"Hello, there, Stover!"
"Stover, over here!"
"Oh, Dink Stover, this way!"
Over the bared heads of the bobbing, shifting crowd he saw Hunter and
McCarthy waving to him. He made his way through the strange assorted
mass of freshmen to his friends, where already, instinctively, a certain
picked element had coalesced. A dozen fellows, clean-cut, steady of head
and eye, carrying a certain unmistakable, quiet assurance, came about
him, gripping him warmly, welcoming him into the little knot with
cordial acknowledgment. He felt the tribute, and he liked it. They were
of his own kind, his friends to be, now and in the long reaches of life.
"Fall in, fall in!"
Ahead of them, the upper classes were already in rank. Behind, the
freshmen, unorganized, distrustful, were being driven into lines of
eight and ten by seniors, pipe in mouth, authoritative, quiet, fearfully
enveloped in dignity. Cheers began to sound ahead, the familiar
_brek-e-kek-kex_ with the class numeral at the end. A cry went up:
"Here, we must have a cheer."
"Give us a cheer."
"Start her up."
"Lead a cheer, some one."
"Lead a cheer, Hunter."
"Lead the cheer, Gimbel."
"Lead the cheer, Stover."
"Come on, Stover!"
A dozen voices took up his name. He caught the infection. Without
hesitating, he stepped by Hunter, who was hesitating, and cried:
"Now, fellows, all together--the first cheer for the class! Are you
ready? Let her rip!"
The cheer, gathering momentum, went crashing above the noises of the
street. The college burst into a mighty shout of acclaim--another class
was born!
Suddenly ahead the dancing lights of the senior torches began to
undulate. Through the mass a hoarse roar went rushing, and a sudden
muscular tension.
"Grab hold of me."
"Catch my arm."
"Grip tight."
"Get in line."
"Move up."
"Get the swing."
Stover found himself, arms locked over one another's shoulders, between
Schley, who had somehow kept persistently near him, and a powerful,
smiling, blond-haired fellow who shouted to him:
"My name's Hungerford--Joe Hungerford. Glad to know you. Down from
Groton."
It was a name known across the world for power in finance, and the arm
about Stover's shoulder was taut with the same sentimental rush of
emotion.
Down the moving line suddenly came surging the chant:
"_Chi Rho Omega Lambda Chi!_
_We meet to-night to celebrate_
_The Omega Lambda Chi!_"
Grotesquely, lumberingly, tripping and confused, they tried to imitate
the forward classes, who were surging in the billowy rhythm of the
elusive serpentine dance.
"How the deuce do they do it?"
"Get a skip to it, you ice-wagons."
"All to the left, now."
"No, to the right."
Gradually they found themselves; hoarse, laughing, struggling, sweeping
inconsequentially on behind the singing, cheering college.
Before Dink knew it, the line had broken with a rush, and he was
carried, struggling and pushing, into a vacant lot, where all at once,
out of the tumult and the riot, a circle opened and spread under his
eyes.
Seniors in varsity sweaters, with brief authoritative gestures, forced
back the crowd, stationed the fretful lights, commanding and directing:
"First row, sit down."
"Down in front, there."
"Kneel behind."
"Freshmen over here."
"Get a move on!"
"Stop that shoving."
"How's the space, Cap?"
In the center, Captain Dana waited with an appraising eye.
"All right. Call out the lightweights."
Almost immediately, from the opposite sophomores, came a unanimous
shout:
"Farquahar! Dick Farquahar!"
"Come on, Dick!"
"Get in the ring!"
Out into the ring stepped an agile, nervous figure, acclaimed by all his
class.
"A cheer for Farquahar, fellows!"
"One, two, three!"
"_Farquahar!_"
"Candidate from the freshman class!"
"Candidate!"
"Robinson!"
"Teddy Robinson!"
"Harris!"
"No, Robinson--Robinson!"
Gimbel's voice dominated the outcry. There was a surging, and then a
splitting of the crowd, and Robinson was slung into the ring.
In the midst of contending cheers, the antagonists stripped to the belt
and stood forth to shake hands, their bared torsos shining in high
lights against the mingled shadows of the audience.
