After a week of grueling practise, the first game of the season came
like a holiday. Stover was called out after the first few minutes,
replacing Bangs, and remained until the close. He played well, aided by
several fortunate opportunities, earning at the last a pat on the back
from Dana which sent him home rejoicing. The showing of the team was
disappointing, even for that early season. The material was plainly
lacking in the line, and at full-back the kicking was lamentably weak.
The coaches went off with serious faces; throughout the college
assembled on the stands was a spreading premonition of disaster.
Saturday night was privileged, with the long, grateful Sunday morning
sleep ahead.
"Dink, ahoy!" shouted McNab's cheerful voice over the banister, as he
entered the house.
"Hello, there!"
"How's the boy wonder, the only man-eating Dink in captivity?"
"Tired as the deuce."
"Fine. First rate," said McNab, skipping down. "Forget the past, think
only of the bright furniture. We've got a block of tickets for Poli's
Daring-Dazzling-Delightful Vaudeville to-night. You're elected. We'll
end up with a game at Reynolds'. Seen the _Evening Register_?"
"No."
"My boy, you are famous," said McNab, brandishing a paper. "I'm
lovelier, but you get the space. Never mind, I'll be arrested
soon--anything to get in the papers!"
While McNab's busy tongue ran on, Stover was gazing at the account of
the game, where, among the secondary headlines, there stared out at him
the caption:
STOVER, A FRESHMAN, PLAYS
SENSATIONAL GAME.
The thing was too incredible. He stood stupidly looking at it.
"How do you feel?" said McNab, taking his pulse professionally.
There was no answer Stover could give to that first throbbing sensation
at seeing his name--his own name--in print. It left him confused, almost
a little frightened.
"Why, Dink, you're modest," said the irrepressible McNab; and, throwing
open the door, he shouted at the top of his voice: "I say, fellows, come
down and see Dink blush."
A magnificent scrimmage, popularly known as a "rough house," ensued, in
which McNab was properly chastised, though not a whit subdued.
McCarthy arrived late, with the freshman eleven, back from a close
contest with a school team. They took a hurried supper, and went down a
dozen strong, in jovial marching order.
The sensations of the theater were still new to Stover, nor had his
fortunate eye seen under the make-up or his imagination gone below the
laughter. To parade down the aisle, straight as a barber's pole, chin
carefully balanced on the sharp edge of his collar, on the night of his
first day as end on the Yale varsity, delightfully conscious of his own
startling importance, feeling as if he over-topped every one in the most
public fashion, to be absolutely blushingly conscious that every one in
the theater must, too, be grasping a copy of that night's _Evening
Register_, that every glance had started at his arrival and was
following in set admiration, was a memory he was never to forget. His
shoulders thrown up a little, just a little in accentuation, as behooved
an end with a reputation for tackling, he found his seat and, dropping
down quickly to escape observation, buried himself in his program to
appear modest before the burning concentration of attention which he was
quite sure must now be focused on him.
"Dobbs and Benzigger, the fellows who smash the dishes--by George,
that's great!" cried McNab, joyfully running over the program. "They're
wonders--a perfect scream!"
"Any good dancing?" said Hungerford, and a dozen answers came:
"You bet there is!"
"Fanny Lamonte--a dream, Joe!"
"Daintiest thing you ever saw."
"Sweetest little ankles!"
"Who's this coming--the Six Templeton Sisters?"
"Don't know."
"Well, here they come."
"They've got to be pretty fine for me!"
Enthroned as lords of the drama, they pronounced their infallible
judgments. Every joke was new, every vaudeville turn an occasion for a
gale of applause. The appearance of the "Six Templetons" was the
occasion of a violent discussion between the adherents of the blondes
and the admirers of the brunettes, led by the impressionable McNab.
"I'm all for the peach in the middle!"
"Ah, rats! She's got piano legs. Look at the fighting brunette at this
end."
"Why, she's got a squint."
"Squint nothing; she's winking at me."
"Yes, she is!"
"Watch me get her eye!"
Stover, of course, preserved an attitude of necessary dignity, gently
tolerant of the rakish sentimentalities of the younger members of the
flock. Moreover, he was supremely aware that the sparkling eyes under
the black curls (were they real?) were not looking at McNab, but
intensely directed at his own person--all of which, as she could not
have read the _Register_, was a tribute to his own personal and not
public charms.
