BARGAINS

"That's enough! Get up off him! Don't you know enough, Gaffington, to tell when a man's down?"

Andy heard the sharp voice of the coach, Holwell, but the tones seemed to come from a great distance.

"Water here!"

"Somebody's keeled over!"

"It's that freshman, Blair. Plucky little imp, too!"

"Who tackled him?"

"Gaffington. Took him a bit high and fell on him!"

"Oh, well, this is football; it isn't kindergarten beanbag."

Dimly Andy heard these comments. He opened his eyes, only to close them again as he felt a dash of cold water in his face.

"Feel all right now?"

It was the voice of the coach in his ears. Andy felt himself being lifted to his feet. His ears rang, and he could not see clearly. There was a confused ma.s.s of forms about him, and the ground seemed to reel beneath his feet.

Then like another dash of cold water came the thought to him, sharply and clearly:

"This isn't playing the game! If I'm going to go over like this every time I'm tackled I'll never play for Yale. Brace up!"

By sheer effort of will Andy brought his staggering senses back.

"I--I'm all right," he panted. "Sort of a solar plexus knock, I guess."

"That's the way to talk!" exclaimed the coach, grimly. "Now then, fellows, hit it up. Where's that ball? Oh, you had it, did you, Blair?

That's right, whatever happens, keep the ball! Get into the play now.

Varsity, tear up that scrub line! What's the matter with you, anyhow?

You're letting 'em go right through you. Smash 'em! Smash 'em good and hard. All right now, Blair?"

"Yes, sir."

"Get in the game then. Scrub's ball. Hurry up! Signal!"

Sharp and incisive came his tones, like some bitter tonic. Not a word of praise--always finding fault; and as for sympathy--you might as well have looked for it from an Indian ready to use his scalping knife. And yet--that is what made the Yale team what it was--a fighting machine.

Once more came the line-up, the scrub quarter snapping out his signals.

Andy took his old place. He was rapidly feeling better, yet his whole body ached and he felt as though he had fallen from a great height. He was terribly jarred, for Mortimer had put into the tackle all his fierce energy, adding to it a spice of malice.

Andy heard the signal given for the forward pa.s.s, and felt relieved. He could take another few seconds to get his breathing into a more regular cadence. He looked over at Mortimer, who grinned maliciously. Andy knew, as well as if he had been told, that the tackle had been needlessly fierce. But there was no earthly use in speaking of it. Rather would it do him more harm than good. This, then, was part of the "getting even"

game that his enemy had marked out.

"He won't get me again, though!" thought Andy, fiercely. "If he does, it will be my own fault. Wait until I get a chance at him!"

It came sooner than he expected. The forward pa.s.s on the part of the scrub was a fluke and after a few more rushing plays the ball was given to the varsity to enable them to try some of their new plays.

Several times Mortimer had the pigskin, and was able to make good gains.

Then the wrath of the coach was turned against the luckless scrubs.

"What do you fellows mean?" cried Holwell. "Letting 'em go through you this way! Get at 'em! Break up their plays if you can! Block their kicks. They'll think they're playing a kid team! I want 'em to work!

Smash 'em! Kill 'em!"

He was rushing about, waving his hands, stamping his feet--a veritable little cyclone of a coach.

"Signal!" he cried sharply.

It came from the varsity quarter, and Andy noticed, with a thrill in his heart, that Gaffington was to take the ball.

"Here's where I get him!" muttered Andy, fiercely.

There was a rush--a thud of bodies against bodies--gaspings of breaths, the cracking of muscles and sinews. Andy felt himself in a maelstrom of pushing, striving, hauling and toppling flesh. Then, in an instant, there came an opening, and he saw before him but one player--Mortimer--with the ball.

Like a flash Andy sprang forward and caught his man in a desperate embrace--a hard, clean tackle. Andy put into it all his strength, intent only upon hurling his opponent to the turf with force enough to jar him insensible if possible.

Perhaps he should not have done so, you may say, but Andy was only human. He was playing a fierce game, and he wanted his revenge.

Into Mortimer's eyes came a look of fear, as he went down under the impact of Andy. But there was this difference. Mortimer's previous experience had taught him how to take a fall, and he came to no more hurt through Andy's fierce tackle than from that of any other player, however much Andy might have meant he should. Our hero did not stop to think that he might have injured one of the varsity players so as to put him out of the game, and at a time when Yale needed all the good men she could muster. And Gaffington, in spite of his faults, was a good player.

There was a thud as Andy and Mortimer struck the earth--a thud that told of breaths being driven from their bodies. Then Andy saw the ball jarred from his opponent's arms, and, in a flash he had let go and had rolled over on it. An instant later there was an animated pile of players on both lads, smothering their winded "Downs!"

"That'll do! Get up!" snapped the coach. "What's the matter with you, Gaffington, to let a freshman get you that way and put you out of the game? Porter!" he shouted and a lad came running from the bench, pulling off his sweater as he ran, and tossing it to a companion. He had been called on to take Gaffington's place, and the latter, angry and shamed-faced, walked to the side lines.

As he went he gave Andy a look, as much as to say:

"You win this time; but the battle isn't over. I'll get you yet."

As for Andy, his revenge had been greater than he had hoped. He had put his enemy out of the game more effectively than if he had knocked the breath from him by a tremendous tackle.

"Good tackle, Blair!" called the scrub captain to him, as the line-up formed again. "That's the way to go for 'em!"

The coach said nothing, but to the varsity captain he whispered:

"Keep your eye on Blair. If he keeps on, he may make a player yet. He's a little too wild, though. Don't say anything that will give him a swelled head."

The practice went on unrelentingly, and then the candidates were ordered back to the gymnasium on the run, to be followed by a shower and a brisk rub.

Glowing with health and vigor, and yet lame and sore from the hard tackle, Andy went to his room, to find Dunk Chamber impatiently waiting for him.

"Oh, there you are, you old mud lark!" was the greeting. "I've been waiting for you. Come on around to Burke's and have some ale and a rarebit."

"No thanks. I'm in training, you know."