nd glad you've found
something to beat Robinson with. Now tell me again about it; where do I
come in on it?"

And so Sydney drew a chair up to the table and drew more diagrams of the
new play, and Neil looked on with great interest until the bell struck
the half-hour, and they hurried away to recitations.

The next day the varsity and substitutes went to New Haven. Neil wasn't
taken along, and so when the result of the game reached the
college--Yale 40, Erskine 0--he was enabled to tell Sydney that it was
insanity for Mills and Devoe to expect to do anything without his
(Neil's) services.

"If they will leave me behind, Syd, what can they hope for save rout and
disaster? Of course, I realize that I could not have played, but my
presence on the side-line would have inspired them and have been very,
very helpful. I'm sure the score would have been quite different, Syd."

"Yes," laughed the other; "say fifty to nothing."

"Your levity and disrespect pains me," mourned Neil.

But despite the overwhelming nature of the defeat, Mills and Devoe and
the associate coaches found much to encourage them. No attempt had been
made to try the new defensive play, but Erskine had managed to make her
distance several times. The line had proved steady and had borne the
severe battering of the Yale backs without serious injury. The Purple's
back-field had played well; Paul had been in his best form, Gillam had
gained ground quite often through Yale's wings, and Mason, at full-back,
had fought nobly. The ends had proved themselves quick and speedy in
getting down under punts, and several of the Blue's tries around end had
been nipped ingloriously in the bud. But, when all was said, the
principal honors of the contest had fallen to Ted Foster, Erskine's
plucky quarter, whose handling of the team had been wonderful, and
whose catching and running back of punts had more than once turned the
tide of battle. On the whole, Erskine had put up a good, fast,
well-balanced game; had displayed plenty of grit, had shown herself well
advanced in team-play, and had emerged practically unscathed from a
hard-fought contest.

On Monday Neil went into the line-up for a few minutes, displacing Paul
at left-half, but did not form one of the heroic tandem. His shoulder
bothered him a good deal for the first minute or two, but after he had
warmed up to the work he forgot about it and banged it around so that
Simson was obliged to remonstrate and threaten