The lights, the stir of the audience, the boxes filled with the upper
classmen, the gorgeous costumes, the sleepy pianist pounding out the
accompaniments while accomplishing the marvelous feat of reading a
newspaper, were all things to him of fascination. But his eye went not
to the roguish professional glances, but lost itself somewhere above
amid the ragged drops and borders. He was transported into the wonders
of Dink-land, where one figure ran a hundred adventures, where a hundred
cheers rose to volley forth one name, where a dozen games were passed in
a second, triumphant, dazzling, filled with spectacular conflicts,
blurred with frantic crowds of blue, ending always in surging
black-hatted rushes that tossed him victoriously toward the stars!
"Let's cut out," said McNab's distinct voice. "There's nothing but
xylophones and coons left."
"Come on over to Reynolds's."
"Start up the game."
Reluctantly, fallen to earth again, Stover rose and followed them out.
In a moment they had passed through the fragrant casks and bottles that
thronged the passage, saluting the statesmanly bulk of Hugh Reynolds,
and found themselves in a back room, already floating in smoke. White,
accusing lights of bracketed lamps picked out the gray features of a
dozen men vociferously rolling forth a drinking chorus, while the magic
arms of Buck Waters, his falcon's nose and little muzzle eyes, dominated
the whole. A shout acclaimed them:
"Yea, fellows!"
"Shove in here!"
"Get into the game."
"Bartender, a little more of that brutalizing beer!"
"Cheese and pretzels!"
"Hello, Tough McCarthy!"
"Over here, Dopey McNab."
"Get into the orchestra."
"Good boy, Stover!"
"Congratulations!"
"Oh, Dink Stover, have we your eye?"
The last call, caught up by every voice, went swelling in volume,
accompanied by a general uplifting of mugs and glasses. It was the
traditional call to a health.
"I'd like to oblige," said Dink, a little embarrassed, "but I'm in
training."
"That's all right--hand him a soft one."
For the first time he perceived that there was a perfect freedom in the
choice of beverage. He bowed, drained his glass, and sat down.
"Oh, Dopey McNab, have we your eye?"
"You certainly have, boys, and I'm no one-eyed man at that," said
McNab, jovially disappearing down a mug, while the room in chorus
trolled out:
"_Drink the wine divine_
_As long as you can stand it._
_Hand the bowl around_
_As long as you can hand it._
_Drink your glass,_
_Drink your glass,_
_Dri-i-i-i-ink--he's drunk it down._"
"Oh, Jim Hunter, have we your eye?"
Each new arrival in turn, called to his feet, rose and drained his glass
to a hilarious accompaniment, while Stover, to his surprise, noted that
fully a third of the crowd were ordering soft drinks.
"Oh, Dink Stover, here's to _you_!"
From across the table Tommy Bain, lifting his glass of ginger ale,
smiled a gracious smile.
"Same to you, Tommy Bain."
The fellow who had addressed him was a leader among the Hotchkiss crowd,
out for coxswain, already spoken of for one of the class managerships.
He was a diminutive type, immaculately neat, black hair exactly parted
and unflurried, well jacketed, turn-down collar embellished with a
red-and-yellow four-in-hand, a rather large, bulbous nose, and thin eyes
that were never quiet--shrewd, direct, inquisitive, always estimating.
He was smiling again, raising his glass to some one else down the table,
and the smile that passed easily over his lips had the quality of
seeming to come from the heart.
McNab and Buck Waters, natural leaders of the revels, arms locked, were
giving a muscular exhibition of joint conducting, while the room in
chorus sang:
"_Should fortune prove unkind,_
_Should fortune prove unfair,_
_A cure I have in mind_
_To drive away all care._"
"By George!" said Hungerford, at his side, laughing, "it's good to be in
the game at last, isn't it, Dink?"
"It certainly is."
"We've got a great crowd; it's going to be a great class."
"Who's Bain?" said Dink, under his breath.
"Bain--oh, he's a clever chap, probably be a class deacon. That's
another good thing about this place: we can all get together and drink
what we want."
"Chorus!" cried McNab and Waters, with a twin flourish of their arms.
"Chorus!" shouted Hungerford and Bain, raising their glasses in
accompaniment.
"_For to-night we will be merry_
_As the rosy wine we drink--_
_The rosy wine we drink!_"
"Yea!"
"A little more close harmony!"