The two, equally matched in skill, went tumbling and whirling over the
matted sod, twisting and flopping, until by a sudden hold Robinson
caught his adversary in a half nelson and for the brief part of a second
had the two shoulders touching the ground. The second round likewise
went to the freshman, who was triumphant after a struggle of twenty
minutes.
"Middleweights!"
"Candidate from the sophomore class!"
"Candidate from the freshman!"
"Fisher!"
"Denny Fisher!"
The sophomore stepped forth, tall, angular, well knit. Among the
freshmen a division of opinion arose:
"Say, Andover, who've you got?"
"Any one from Hotchkiss?"
"What's the matter with French?"
"He doesn't know a thing about wrestling."
"How about Doc White?"
"Not heavy enough."
The seniors began to be impatient.
"Hurry up, now, freshmen, hurry up!"
"Produce something!"
Still a hopeless indecision prevailed.
"I don't know any one."
"Jack's too heavy."
"Say, you Hill School fellows, haven't you got some one?"
"Some one's got to go out."
The sophomores, seizing the advantage, began to gibe at them:
"Don't be afraid, freshmen!"
"We won't hurt you."
"We'll let you down easy."
"Take it by default."
"Call time on them."
"I don't know a thing about it," said Stover, between his teeth, to
Hungerford, his hands twitching impatiently, his glance fixed hungrily
on the provokingly amused face of the sophomore champion.
"I'm too heavy or I'd go."
"I've a mind to go, all the same."
McCarthy, who knew his impulses of old, seized him by the arm.
"Don't get excited, Dink, old boy; you don't know anything about
wrestling."
"No, but I can _scrap_!"
The outcry became an uproar:
"Quitters!"
"'Fraid cats!"
"Poor little freshmen!"
"They're in a funk."
"By George, I can't stand that," said Stover, setting his teeth, the
old love of combat sweeping over him. "I'm going to have a chance at
that duck myself!"
He thrust his way forward, shaking off McCarthy's hold, stepped over the
reclining front ranks, and, springing into the ring, faced Dana.
"I'm no wrestler, sir, but if there's no one else I'll have a try at
it."
There was a sudden hush, and then a chorus:
"Who is it?"
"Who's that fellow?"
"What's his name?"
"Oh, freshmen, who's your candidate?"
"Stover!"
"Stover, a football man!"
"Fellow from Lawrenceville!"
The seniors had him over in a corner, stripping him, talking excitedly.
"Say, Stover, what do you know about it?"
"Not a thing."
"Then go in and attack."
"All right."
"Don't wait for him."
"No."
"He's a clever wrestler, but you can get his nerve."
"His nerve?"
"Keep off the ground."
"Off the ground, yes."
"Go right in; right at him; tackle him hard; shake him up."
"All right," he said, for the tenth time. He had heard nothing that had
been said. He was standing erect, looking in a dazed way at the hundreds
of eyes that were dancing about him in the living, breathing pit in
which he stood. He heard a jumble of roars and cheers, and one clear
cry, McCarthy crying:
"Good old Dink!"
Some one was rolling up his trousers to the knee; some one was flinging
a sweater over his bared back; some one was whispering in his ear:
"Get right to him. Go for him--don't wait!"
"Already, there," said Captain Dana's quiet, matter-of-fact voice.
"Already, here."
"Shake hands!"
The night air swept over him with a sudden chill as the sweaters were
pulled away. He went forth while Dana ran over the rules and
regulations, which he did not understand at all. He stood then about
five feet ten, in perfect condition, every muscle clearly outlined
against the wiry, spare Yankee frame, shoulders and the sinews of his
arms extraordinarily developed. From the moment he had stepped out, his
eyes had never left Fisher's. Combat transformed his features, sending
all the color from his face, narrowing the eyes, and drawing tense the
lips. Combat was with him always an overmastering rage in the leash of a
cold, nervous, pulsating logic, which by the very force of its passion
gave to his expression an almost dispassionate cruelty--a look not easy
to meet, that somehow, on the instant, impressed itself on the crowd
with the terrific seriousness of the will behind.
"Wiry devil."
"Good shoulders."
"Great fighting face, eh?"
"Scrapper, all right."
"I'll bet he is."
