AN ULTIMATUM
Several days passed without incidents worth recording here. Life at
Parkinson settled down into the groove that it was to follow for
the next nine months and Ira found that his studies looked far less
formidable on close acquaintance than they had at first. Ira had
declared that he was not a brilliant fellow at studying, and he wasn't,
but he had the gift of application and an excellent memory, which,
combined, are half the battle. The courses he had feared most, Greek
and French, were proving easier than English, which he had not troubled
about. But third year English at Parkinson was a stiff course and Ira's
grammar school preparation had not been very thorough. Greek he took
to avidly, possibly because Professor Addicks was a very sympathetic
teacher and managed to make his courses interesting. Mathematics came
easily to him and his other studies--he was taking nineteen hours in
all--were not troublesome. On the whole, he felt himself quite able to
cope with his work, and wondered if he was not in duty bound to go out
and save the destinies of the football team. Of course, putting it that
way he had to smile, for he couldn't imagine himself of any more use on
the gridiron than nothing at all! Only, he reflected, if it would give
Captain Lyons any satisfaction to have him there, perhaps, since it
seemed quite possible to play football without flunking at recitations,
he ought to put in an appearance. At all events, he would, he decided,
wait a few days longer. There was no hurry.
For want of a better confidant, he put the case up to Humphrey Nead
one evening. Humphrey told him he was silly not to grab the chance. "I
wish," he said, "they'd beg me to come out for the football team. You
couldn't see me, for dust! You're in luck, Rowly."
"Rowly" was Nead's compromise between "Say!" and "Rowland" at this
time. Ira didn't like it overmuch as a nickname, but entered no
protest. He was determined to make the best of Humphrey Nead as a
roommate, and during the first week was careful to make no criticisms.
When, however, he did criticise he did it effectively. The occasion was
just a week after that first chance meeting with Nead. The latter had
formed a habit of eating his dinners in the evenings downtown in the
company of various "Jimmies" and "Billies" whose last names Ira never
heard, or, hearing, forgot. Usually Humphrey didn't return to the room
until nearly ten o'clock. Sometimes it was nearer midnight, although,
to do him justice, those occasions were few. On this particular
evening, Ira, returning at half-past seven from Mrs. Trainor's boarding
house, where he had lately become a "regular" for dinners and suppers,
found Humphrey stretched out on his bed, a book face-open on his chest
and a dead cigarette between the fingers of a hand that hung over the
edge. He was asleep. Although both windows were open the tobacco smoke
still lingered. Ira frowned thoughtfully as he hung up his cap in the
closet. Then, after a moment's indecision, he walked across to the bed
and shook the sleeper awake.
"Eh? Hello!" muttered Humphrey. "Must have fallen asleep." He yawned
widely, blinked and stretched himself. "What time is it? Had your
dinner?"
"I've had my supper," answered Ira.
"Oh, the dickens! I was going to get you to stand me a feed."
"Sorry. Look here, Nead, you'll have to stop that."
"Stop what?" asked the other blankly.
Ira pointed to the cigarette still clutched in Humphrey's fingers.
Humphrey brought his hand up and looked. A brief expression of dismay
changed to a grin.
"Caught in the act, eh? 'Flagrante--' What's the Latin of it, Rowly?"
"Never mind the Latin," replied Ira grimly. "The English of it is that
you've got to quit it in this room."
"Who says so?" demanded Humphrey, scowling.
"I say so. Faculty says so, too."
"Oh, piffle! Look here, faculty says you can smoke in your room if
you're a fourth year man. If a fourth year man can smoke, I can. It's
my own affair."
"Faculty allows fourth year fellows to smoke pipes in their rooms if
they have the written consent of their parents. You're not a fourth
year fellow, you haven't the consent of your parents and that isn't a
pipe; it's a cigarette."
"Well, don't lecture about it. There's no harm in a cigarette now and
then. Half the fellows in school smoke on the sly."
"I don't believe it," denied Ira stoutly. "I don't know one who does
it."
"Huh! You don't know very many, anyhow, do you? And you're such a nice,
proper sort of chump that they wouldn't do it when you were around, I
guess."
"Never mind that, Nead. This is as much my room as it is yours, and
I don't like cigarettes and won't stand for them. We might as well
understand each other now. Then there won't be any further rowing."
"Suppose I choose to smoke?" drawled Humphrey.
"Then you'll have to find another room."
"Yes, I will! Like fun! I suppose you'd go and tell faculty, eh?"
"I might, if I couldn't stop it any other way," returned Ira calmly.
"But I don't think it would be necessary."
