EVAN RETIRES
By the end of the first week of the term Evan had settled down into
his appointed groove and school routine was in full swing. At lessons
Evan was neither a dullard nor a wonder; just an average student. He
soon found that if he gave a fair amount of time to study he got on
very well in class, and that if he didn’t he met with trouble. Having
a good fund of common sense he decided to keep out of trouble. At
first it wasn’t easy to buckle down in the evenings to study, for Rob
was a disturbing factor. Rob had a fashion of spending the study-hour
in working on his marvelous inventions and then burning the “midnight
juice,” as he called the electric-light, until all hours. But after
a while Evan got used to Rob’s interruptions and accustomed to going
asleep with the light shining in his face. Rob squirmed through
recitations somehow, just how Evan couldn’t comprehend, and didn’t let
the thought of impending examinations worry him. At present Rob was
very busy with a combined comb and brush for the use of travelers, the
comb working on a pivot at the end of the brush-handle and snapping
back along the top of the brush when not in use. Rob was convinced that
the invention was destined to great success and spent many hours of his
time making drawings of it. He had discarded the foot-scraper, having
discovered that the cost of manufacturing it would prohibit its use to
all save millionaires.
Meanwhile the foot-ball situation remained practically unchanged. The
team was still occupied with the rudiments, and day after day the
candidates were falling on the ball, tackling, blocking, breaking
through, passing, kicking and catching. Had there been any system
apparent Evan and some of the other dissatisfied ones might have
commended such a thorough schooling in preliminary work. But as it
was the work was gone through with in a perfunctory way and no one
seemed to understand the reason for anything. Hopkins took a hand now
and then, but for the most part was content to superintend practice
from the side-lines, leaving the brunt of the instruction to his three
lieutenants, Carter and Ward and Connor. The Second Team had organized
and Gus Devens was captain, and Evan, after four homeless days, found
himself playing substitute end on that team. It was a new position
to him and truth compels me to state that so far he hadn’t covered
himself with glory. It is possible that in the course of time, had he
had any one to coach him, he might have developed into a good end. As
it was, however, he had to teach himself by watching the other ends
and reading what he could find regarding the duties of his position.
The School Team’s first game was only a week away, and while it wasn’t
an important one Evan, for his part, couldn’t see that the team was
any nearer being a team than it had been the first day of practice. He
confided as much to Jelly one afternoon when they were changing their
togs after practice. Jelly was strenuously trying for a guard position
on the Second and was plumb full of enthusiasm.
“Why, they don’t know a thing yet,” he replied ecstatically, referring
to the members of the First Team. “You wait until they get into a
scrimmage with us. I’ll bet we’ll rip them all up the back the first
try!”
“What sort of a team has Cardiff got?” asked Evan.
“Oh, they don’t amount to anything. They don’t give us much more of
a game than we’d get in practice. They’re a light lot; just easy
pickings.”
“Well, what is the first real hard game on the schedule?”
“Mountfort High,” answered Jelly promptly. “Two weeks from Saturday.
Last year the best we could do was to tie them; 10 to 10, it was; and
it was a hard old game, too.”
“Do you think our team’s as good this year as it was last?” Evan
inquired. Jelly studied a moment.
“I guess so,” he replied finally. “But how can any one tell when they
haven’t been in action yet? Why doesn’t Hopkins get a move on and
have a scrimmage? He’s daffy this year about ‘grounding the team in
the rudiments of the game’; I heard him spouting to Prentiss about it
yesterday.”
“It’s a fine thing,” said Evan dryly, “to know the rudiments, but it
seems to me that a little squad work wouldn’t be a bad idea, to say
nothing of getting the team together in a scrimmage once in a while.”
“That’s what I say,” replied Jelly importantly. “Gus is going to have
us away ahead of the First if Hopkins doesn’t watch out.”
Perhaps Jelly’s prediction came to the captain’s ear. At all events,
the following afternoon the First, or School, team began signal
practice, and two days later the first scrimmage of the year took
place. Devens had done his work pretty well and the Second was
successful in standing off the First during two ten-minute periods.
Evan played at left end for a few minutes toward the finish of the last
half and made rather a mess of it. He recognized the fact and wished
that some one might tell him where his mistakes were. But there was no
one to do it save Captain Devens, and Devens had too much on his hands
already. The quota of candidates had swollen to over forty and just
before the first contest, that with the Cardiff High School, Hopkins
made his final cut, retaining seventeen candidates. Devens went over
what was left and retained fifteen in all. The School Team, as it lined
up against Cardiff on Wednesday afternoon, contained five of last years
veterans, while the rest had played on the Second.