"Shake hands!"
Stover caught the other's hand, looked into his eyes, read something
there that told him, science aside, that he was the other's master; and
suddenly, rushing forward, he caught him about the knees and, lifting
him bodily in the air, hurled him through the circle in a terrific
tackle.
The onslaught was so sudden that Fisher, unable to guard himself, went
down with a crash, the fall broken by the bodies of the spectators.
A roar, half laughter, half hysteria, went up.
"Go for him!"
"Good boy, Stover!"
"Chew him up!"
"Is he a scrapper!"
"Say, this _is_ a fight!"
"Wow!"
Dana, clapping them on the shoulders, brought them back to the center of
the ring and restored them to the position in which they had fallen.
Fisher, plainly shaken up, immediately worked himself into a defensive
position, recovering his breath, while Stover frantically sought some
instinctive hold with which to turn him over.
Suddenly an arm shot out, caught his head in chancery, and before he
knew it he was underneath and the weight of Fisher's body was above,
pressing him down. He staggered to his feet in a fury, maddened,
unreasoning, and went down again, always with the dead weight above him.
"Here, that won't do," he said to himself savagely, recovering his
clarity of vision; "I mustn't lose strength."
All at once, before he knew how it had been done, Fisher's arm was under
his, cutting over his neck, and slowly but irresistibly his shoulders
were turning toward the fatal touch. Every one was up, shouting:
"Turn him over!"
"Finish him up!"
"Hold out, freshman!"
"Hold out!"
"Flop over!"
"Don't give in!"
"Stick it out!"
With a sudden expenditure of strength, he checked the turning movement,
desperately striving against the cruel hold.
"Good boy, Stover!"
"That's the stuff!"
"Show your grit!"
"Hold out!"
"Show your nerve!"
In a second he had reasoned it out. He was caught--he knew it. He could
resist three minutes, five minutes, slowly sinking against his ebbing
strength, frantically cheered for a spectacular resistance--and then
what? If he had a chance, it was in preserving every ounce of his
strength for the coming rounds.
"All right; you've got me this time," he said coldly, and, relaxing, let
his shoulders drop.
Dana's hand fell stingingly on him, announcing the fall. He rose amid an
angry chorus:
"What the deuce!"
"Say, I don't stand for that!"
"Thought he was game."
"Game nothing!"
"Lost his nerve."
"Sure he did."
"Well, I'll be damned."
"A quitter--a rank quitter!"
He walked to his seconds, angry at the misunderstanding.
"Here, I know what I'm doing," he said in short, quick breaths,
forgetting that he, a freshman, was addressing the lords of creation. He
was a captain again, his own captain, conducting his own battle. "I'll
get him yet. Rub up this shoulder, quick."
"Keep off the ground," said one mentor.
"You bet I will."
"Why the deuce did you give in so easily?"
"Because there are two more rounds, and I'm going to use my head--hang
it!"
"He's right, too," said the first senior, rubbing him fiercely with the
towel. "Now, sport, don't monkey with him until you've jarred him up a
couple of times!"
"That's what I'm going to do!"
"Time!" cried the voice of Dana.
This time he retreated slowly, drawing Fisher unwarily toward his edge
of the ring, and then suddenly, as the sophomore lunged at him, shot
forward again, in a tackle just below the waist, raised him clear off
the ground, spun him around, and, putting all his force into his back as
a wood-chopper swings an ax, brought him down crashing, clear across the
ring. It was a fearful tackle, executed with every savage ounce of rage
within him, the force of which momentarily stunned him. Fisher, groggy
under the bruising impact, barely had time to turn on his stomach before
Stover was upon him.
Dink immediately sprang up and back, waiting in the center of the ring.
The sophomore, too dazed to reason clearly, yielding only to his anger
at the sudden reversal, foolishly struggled to his feet and came
staggering toward him. A second time Stover threw all his dynamic
strength into another crashing tackle. This time Fisher went over on his
back with a thump, and, though he turned instinctively, both shoulders
had landed squarely on the turf, and, despite his frantic protests, a
roar went up as Dana allotted the fall to Stover.
This time, as he went to his corner, it was amid pandemonium:
"You're a corker, freshman!"