A great shout acclaimed the chorus and another song was started.
Hunter and Bain were opposite each other, surrounded as it were by
adherents, each already aware of the other, measuring glances, serious,
unrelaxing, never unbending, never departing a moment from the careful
attitude of critical aloofness. In the midst of the rising hilarity and
the rebellious joy of newly gained liberty, the two rival leaders sat
singing, but not of the song, the same placid, maliciously superior
smile floating over the perfectly controlled lips of Bain, while in the
anointed gaze of Hunter was a ponderous seriousness which at that age is
ascribed to a predestined Napoleonic melancholy.
"Solo from Buck Waters!"
"Solo!"
"On the chair!"
"Yea, Buck Waters!"
Yielding to the outcry Waters was thrust upward.
"The cowboy orchestra!"
"Give us the cowboy orchestra!"
"The cowboy orchestra, ladies and gentlemen."
With a wave of his hand he organized the room into drums, bugles, and
trombones, announcing:
"The orchestra will tune up and play this little tune,
"'_Ta-de-dee-ra-ta-ra-ta-rata,_
_Ta-de-dee-ra-ta-ra-ta-rata-ta!_'
"All ready? Lots of action there--a little more cyclonic from the
trombones. Fine! Whenever I give the signal the orchestra will burst
forth into that melodious refrain. I will now give an imitation of a
professional announcer at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Congress of
Rough Riders. Orchestra:
"_Ta-de-dee-rata-rata-rata_
_Ta-de-dee-rata-rata-rata-ta!_"
While Waters, with his great comical face shining above the gleeful
crowd like a harvest moon rising from the lake, continued endlessly
drawling out his nasal imitations, the crowd, for the first time welded
together, rocked and shouted out the farcical chorus. When he had ended,
Buck Waters sat down, enthroned forever afterward master of song and
revels.
Bain began to cast estimating glances, calculating on the moment to
leave. At the other end Waters was fairly smothered under the rush of
delighted comrades, patting him on the back, acclaiming his rise to
fame. The tables settled down into a sentimental refrain led by Stone's
clear tenor.
Dink's glance, traveling down the table, was suddenly attracted by the
figure of a young fellow with a certain defiant yet shy individuality in
its pose.
"Who's the rather dark chap just beyond Dopey?" he asked Hungerford.
"Don't know; ask Schley."
"Brockhurst--Sidney Brockhurst," said Schley, not lowering his voice,
"from Hill School. Trying for the _Lit_. Clever chap, they say, but a
little long-haired."
Stover studied him, his curiosity awakened. Brockhurst, of all present,
seemed the most solitary and the most self-conscious. He had a long
head, high, thin cheeks, and a nervous little habit, when intent or
conscious of being watched, of drawing his fingers over his lips. His
head was thrown back a little proudly, but the eyes contradicted this
attitude, with the acute shyness in them that clouded a certain keen
imaginative scrutiny.
At this moment his eyes met Stover's. Dink, yielding to an instinct,
raised his glass and smiled. Brockhurst hastily seized his mug in
response, spilling a little of it and dropping his glance quickly. Once
or twice, as if unpleasantly conscious of the examination, he turned
uneasily.
"He looks rather interesting," said Stover thoughtfully.
"Think so?" said Schley. "Rather freaky to me."
Suddenly a shout went up:
"Come in!"
"Yea, Sheff!"
"Yea, Tom Kelly!"
The narrow doorway was suddenly alive with a boisterous, rollicking
crowd of Sheff freshmen, led by Tom Kelly, a short, roly-poly, alert
little fellow with a sharp pointing nose and a great half-moon of a
mouth.
"Come in, Kelly!"
"Crowd in, fellows!"
"Oh, Tom, join us!"
"I will _not_ come in," said Kelly, with a certain painful beery
assumption of dignity. He balanced himself a moment, steadied by his
neighbors; and then, to the delight of the room, began, with the utmost
gravity, one of his inimitable imitations of the lords that sit
enthroned in the faculty.
"I come, not to stultify myself in the fumes of liquor, but to do you
good. Beer is brutalizing. With your kind permission, I will whistle you
a few verses of a noble poem on same subject."
[Illustration: "'I COME NOT TO STULTIFY MYSELF IN THE FUMES OF LIQUOR,
BUT TO DO YOU GOOD'"--_Page 89._]
"Whistle, Tom?"
