I thought I was off for good and all. I didn't like it.
But cheer up, Paul, and give 'em fits Monday. Slam 'round, let yourself
loose; show 'em what you can do. Down with Gillam!"

"Oh, I dare say," muttered Paul dejectedly.

Neil laid awake a long time that night; he was full of sympathy for his
room-mate. With him friendship meant more than it does to the average
boy of nineteen, and he was ready and eager to do anything in his power
that would insure Paul's getting into the Robinson game. The trouble was
that he could think of nothing, although he lay staring into the
darkness, thinking and thinking, until Paul had been snoring comfortably
across the room for more than an hour.

The next afternoon, Sunday, Neil, obeying the trainer's instructions,
went for a walk. Paul begged off from accompanying him, and Neil sought
Sydney. That youth was delighted to go, and so, Neil alternately pushing
the tricycle and walking beside it while Sydney propelled it himself,
the two followed the river for several miles into the country. The
afternoon was cold but bright, and being outdoors was a pleasure to any
healthy person. Neil forgot some of his worries and remembered that,
after all, he was still a boy; that football is not the chief thing in
college life, and that ten years hence it would matter little to him
whether he played for his university against her rival or looked on from
the bench. And it was that thought that suggested to him a means of
sparing Paul the bitter disappointment that he dreaded.

The plan seemed both simple and feasible, and he wondered why he had not
thought of it before. To be sure, it involved the sacrificing of an
ambition of his own; but to-day, out here among the pines and beeches,
with the clear blue sky overhead and the eager breeze bringing the color
to his cheeks, the sacrifice seemed paltry and scarcely a sacrifice at
all. He smiled to himself, glad to have found the solution of Paul's
trouble, which was also his own; but suddenly it occurred to him that
perhaps he had no right to do what he contemplated. The ethics were
puzzling, and presently he turned to Sydney, who had been silently and
contentedly wheeling himself along across the road, and sought
his counsel.

"Look here, Syd, you're a level-headed sort of chump. Give me your
valuable opinion on this, will you? Now--it's a supposititious case, you
know--here are two fellows, A and B, each trying for the
same--er--prize. Now, suppos