CHAPTER VI
THE SEARCH OF ADVENTURE
BY that time Brimfield had played her second game and lost it, 6 to 14,to Canterbury High School. Canterbury was not considered very formidableand Brimfield usually had little trouble with her. But this year thingshad gone wrong from the start of the game to the finish, wrong, that is,from Brimfield's point of view. Fumbling had been much in evidence andpoor judgment even more. Carmine had worked like a Trojan atquarter-back for two periods, but had somehow failed to display hisusually good generalship, and McPhee, who had taken his place at thebeginning of the second half, while he ran the team well, twice droppedpunts in the backfield, one of which accounted for Canterbury's secondtouchdown and goal. Oddly enough, it was the veterans who failed mostsignally to live up to expectations, and of all the veterans Tom Hallwas the worst offender. Possibly Tom's shoulder still bothered him, buteven that couldn't have accounted for all his shortcomings. Crewe, whoplayed tackle beside Tom, was not a very steady man, and Tom's errorsthrew him off his game badly, with the result that, until Coach Robeyput Pryme in for Tom in the third period, Canterbury made a lamentablenumber of gains at the right of the Brimfield line. Even Tim Otis,usually undisturbed by anything short of an earthquake, was affected bythe playing of the others and finally had what he called a "brain-storm"in the third period, getting the signals twisted and being thrown backfor an eight-yard loss. That misadventure bothered him so that he washeartily glad when Gordon was rushed in a few minutes later.
The team took the beating to heart and the school at large was disposedto indulge in sarcasm and bitterness. Only Coach Robey seemedundisturbed. He lavished no praise, you may be sure, but, on the otherhand, neither did he utter any criticism after the contest was over.Instead, he laid off more than half the line-up on Monday and Tuesday,and, since the weather continued almost unseasonably warm, the rest wasjust what the fellows needed. Wednesday's practice went with a new snapand vim and those who broiled in the afternoon sun and watched it foundgrounds for hope.
It was on Wednesday that Don began his connection with the second team,and by then the injured hand was so well along that he was able todiscard the glove. Three days of kindergarten work followed, with, onSaturday, a short signal drill. The first team journeyed away thatafternoon to play Miter Hill School, and Don would have liked very muchto have gone along. But Boots put his charges through a good, hard hourand a half of work, and Don had all he could attend to at home. Justbefore supper he did, however, walk down to the station and meet Timwhen the team arrived home. Tim, who seemed remarkably fresh for a youthwho had played through the most of four ten-minute periods, scorned thecoach and he and Don footed it back.
"Twenty to nothing, my boy," said Tim exultantly. "They never had alook-in. It was some game, believe me, dearie! And I want to tell you,too, that Miter Hill is fifty per cent better than Canterbury everthought of being!"
"That's fine," said Don. "What sort of a game did you play?"
"Me? Oh, I was the life of the party. Got off two nice little runs, onefor thirty and the other for forty-five yards. Got a touchdown thesecond time. I wouldn't have, though, if Steve hadn't paced me most theway down and put the quarter out. Old Steve played like a whirlwindtoday. We all did, I guess. There was only one fumble, and that wasn'tanyone's fault. Holt got a forward pass and a Miter Hill chap plungedinto him and just about knocked the breath out of him and he let go ofthe ball."
"Twenty to nothing? Three touchdowns, then."
"Yep, and Rollins only missed one goal. Rollins scored once, I scoredonce and Steve took over the last one."
"Forward pass?"
"No, end-around. It went off great, too. We were way back on theeighteen yards, I think it was, and we worked the fake forward passplay, with Steve taking the ball from Carmine. We fooled them finely.They never got onto it at all until Steve was over the line. Some of thefellows who were doing so much grousing last week ought to have comealong today and seen some real football. Robey was as pleased asanything. You could tell that because he looked sort of cross and toldus how bad we were!"
"Wish I'd seen it," mourned Don.
"It was some game, all right, all right! We're going to have a modestcelebration this evening; just Tom Hall and Clint Thayer and Hap Crewe,maybe, and yours truly. Better come along. Will you?"
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, just down to the village. We'll leave the window open."
"You'll get nabbed if you try that," demurred Don. "Better not, Tim."
