reflected in the columns of theSpringdale Morning Recorder. The accounts of the team’s practice sessions were not very voluminous, but they appeared to be reported by a high school boy and were doubtless, as far as they went, authentic. Dick usually clipped the articles from the paper and they were discussed at the meetings. It was on the Tuesday evening following the Norrisville game that Lanny again broached the subject of sending someone to see Springdale play. “We can’t tell much by this newspaper stuff,” he said. “We’ve found out who they’ll probably use against us, but we don’t know what sort of a game they’re planning. I think we ought to see them play Benton next Saturday and get a line on them. Could you go over, Dick?”
“Why don’t you go?” asked Dick.
“Why, I suppose I could,” replied Lanny doubtfully. “Only—well, we play Logan, and Logan has a pretty fair team, I guess.”
“What of it? McCoy will do well enough. I’d go along, but I guess one of us had better stay here. You take Chester with you, Lanny. He’s good atsizing things up. Besides, that would give you a chance to watch the backfield and let him watch the linemen. Kirke can play quarter for us Saturday.”
“But I’d hate to have Logan beat us,” Lanny objected. “Suppose you and Chester go, Dick.”
Dick smiled and George Cotner chuckled audibly. Lanny flushed.
“Oh, I don’t think that we are going to lose the game just because I’m not here,” he said. “Only—oh, I don’t know! I’ll do just as you say, Dick.”
“Then you’ll go; you and Chester,” replied Dick. “Later on I’ll see them in action myself, but I’d rather wait until about a week before we play them. Let me see; who do they meet the Saturday before they play us?” Dick turned the pages of a scrapbook and found the Springdale schedule. “Weston Academy, eh? Where’s that?”
“Up-state,” replied George. “A small school. Springdale’s evidently looking for an easy game that day.”
“Then she won’t show much,” mused Dick. “Still, I could get away that afternoon very nicely, for we play the grads.”
“I don’t believe they’ll ever get together to play us,” said George. “Fosdick told me Saturday thathe was having a hard time getting the fellows to promise. If they don’t we’ll be in a hole. I told Means last Winter that he couldn’t depend on the grads for a game.”
“Well, we won’t cross that bridge until we come to it,” said Dick. “Maybe if the grads don’t turn up we can find another team to play us. If we can’t we can have a pretty good afternoon of practice, and I dare say that will be quite as much good to us.”
“Then you think Chester and I had better go to Springdale Saturday?” asked Lanny not over-enthusiastically. Dick nodded.
“Yes, I do, Lanny. See what they look like and how their backfield shapes up. And above all watch their formations. If they show anything new don’t miss it. Better jot it down at the time. And find out if you can whether they’ve got a man who can kick goals from the field. A good deal will depend on that. Bring back everything you can, Lanny. Every little bit helps.”
“All right. You won’t take any chances with that Logan game, though, will you, Dick?” he pleaded. “You know they tied us last year.”
“Bother your old Logan game!” laughed Dick. “If you say much more about it I’ll forfeit it to them!Seriously, though, Lanny, that game doesn’t mean much to us, and if I can scrape through without being absolutely beaten I’ll be satisfied. Just keep your eyes on the eighteenth of November, Lanny, and forget about what goes on before.”
“I suppose so,” Lanny agreed, “only—when you’re captain you sort of like to do the best you can; make a good showing for the season, you know.”
“A good showing isn’t possible unless we beat Springdale,” replied Dick emphatically, “and that’s what we’re working for. I don’t much care if we lose every game from now till then, if we win that one. Now let’s get at those plays. This No. 3 won’t work out, I guess. We’re taking too many men from the right of the line and we’re giving the play away from the start. There’s one thing we’ve got to keep in mind, fellows, and that is that the simpler our plays are the better they’ll work. If we decide on that formation we’ve talked of our plays have got to be simple. I don’t mind trying this No. 6 out in practice if you like, but I don’t cheer for it much.”
“Just the same, if it did fool them,” suggested George, “it would fool them badly and we’d make yards on it.”
“But I don’t think it would fool them,” said Dick. “Not more than once, anyhow. And there’s no use learning a play that can be used no more than once in a game. Frankly, fellows, I don’t set much score on fancy formations and funny shifts and trick plays. They don’t pan out well. Of course, if your opponent is weak you can make anything go, but we’re planning for Springdale, and Springdale isn’t weak. She knows a lot of football. Why, that No. 6 would be smeared to the hilt the second time we tried it, if not the first. With all due regard to you, Lanny, I’m going to forget that play.”
And Dick rolled the sheet of paper up and tossed it into the waste-basket.
“Alas, poor child of my brain!” murmured George.
“Was that yours?” asked Dick. “I thought Lanny did that.”
“No, mine was that quarterback-run play,” said Lanny.
“Oh! Well, I’m sorry, George. If you want me to I’ll try it out.”