The game was not exciting, Cardiff proving to be weak in every
department. On the other hand, Riverport carried off few honors.
Law’s punting was good and Hopkins at left guard, and Reid at right
tackle showed that they had not forgotten how to play. But the line,
as a whole, was slow and listless, and against a faster team would
have made a sorry showing. The backfield was rather a farce, if we
except Joe Law at left. Miller, the quarter, was neither brilliant
nor steady, and in the second half, in which Cardiff showed for a few
minutes a flash of real form, Hopkins ran the team himself. In the last
few minutes of play every substitute was used, and Grove, who replaced
Miller, seemed to put some drive into the play. On the whole the game
was featureless and rather valueless, since the opponents were not
strong enough to show up Riverport’s real weaknesses. However, nothing
much is expected of the first contest, and Hopkins seemed well enough
satisfied. At least, there was little criticism from him. Prentiss, who
spent his time making memoranda on the side-line, had a good deal to
say afterwards and was generous with stricture. But nobody paid much
attention to Prentiss. He wasn’t popular and the players resented his
meddling, since, as he didn’t play the game himself, he wasn’t presumed
to know much about how it should or shouldn’t be played.
On Thursday Evan was tried at end again on the Second. He did a trifle
better, but Devens soon took him out in favor of Abbott and he spent
the rest of the scrimmage sitting disgruntled on the side-line. Later,
in the gymnasium, Devens came over to him.
“You don’t seem to fit in at end, Kingsford,” he began kindly enough.
“You never played there much, eh?”
“Never until the other day,” answered Evan soberly. “I told you when I
started in that quarter or half was my line.” Devens nodded.
“I remember, but we have pretty good halfs and a good quarter. So I
thought maybe I could make an end of you. What do you think? Want to
try it some more?” Evan thought a minute. Then,
“I don’t believe it’s much use,” he said frankly. “If there was some
one to coach me a bit I think I could get the hang of it, but there
isn’t. I’d like to get a show at quarter, Devens; I think I could make
good there.”
“Well, we’ll see. There’s lots of time yet. You hang on, Kingsford.”
So Evan “hung on,” and, although the opportunity to prove himself at
quarter-back didn’t at once present itself, he gradually became a more
useful member of the Second. He began to push Abbott and Robins, the
first string ends, fairly hard, for he had speed, was certain on his
feet and tackled hard and surely. But there are niceties connected with
the position of end that Evan didn’t know, and there was no one to tell
him. Somerset High School was barely defeated 6 to 5. Riverport managed
to score on a blocked kick and subsequently made the 5 a 6 by kicking
a nice goal. Somerset made her score by hard work and only a narrow
miss at goal saved her opponent from a tie game. In the last half Grove
went in in place of Miller at quarter and, although not individually
brilliant, ran the team in good shape and showed some generalship. It
was difficult, though, to determine just what amount of credit was due
to Grove and what amount to Hopkins, for the captain was always taking
a hand in the running of the team.
The Somerset game was on Saturday and for the following week the
team was put through hard practice in preparation for the Mountfort
contest. On Tuesday Evan had his first chance at quarter, Devens
sending him in with the second squad for signal practice and later
putting him into the scrimmage for some ten minutes. He did well enough
considering that he had not played the position before for a year, and
got speed out of the Second. But he was a little uncertain on signals
and, with the Second on the First’s twenty yard-line and the ball in
their possession, made an error of judgment that lost them a possible
score. The Second had been making its ten yards in three downs for some
minutes through the right side of the opponent’s line and there was
apparently no reason to suppose that it could not continue to do so and
cover that last twenty yards. But on the second down Evan called for
a forward pass, got it off nicely and then saw Robins miss it on the
five yard-line. If the play had worked Evan would have been commended
for his daring. As it failed he got only criticism. Devens could find
no fault, since he had not protested against the play, and I think
that he would have given Evan other chances in the position had not
Evan made that impossible for the time by falling on the steps of the
gymnasium the next afternoon and turning his ankle. It was a bad twist,
and for the next week he was out of togs, limping around at first with
bandages and later with a rubber anklet.
He gave up his last hope then and accepted the inevitable as cheerfully
as he could. Devens was honestly sorry for him and told him so, but
Evan noticed that he didn’t say anything about staying in training and
coming back to the team. So he nursed his injury and looked forward
to the middle of October, when the dormitory teams would be formed to
fight for the School Championship. Rob was sympathetic, and so was
Malcolm, but they each treated the affair with a sort of I-told-you-so
smugness that grated.