"Well, we may be back by ten. No harm in having a way open in casesomething delays us, though. We'll have a little feed at the Inn, youknow, and----"
"Don't be a chump," growled Don. "You're in training and you know mightywell Robey won't stand for any funny-business."
"What Robey doesn't know isn't going to hurt him," replied Timuntroubledly. "And he won't know anything about this because he's offfor home on the seven o'clock train. Tom heard him tell Steve hewouldn't be back until Monday noon."
"Yes, but someone will see you and Robey'll hear of it. And then you'llget the dickens from him and be hauled up to the office. Better not riskit, Timmy."
"Gee, you're worse than Mr. Poe's crow! Or was it a raven? What's thedifference, anyhow? Now don't tell me they're both anthropeds or pods,or whatever it is, because I'm onto you as a disseminator of knowledge!I never got even with you yet for calling me 'something like a humanbeing'."
"I'll take it back, then; you aren't. But, just the same, Tim, I wishyou'd cut out the celebration."
"You're all the time interfering with my innocent pleasures," protestedTim. "Why, bless you, dearie, we aren't going to cut-up. We're merelygoing to stroll quietly to the village, trolling a song, mayhap, andlook in the windows."
"That'll take you a long time," Don laughed. "There are only half adozen."
"Wrong. A fellow opened a watchmaker's emporium next door to the postoffice t'other day and has a most fascinating window. It has four alarmclocks, three pairs of cuff-links and a chronometer in it! Oh, it'sswell! Do you realise, Don, that slowly but surely our little village istaking on the--the semblance of a metropolis? All we want is a moviepalace!"
"Let's start one. They say there's a lot of money in them."
"Bet there is! We've got three or four at home, and they're peaches.Full every minute, too. I went a lot last Summer; had filmitis, Iguess. But how about the party? Will you come along?"
"No, thanks."
"Oh, come on, Don! Have a heart! Be one of our merry gang."
"I'd rather not, thank you. I like Josh well enough, but I don't like tostand on the carpet and hear him say 'Until further notice, Gilbert.'Nothing doing, Tim!"
And Don remained adamant the rest of the way to school and while theymade a hurried toilet and rushed to dining hall in an effort to reach itbefore the food gave out.
The team members received an ovation that evening when they entered thedining hall. It seemed as if the school wanted to make up for itsunkindness of a week before. Some few of the fellows, recallingsarcastic comments overheard, were inclined to be haughty andunforgiving, but eventually they melted. Don, now at the secondtraining-table, presided over by Mr. Boutelle, saw that Coach Robey'schair was vacant, which fact bore out Tim's statement that the coach hadgone home over Sunday. But, even granting that, Don didn't approve ofTim's celebration, for, as he very well knew, after a football victoryfellows were very likely to be carried away by their enthusiasm and toforget such trifling things as rules and regulations. He determined totry again to dissuade Tim after supper.
But Tim, who was in a very cheerful and expansive mood, refused to bedissuaded. Instead, he turned the tables and begged so hard for Don tocome with him that Don finally relented. After all, there was no harm inthe excursion if they got permission and were back in hall by teno'clock. And it was a wonderfully pleasant, warm evening, much too finean evening to spend indoors, and--well, secretly, Don wanted some fun asmuch as any of them, perhaps!
; Permission was easily obtained and at seven they met Tom Hall and ClintThayer in front of Torrence. Crewe failed them, but Tim said it didn'tmatter; that there were only four "Three Musketeers" anyhow! So they setoff for the village in high spirits, through a warm, fragrant,star-lighted evening, with no settled plan of action in mind save to doabout as they liked for the succeeding three hours. Clint Thayer had astrip of plaster across the saddle of his nose, which gave him astrangely benign expression. Tom walked a bit stiffly and confessed to"a peach of a shin," which probably meant something quite different fromwhat it suggested. Only Tim, of the three first team fellows, hademerged unscathed, and he referred to the fact in an unpleasantlysuperior manner which brought from Tom Hall the remark that it was easyenough to get through a game without any knocks if you didn't doanything! Whereupon Tim flicked him across the cheek with an imaginaryglove, the challenge was issued and accepted and the two fought anexciting duel with rapiers--as imaginary as the glove--on the sidewalk,feinting, thrusting, parrying, until Clint cried "The guard! The guard!"and they all raced down the road to the nearest lamp-post, where Timinsisted on looking to his wounds. To hear him tell it, he was as fullof holes as a sieve, while, on the same authority, Tom was a dead man.Tom denied being dead, but Tim insisted and refused to pay any heed tohim all the rest of the way to the village on the ground that, beingdead, Tom had no business to talk.
