"Corking! I was on Dad's yacht all through August. Saw the races and everything. Bully eats, too. You understand."

"Yes," Joe Stevenson replied, "and I understand why you're about twenty pounds overweight, Kewpie! You ought to be kicked around the yard, you fat loafer. Thought you wanted to play center this fall."

"I'm going to! Listen, Joe, I'm only fourteen pounds over and I'll drop that in no time. Honest, I will. You see! Besides, it isn't all fat, either. A lot of it's good, hard muscle."

"Yes, it is! I can see you getting muscle lying around on your father's yacht! I'm off you, Kewpie. You haven't acted square. You knew mighty well that you were supposed to keep yourself fit this summer, and now look at you! You're a big fat lump!"

"Aw, say, Joe! Listen, will you?" Proudtree's gaze wandered in search of inspiration and fell on the twins. His face lighted. "h.e.l.lo, you chaps!"

he said. Then he leaned over and spoke to Joe. "Say, have you met the Turner brothers, Joe? One of 'em's a swell player. Played out in North Dakota or somewhere."

"Which one?" asked Joe, surrept.i.tiously eying the twins. "Why, the-I forget: they look so much alike, you know. I think it's the one this way. Or maybe it's the other. Anyway, I'll fetch them over, eh?"

"All right, Kewpie."

Kewpie started away, paused, and spoke again. "They're-they're awfully modest chaps, Joe. You'd think from hearing them talk that they didn't know much about the game, but don't you be fooled. That's just their way. You understand."

"Oh, sure, Kewpie!" And when the latter had gone on his errand Joe smiled and, lowering his voice, said to Frank Brattle: "Kewpie's trying to put something over. I wonder what."

"Proudtree tells me one of you fellows plays football," said Joe, a minute later, when introductions had been performed and Ned and Laurie had seated themselves. "We need good players this fall. Of course, I hope you'll both come out."

"Ned's the football chap," said Laurie. "Baseball's my line."

"I don't know-" began Ned, but Laurie pinched him warningly, and he gulped and, to Kewpie's evident relief, made a fresh start. "I'm not much of a player," he said modestly, "but I'm willing to have a try at it."

Kewpie darted an "I-told-you-so" glance at Joe and Frank.

"Where do you come from, Turner?" Joe asked politely.

"Santa Lucia, California. I was in the high school there two years.

Everything's quite-quite different here." Ned spoke hurriedly, as though anxious to switch the conversation from football, and Laurie smiled in wicked enjoyment. "The climate's different, you know," Ned went on desperately, "and the country and-and everything."

"I suppose so," said Frank Brattle. "What's your position, Turner?"

"Position?"

"Yes; I mean, where did you play? Behind the line, I suppose, or maybe end."

"Oh, yes, yes, behind the line. You see, I-I-"

"There aren't many fellows can play half-back the way Ned can," said Laurie, gravely. "He won't tell you so, but if you ever meet any one who saw him play against Weedon School last year-"

"Shut up!" begged Ned, almost tearfully.

Kewpie was grinning delightedly. Joe Stevenson viewed Ned with absolute affection. "Half-back, eh? Well, we can use another good half, Turner, and I hope you're the fellow. I don't know whether Kewpie told you that I'm captain this year, but I am, and I'm going to try mighty hard to captain a winning team. You look a bit light, but I dare say you're fast, and, for my part, I like them that way. Besides, we've got Mason and Boessel if we want the heavy sort. Practice starts to-morrow at four, by the way. How about your brother? Glad to have him come out, too. Even if he hasn't played, he might learn the trick. And there's next year to think of, you know."

"I think not, thanks," answered Laurie. "One football star is enough in the family."

"Well, if you change your mind, come on and have a try. Glad to have met you. See you to-morrow-er-Turner. I want to find Dave, Frank. Coming along?"

The two older boys made off toward West Hall, and as soon as they were out of hearing Ned turned indignantly on Laurie.

"You're a nice one!" he hissed. "Look at the hole you've got me in!

'Half-back'! 'Played against Weedon School'! What did you want to talk that way for? Why, those fellows think I know football!"

"Cheer up," answered his brother, grinning. "All you've got to do is bluff it through. Besides, Proudtree asked us not to let on we didn't know a football from a doughnut, and I had to say something! You acted as if you were tongue-tied!"

"Yes; that's so-you started it!" Ned turned belligerently around. "Said it would be a favor to you-" He stopped, discovering that Proudtree had silently disappeared and that he was wasting his protests on the empty air. "Huh!" he resumed after a moment of surprise, "it's a good thing he did beat it! Look here, Laurie, I'm in a beast of a mess. Yow know I can't face that captain chap to-morrow. Suppose he handed me a football and told me to kick it!"

"He won't. I've watched football practice back home. You'll stand around in a circle-"

"How the d.i.c.kens can I stand in a circle?" objected Ned.

"And pa.s.s a football for a while. Then you'll try starting, and maybe fall on the ball a few times, until you're nice and lame, and after that you'll run around the track half a dozen times-"

"Oh, shut up! You make me sick! I won't do it. I'm through. I'd look fine, wouldn't I? I guess not, partner!"

"You've got to, Ned," replied Laurie calmly. "You can't back down now.

The honor of the Turners is at stake! Come on up and I'll read that rules book to you. Maybe some of it'll seep in!"

After a moment of indecision Ned arose and followed silently.

CHAPTER V-IN THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTY

School began in earnest the next morning. Ned and Laurie were awakened from a deep slumber by the imperative clanging of a gong. There were hurried trips to the bath-room, and finally a descent to the recreation-room and morning prayers. Breakfast followed in the pleasant, sunlit dining-hall, and at half-past eight the twins went to their first cla.s.s. There wasn't much real work performed that morning, however.

Books were bought and, being again in possession of funds, Ned purchased lavishly of stationery and supplies. He had a veritable pa.s.sion for patent binders, scratch-pads, blank-books, and pencils, and Laurie viewed the result of a half-hour's mad career with unconcealed concern.

"You're all wrong, Ned," he said earnestly. "We aren't opening a stationery emporium. Besides, we can't begin to compete with the office.

They buy at wholesale, and-"

"Never mind the comedy. You'll be helping yourself to these things soon enough, and then you won't be so funny."

"That's the only way they'll ever get used up! Why, you've got enough truck there to last three years!"

There was one interesting annual observance that morning that the twins witnessed inadvertently. At a little after eight the fellows began to a.s.semble in front of School Hall. Ned and Laurie, joining the throng, supposed that it was merely awaiting the half-hour, until presently there appeared at the gate a solitary youth of some fourteen years, who came up the circling drive about as joyfully as a French Royalist approaching the guillotine. Deep silence prevailed until the embarra.s.sed and unhappy youth had conquered half of the interminable distance. Then a loud "_Hep!_" was heard, and the throng broke into a measured refrain:

"_Hep!-Hep!-Hep!-Hep!_"

This was in time to the boy's dogged steps. A look of consternation came into his face and he faltered. Then, however, he set his jaw, looked straight ahead, and came on determinedly.

"_Hep!-Hep!_"

Up the steps he pa.s.sed, a disk of color in each cheek, looking neither to right nor left, and pa.s.sed from sight. As he did so, the chorus changed to a good-humored laugh of approval. Ned made inquiry of a youth beside him.

"Day boy," was the explanation. "There are ten of them, you know: fellows who live in town. We always give them a welcome. That chap had s.p.u.n.k, but you wait and see some of them!"