_A Friend in the Foe’s Camp_
Larry Kirkland, filled with new resolutions and abounding with life and
spirits after a vacation of work and play, was returning to college
determined to recover his lost standing and to win his way.
He and “Gatling” Krag were waiting for the Shasta Flyer to roll down
from the North and bear him over the mountains to Cascade College. They
had talked of the summer, of the ball games at the ranch, the annual
camping trip to Crater Lake Park, and of the hopes and plans for Larry’s
success at college.
“Don’t come back without your C, Larry, boy,” said the big ex-pitcher.
“Remember, it is more the victory over yourself that counts than the
mere making of the team.”
“I’m going to try Bill,” said the boy. “I want to thank you for showing
me my mistakes. I guess I was a pretty swelled-headed kid.”
“Was?” asked Krag, laughingly. “It’s all right if it is in the past
tense. A fellow has a right to think well of himself if he does not let
it blind him.”
At that moment an automobile dashed up to the station platform in a
cloud of dust, and turning, they recognized the car as the new one from
the Rogue River ranch. They had seen Harry Baldwin driving it at a
reckless rate of speed over the roads at intervals during the summer,
but Harry Baldwin was not among those who alighted. Two servants were
busy removing luggage and checking it, while a slender, graceful girl,
pouting and evidently in a bad humor, was standing by the machine,
petulently replacing the wind-blown locks of fair hair that had escaped
from beneath her motoring cap. The girl was obviously annoyed, and she
tapped her foot impatiently upon the platform and gazed up and down as
if expecting someone. Larry Kirkland gazed at her in frank admiration.
He recognized in her the fair-haired, pretty child who had accompanied
Barney Baldwin to Shasta View ranch three years before, to witness the
game between the teams of Shasta View and Rogue River ranches. Larry
recalled with a sense of hurt that she had applauded the Rogues.
“Chance to start a flirtation on the train, Larry,” said Krag teasingly.
“I guess our pretty little friend is going on the train with you. She
seems in distress. Why don’t you rush to the rescue and make yourself
solid with the fair maiden?”
“Oh, shut up,” said Larry, reddening under the teasing. “I guess I
wouldn’t be very welcome as a champion. She is related to the Baldwins,
cousin or something of Harry’s, and she probably would snub me.”
“I’ve noticed,” laughed Krag, “that the female of the species is less
hateful than the male in these family feuds. Maybe she could influence
Harry to let you alone.”
A few moments later the Flyer roared down the valley and Krag gripped
the hand of his young friend.
“Good-bye, Larry,” he said. “Don’t quit. Fight it out—you’ll win.”
“Thanks,” said Larry, “I’ll win—if only over myself. Good-bye.”
In spite of his plan, not to pay any attention to the pretty girl, he
scarcely had placed his grip in his berth when the opportunity to meet
her was forced upon him. She was struggling with several pieces of
baggage, and the overloaded porter was helpless. The girl seemed ready
to weep from annoyance, as she strove to pass down the aisle to her
section.
“May I assist?” asked Larry, quickly observing her plight.
“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed gratefully, as he seized upon her hand
baggage and carried it for her. He arranged the baggage, saw her seated,
and lifted his cap.
“Thank you, again,” she said, smiling. “It was so annoying. Cousin Harry
promised to go with me on this train, and he went away with some friends
and failed to appear. I was left to make the trip alone.”
“He is not appreciative of his opportunities,” said Harry, struggling
with his first compliment.
“Oh,” she laughed, “Harry still regards me as a child. He never
appreciated me—or anyone else, excepting himself.”
“Are you going far?” inquired Larry, after an embarrassing pause.
“To St. Gertrude’s. It is a girl’s school near Cascade. I am to go there
because Harry is in Cascade and he is supposed to watch over and protect
me.”
“Won’t that be fine?” ejaculated Larry enthusiastically. “I’m in
Cascade—perhaps we may see each other occasionally.”
“You a Cascade man?” she asked. “Harry never mentioned any of the
Pearton boys”——
“I beg pardon,” said Larry flushing quickly. “I forgot to tell you who I
am—— Your cousin and I are—well, we are not friends. I am Larry
Kirkland.”
“Larry Kirkland?” she said. “I never heard the name”——
“I’m Major Lawrence’s ward”——
“Oh!” the girl exclaimed.
The tone was a commingling of surprise, consternation and half
disappointment.
Larry reddened, and an embarrassing pause ensued.
“I see you have heard of me,” he remarked lamely. “I saw you several
years ago.”
“Yes-s,” the girl said hesitatingly. “I have heard Harry speak of you. I
remember seeing you—at a baseball game, but you have grown so I did not
recognize you.”
“Your cousin and I have not been—well, friends,” he remarked. “So I
suppose you have not heard much good concerning me.”
“Oh, as for that,” she said smiling, “Harry and I are not friends
either. He is a bear and he treats me as if I were still a child.”
“I do not see why we should be enemies, just because our families are,”
remarked Larry, feeling as if he had turned traitor to Major Lawrence
when he said it. “It is not our quarrel.”
“No,” she said doubtfully. “You do not seem a bit as Harry said you
were. I expect he just told those horrid stories about you because he
does not like you.”
“I’m sorry he chooses me as an enemy,” said Larry, remembering Krag’s
advice and striving not to permit his temper to be ruffled.
“Harry says he will not let you play on the teams at Cascade,” she
replied quickly. “He says the fellows do not like you and will not play
if you do.”
“I wasn’t very popular last year,” said Larry, laughing to conceal his
embarrassment. “You see I didn’t know them and thought they did not
treat me well. I hope it will be better this year.”
In a few moments their embarrassment passed, and the boy and girl
chattered away merrily. Larry told of his boy life back in the East, of
the death of his parents and Major Lawrence’s kindness in taking him as
his own son; of his trip West, and of his meeting with the Giants and
Krag the pitcher. Helen Baldwin was sympathetic.
“I can understand,” she said. “My father and mother are poor and we are
a large family, so it was hard for papa to give us all he would have
liked to. Uncle Barney offered to take me and educate me, so I am much
in the same situation that you are—only when Uncle Barney goes East, he
takes me, and I visit with my parents, and next summer he is going to
bring Bertha, my younger sister, to the ranch as company for me, as
Harry and Bob and I do not play well together.”
By bedtime they were fast friends. The feud of the Lawrence and Baldwin
families seemed buried so far as they were concerned. And the following
morning, when they arrived, Larry Kirkland carried the girl’s baggage to
the wagonette that was to take her to St. Gertrude’s and promised that
he would call on Thursdays when the girls were allowed visitors.
As the wagonette turned up the avenue he seized his own neglected
baggage and springing into a carriage, started for Cascade campus,
filled with a new determination to win his C.