THE LOSS OF A RINK.
It was a very open fall that first year of Frank's at Queen's School,
and despite the fact that the boys who were inclined to the game of
hockey prayed fervently for good ice, Jack Frost held off. Several
times it threatened to freeze up, and there was a great polishing and
sharpening of skates and seeing to the leather straps.
"When the ice comes we'll get up a hockey team," said Frank to Jimmy
one day, meeting him in the yard. "Neither of us will get a chance at
the school team, so we might as well have some fun ourselves."
"And who will we play with, I'd like to know, supposing the ice did
come, and supposing we could get up a team?"
"I'll bet you the best hockey stick in Milton that there'll be lots
of chances. There'll be so many scrub sevens out that there won't be
enough ice. Are you game for it?"
"Sure thing," said Jimmy. "We can rope Lewis in. There's a fellow in
my entry named Hazard who drops in evenings to borrow a book. He says
he can skate. Lewis isn't a half bad skater, and he's so fat that he
would naturally get in the way of the puck without being very quick.
So he would be a good goal tender."
"Good enough," returned Frank. "That makes four, and we can pick
three other fellows up somewhere. Be on the look out and I'll keep my
eye out, too. Meantime, pray for the ice."
But all things, as the copybooks say, come to him who waits.
About the middle of December sharper weather came on, and then
one afternoon the mercury began to slide down the tube of the
thermometer. At six o'clock in the evening it stood at zero, and the
boys covered the distance from their rooms to the dining hall supper
table and back in record time, owing to the biting air.
Frank was over to see Jimmy that night and reported that the big
thermometer that his father had given him, and which hung outside his
window, registered seven below.
"And it's going down further, and what's equally good, there hasn't
been a bit of wind since the cold snap came."
"And what has wind to do with it?" inquired Lewis.
"Hasn't anything to do with the freezing, but with wind the ice is
rough. I met Potter coming up from the ice just before dark and he
says it's like glass, and is so thick now he could hardly punch his
heel through it."
"Sounds good," said Jimmy. "We will then, to-night, organize the
great Armstrong hockey club."
"No, don't call it after me. I may not be good enough to stick on.
But we've got to have a name. Suggest something, Lewis."
"Well," said the goal-tender-to-be, "I guess we might as well call it
the Lollipops. Sweet things on the end of a stick, you know."
"Hurray for the goal-tender. Lollipops it will be! The Lollipop
Hockey Club of Queen's School. First practice to-morrow afternoon at
three thirty. How does that hit you?" said Frank.
"All right for me," said Jimmy.
"And me, too," piped up Lewis. "I'll show you the way to stop 'em.
If you can get them past your Uncle Dudley, you will be going some."
"All right, Fatty," said Jimmy. "If you play half as well as you talk
we will have the real thing in a hockey team."
Frank's prediction came true about the freeze, and what it would do.
Before the thermometer got through on its shivering downward course
it touched ten below, some time during the night, and then travelled
upward again; but by the middle of the next forenoon it was back to
ten degrees above. It was still pretty nippy, but just the right
brace was in the air for violent exercise. The boys could hardly wait
for the middle of the afternoon to come around. Some of them had
already been on the glittering surface of the river, and reported it
like glass, and four inches thick.
Frank had selected a place about a hundred yards up the river for
the site of his rink. It was a spot in a small cove, pretty well
sheltered by trees and protected from the sharp winds which blew
across the more exposed parts of the river. For the first day the
Lollipops and a dozen others of the class, any one in fact who came
along, contented themselves with tearing up and down the ice and
shooting a puck between piles of coats which did duty for a cage.
Wearying of this unorganized exercise after a while, Jimmy, Lewis and
Frank picked up their coats and started up the river in the direction
of Warwick, five miles away.
They swung along easily, enjoying the freshness and crispness of the
air, and the really wonderful ice under foot. Half way up to the
rival school they met several of the skaters from that school, among
them big Channing of the football team, who nodded pleasantly to
Jimmy and came to a halt.