But when they reached what Tim called "the heart of the city" Tom wasallowed to come to life again. The heart of the city consisted of thejunction of two village streets whereon were located the diminutive townhall, the post office, a fire house and five stores. They began with thedruggist's, ranging themselves in front of one of the two windows andpretending to be overwhelmed with the beauty and magnificence of thegoods displayed.
"What beautiful soap," exclaimed Tom. "I never saw such beautiful soap,fellows. Pink and green and white! Looks almost good enough to washwith, doesn't it?"
"And get on to the lovely toilet set in the green velvet box," beggedTim awedly. "Scissors and brushes and little do-funnies and----"
"I'm going to buy a bottle of that hair-grower," announced Don. "I wantto raise a beard."
"Let's get a bottle and present it to Uncle Sim," suggested Clint. UncleSim was Mr. Simkins, the Greek and Latin instructor, and was noticeablybald. The others chuckled and thought very well of the suggestion untilTom discovered that the price, as stated on the label, was one wholedollar. They had, they decided, better uses for what little money theycarried. Eventually they went inside, and sat on stools in front of thesmall soda fountain and drank gaily-coloured concoctions which,according to Tim, later, sounded better than they tasted. Havingexhausted the amusement to be derived from the drug store, they went tothe fire house next door and, pressing their noses against the glass,debated what would happen if an alarm was rung in. There was a boxbeside the doors, a most tempting red box and Tim eyed it longinglyuntil Don led him gently but firmly away from temptation.
In the small store across the street they examined all the books andmagazines displayed on the counters, which didn't take long, asliterature was not a large part of the stock. Tim spent ten cents for afootball guide, explaining that he had always wanted to know some of therules of that game! Don bought some candy and Clint a bag of peanuts,although the others protested that if they ate truck they'd spoil theirappetites for real food. The force of the protest was somewhat marred bythe actions of the protestants, who helped themselves liberally to thecontents of the two bags.
There was a convenient fence a few steps along the street and theyperched themselves on the top rail and consumed the peanuts and candyand watched the "rush of the great city," to again quote the poetic Tim.During the next twenty minutes exactly eight carriages and fourautomobiles entered their range of vision; and at that Clint insistedthat they had counted one automobile twice. He accused it of goingaround the block in order to add to the confusion. Possibly some threedozen people passed within sight, although that may have been a tooliberal estimate. Tom at last declared that he couldn't stand theexcitement any longer; that his brain reeled and his eyes ached; andthat he was going to find a quiet spot far from the dizzy whirl. So theyadjourned to the grocery and butcher shop and talked learnedly of loinsand shoulders and ribs. And Clint dragged what he alluded to as a"brisket" into the conversation to the confusion of the others, who hadnever heard of it and didn't believe in it anyway. Tom said Clint meant"biscuit" and that this wasn't a bakery. Then he caught sight of somerather pathetic and unseasonable radishes and, having a passion forradishes, went in and purchased four bunches. That outlay led to anexpenditure for salt, and as a large, round pasteboard carton of it wasthe least they could buy, they retreated down the street to the Innporch, trickled the salt along the top of the railing, drew up chairsand consumed the radishes at their leisure. All, that is, save Tim. Timdidn't like radishes, called them "fire-crackers" and pretended to bedeeply disgusted with his companions for eating them.
When the radishes were consumed they invaded the Inn and assaulted thewater tank in force. Then, as there were practically no sights left tobe viewed, they went back to their chairs and, as Tom had it, waitedfor inspiration. Don was for trolleying over to the shore, having a dipin the ocean and returning to school in good time. But Tim pointed outthat the trolley line was a good half-mile distant, that he had notfilled himself with radishes and was consequently quite famished forfood and favoured remaining within easy distance of the Inn so that, incase he grew faint, he could reach sustenance. Don's motion wasdefeated. In view of what eventually occurred, that was, perhaps,unfortunate.