"The word was whistle," said Kelly sternly. Extending his arm for
silence, he proceeded, with great intensity and concentrated facial
expression, to whistle a sort of improvisation. Then, suddenly ceasing,
he continued:
"And what does this beautiful, ennobling little thing teach us, written
by a great mind, one of the greatest, greatest minds--what does it teach
us?"
"Well, what does it teach?" said one or two voices, after Kelly had
preserved a statuesque pose beyond the limits of their curiosity.
"Ask me," said Kelly, with dignity.
"Mr. Kelly," said McNab rising seriously, "what does this little gem of
intellectuality, this as it were psycho-therapeutical cirrhosis of a
paleontological state,--you get my meaning, of course,--that is, from
the point of view of modern introspective excavations, with due regard
to whatever the sixth dimension, considered as such, may have of
influence, and allowing that a certain amount of error is inherent in
Spanish cooking if eggs are boiled in a chafing-dish--admitting all
this, I ask you a simple question. Do you understand me?"
"Perfectly," said Kelly, who had followed this serious harangue with
strained attention. "And, moreover, I agree with you."
"You agree?" said McNab, feigning surprise.
"I do."
"Sir, you are a congenial soul. Shake hands."
But, in the act of stealing this sudden friendship, Kelly brought forth
his hand, when it was perceived that he was tightly clutching a
pool-ball, and, moreover, that his pockets were bulging like a sort of
universal mumps with a dozen inexplicable companions. A shout went up:
"Why, he's swallowed a frame of pool-balls!"
"He certainly has."
"He's swiped them."
"He's wrecked a pool-room."
"How the deuce did he do it?"
"Why, Tom, where did you get 'em?"
"Testimonial--testimonial of affection," replied Kelly, "literally
showered on me."
"Tom, you stole them."
"I did not steal them!"
"Tom, you stole them!"
"Tom, O Tom!"
Kelly, who had proceeded to empty his pockets for an exhibition,
becoming abruptly offended at the universal shouted accusation,
repocketed the pool-balls and departed, despite a storm of protest and
entreaties, carrying with him McNab.
A number of the crowd were passing beyond control; others, inflexible,
smiling, continued in their attitude of spectators, Brockhurst because
he could not forget himself, Hunter and Bain because they would not.
"Time for us to be cutting out," said Hunter, with a glance at his
watch. "What about it, Stover?"
Dink was annoyed that he had not made the move himself. McCarthy,
Hungerford, and one or two of the freshman candidates arose. A shout
went up from the noisy end of the table.
"Here! no quitting!"
"Cowards!"
"Come back!"
"Shut up; it's the football crowd!"
"Oh, football, eh?"
"Right."
"Splendid!"
Stover with a serious face, shook hands with Troutman, a red-haired
fellow with sharp advancing features who said impressively:
"Mr. Stover, I wish to express for my friends the gratification, the
extreme gratification, the extreme moral gratification we feel at seeing
a football--a football candidate showing such moral courage--moral--it's
wonderful--it moves me. Mr. Stover, I'd like to shake your hand."
Dink laughed and escaped, seeing, in a last glance at the vaporous
fitful room, Troutman solemnly giving his hand to Waters, whom he was
congratulating on his extreme moral courage in remaining.
Tommy Bain, in the confusion, slipped out unnoticed and joined them.
The last swollen burst of the song was shut from them. They went back
toward the campus in twos and threes, over the quiet, moist pavement,
past the noisy windows of Mory's--where no freshmen need apply--to the
Common, where suddenly, in the moonlit shadow of a great elm, they found
a vociferous group with Tom Kelly and McNab in the midst.
At this moment something fell from the skies within perilous distance.
"What the deuce is that?" said Hungerford, jumping back.
"Why, it's a pool-ball," said Stone, stooping down.
Another fell, just missing Hunter's shoulders.
"It's Kelly," said Bain, "and he's firing at us."
With a rush they joined the group, to find Kelly, determined and
enthusiastic, solemnly discharging his ammunition at the great bulbous
moon that was set lumberingly above them. They joined the group that
surrounded him, expostulating, sober or fuddled:
"Don't be an ass, Tom."
"The cops are coming."
"I say, come on home."
"How many more has he got?"
"Get him home, you fellows."
"Stop him."
