eartedly for
the team," Mack reflected. "Dave wasn't thinking of himself when he
helped me out. If I should develop into the better player, I know he'd
take his hat off to me. And here I've been playing for myself right
along. Swell guy--this Mack Carver!... So swell he ought to be ducked
in Grinnell Lake!"
News travels fast across a college campus. The following morning
students were thrown in a turmoil of excitement by word that Coach
Edward's office had been rifled during the night and nothing disturbed
but the team plays. It was rumored that two detectives had been
employed by the college to determine, if possible, the guilty party or
parties. Despite an attempt to keep the matter quiet, newspapers got
hold the story and, later in the day, papers appeared with streaming
headlines:
GRINNELL PLAYS STOLEN
FROM COACH'S OFFICE
POMEROY AUTHORITIES INDIGNANTLY
DENY ACCUSATIONS OF PART IN ATTEMPT
TO SECURE GRINNELL PLAYS AND SIGNALS
The Grinnell _Leader-Tribune_ went so far as to declare, in its news
story, that relations between Pomeroy and Grinnell had been strained
for the past two years since Grinnell had developed into a school to be
feared by the larger college. It seemed that Pomeroy had scheduled
Grinnell merely for the purpose of giving her a drubbing and taking it
easy between big games and that Grinnell's increased opposition had
been embarrassing to Pomeroy students and alumni who rated their eleven
far better than the intended victim. Now matters had become so acute,
a report was going the rounds that Coach Carl Carver's job at Pomeroy
hung upon his winning the Grinnell game, about which there was some
doubt owing to Pomeroy's uncertain season. A victory for Grinnell, on
the other hand, would be the greatest triumph ever scored by that
school since Pomeroy was a nationally known eleven, accustomed to
playing the best in the country. "It's a step up or a step down for
either coach," the news article concluded, and Mack Carver, Grinnell
substitute back, who read the stories with a strange lump in his
throat, breathed his thanksgiving that no mention was made of him.
"This is one time when my not being well known as a football player has
helped out," he said to himself. "If I'd been prominent on the
Grinnell team, I'd have been played up along with my brother. As it
is, they'll probably let me alone."
But in this surmise, Mack was wrong. On reporting for football
practi
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