CHAPTER XXV
BITTER DAYS
"Shall we look up the girls?" asked Phil softly, as he clasped his armin that of Tom's, and limped with him from the rooms under thegrandstand. "They'll want to see us."
"But I don't want to see them!" exclaimed the end, half fiercely. "Idon't want to see anybody. I want to go off in the dark somewhere,and----"
He stopped, for he felt a raging spirit within him that he knew was notgood.
"It's tough, old man," spoke Phil, softly, "but maybe it will be bestfor old Randall in the end."
"Best nothing! It never would have happened if we'd had you and Sid onthe team."
"Oh, yes, it might."
But Tom would not have it so, and clung to the dispute until someonestarted an argument about the referee's ruling on a certain point, andthen the subject was quickly changed.
"Better come over and see the girls," urged Phil again, as he walkedalong on his crutch. "Sid will want to know what they said, and youknow he can't get out for a couple of days."
"Oh, all right," Tom almost snapped.
"They won't rub it in--they'll know how we feel," went on thequarter-back. And to the credit of Ruth, Madge and Mabel, be it saidthat though they were Fairview girls, and their college had downedRandall, which had not happened in a blue moon before, they never somuch as "looked" the triumph they must have felt. They knew thebitterness of defeat, and--well, they were wise little damsels.
They talked of anything but football, though the reference to Phil'sinjury and to Sid's illness naturally verged on it. Then they got onsafer ground, and, as Tom walked along with Ruth, while Phil had MadgeTyler on one side and Mabel Harrison on the other, the bitterness, in ameasure, passed from them.
"We'll do up Boxer Hall twice as bad!" predicted Tom.
"That's right," agreed Phil. "I'll play then, and----"
"Don't boast!" called his sister, with a laugh.
The girls sent messages of condolence to Sid. Tom and Phil hurried totell their chum all about it. Sid had improved enough to enable him tobe moved to their room, and there, with him in bed, the game was playedall over again.
"It wasn't the poor playing of any one man, or any two or three men,"declared Tom. "It was the fault of the whole team. We're crippled,that's what we are, and we've got to get in shape for the rest of theseason, or----"
The possibility was not to be mentioned.
"I don't suppose anything like this would happen again in years, thatwe'd lose so many players," spoke Phil. "We can't always play in luck."
"Kindlings feels it pretty fierce," said Tom. "He couldn't talk when hecame off the field."
"Yes, it's got him bad," agreed Phil. "Well, we'll have to do better,that's all. I think Simpson is booked for good on the 'varsity, afterthe dandy game he put up in the second half."
"Yes," came from Tom. "The Snail means all right, but he's too slow.Frank will help the team a whole lot."
"Tell me about his playing," urged Sid, and they gave it to him, pointby point.
There were bitter days for Randall following the Fairview game, and fora time it seemed that the defeat would work havoc with the team. But Mr.Lighton was a wise coach, and he only laughed at the gloomy predictions.
"Oh, we'll come into our own, soon," he declared. "Get right intopractice, and keep it up."
Phil was able to be in his old place a couple of days later, and Sidwas soon off the sick list, so that the team was once more in shape.Simpson was voted a "find," and showed up well at guard. Bascome alsoimproved under the influence of the presence of the big Californian.
"Well, I think we're gradually getting into shape again, captain,"remarked the coach to Kindlings one day, after some hard practice,during which the scrub had been "pushed all over the field, and had itsnose rubbed in the dirt," as Holly Cross picturesquely expressed it.
"Yes," agreed Dan Woodhouse. "We miss Bricktop and Ed Kerr, but whatcan't be cured must be put up in pickles, as the old woman said when shekissed the broom."
"Cow, you mean," corrected the coach.
"I make my own proverbs," replied Kindlings, with a laugh. "They keepbetter. But, seriously, I think we will shape up pretty well for theBoxer game. We've got a couple of contests in between, one with theWaram Prep, and the other with Duncan College. We will take both ofthose, and that will make the boys feel better."
"Yes, a little victory, now and then----"
"Makes good dressing on your salad," finished Dan, with a laugh.
Though football took up much of the time of our heroes, with Phil andSid again on the active list, they had not forgotten their quest aftertheir beloved chair, nor had they given up their plan of discoveringwho took the clock.
But, as the days passed, our friends were no nearer a solution than theyhad been in the past. They kept watch on Bascome and Lenton, but nothingdeveloped, and they did not like to make any inquiries.
The bitterness of the Fairview defeat still lingered like a badtaste, in the mouth of the Randall gridiron knights, but it was beingovershadowed by the game which would soon be played with Boxer Hall.This season they would clash but once with those doughty warriors, andaccording to the games that had thus far been played in the Tonoka LakeLeague, the championship was practically a tie between Randall and BoxerHall.
"If we win all our other games, and we're likely to do that," saidKindlings, "all we need to do is to wallop Boxer Hall, and thechampionship is ours."
"Yes, that's all," remarked Dutch Housenlager. "It's easily said, butnot so easy to do."
"Get out, you old catamaran!" cried Holly Cross.
It was one morning at chapel, following the annual reunion of the "OldGrads" of Randall, that President Churchill made an announcement thatcaused quite a sensation.
"I have bad news to announce," he said, as he stood on the platformafter the devotional exercises. "There has been a conference between ourlawyers and those representing the claimants to our land. They demandtwenty thousand dollars in settlement."
There was a gasp of surprise that went around the chapel like a wave ofhysteria among a lot of girls.
"Twenty thousand dollars!" whispered Tom Parsons.
"Randall can never pay it," remarked Sid, who sat next to him.
Dr. Churchill waited for the murmurs to cease.
"I need hardly add," he continued, "that it is out of the question forus to pay this sum. Yet, if we do not, we may lose all that we holddear," and the president seemed much affected. "However, we have notgiven up the fight, and there may yet be a loophole of escape. You maynow go to your classes."