Meanwhile, abetted by the admiring, delighted McNab, Tom Kelly, taking
the most solicitous aim, was continuing his serious efforts to hit the
moon with the pool-balls which he had procured no one knew how.
"I say, McNab," said Stover, drawing him aside, "better get him to stop
now. Too many cops around. Use your influence--he'll listen to you."
McNab's sense of responsibility having thus become violently agitated,
he wabbled up to the laboring Kelly, and the following historic dialogue
took place:
"I say, Tom, old fellow, you know me, don't you? You know I'm a good
sort, don't you--one of the finest?"
"I know you, Dopey McNab; I'm proud to know you."
"I want to speak a word with you seriously."
"What?"
"Seriously."
"Say on."
"Now, seriously, Tom, do you think you can hit it?"
"Don't know; going to try's much as in me. Biff!"
"Hold up," said McNab, staying his hand. "Tom, I'm going to appeal to
you as man to man."
"Appeal."
"You understand--as man to man."
"Sure."
"You're a man; I'm a man."
"The finest."
"Now as man to man, I'm going to tell you the truth."
"The whole truth?"
"Solemn truth."
"Tell on."
"You can't hit it."
"Why not?"
"Tom, it's too--too far away!"
The two shook hands solemnly and impressively.
"Can't hit it--too far away," said Kelly, with the pool-ball clutched
tight. "Too far away, eh?"
"My dear Tom," said McNab, tearfully breaking the news, "it's too
far--entirely too far away. You can't reach it, Tom; believe me, as man
to man--you can't, you can never, never hit it."
"I know I can't, Dopey," said Kelly, in an equally mournful tone, "I
know all that. All that you say is true. But, Dopey, suppose I _should_
hit it, suppose I _should_, just think--think--how my name would go
reeling and rocking down to fushure generations! Biff!"
They left McNab overcome by the impressiveness of this argument, busily
gathering up the pool-balls, resolved that every opportunity should be
given Kelly to rank among the immortals.
Stover would have liked to stay. For the moment, almost a rebellion
swept over him at the drudgery to which he had condemned himself in his
ambition. He saw again the low table, through the smoke, and Buck
Waters's jovial pagan face leading the crowd in lazy, care-free abandon.
He felt that liberty, that zest of life, that wild spirit of youth for
which he yearned and of which he had been defrauded by Le Baron's hand,
that hand which had ruthlessly torn away the veil. Something leaped up
within him--a longing to break the harness, to jump the gate and go
heels in the air, cavorting across unfenced meadows. He rebelled against
the way that had been marked out for him. He rebelled against the
self-imposed discipline, and, most of all, he rebelled against the
hundred eyes under whose inspection he must now inevitably walk.
Ahead of them to the left, across by Osborne, came the gay, defiant
singing of a group of upper classmen returning to the campus:
"_For it's always fair weather_
_When good fellows stand together,_
_With a stein on the table_
_And a good song ringing clear._"
The echo came to him with a certain grim mockery. There would be very
little of that for him. It was to be four years, not of pleasure and
inclination, but of seriousness and restraint, if he continued in his
decision. For a moment the pagan in him prevailed, and he doubted. Then
they passed across High Street, and at their sides the dead shadow of
the society tomb suddenly intruded upon them. Which of the group at the
end of the long three years would be of the chosen? Which would lead?
"Well, fellows, we go this way," said Bain's methodical voice. "Drop
around at the rooms soon. Good night."
Stover, Hunter, and Bain for the moment found themselves together, each
striving for the same social honor, each conscious that, whatever an
established system might bring to them, with its enforced comradeship,
among them would always be the underlying contending spirit of variant
ambitions.
Stover felt it keenly, almost with a sharp antagonism that drove from
him finally the slumbering rebellion he had felt all that night--the
tugging at the bridle of consciousness which had been imposed upon him.
This was a bigger thing, a thing that wakened in him the great instincts
of combat. He would be a leader among leaders. He would succeed as
success was reckoned.
He gave a little laugh and held out his hand to Hunter.
"Good night, Jim," he said.
"Why--good night," said Hunter, surprised at the laugh and the
unnecessary handshake.
But the hand had been offered in challenge, and the laugh marked the
final deliberate acceptance of all that Le Baron had logically exposed
to him.
"I'll play the game, and I'll play it better than they will," he said,
setting his lips. "I've got my eyes open, and I'm not going to throw
away a single chance. We'll see who'll lead!"