“No, don’t bother. I dare say you’re quite right about it. Itisa bit involved.”
“All right. Try again, George. Only keep themsimple. Plays that use only two men are a heap better than those requiring half a dozen to mess around and get in each other’s way. Now, here’s this No. 8. I like that, Lanny. Was that yours?”
Lanny shook his head regretfully. “No, that’s one that Corwin sprang on us last Fall. I changed it a bit, that’s all. They pulled it off from a forward-pass formation, but that seemed to me to limit it a good deal. I thought it would be a good play to work from regular formation.”
“I think it would. And if we can get that formation of ours to working right it would be a good play to add to that 4 and 5 sequence. We’ll lay it aside for now, though. What we want for the next fortnight is about three more plays outside of tackle. Now let’s get busy.”
The Twenty-fifth of October Fund Committee met as arranged on Wednesday night, all members present save Grace Lovering, whose regrets were formally expressed by Dick.
“She isn’t sick, is she?” asked Louise concernedly.
“Not at all,” replied Dick gravely. “She is in most robust health. To relieve your kind anxiety, Louise, I’ll state that to-night is bread-making night at our house.”
“Oh!” laughed Louise. “That’s it! Can Grace really make bread, Dick?”
“None better. When last seen she was up to her elbows in dough.”
“I think that’s awfully clever of her,” said Nell Sawin. “I wish I could do it. Don’t you, May?”
May Burnham, who had received Dick’s announcement with surprise, agreed somewhat doubtfully. May had always considered household duties rather below the dignity of one who was so closely related to the wealthy and influential Brents, but, observing that Louise seemed to think Grace Lovering’s accomplishment something to be proud of instead of ashamed of, she added, with more enthusiasm: “I think it must be very nice to be able to do things like that”; and secretly wondered whether her own views were mistaken. Certainly, she reflected, none of the others seemed at all shocked by Dick’s confession.
Presently they got down to business and Louise, as treasurer, announced the fund now totaled sixty-eight dollars and eighty cents. “And,” she added, “I think that’s all we can get from the students. We’ve seen all the girls except one, who is ill, and Dick and Gordon have seen most of the boys.”
“All but three,” replied Dick, “and they won’t subscribe more than a quarter apiece, I guess.”
“All right,” said Lanny. “That leaves us about twenty-one dollars behind then. To-day’s the eleventh, isn’t it? And Mr. Grayson’s birthday is the twenty-fifth, and that’s just two weeks from to-day. When are you planning to buy the things?”
“I suppose we ought to do it a week ahead,” said Morris. “It may take three or four days for them to get here by freight.”
“Maybe longer,” said Dick. “I wouldn’t leave it much after the fifteenth.”
“The fifteenth is Sunday,” Morris reminded. “We might go to New York the next day, though.”
“Who’s going?” asked Gordon.
“Louise and May and I, unless some of you fellows want to go along.”
“I guess none of us could get away,” responded Dick. “You’ll have to cut recitations, won’t you, though?”
“Only one. We’ll take the two-twelve train and that’ll give us nearly three hours before the stores close. We can get back by eight. If we can get everything at Marsden’s it won’t take more than anhour or so. Father agreed last night to advance what money we need and we’re to pay him back as fast as we collect from the students.”
“We have almost fifty dollars paid in now,” said Louise. “So we won’t have to borrow more than forty from father.”
“How about the expenses of your trip?” Lanny asked.
“We’ll each pay our own,” replied Louise. “It’s only fair, because it’s going to be rather fun. I wish we might all go.”
“It will be all right if I cut practice that day, won’t it?” asked Morris.
Dick nodded. “For that matter,” he said, “Lanny and Gordon may go as far as practice is concerned. There won’t be much hard work on Monday, anyway.”
“Couldn’t you go, Dick?” Louise asked.
“I’m afraid not. I’d have to cut two classes. Besides, I’m not much good at getting around in the crowds.”
“I don’t think I’ll go, either,” said Lanny.
“Same here,” said Gordon. “You three will be enough. The more there are the harder it will be to agree on things.”
“Now please tell us about your plan, Lanny,” said Nell eagerly.
“I don’t know whether my plan is good for as much as twenty-one dollars,” responded Lanny dubiously. “I think we may be able to get, say, fifteen, though. The reason I wouldn’t say what it was the other night was that I had to consult others about it first; our Head Coach, for one.”
“Cut out the prologue, Lanny,” advised Gordon. “What’s the scheme?”
“Well, they’ve got a sort of football team across the river called the North Side Athletics. The fellows are mill operatives and that chap Danny Shores, who played ball with us last Summer the time Jack Tappen was suspended, is captain. I met him a week or so ago at the post office and he told me about it. Said they’d like to play us some time. I told him I was sorry, but that our dates were all filled. But it occurred to me the other night that the fellows over there would pay ten or fifteen cents willingly to see their team play the High School, and there are a lot of them, you know. So I thought it would be a good scheme to arrange a game with them a week from Saturday. We go away that day to play Corwin, you know. Saturday’s the only day they haveto play. I saw Danny Shores yesterday and he’s tickled to death about it. I had to tell him why we wanted to charge admission, but he promised not to say anything about it. They’re so crazy to play that they don’t want any part of the gate receipts, and Danny says we can get three or four hundred people. What do you think of it?”
