"He raked us down for being out of practice. Said he would coach us if we'd come regularly to the gym." Natalie made a contemptuous gesture.

"Tell him to fly away," shrugged Leslie. "You don't need his coaching. I have a better plan. Let's be moving."

The quartette walked away without a word of farewell to Ruth Hale, who had been standing near them. She was also beneath their notice.

"You had a lot to say about _our_ punk playing before the try-out, Les.

What do you think of Lola? She certainly didn't distinguish herself."

Natalie could not conceal her satisfaction at Lola's failure.

"Don't mention it." Leslie's heavy brows met. "I was sore enough at the little dummy to shake her. She let the other five put it all over her. I haven't seen her since she flivvered and I don't want to."

"She never could play basket ball," was Natalie's lofty a.s.sertion.

"She didn't show any signs of it yesterday," Leslie grimly agreed. "I'll meet you girls at the garage," she directed with a brusque change of subject. "I am going over there for my car. It's good way to lose the gang. They won't look for us there."

"What do you think of Les?" inquired Joan with raised brows as the two girls entered the dressing room. "Before Lola flivvered she was simply insufferable. Today she is positively affable. She's down on Lola.

That's one reason."

"I wish she'd stay down on her," responded Natalie with fervor. "Les and I have never been as good pals since Lola Elster entered Hamilton."

"Now listen to me, Nat. Leslie likes you just as well as she ever did."

Joan broke forth with some impatience. "She runs around with Lola and Bess Walbert, I know, and makes a fuss over them. She is perfectly aware that it makes you sore. She does it to be tantalizing. Les likes to keep something going all the time. It is a wonder to me that she hasn't been expelled from college for some of the tricks she has put over. What you must do is to pay no attention to her when she is aggravating. Don't quarrel with her. She enjoys that. Simply behave as though you couldn't see her at all. It will cure her. I'd rather see her chummy with you than Lola or Bess, either. Bess Walbert can't tell the truth to save her neck, and Lola is a selfish kid who thinks of no one but herself."

"That's all true, Joan," Natalie said with unusual meekness. "I will really try to treat Les as you suggest."

It was not necessary that evening to treat Leslie as Joan had advised.

She was amiability itself. After ordering dinner, composed of the most expensive items on the menu, she rested her elbows on the table and announced: "I am going to hire a coach for you three girls. I have the address of an all-around sportsman who will teach you a few plays that no one can get by."

"But, Les, we can't do much with only three to play," objected Joan.

"You don't want those two sticks of juniors at our private practice do you?"

"Not so you could notice them. You won't have to play a trio. The coach will make four and----" Leslie paused. "I shall make a fifth. I need the exercise. The coach needs the money. Besides, I propose to hire a hall."

Joan and Natalie t.i.ttered at this last. Leslie smiled in her loose-lipped fashion.

"I met this man at the beach last summer. He was coaching a private track team. He knows every trick in the sports category. He told me there were lots of ways of fussing one's opponents in basket ball besides treating them roughly. He said he had a regular line of what he called 'soft talk' that he had used with splendid effect. He gave me his address and said if ever I needed his services to write him. I had told him enough about the game here so he understood me. I understand him, too. This is my idea," she continued, leaning far forward and lowering her voice.

For ten minutes she talked on, her listeners paying strict and respectful attention.

"It's a great plan," admiringly approved Joan when Leslie had finished.

"It will take cleverness and nerve, though."

"I doubt if I can do it," deprecated Harriet.

"Certainly you can do it. After you work a week or two with this coach and learn his methods you will be O. K. You will have to give three afternoons a week to it; maybe more. I'll drive to Hamilton and hire that hall tomorrow. I'll wire the coach before we go back to the campus tonight. He's in New York and I can have him here by Sat.u.r.day."

"It's going to cost oodles of money. Why are you so bent on doing it, Les?" Joan asked curiously.

"I won't be kept out of things." Leslie turned almost fiercely upon her questioner. "I loathe that nippy Robina Page and I hate Marjorie Dean and her crowd. They can play basket ball, I'll admit. I'll show them they are not the only stars. You girls have got to take a game away from them. You are not to play them for a while. You are to whip the freshies first. They are a handful, too. Later, you are to beat the sophs. With the help of Ramsey, this coach, you can do it, and I know it."

CHAPTER XVIII.

"THE SOFT TALK."

The senior try-out did not take place on Friday. No aspirants appeared at the gymnasium. The seniors were not ambitious to shine as basket-ball stars. The freshmen went to work at once to perfect their playing under the willing guidance of Professor Leonard. The soph team was not quite so zealous, but put in at least two afternoons a week at practice. This team was the pride of the active director's heart. He a.s.sured them more than once that they could meet a team of professional men players and acquit themselves with credit. If he wondered why the junior five did not take advantage of his offer, he made no comment. While he took a deep interest in basket ball, he left all the arrangements of the games to the senior sports committee, preferring to allow them to do the managing.

Owing to the delay in forming the teams, no games were scheduled to be played until after Thanksgiving. Directly college routine was resumed after that holiday the freshmen challenged the soph.o.m.ores to meet them on the eighth of December. The sophs graciously accepted the challenge and beat the freshies after one of the hardest fought contests that had ever taken place at Hamilton. The score stood 24-22 in favor of the sophs when the game ended, and the tumult which ensued could be heard half way across the campus. The freshmen had fought so gallantly they came in for almost as much acclamation as the winners.

Ready to give the defeated team an opportunity to square itself, the sophs challenged the freshmen to meet them on the following Sat.u.r.day.

The unexpected illness of Phyllis Moore, who contracted a severe cold on the eve of the game, resulted in a postponement. The freshmen team did not wish to play without Phyllis, though they announced themselves ready to do so by appointing a sub to her position. The sophs, however, would not hear to this. Thus the postponement was satisfactory to all concerned.

