_Facing the World_
The cheers, the applause, the congratulations of friends who pushed and
crowded to shake his hand meant nothing to Larry Kirkland. Fellows he
had known and liked pounded him upon the back and shouted their
congratulations and rejoicings over the victory. To hide his feelings he
forced himself to smile and mutter thanks. To him the victory seemed all
hollow and useless; and his years of struggling to achieve a place on
the team and win his C appeared vain and futile, not worth the effort.
He was facing stern realities now, and the achievements that had seemed
to him all-important dwindled and appeared childish.
He was dressing hastily, taking little part in the boisterous
celebration in the club house. The players, relieved suddenly from the
strain, half-hysterical with joy over their victory, wrestled, pushed
each other into the big swimming plunge, pounded each other with wet
towels and hurled shoes and bats against the lockers in sheer delirium
of gladness. They hugged each other, while each, trying to lift his
voice above the others, yelled praise of the playing the others had done
during the game. Larry, dressing rapidly at his locker, strove to escape
unnoticed. Over on the opposite side of the row of lockers Harry Baldwin
was dressing in sullen silence. He had not been allowed to have a part
in the great game, and a sense of injustice rankled within him. Mentally
he charged Larry Kirkland with treating him unfairly, although the truth
was, Larry had forgotten him entirely, although he knew Helen Baldwin
and her friends were waiting for Harry to dress. He must see Helen a
moment before Harry joined her to tell her his plan. He threw his coat
over his arm and hastened toward the door, hoping to escape unseen. The
one thing he dreaded above all others was bidding good-bye to the
fellows of the team. He feared if he attempted to say farewell he would
break down. A lump was in his throat. He wondered whether they would
miss him. He had resolved not to remain for commencement, not even to
wait to receive the cherished C.
“Hey, you Larry!” roared Trumbull. “What are you trying to do? Going to
ditch us for a skirt? Shame on you.”
The indignant outburst of the big fielder rallied the others and
attracted their attention to Larry’s effort to flee. They seized upon
him and dragged him back.
“Don’t fellows,” he pleaded. “I haven’t got time to celebrate right
now—important business. I must hurry before she—before”——
“SHE,” howled Trumbull. “I knew it! Let’s throw him in the tank and make
him unpresentable.”
“Not now, fellows,” begged Larry, struggling to get away. “Really, I’ve
got to go.”
“All right,” vouchsafed his captors unwillingly. “If you will desert us,
we’ll get even. Wait until the dinner to-night. We’ll make you give a
speech and then hiss you.”
“So long, fellows! Hate to leave you,” Larry managed to say. There was a
tug at his heart-strings, but he tried to smile, and backed out of the
door dodging a shower of shoes and gloves that enabled him to hide
agitation. Only Katsura saw something was wrong. He ran quickly after
Larry, overtook him in the corridor, and laid his hand upon the
captain’s arm.
“If it is any trouble in which I may help,” he said, “command me. I
would like to help you.”
“Thank you, Katty,” Larry gulped. “I’ll never forget—never—good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” said Katsura, shaking his hand firmly. “Is it nothing I can
help?”
“Nothing,” said Larry thickly, turning away, leaving Katsura gazing
sadly after him.
He hurried out into the late afternoon sunshine and across the campus to
where a bevy of girls fluttered around a waiting automobile. They waved
the Cascade colors and set up a shrill cheer as he approached—a cheer
that ended in a burst of laughter. Hat in hand, he walked directly to
Helen Baldwin.
“Oh, Larry!” she said, “it was glorious, it was magnificent—why what is
the matter?”
“Walk with me a little way,” he said. “I came to tell you.”
“It is bad news then,” she said petulantly as they drew apart from the
others. “I knew Mr. Lawrence would not consent.”
“He refused,” said Larry. “I defied him. I told him we would not take a
penny of his money.”
“How foolish of you,” she said lightly. “You should not have quarreled
with him.”
“But we could not accept charity,” he protested. “You must stand it
until I can come back and support you.”
“Come back?” she exclaimed. “Where are you going?”
“I do not know,” he said. “You must be brave, Helen. I am going away. I
have broken with Major Lawrence. I’ll go away somewhere and”——
“That is foolish,” she said. “I was afraid when Major Lawrence came to
me that you had quarreled with him. He didn’t seem a bit angry with me.
He was very polite.”
“You saw Uncle Jim?” he asked in surprise. “What did he say? What did
you tell him?”
“I told him it was all a joke”——
“A joke?” The boy’s face was ghastly from the shock.
“Of course, Larry,” she replied impatiently. “Be sensible. You did not
want me to quarrel with him, did you?”
“But it wasn’t necessary to tell him that,” he protested.
“I did it to throw him off his guard,” she said lightly. “Then we could
run away and get married. I know he’d forgive us, now that he knows me.
He really seemed to like me, and patted me on the arm and said I was a
sensible girl.”
“It sounds as if you deceived him,” he answered sulkily. “We cannot
treat him that way—deceive him and come to him as beggars, asking him
to support us.”
“Be sensible, Larry,” she pouted, drilling holes in the gravel walk with
the end of her stick. “All’s fair in love and war.”
“I know it is hard on you,” he said. “But it is better that we make our
own way. I can work and support you.”
“And give up everything?” she asked with open eyes. “Ridiculous!”
“You will have to wait a year—maybe two years,” the boy said softly.
“Helen!” Harry Baldwin called sharply from the group near the
automobile. “We are waiting.”
“Coming in a moment,” she cried back gaily. “Don’t be foolish, Larry,”
she added.
“You will not forget? You will wait for me?” he asked holding her hand.
“They are looking, Larry,” she said, drawing her hand away. “Be
sensible.”
“You will wait?”
“Coming,” she cried as Harry called again, and then hurriedly. “Yes,
yes—now be sensible and make up with Major Lawrence.”
She turned away. Larry walking determinedly across the campus, saw her
in the gay group in the tonneau as the car whizzed around the circular
drive. He stood gazing after the retreating car, but she did not turn to
look back. Then he hastened to his rooms.
* * * * * *
That night there was a vacant place at the head of the table when the
baseball squad gathered for the Jubilation dinner at which the C’s were
awarded. A rapid search of the campus failed to reveal a trace of the
missing captain. The squad sent to bring him to the dinner found Major
Lawrence alternately storming up and down the dismantled room and
dropping in helpless dejection into a chair.
During the dinner Larry Kirkland, bravely choking back the lump that
persisted in arising in his throat, sat in a seat of an eastbound
Overland train, looking out into the darkness of the Sierras and trying
to plan his future.
THE END
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
A few obvious punctuation and typesetting errors have been corrected
without note.
[End of _Jimmy Kirkland of the Cascade College Team_ by Hugh S.
Fullerton]