On Your Mark! A Story of College Life and Athletics. Barbour Ralph Henry

teams. The first team had the ball on the second’s five-yard line and was trying very hard to put it over to an accompaniment of command and entreaty from the coaches.

      “Third down and two to go!” some one shouted. A shrill voice called a jumble of figures and a tandem slid forward at a tangent, and for an instant confusion reigned. Then suddenly a roar of laughter went up, the line of watchers broke forward, and Allan found himself directly in the path of what at first glance looked like an avalanche of canvas and leather. Springing back, he escaped being borne along by the group of struggling players, in the center of which, rising like a city sky-scraper out of a huddle of shanties, stood forth, calm and determined, the countenance of Peter Burley.

      In his arms, struggling but helpless, was the first eleven’s left half-back, and to his back and legs and, in short, to every portion of his anatomy, hung the enemy, for all the world like bees on a nest in swarming time. Behind them the second eleven pushed and shoved, and relentlessly the whole mass moved down the field. And somewhere, drowned by the laughter of the spectators and the despairing shrieks of “Down! Down!” from the abducted half-back, sounded feebly the referee’s whistle.

      One by one the impeditive players dropped away, and Burley’s triumphant advance toward the enemy’s goal was stopped by the referee and two coaches. Burley set down the half-back, in whose arms the pigskin was still clutched, but did not release his grasp until his obligations were hurriedly but clearly explained to him. Then he patted the half-back on the shoulder in a paternal manner and retraced his steps to the enthusiastic applause of the convulsed throng. The second team hugged as much of him as they could encompass and he smiled cheerfully, but was evidently still somewhat perplexed. The ball went to the second on her eight yards and the game continued, Burley, at right guard, looming head and shoulders above his companions.

      Allan watched the game for a few moments longer, and then continued his journey. Somehow the calm, inscrutable manner in which the big freshman had strode down the field in unquestioning obedience to what he had supposed to be his duty appealed to Allan. It had been awfully funny, and Allan smiled as he recalled it. But the incident had held for him something more than humor, just what he hardly knew; but whatever it was, and even though he would have found it difficult to give a name to it, it completely changed his feeling toward Burley. By the time he had reached Mrs. Purdy’s front gate, he was wondering whether Burley still desired his acquaintance.

      CHAPTER V

      “MR. PETER BURLEY, BLACKWATER, COL.”

      Hal Smiths dropped in after dinner that evening and Allan brought the conversation around to the subject of Burley, whose performance during practise had been the chief topic at the dinner-table.

      “Why, Poor was awfully pleased at my suggestion,” said Hal, “after I found him. It was after twelve then, and I’d chased half over college looking for him. He said he wasn’t very good at persuasion and thought Burley would require lots of it; so he asked me to see him. Poor’s a pretty good little chap, so I went. Burley was awfully decent. Said he had never played and had never even seen the game until he came here; said he hadn’t been able to find out what it was all about, but that if we wanted him to try it, why, of course, he would. Said he thought it looked like pretty good fun, and got me to sort of explain it a bit. One thing he wanted to know,” laughed Hal, “was whether you could hit a man if he didn’t have the ball.”

      “Well, he played it for all it was worth this afternoon,” said Allan, smiling. “You heard about it, didn’t you?”

      “No; what was it? I sat on the side line all afternoon, and waited to get a whack at State University. What did Burley do?”

      So Allan told him, and Hal laughed until the tears came.

      “Oh, he’s a genius, he is!” he said.

      After a minute of chuckling, he went on:

      “Look here, Allan, I think you’d rather like him if you got to know him. He’s – he’s rather a decent sort, after all. I didn’t take to him at first, of course, but – and I don’t say now that he’s the sort of chap you’d want to ask home and introduce to your people; he’s kind of free and easy, and you couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t drink the catsup out of the bottle or slap your governor on the back – but he’s – well, there’s something about him you can’t help liking,” he ended, with an apologetic tone.

      “Maybe I would,” answered Allan, pleasantly. Hal looked surprised.

      “He’s given up the class secretaryship, you know,” he announced.

      “Why?”

      “I don’t know for sure, but Poor says he told him it was because he didn’t think he’d be here much after the holidays.”

      “Where’s he going?” asked Allan.

      “Don’t know. Funny idea, to come to college for half a year. Maybe – ”

      There were footsteps on the porch, the front portal opened with a crash, and an imperative knock sounded on the room door. Allan jumped to his feet. Could it be fire? he wondered, shooting a bewildered glance at Hal. He hurried to the door just as the hammering began again, more violently than before. Hal raised himself uneasily from the Morris chair, prepared for the worst. Allan called, “Come in!” and the door was flung open.

      Entered Tommy Sweet!

      “You thundering idiot!” bawled Hal. “I thought it was at least the Dean! You can make more – Hello, Burley! Glad to see you.”

      “This is Mr. Burley, Allan,” Tommy was saying. “Brought him around ’cause I wanted you to know each other. Mr. Ware – Mr. Burley.”

      Allan felt his hand enveloped in something large and warm and vise-like. He felt his fingers crushed together, thought he could hear the bones breaking – and still managed to smile painfully, but politely, the while. Then Burley had dropped his hand and was saying:

      “I’ve wanted to know you ever since I saw you win that running race the other day. Came around here and left a card on you, but I guess you didn’t find it.”

      Allan murmured his appreciation, but remained silent as to the “card.”

      “I told Sweet here that you’d win that race. Offered to bet him anything he liked. He wouldn’t bet, though.” Peter Burley took the chair proffered by Hal and carefully lowered himself into it.

      “They told me you carried me over to the tent,” said Allan. “Much obliged, I’m sure.”

      “Welcome,” answered the other, heartily. “You didn’t weigh anything to mention.”

      “Not as heavy as the freshman team, eh?” asked Tommy. Burley looked apologetically around the circle.

      “I suppose every one’s heard of that fool thing?” he asked.

      “Just about every one, I guess,” laughed Tommy.

      “That comes of trying to do something you don’t know how to do. This fellow Smiths here came around to my shack the other day and said the class wanted me to play football because I weigh some. Well, ginger! I didn’t know anything about the thing, and I told him so. But he would have it that I must play. And look what happens! I make a measly show of myself right out there on the range in front of the whole outfit!”

      “No harm done,” said Hal. “You did what you tried to.”

      “No, I didn’t. There was a little cuss there in a Derby hat wouldn’t let me. I was going to take that half-backed fellow down to the other end and throw him over the line. That’s what I was going to do. They didn’t tell me I had to slap him on the chest and butt him with my head.”

      “But, you see,” explained Allan, “he called ‘Down’ just when you began to lug him off.”

      “That’s what they said. I was supposed to let go of him when he said that, but I just thought he was throwing up the sponge and wanted me to let him down. If I’d known he could have spoiled it by yelling ‘Down,’ I’d have held his mouth shut.”

      This