"Are you going to have a hockey team down there this year?" Channing
asked, nodding his head in the direction of Queen's. "If you are, we
want to get a game or two."
"Yes, there will be a school team I guess, particularly if the ice
holds out, but we are only Freshmen and will probably not get a
chance at it," said Jimmy. "They had a team last year, didn't they?"
"Yes, but we beat it 15 to 4, and we want to get a chance to do it
again. It might help Queen's to put a few lively young Freshmen on
it. I'd advise you to try."
"We have, or are going to have a team of our own, and we will
masquerade under the splendid name of the Lollipops. We'll give
you a game when we learn how to stand on our skates," said Frank,
laughingly.
"All right, Lollipops, that's a go, in case Dixon can't get a classy
seven together."
"Chip Dixon, is he the captain?" said Frank, quickly.
"Yes, I think I heard he was elected. He's about the roughest player
Queen's has had on the team, but when he roughed it we roughed it,
and the result was while he was doing nothing else but roughing it,
we were playing a little hockey. Dixon was one of the best players on
Queen's, but lost his temper and hit one of our forwards a deliberate
blow over the arm with his stick. It came to be pretty nearly a
general row all around. Our fellows are just aching to get at Queen's
again."
"Well, you'd better send a challenge down. I'm not on good terms
with Mr. Dixon," said Frank. "Perhaps he will take you on. But if he
doesn't, we'll put you on our schedule when we learn to toddle around
and hang onto a stick."
The group parted company. When the trio returned to the float,
scores of fellows were darting around here and there on their
skates, and a large bonfire had been built on the bank, which threw
a cheerful light over the sparkling ice and helped to dispel the
darkness which had already begun to fall.
Before night came on, however, our founders of the Lollipop Club had
laid out their rink in the little cove. They set down four blocks of
wood about five inches in diameter, two at each end of the "grounds,"
chipping out little pockets in the ice, into which the blocks were
set. Then they filled these pockets with water.
"Those posts will be as steady as the gate posts of Queen's School
by to-morrow morning," observed Frank, "if nobody bothers them. It
will certainly make a dandy place to play," he added, looking around.
"It's just off the line of travel, enough so it won't interfere with
general skating, and our posts will be in no one's way."
Every one was well tired that night. The unusual exercise of skating
and the violent way most of them had gone into it left them with
aching bones and muscles. After supper Frank and Jimmy went around,
and completed the Lollipop seven from the ranks of Freshmen they
knew.
"When we get started, I'll bet we have dozens more than we want. And
when they see Lewis on the job they'll pay us money to let them in
with us."
The weather held sharp and clear, and the following morning two
inches more had been added to the river's coating. It was now safe
beyond any doubt. Frank, during the forenoon, was down to the river
to see how the marks they had set were standing. He reported that
they were as stiff as rocks. They were like posts which had been let
down through the ice and anchored in the mud of the river.
That afternoon the Lollipops made their descent on Wampaug river in
full force. Jimmy had succeeded in finding a couple of other Freshmen
for substitutes to complete the quota of players. When the news of
the formation of a Freshman team was noised around, it was evident
that there would be no trouble in finding plenty of opponents, for
every one on the river had a stick, and the novelty of gliding up
and down merely for skating's sake had passed. Frank was besieged
by applicants. So they rushed down across the field, got into their
skates at the boat-house float, and struck up the river to a chatter
of excitement at the beginning the club was to have.
"Well, what do you think of that for a nerve?" cried Frank, as coming
around a curve from the float which had hidden the "grounds" that
they had laid out the night before, they saw that the place was
already occupied. "And, by George, it's Chip Dixon. I'll be jiggered
if it isn't."
The Lollipops skated up slowly, but their arrival seemed to have no
effect on the boys who were occupying their rink. Frank recognized,
besides Chip, several of the Gamma Tau men, among them Cuthbert of
the nine, who had been after candidates for the society not so long
before, Boston Wheeler, the fullback of the eleven, and several
others. They paid not the slightest attention to the real proprietors
of the territory, but kept on gaily with their play.
