HARD LUCK
Bill Sherwood turned up the next morning, his face drawn and pale, his
steps lagging and dispirited.
His chums gathered eagerly around him and gave him the warmest of
welcomes.
"Still willing to speak to me, eh?" he said, looking at them
shamefacedly and with a wan attempt at a smile.
"Look here, Bill Sherwood!" exclaimed Garry, as he threw an arm over
his friend's shoulder. "If you ever say a thing like that again, I'll
slug you, big as you are. You're the best old pal that ever lived, and
we're with you till the cows come home. Aren't we, fellows?"
"You bet we are!" came from the group in chorus.
"Snap out of it, old boy," admonished Nick affectionately. "Everything
will turn out all right."
"We know that they're trying to frame Frank," put in Ted. "They might
do that to any one of us."
"It's all that sneaking Sandy Podder and his crowd!" declared Rooster.
"I know what they are! They tried to cheat my father last fall, but
they didn't get away with it. And they won't get away with this,
either."
"Not on your life they won't!" exclaimed Garry. "And now, Bill, forget
all about it. We're not going to think of it or speak of it. Before
this thing's over we'll get that Sandy Podder by the nape of the neck
and shake the truth out of him. Trust my dad for that."
Such a welcome as this was balm to poor Bill's wounded feelings and
heartened him immensely. From that time on the subject was avoided, and
the bunch settled down to their lessons and their football practice.
Although they did well in the former, the latter was foremost in their
thoughts, for the game with the Bass Lake high school was coming on
apace and the Lenox boys were consumed with a frantic desire to win.
The loss of the Wimbledon game rankled. It had been a blot on their
escutcheon. It must be wiped out, and they had determined to do this by
making Bass Lake their victims.
But here hard luck intervened and threatened for a time to do all the
victimizing.
An epidemic both of measles and mumps broke out in Lenox. As a rule,
these attacked the younger pupils in the schools, but they became so
virulent in the Cherry Street school that the whole institution was
closed for a couple of weeks.
Most of the high school students were immune because they had already
had these diseases in earlier years. Still, there was a comparatively
large number there that suffered, and the classes were considerably
reduced in size.
Mumps and measles rarely have a serious result, and are regarded
more as nuisances than as real afflictions. Garry and his especial
chums viewed the matter lightly enough until the football teams were
threatened. Then indeed their faces grew long and they were affected
with something akin to panic.
Bass Lake had no such visitation, and their boys were going along
strongly in practice. But in Lenox Hick Dabney, right guard of the
scrubs, was taken down with the mumps and Pete Maddern had an attack
of measles. Tom Allison, too, had one or the other coming on and was
compelled to stay at home.
Substitutes were found for their places, but none so good as those they
replaced, and the scrub line was seriously weakened. Still this would
not have mattered greatly had the regulars remained intact.
Dittler had recovered from his sprained ankle and was as good as ever.
But Walker, the heavy center, and Minter, the right halfback, were out
of the game temporarily, the one by mumps and the other by measles,
and even if they recovered in time for the game they would be in too
weakened a condition to play.
This left two big holes in the team that Coach Garwin plugged up with
Rankin and Bellows, two boys of the junior class who had played well on
the last year's team but had left the preceding June, not expecting to
return. Their plans had been changed, however, and they had returned
several weeks after the term opened to complete their course. They were
good players, but had lost several weeks of practice, and even at their
best were not as good as Walker and Minter.
But the schedule had to be met regardless of mumps and measles, and
when the appointed day came the coach took his weakened team over to
Bass Lake where the game was to be played. The distance was not far,
and almost the whole pupil body of Lenox High went over to cheer their
favorites.
The Bass Lake boys showed up full of pep and ginger in practice, and it
was apparent to the visitors that a hard game was in prospect.
But they buckled to the task with determination, and for the first
quarter held their opponents even. Lenox seemed once on the verge of
scoring, when by repeated rushes down the field she had come within
twelve yards of the Bass Lake goal line. But on the next down a fumble
by Rankin gave the ball to Houston of the home team, who promptly
kicked it out of danger, and the period ended scoreless for either
team. The second quarter told a different story. For ten minutes of
play the battling lines swayed back and forth with neither having a
pronounced advantage. Then with the quickness of a kaleidoscope things
changed.
Bartlett, the right half of the Bass Lake team, emerged with a rush
from the mass of grappling combatants, skirted the right end, and with
a magnificent run of forty-two yards carried the ball over the Lenox
line for a touchdown amid the terrific cheering of his mates. Ashley
kicked the goal and seven big juicy points went up on the Bass Lake
score!