"Oh, you bulldog!"
"Tear him up!"
"You're the stuff!"
"Good head, freshman!"
"Good brain-work!"
Several upper classmen came hurriedly over to his corner, slapping him
on the back, volunteering advice.
"Clear out," said his mentor proudly. "This rooster can take care of
himself."
Fisher came up for the third round, visibly groggy and shaken by the
force of the tackles he had received, but game. Twice Stover, watching
his chance, dove under the groping hands and flung him savagely to the
ground. Once Fisher caught him, as they lay on the ground, in a hold
that might have been decisive earlier in the match. As it was, Stover
felt with a swift horror the arm slipping under his arm, half gripping
his neck. The wet heat of the antagonistic body over his inflamed all
the brute in him. The strength was now his. He tore himself free,
scrambled to his feet, and hurled Fisher a last time clean through into
the scattering crowd, where he lay stunned, too weak to resist the
viselike hands that forced his shoulders to the ground.
Dana hauled Stover to his feet, a little groggy.
"Some tackling, freshman! Bout's yours! Call out the heavyweights!"
Scarcely realizing that it was his captain who had spoken, Dink stood
staring down at Fisher, white and conquered, struggling to his feet in
the grip of friends.
"I say, Fisher," he said impulsively, "I hope I didn't shake you up too
much. I saw red; I didn't know what I was doing."
"You did me all right," said the sophomore, giving his hand. "That
tackle of yours would break a horse in two. Shake!"
"Thank you," said Stover, flustered and almost ashamed before the
other's perfect sportsmanship. "Thank you very much, sir!"
He went to his corner, smothered under frantic slaps and embraces,
hearing his name resounding again and again on the thunders of his
classmates. The bout had been spectacular; every one was asking who he
was.
"Stover, eh, of Lawrenceville!"
"Gee, what a fierce tackler!"
"Ridiculous for Fisher to be beaten!"
"Oh, is it? How'd you like to get a fall like that?"
"Played end."
"Captain at Lawrenceville."
"He ought to be a wonder."
"Say, did you see the face he got on him?"
"Enough to scare you to death."
"It got Fisher, all right."
While he was being rubbed down and having his clothes thrust upon him,
shivering in every tense muscle, which, now the issue was decided,
seemed to have broken from his control, suddenly a hand gripped his,
and, looking up, he saw the face of Tompkins, ablaze with the fire of
the professional spectator.
"I'm not shaking hands on your brutal old tackling," he said, with a
look that belied his words. "It's the other thing--the losing the first
fall. Good brain-work, boy; that's what'll count in football."
The grip of the veteran cut into his hand; in Tompkins's face also was
a reminiscent flash of the fighting face that somehow, in any test, wins
half the battle.
The third bout went to the sophomores, Regan, the choice of the class,
being nowhere to be found. But the victory was with the freshmen, who,
knit suddenly together by the consciousness of a power to rise to
emergencies, carried home the candidates in triumph.
McCarthy, with his arms around Stover as he had done in the old school
days after a grueling football contest, bore Dink up to their rooms with
joyful, bearlike hugs. Other hands were on him, wafting him up the
stairs as though riding a gale.
"Here, let me down will you, you galoots!" he cried vainly from time to
time.
Hilariously they carried him into the room and dumped him down. Other
freshmen, following, came to him, shaking his hand, pounding him on the
back.
"Good boy, Stover!"
"What's the use of wrestling, anyhow?"
"You're it!"
"We're all for you!"
"The old sophomores thought they had it cinched."
"Three cheers for Dink Stover!"
"One more!"
"And again!"
"Yippi!"
McCarthy, doubled up with laughter, stood in front of him, gazing
hilariously, proudly down.
"You old Dink, you, what right had you to go out for it?"
"None at all."
"How the deuce did you have the nerve?"
"How?" For the first time the question impressed itself on him. He
scratched his head and said simply, unconscious of the wide application
of what he said: "Gee! guess I didn't stop to think how rotten I was."
He went to bed, gorgeously happy with the first throbbing, satisfying
intoxication of success. The whole world must be concerned with him now.
He was no longer unknown; he had emerged, freed himself from the
thralling oblivion of the mass.