Behind the Line | Page 9

to ask me
down there, Paul; and your folks were mighty good to me. Next
summer I want you to come up to New Hampshire and see us for a
while. Of course, we can't give you sea bathing, and you won't look like
a red Indian when you go home, but we could have a good time just the
same."
"Red Indian yourself!" cried Paul. "You're nearly twice as tanned as I
am. I don't see how you did it. I was there pretty near all summer and
you stayed just three weeks; and look at us! I'm as white as a sheet of
paper--"
"Yes, brown paper," interpolated Neil.
"And you have a complexion like a--a football after a hard game."
Neil grinned, then--
"By the way," he said, "did I tell you I'd heard from Crozier?"
"About Billy and the ducks? And Gordon's not going back to Hillton?
Yes, you got that at the beach; remember?"
"So I did. 'Old Cro' will be up to his ears in trouble pretty soon, won't
he? I'm glad they made him captain, awfully glad. I think he can turn
out a team that'll rub it into St. Eustace again just as you did last year."
"Yes; and Gardiner's going to coach again." Paul smiled reminiscently.
Then, "By Jove, it does seem funny not to be going back to old Hillton,
doesn't it? I suppose after a while a fellow'll get to feeling at home here,
but just at present--" He sighed and shook his head.
"Wait until college opens to-morrow and we get to work; we won't
have much time to feel much of anything, I guess. Practise is called for
four o'clock. I wonder--I wonder if we'll make the team?"
"Why not?" objected Paul. "If I thought I wouldn't I think I'd pitch it all
up and--and go to Robinson!" He grinned across at his chum.

"You stay here and you'll get a chance to go at Robinson; that's a heap
more satisfactory."
"Well, I'm going to make the varsity, Neil. I've set my heart on that,
and what I make up my mind to do I sometimes most always generally
do. I'm not troubling, my boy; I'll show them a few tricks about playing
half-back that'll open their eyes. You wait and see!"
Neil looked as though he was not quite certain as to that, but said
nothing, and Paul went on:
"I wonder what sort of a fellow this Devoe is?"
"Well, I've never seen him, but we know that he's about as good an end
as there is in college to-day; and I guess he's bound to be the right sort
or they wouldn't have made him captain."
"He's a senior, isn't he?"
"Yes; he's played only two years, and they say he's going into the Yale
Law School next year. If he does, of course he'll get on the team there.
Well, I hope he'll take pity on two ambitious but unprotected freshmen
and--"
There was a knock at the study door and Paul jumped forward and
threw it open. A tall youth of twenty-one or twenty-two years of age
stood in the doorway.
"I'm looking for Mr. Gale and Mr. Fletcher. Have I hit it right?"
"I'm Gale," answered Paul, "and that's Fletcher. Won't you come in?"
The visitor entered.
"My name's Devoe," he explained smilingly. "I'm captain of the
football team this year, and as you two fellows are, of course, going to
try for the team, I thought we'd better get acquainted." He accepted the
squeaky rocking-chair and allowed Paul to take his straw hat. Neil
thought he'd ought to shake hands, but as Devoe made no move in that

direction he retired to another seat and grinned hospitably instead.
"I've heard of the good work you chaps did for Hillton last year, and I
was mighty glad when I learned from Gardiner that you were coming
up here."
"You know Gardiner?" asked Neil.
"No, I've never met him, but of course every football man knows who
he is. He wrote to me in the spring that you were coming, and rather
intimated that if I knew my business I'd keep an eye on you and see that
you didn't get lost in the shuffle. So here I am."
"He didn't say anything about having written," pondered Neil.
"Oh, he wouldn't," answered Devoe. "Well, how do you like us as far
as you've seen us?"
"We only got here yesterday," replied Paul. "I think it looks like rather
a jolly sort of place; awfully pretty, you know, and--er--historic."
"Yes, it is pretty; historic too; and it's the finest young college in the
country, bar none," answered Devoe. "You'll like it when you get used
to it. I like it so well I wish I