He viewed Humphrey very steadily and the latter, after an instant of
defiant glaring, dropped his gaze uncertainly.
"Rough-stuff, eh?" he sneered. "Well, you're a heap bigger than I am,
and I guess you could get away with it. Anyway, I don't care enough
about smoking to fight."
"Then I think I'd quit," said Ira. "What's the idea, anyway, Nead?"
"Oh, just for fun," answered the other airily. "Haven't you ever done
it?"
"Once," said Ira, with a fleeting and reminiscent smile. "I guess every
fellow tries it once. I didn't like it, though."
"Of course not. You have to keep at it." Humphrey laughed. "Gee, I was
a wreck after my first attempt!"
"Seems to me that anything that has that effect on you can't be
especially good for you," said Ira.
"Oh, a fellow doesn't want to just do the things that are good for him.
There's no fun in that. Smoking cigarettes is like--like playing hookey
when you're a kid. You do it because it--it's a sort of adventure, eh?"
"I suppose so," agreed Ira. "Well, you've had your adventure, haven't
you? You've got all the fun out of it. What's the use of keeping it up?"
Humphrey gazed at Ira thoughtfully. "Gee, that's a new idea," he
chuckled. "Never thought of that! Maybe you're right, old scout. Guess
I'll quit cigarettes and try something else. Burglary or--or murder,
maybe."
"Well, don't practise at home," laughed Ira. Then soberly: "I wish
you'd agree to call it off on the cigarettes, though, Nead."
"Oh, when you ask me nicely like that," answered the other, "I don't
mind, I guess. But I won't stand being bullied." He blustered a bit.
"You can't scare me into doing things, Rowland, and you might as well
learn that first as last."
"I don't want to scare you or bully you," answered Ira. "Sorry if I
went at it wrong."
"Well, you did," grumbled the other. He sat up and ran a hand through
his rumpled hair. Then: "Tell you how you can square yourself, Rowly,"
he said. "Lend me a quarter, like a good chap, will you? I'm stony."
"Of course. But you don't mean, really, that you've got no money?"
"Sorry to say I mean that exactly," replied Humphrey with a grin.
"But--but you've been here only a week! What have you done----"
"With my wealth?" prompted Humphrey as the other hesitated. "Well
I've dropped about six dollars playing pool with those sharks down at
the Central, and I've bought a lot of food and I've paid for a year's
subscription to the 'Leader'--didn't want the silly paper, but a fellow
cornered me--, and I've--oh, I don't know! Money never sticks around
me very long. But you needn't worry about your quarter, because I've
written home for more. I told mother I was taking an extra course in
poolology and it was expensive!" He chuckled. "She'll understand and
come across."
"I wasn't worrying about my quarter," answered Ira. "I was wondering
what you expected to do for meals until the letter comes."
"Well, I sort of intended going around to Mrs. Thingamabob's with you
tonight and signing on there until--for awhile. But you didn't show up
and I fell asleep."
"Unless you arrange for regular board," said Ira, "Mrs. Trainor will
make you pay at every meal. You'd better let me lend you enough to see
you through until you hear from your folks. How much will it take?"
Humphrey looked vastly surprised and a trifle embarrassed. "Why,
that's mighty decent of you, old scout!" he exclaimed. "But can you--I
mean----"
"I can let you have five dollars," said Ira, "if that will do."
"Honest? It won't make you short? But I'll give it back to you by
Saturday. I wrote yesterday."
"I can't do it tonight," said Ira. "I'll have to get it out of the
bank. But here's thirty-five cents you can have."
"Right-o! Thanks awfully, Rowly! You're a brick. Sorry if I talked
nasty." He got up from the bed, viewing the cigarette stub whimsically.
Then he scratched a match, lighted the cigarette and exhaled a cloud
of smoke into the room. "Good-bye forever!" he exclaimed tremulously,
and, turning to the window, flicked the cigarette out into the night.
"Now for burglary!" Whereupon he picked up the coins Ira had put on the
table, planted his cap rakishly over one ear, winked expressively and
hurried out.
Ira, arranging his books for study, wished somewhat ruefully that he
hadn't jumped to conclusions by connecting the cigarette odour with
Mart Johnston that time. He had met Mart two days before and that youth
had passed him with a very cool and careless nod, evidently resentful
because Ira had not accepted the invitation to call.
"I guess, though," thought Ira, as he seated himself at the desk and
sucked the end of a pencil, "he doesn't care very much."
