relief, piled them up and
went to the closet. When he was ready to go out Tom was still bent over
his studies. Steve hesitated a moment with his hand on the knob. He
wanted Tom to wish him luck. He wondered if Tom guessed how sort of
lonesome and scared he felt. But Tom never even raised his eyes and so
Steve went out, closing the door softly behind him, and made his way
through a dripping rain to the lighted porch of the gymnasium. Only a
half-dozen fellows were there when he reached the meeting room. The
settees had been moved aside and the floor was empty and ready for them.
Steve nodded to the others and perched himself on one of the low
windowsills to wait. In twos and threes the players stamped up the
stairs, laughing, jostling. Milton and Kendall, entering together,
seized each other and began to waltz over the floor. Steve wondered how
they could take such a serious business so light-heartedly. Then Joe
Lawrence, the manager, a football under his arm, came in with Williams
and, glancing at his watch, began calling the roll. In the middle of it
Coach Robey and Andy Miller and Danny Moore arrived. More lights were
turned on and Mr. Robey swung the blackboard on the platform nearer the
front.

"We'll try Number Six," he announced. Very quickly and surely he
scrawled the formation on the board, added curving lines and dotted
lines, dropped the chalk and faced the room. "All right, Milton.
First-string fellows in this and the rest of you watch closely."

"Line up!" chirped Milton. "Formation A!" The players sprang to their
places, their rubber-soled shoes patting softly on the boards.
"21--14--63--66!" called the quarter. "21--14--63----"

The backs, who had shifted to the left in a slanting tandem, trotted
forward, the ball was passed, the line divided and Still slipped
through.

"Norton, you were out of position," said Mr. Robey. "Look at the board,
please. Your place is an arm's length from left half. You've got to
follow closely on that. Try it again, please."

So it went for nearly an hour, the substitutes gradually taking the
places of the first-string players. Steve, who had had the signals
explained to him earlier, managed to get through without mistakes, but
as an end he had little to do in the drill. After the coach had watched
them go through some fourteen plays, the settees were dragged out into
the floor again, the players seated themselves and the coach drew
diagrams and explained them and examine