across
the field to the gymnasium and there once more cheered everyone from
Captain Miller and Coach Robey down to the last substitute--who was
Steve--Danny Moore and Gus, the rubber. It had drizzled at times during
the afternoon, but before the final "Rah, rah, Brimfield! Rah, rah,
Brimfield! Rah, rah, Brim-f-i-e-l-d!" had died away, the clouds broke in
the west and the afternoon sun shone through. This was accepted joyfully
as a good omen and the crowd outside the gymnasium broke into a chorus
of ecstatic "A-a-ays!"

Practice was over early, and at half-past four Steve, parting from
Thursby at the corner of Wendell, made his way along the Row, half
wishing that he had not cancelled the swimming hour to-day. At the
entrance to Torrence a voice hailed him from the doorway, and "Penny"
Durkin, wild of hair and loose-limbed, stepped out.

"Hello," said Durkin. "Say, I've got the dandiest rug upstairs you ever
saw, Edwards. It's a regular Begorra."

"What's a Begorra?" asked Steve with a smile.

"Oh, it's one of those rare Oriental rugs, you know."

"You mean Bokhara," laughed Steve.

Durkin blinked. "Something like that," he agreed. "Anyway, it's a peach.
Come up and have a look at it."

"No, thanks. I'm not buying rugs to-day."

"Tell you what I'll do," pursued Durkin, undismayed. "I'll fetch it over
to your room and you can see how it looks. It's got perfectly wonderful
tones of--of old rose and--and blue and----"

"Nothing doing, Durkin. We don't need any rugs."

"You're missing a bargain," warned the other. "Say, I've still got that
shoe-blacking stand I told you about. No, I didn't tell you, did I? I
left a note under your door one evening, though. Did you get it?"

"Note? Why, yes, I think so. Yes, we got it. I'd forgotten."

Durkin chuckled. "That was the time I gave Sawyer the scare."

"How?" asked Steve idly.

"Didn't he tell you?"

"Sawyer? Not likely." And Steve smiled.

"That's so, I did hear that you and he were scrapping one day. You used
to be pretty chummy, though, didn't you?"

"Never," replied Steve with emphasis. Durkin blinked again and looked
puzzled.

"Well, he was trying to find you that night. So I supposed----"

"What night?"

"The night I went to tell you about that shoe-blacking stand. It's
almost as good as new, Edwards----"

"You say Sawyer was looking for me that night? How do you know? He
couldn't have been, because I'd met him earlier in the hall downstairs."

"