Gene Goodloe he saw every day, sometimes only long enough to exchange
greetings with, sometimes long enough for a chat. But he hadn't been
back to Number 30 Williams yet, nor had Gene, in spite of promises,
called at "Maggy's." Captain Lyons and Raymond White were always genial
when he met them, but it didn't look much as if the acquaintances with
those fellows were likely to expand. Several times Ira watched football
practice, and, while he failed to discover anything about the game
to captivate him, he viewed it with more interest since meeting Fred
Lyons and learning what a difficult task the latter was undertaking.
That Lyons had not exaggerated the attitude of the school toward
the football team was made plain to Ira by the comments he heard at
practice. It seemed the popular thing to speak with laughing contempt
of the team and the football situation. The "Forlorn Hopes" was a
favourite name for the players, while it seemed to be a generally
accepted conclusion that Parkinson would go down in defeat again in
November. All this made Coach Driscoll's efforts to get additional
candidates doubly difficult. Some fellows did go out, from a sense of
duty, and at the end of the first week of school there were nearly
eighty candidates on the field. That number looked large to Ira until
he overheard one of the instructors remark to another one afternoon:
"A most discouraging situation, isn't it? Why, four years ago we used
to turn out a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty boys, I'm
afraid it will be the same old story again this Fall!"
The first game took place Saturday afternoon and Ira paid his quarter
and went to see it. It wasn't much of a contest, and even he, as
ignorant of the game as he was, could discern that neither team covered
itself with glory during those two twenty-minute halves. It seemed to
him that had all the Parkinson players done as well as Captain Lyons or
the fellow who played full-back or the one who was at quarter during
the first half the story might have been different. But those three
stood out as bright, particular stars, and the rest didn't average up
to them by a long shot. Ira, by the way, was interested to find that
the quarter-back--inquiry divulged his name to be Dannis--was none
other than the youth who had so earnestly and unsuccessfully practised
hurdling that day. Dannis ran the team in much the same spirit, but
with far more success. He was not very big, and he looked rather heavy,
but he had a remarkable head on his shoulders, and was quite light
enough to make several startling runs and was a live-wire all the time
that he remained in the contest. When, in the second half, another
candidate for the position took his place the difference was at once
discernible in the slowing down of the game.
While most of the fellows turned out to look on, enthusiasm, when
there was any, was distinctly perfunctory. Still, that might have
been laid to the game itself, for interesting features were few and
far between. Dannis got away several times for good gains and showed
himself a remarkably elusive object in a broken field, but as nothing
much depended on his success or non-success there was scant reason to
enthuse. Mapleton was outclassed from the first and that Parkinson did
not score more than the twenty points that made up her final total was
less to Mapleton's credit than to the home team's discredit. A game
in which one contestant takes the lead in the first five minutes of
play and is never headed is not very exciting at best, and Ira walked
back to the campus after the game with his estimate of football as a
diversion not a bit enhanced.
If Parkinson deserved any credit for winning from her adversary by a
score of 20 to 0, she certainly didn't get it. "Just the way we started
off last year," Ira heard a fellow remark on the way back to the yard.
"Ran up about half as many points as we should have on Cumner High
School and then played worse every game for the rest of the season."
"We ought to have scored forty on that team today," replied his
companion. "A team with any sort of an attack could have torn our line
to fragments. Why, as it was our centre just fell apart every time
anyone looked at it!"
"Lyons didn't do so badly," said the other. "And neither did Wirt. But
'The' Dannis was the whole shooting match, pretty nearly. I don't see
why they wanted to put Basker in in the last half. He isn't a patch on
'The.'"
"I suppose Driscoll wants to bring him around for second-string man.
You'll see all sorts of combinations tried out for the next month. And
they'll all be about equally punk, too, I guess. What the dickens is
the matter with the team nowadays, anyway? Is it the coaching or the
leading or what, Steve?"
"Search me! All I know is that it's rotten. Has been for three years.
I don't think it's the coaching. This chap Driscoll looks like a good
one. Everyone says that. And Fred Lyons is all right, too. There isn't
a fellow in school that can boss a job better than Lyons. I guess it's
a plain case of chronic slump!"
Ira wanted very much to speak out and tell them that possibly some
of the fault for the team's lack of success was due to them. "If," he
said to himself as he watched the two boys turn off toward Sohmer Hall,
"you'd stop thinking the team was poor maybe it wouldn't be. No team,
I guess, can do much if no one believes in it. What is needed here
is a change of heart! I suppose every fellow connected with the team
realises that the school is laughing at him, and I guess that doesn't
help much. Seems to me there ought to be a way to change things, to get
the fellows back of the team again. But--I wonder how!"