A sense of duty is sometimes a most inconvenient thing to possess. That Monday night it was a sense of duty that sent Toby up to Number 31, and he went laggingly, feeling very certain that George Tubb would be more objectionable than ever. Tubb was not, Toby thought, of the kind who stands prosperity well. Tubb would be quite unbearable to-night: Toby could imagine him growling “Huh, I’d have made the First Team long ago if I’d had the ‘pull’ some fellows have!” But Toby felt that to an extent he was responsible for Tubb’s well-being, having in a manner started him out of his Slough of Despond, and that it was up to him to congratulate the other on his good fortune.

The scene that met his eyes when he pushed the door open in response to an invitation to enter was very unlike that upon which he had gazed on the occasion of his first visit to Number 31. Tubb and Ramsey were shoulder to shoulder, Tubb seated and his roommate bending over the table beside him, evidently elucidating some problem contained in the textbook that lay open before them. To all appearances perfect amity reigned now in Number 31! Nor was that the only surprise awaiting Toby. George Tubb was still George Tubb, and probably he would never be anything else, but instead of “grouching” because Fortune had not visited him earlier, or predicting the great things that were to happen by reason of his elevation to the First, he seemed loath to talk of the matter, accepting the visitor’s congratulation with a frown and a muttered—and vague—“Oh, well, I don’t know. I suppose it’s all right.” After that he appeared to prefer other topics of conversation, although Toby nevertheless had the impression that the matter was in his thoughts most of the time.

The problem in geometry that had puzzled Tubb proved a diversion and Toby was able to supply the needed assistance, rather to his surprise since of late he had begun to fear that he had forgotten most of what he had learned during the preceding year! After that they talked of various subjects, football most of all. Tubb was ready to talk football so long as it was general, and he had a number of criticisms to make of last Saturday’s contest. With some of them Toby didn’t agree, and arguments followed, and Toby discovered that Tubb could think things out clearly and state his results quite convincingly when he wanted to. Horace Ramsey maneuvered the talk around to tennis finally and asked Toby’s advice about trying for the Tennis Team.

“I didn’t do so badly in the handicaps last week,” he explained. “Got as far as the semi-finals, anyway. Beat two or three fellows who are considered rather good, too. How do you set about making the Team, Tucker?”

Toby didn’t know and said so, but he promised to find out and let Ramsey know, and after that he took his departure. Both boys, without saying so in words, managed to convey to him the impression that they had enjoyed his visit and wanted him to come again. He went downstairs feeling very well pleased with himself for having performed a disagreeable duty and a little surprised at finding that it hadn’t been disagreeable after all! “I guess,” he told himself as he clattered down the stairs, “a good many disagreeable things are like that. You think they’re a lot worse than they are.”

The First Team paid a good deal of attention to defense that week, a branch of football science that had been somewhat neglected by Coach Lyle in favor of attack, and the Second was called on four afternoons to aid, the big team working, contrary to custom, quite as hard on Friday as on any other day. It was on Wednesday that Toby had his first chance to see Tubb in action with the First. Tubb made his entry in the middle of a very strenuous second half, relieving Meadows. Sandford, who had started the season at left end, appeared to be out of the running. Tubb did well. Toby was rather amazed at the boy’s playing, and his respect for Grover Beech as a judge of football talent went up a peg. Beech had called Tubb “a natural-born end,” and, while Toby had little intimate knowledge of end playing, he thought that Beech had been quite right. Tubb acted as if he had played football for several seasons. He appeared to have unlimited confidence—in fact, his confidence looked almost like effrontery at times—and absolutely no physical fear, hurling himself into every play he could reach regardless of consequences. He had a way of keeping in motion every minute while in the line-up that, although it was rather wearisome to the spectator, kept his adversary in wholesome fear. And he could run like a ferret, too, and although he still missed tackles rather too frequently, he proved a thorn in the side of Toby and his team-mates when catching punts. Somehow, Tubb was always on hand when the ball had dropped into Toby’s arms, and if Toby squirmed himself free more than once it was only because Tubb had yet something to learn of the gentle art of tackling. Toby found himself a bit proud of George Tubb, quite as though he was personally accountable for that youth’s attainments!

The Second went through some gruelling work that week, for the most part assaulting the First’s defenses with every art and artifice at her command. Time and again the ball was taken away from the First and handed back to the Second, the coaches demanding that she put it over, every one, as it seemed, conniving at the First Team’s humiliation. Perhaps once during a game the First was allowed to show her prowess in attack, and the rest of the time she was back to the wall with the Second banging at her center, jabbing her tackles, skirting her ends, trying every possible means to penetrate her defenses. The result showed before the end of the week arrived. The First developed a savage, bitter, every-hand-against-me attitude that worked wonders. On Thursday she was thrice set her five yards and told to hold the opponent, and twice she did it, which, considering that both coaches egged on the Second and tried every device they could think of to make her attack more effective, was none so bad. Even on Friday, with a hard game against Carrel’s School looming up on the morrow, the First was hammered and banged about by the Second, which, having come in for a good many hard knocks and much rough usage, was in none too gentle a mood. It was on Friday that an incident occurred which, unimportant in itself, led to strange results.