The junior team, in the meantime, were keeping strictly in the background. Secretly the coach, Milton Ramsey, had been established in a hotel in the town of Hamilton and was busily engaged with Leslie's team.

Never had Joan, Harriet and Natalie had to work so hard. Not only must they practice in secret. Leslie decreed that they would have to practice in the gymnasium with the other two chosen members of the team in order to keep up appearances. She was a hard taskmaster, but she kept her companions in good humor by expensive presents and treats. Further, she a.s.sured them that once they had beaten the sophs they could drop basket ball for the rest of the year.

The rest of the Sans were not blind to the fact that the four girls were deep in some private scheme of their own. Coolly informed by Leslie to mind their own affairs and they would live longer and wear better, they gossiped about the situation among themselves and let it go at that. The majority of them were not doing well in their subjects and they were constrained to turn their attention for a time to the more serious side of college.

Christmas came, with its dearly coveted home holidays, and the Lookouts gladly laid down their books for the bliss of being re-united with their home folks and beloved friends. This time Lucy Warner spent Christmas at home, taking Katherine with her. A four weeks' illness of Miss Humphrey's secretary had given Lucy the position of subst.i.tute. This unexpected stretch of work had furnished her the means with which to spend Christmas with her mother. The registrar privately remarked to President Matthews that Lucy was the most able secretary she had ever employed.

For a week following the Christmas vacation, spreads and jollifications were the order in the campus houses. As Jerry pensively observed, after a feast in Leila's room, the world seemed princ.i.p.ally made of fruit cakes, preserves and five-pound boxes of chocolates.

"I'm always crazy to go home at Christmas, yet it is pretty nice to be back here again," she remarked to Marjorie one evening soon after their return to Hamilton, as she sealed and addressed a long letter to her mother.

"I am so homesick the first two or three days after I come back that nothing seems right," Marjorie said rather soberly. "College soon swallows that up, though. I think about General and Captain just as often, but it doesn't hurt so much. Goodness knows we have enough to busy us here. My subjects are so difficult this term. Then there's basket ball. The freshmen are clamoring now for a game. Our team will re-issue that challenge soon, I know."

"What do those junior basket-ball artists think they are going to do, I wonder?" Jerry tilted her nose in disdain. "I hear they are practicing quite regularly in the gym. They simply ignore Professor Leonard. I mean the three Sans. Miss Hale and Miss Merrill are awfully cross about it.

They have to play with the team, and it seems Leslie Cairns is coaching it, or trying to."

"I heard she was. I didn't know she could play. Funny the juniors don't challenge either the freshies or us."

"They wouldn't win from either team." Jerry shook a prophetic head. "The Sans seem to have settled down to minding their own affairs since Kathie was hurt. I guess that subdued them a little. They slid out of that sc.r.a.pe easily. Hope they practice minding their own business for the rest of the year. Ronny says she is amazed that they can do so."

Three days later the soph.o.m.ore team re-issued their challenge. Sent to the freshmen on Monday, the game took place on the Sat.u.r.day after.

Another battle was waged and the score at the close of the game was 28-26 in favor of the sophs. It seemed that the freshmen could not surmount the fatal two points. Deeply disappointed, they bore the defeat with the greatest good nature. They were too fond of the victors to show spleen. Nothing daunted, they challenged the sophs to meet them again two weeks from that Sat.u.r.day.

The next Monday a surprise awaited them. They received a challenge from the junior team to play them on the Sat.u.r.day of that week. Though not enthusiastic over the honor, they accepted. Nor could they be blamed for being privately confident that they would win the game. It stood to reason that if they could so nearly tie their score with the sophs, the juniors would not be difficult to vanquish.

When Sat.u.r.day rolled around and the game was called, they took the floor, quietly confident of victory. It seemed as though the entire student body had turned out to witness the game. There had been plenty of comment on the campus at Leslie Cairns' sudden whim of acting as coach. Curiosity as to what kind of showing the juniors would make as a result of her efforts at coaching had brought many girls to the scene.

Before the game began the freshman team were somewhat puzzled at the extreme affability of the three Sans' members of the opposing team. The trio met them as they emerged from the dressing room and hailed them as though they had been long lost friends. The impression of this unexpected cordiality had not died out of the five freshmen's minds when the toss-up was made. As the game proceeded they became dimly aware that this fulsome show of affability was being continued. Pitted against the junior team, as they were, it was most annoying. Nor did the three Sans play the game in silence. Whenever they came into close contact with one or more of the freshmen, they had something to say. It was not more than a hasty sentence or two uttered in a peculiarly soft tone. The effect, however, was disconcerting. Soon it became maddening.

Involuntarily the one addressed strained the ear to catch the import. A sudden exclamation or e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n would have pa.s.sed unnoticed. This purposely continued flow of soft remark drew the attention of the hearer just enough to interfere with both speed and initiative.

Not until the first half of the game had been played did it dawn fully upon the freshmen that they were being subjected to an interference as unfair as any bodily move to hamper would have been. Further, the three girls were doing it very cleverly. It was not hampering their playing in the least. Ruth Hale and Nina Merrill were playing with honest vim and in silence. Their st.u.r.dy work was equal to that of any of the opposing team save Phyllis. She was as brilliant a player as her cousin, Robin Page. Being, however, of a nervous, high-strung temperament, the three Sans' tactics had effected her most of all. As a consequence, she missed the basket two different times. Besides that, she grew disheartened with the thought that she was playing badly and missed opportunities at the ball that would never have ordinarily slipped by her.

The end of the first half of the game found the score 12-8 in favor of the juniors. The instant it was over Phyllis, who captured her team, gathered them into one of the several small rooms off the gymnasium.