Morris and Gordon looked puzzled, and the latter asked: “But how the dickens can we play Danny’s team here if we’re going away to play Corwin the same afternoon?”
“Oh, I meant to explain that we’d play the Scrubs against them; call them the High School Second Team, you know.”
“I think it will be perfectly dandy!” exclaimed Louise.
“I shall go and see it,” declared Nell firmly.
“Don’t see,” said Morris, “why you can’t get a pretty good crowd to it. Not many of the fellows will go with the team to Corwin, I guess, and they’ll be glad of a chance to see a game. How much are you going to charge, Lanny?”
“Dick and I thought ten cents apiece would be enough. If we got two hundred we’d make twenty dollars. But I don’t believe we’d get more than ahundred and fifty. Still, that would mean fifteen dollars, and maybe we’ll find a way of making up the other five.”
“Pshaw,” said Gordon, “there’ll be easily two hundred there! And I think they’ll pay fifteen cents as quick as ten.”
“They might,” said Dick, “but it’s best not to take chances. Two hundred at ten cents will be better than a hundred at fifteen, Gordie.”
“Bet you the North Siders will lick us,” chuckled Gordon. “The Scrubs haven’t found themselves yet.”
“They will have by a week from Saturday,” replied Lanny. “We’re beginning scrimmaging to-morrow with them.”
“I shall begin to save up my money,” said Nell gravely. “I’ve just got to see it! Will anyone contribute a penny, please?”
All the boys donated, and Nell, jingling four pennies in her hands, pretended to be overcome with delight.
“There’s a fellow named Tanner,” said Lanny, “who has a printing press and does pretty good work with it. I’ll see him and ask him to do some notices for us that we can put around in the storewindows. I guess he will be willing to do them for nothing under the circumstances.”
“I know him,” said Gordon. “He’s a particular crony of Fudge’s. Take Fudge along with you.”
“Then I don’t see but that we’re all right,” said Louise. “And we needn’t meet again until after we’ve been to New York. I do hope you will like what we pick out.”
“We’re sure to,” replied Dick. “The main thing, though, is for Mr. Grayson to like them!”
“That reminds me,” announced Morris, “that there will be a charge for carting the stuff from the freight-house to the school. I dare say Stewart will do it for a dollar and a half.”
“You don’t want to forget,” reminded Nell, “that you may get the things cheaper than we estimated them. I dare say we’ll have quite all the money we need. Wouldn’t it be splendid if we did and I hadn’t to pay my three dollars and a half after all?”
The others howled at that and Dick demanded his penny back. Gordon asked where the furniture was to be kept until they could smuggle it into the office, and Morris explained that they were going to have it taken to the school late in the afternoon, after Mr. Grayson had gone, and stored in a room in the basement.He had arranged with the janitor for that. “And then, the night before, Louise is going to get the key to Mr. Grayson’s room and we’re going to move the old furniture out into the hall and put the new things in.”
“I shall be very busy at home that evening,” murmured Gordon.
Louise regarded him indignantly. “Indeed you’ll not, Gordon Merrick! Every one has got to help. Some of the things will be frightfully heavy.”
“The janitor is going to help us,” said Morris.
“As near as I can make out,” remarked Dick, with a smile, “almost every one in town has been taken into the secret except Mr. Grayson. If he doesn’t know of it already it’s a miracle!”
“We had to tell the janitor,” said Morris. “And Miss Turner. She’s going to borrow his key for us.”
“Oh, I’m not objecting,” replied Dick. “But you’ll have to acknowledge that the chances of keeping it from Mr. Grayson until the twenty-fifth are mighty slim.”
“Anyway, I’m pretty sure he hasn’t heard anything yet,” said Louise. “And—and I don’t believe he will. It would be too frightfully mean if anyone told him!”
“Isn’t it—isn’t it getting rather late?” asked Lanny blandly.
“He’s hinting for refreshments,” said Louise scornfully. “I believe he only comes to the meetings for that. Anyway, he won’t like the lemonade because it isn’t hot.”
“The weather has moderated so much since I made that unlucky remark that cold lemonade is quite satisfactory,” answered Lanny. “And Idohope you have some more of that cake with the underdone frosting. It lasted me all the way home Monday night, Louise. I even found some on my shoes in the morning!”
“You’re horribly insulting,” his hostess laughed. “I made that cake myself, Lanny, and you ought to have raved about it!”
“I did—when I found it on my shoes,” drawled Lanny.