A slashing drive sent the puck to the river bank, and while some one
was recovering it Frank sculled slowly over to Chip and said, "I
think you have our 'grounds,' haven't you? We laid these out last
night, and planted the markers."
"Oh, is that so?" said Chip, indifferently. "Very nice of you. We
like the place very much, indeed."
"But it is ours, and we want to play. It isn't the regular practice
place of the school team, is it?"
"Our regular practice place is wherever we want to play, so run
along, Freshie, and don't bother us. All right, I've got you"--this
to a mate who sent the puck spinning across the ice in Chip's
direction. Thereafter Chip was busily engaged, and paid no attention
whatever to the Lollipops, who stood around glumly, hardly daring to
break out into open revolt.
"Dixon has done this for spite and nothing else," said Jimmy. "The
Wee One told me that the school team generally practises just below
the boat-house float. I'd like to knock his head off," and Jimmy
grabbed his stick and swung it around him vigorously. "I'll get even
with him for this, see if I don't."
"He's got it in for both of us," said Frank, who had now turned his
back on the players. "We can't make a fuss, although we do know he
has chucked us out of our own place. Come on, let's go up the river
and find another place where----"
Frank had not done speaking when a terrific collision sent him
sprawling on his face, and as he got to his feet again a sarcastic
voice said: "Can't you keep out of the way? Can't you give us room to
play our game?"
It was Chip, who had deliberately run into Frank when the latter was
unprepared and given him a nasty fall. Blood was trickling from a cut
over Frank's eye where he had struck the ice. The sight of the blood
made Jimmy wild with anger. He helped Frank to get his balance and
then turned on Chip, who had started to skate away.
"That was a contemptible trick, Dixon," he said, "and for two pins
I'd punch your head for you, although you are the captain."
Chip heard and wheeled like a flash. He drove straight at Jimmy, and
swung his stick at the latter's head. Jimmy saw him coming in time,
sidestepped the rush, stuck out his foot, and Dixon went head over
heels sprawling on the ice. Jimmy followed him, just as eager as Chip
was to settle the matter there and then with blows, but Chip had
received a tumble which took a good deal of the fight out of him, and
by the time he had regained his feet a crowd of boys were in between
the two.
"You'll pay for this, you red-headed little chump," said Chip,
savagely, rubbing his bumped skull. "I'll pound you within an inch of
your life if I ever catch you where your friends can't interfere."
"It's your friends who are interfering," said Jimmy, coolly, holding
his ground. "I'll settle it right now if you wish, you cowardly
bully." And Jimmy threw his stick on the ice, his eyes blazing.
Frank, who had recovered from his cruel fall, skated over to Jimmy
and slipped his arm around him, saying: "Don't mind about it, Jimmy.
He isn't worth while. Let's go up the river and pick out another
place, and have our little fun, for there isn't much daylight left.
Come on, Lollipops." Jimmy picked up his stick slowly, keeping a
savage eye on Dixon, and somewhat reluctantly followed Frank and
the others a hundred yards or so up-stream. The encounter had been
watched by a score or more of boys, none of whom cared much about
Chip's way of doing things. But they were much attracted to the
young Freshman who had dared the mighty Dixon in his own lair. So
they followed Frank and Jimmy to the new place, where coat-markers
were laid down. In the vigorous play that followed, the clash of the
afternoon was soon forgotten.
"I was a fool to get mad," said Jimmy as they trudged homeward over
the frozen ground, "but he set me boiling, and I lost my red head
entirely."
"I'm afraid he'll try to get you some time and may do you some harm."
"Not he. I can take care of myself, and don't you worry about that,
Frank. I believe he has a yellow streak in him. I'm ready for him any
time."
And at about the same time Chip Dixon was travelling back to the yard
in a group of his cronies. "I'll get that red-headed guy some day
and knock that carroty nut clean off his shoulders," said Chip. But
at the moment he said it, he wondered a little if it might not be a
pretty hard job.