Frick was playing quarter on the Second and Tubb had taken the place of an exhausted Meadows at left end on the First. First, unable to gain her distance in three downs in midfield, punted and the ball fell to Frick in front of Second’s goal. Both Tubb and Halliday had got free and were well under the ball as it arched down the field, but Halliday fell victim to Deering, leaving Tubb to look after Frick alone. Frick made the catch a moment before Tubb arrived on the scene and set off to his right in the hope of skirting the enemy pouring down the middle of the field. Tubb gave chase, running him off. Frick feinted but Tubb wasn’t fooled. Had the quarter-back been able to get free soon after making the catch he might have reeled off a good gain, for the gridiron to his right was practically unguarded, but Tubb had him so well blocked that there was no getting by and it was only when the side-line came dangerously near that Frick made a despairing effort to turn in. He pulled up suddenly and tried to dash past Tubb, but the First Team end was quicker than he was. Avoiding the runner’s straight-arm, Tubb dived and, for once, dived surely. He didn’t have to hold his man after the tackle, for by that time he had plenty of help, and Frick was speedily flattened out. On his feet again, Frick was very angry indeed, and panted insults and threats at Tubb’s retreating back until Beech silenced him.

Unaware that he had aroused Frick’s wrath, Tubb trotted back to his position. Two savage attacks on the First Team’s line netted but four yards and then Stover punted. Tubb was spilled trying to stop the opposing end and was climbing to his feet when the Second’s stragglers streamed past. Among them was Frick, for some reason later in getting down the field than he should have been. Only a few saw what happened as Frick reached Tubb, for most eyes were fixed on Noyes as he got under the ball. Toby, however, saw from where he sat on the bench, for Frick’s performance was of more interest to him than any one’s else, and just now Toby was wondering why his rival was almost the last in the pursuit. Tubb, in the act of raising himself from the ground, did not see Frick’s approach, nor, since he was unsuspecting, would he have heeded it if he had seen it. Frick had set a course that led him past the other, and now, as he reached him, he swerved a pace and brought one heavily-shod foot against Tubb’s ribs just under the left shoulder. It was as deliberate a thing as Toby had ever seen, and unconsciously he jumped to his feet with an exclamation of disgust. Tubb, supported at the moment on his left hand, dropped instantly to the turf and rolled over on his back, his legs drawn up in pain. Frick was already well down the field. Toby and Lovett, a substitute end, ran on together. Tubb was white-faced and gasping, both hands clasped to his side.

“Some one—kicked me,” he whispered. “I’ll be—all right in a—minute.”

“It was Frick,” exclaimed Lovett indignantly. “I saw it. He ought to get chucked!”

“Frick!” gasped Tubb wonderingly. “What—for?”

By that time Andy Ryan was there with pail and sponge and Toby and Lovett went back to the bench, the latter still sputtering.

“He’s a poisonous pup, anyway, Tucker, and I hope Tubb goes after him and gets him for that!”

“Well, I wouldn’t say much about it,” counseled Toby. “It’ll only make trouble. It’s between the two of them now. Let them settle it.”

“Sure, it isn’t my funeral,” Lovett agreed, “though I don’t see why you’re so anxious about Frick. If Mr. Burtis had seen it Frick would be off for keeps, and you’d have quarter-back cinched, Tucker.”

“Well, I don’t want to cinch it that way, I guess. Besides, it may have been an accident. I know it didn’t look it, but——”

“Accident your great-aunt!” jeered the other. “Why, Frick went out of his way to do it! And he sure took a chance. I’ll give him that much credit. If any one but you and I had seen it—Good-night, Mr. Frick!”

“Guess he knew every one would be looking the other way. Tubb’s up and Andy’s taking him off. Hope he didn’t get a broken rib. That was a fierce wallop he got!”

“I’d hand Roy Frick a fierce wallop if it was me,” growled Lovett. “I’d hand him about two dozen of ’em!”

Tubb was helped into his sweater and sent back to the gymnasium and the game went on. Since Frick played the half out at quarter, Toby judged that none had witnessed the incident save he and Lovett. Toby forgot it later, for in the last fifteen-minute half he went in on the Second and had his hands and his mind too full of other things. But that some one still remembered was evident when Toby got back to his room after practice. George Tubb had left a note.

Toby guessed what the something was and wondered whether he was to be asked to bear a challenge to Roy Frick! He rather wished that Tubb had selected some one else to consult, but he went nevertheless, climbing the second flight in Whitson as soon after supper as he judged Tubb had returned to Number 31. He found both Tubb and Ramsey at home, but Horace went out after a few minutes, possibly by request. Tubb, reflected Toby, was quite a different looking boy from the one whose cut lip he had plastered on the train that afternoon some five weeks ago. For one thing, he looked a deal cleaner! And he was rather more carefully dressed. But the real change was deeper, Toby thought. Tubb’s attitude toward his fellows and his school life had undergone a change already, and the end was not yet; and the fact was manifested in his expression and his speech. Tubb had gained in self-respect, Toby concluded. Physically, too, he had altered, and for the better, for football work had straightened his shoulders, made his flesh look harder and his eyes clearer and removed the unhealthy pallor from his face. On the whole, Toby got quite a lot of satisfaction from his study of George W. Tubb this evening.

But it was a very serious Tubb who confronted Toby when the door had closed behind Horace Ramsey. There was very evidently something on the Tubb mind. Toby waited in silence and after a moment Tubb began. “That fellow with you this afternoon—Lovett, wasn’t it?—said it was Frick who kicked me in the side. Did you see him do it, Tucker?”

“Why—well, yes, I did, Tubb. Of course it was probably an accident——”

“How could it have been?” Tubb’s old scowl returned for an instant. “He had the whole field, didn’t he? He needn’t have run over me! No, I guess what happened was that he got mad because I stopped him from running the punt back that time. I guess he’s got a bad temper, Frick. Well, anyway, what I wanted to ask you is this. What’s the right way to go after him? They say faculty won’t stand for fighting, but of course a fellow’s got to pull a scrap sometimes. I’m going to get Frick for this, but I don’t want to get fired, you see. He isn’t worth it.”

“Of course he isn’t,” agreed Toby heartily. “And I’m afraid you would get—well, maybe not fired, Tubb, but put on probation at least if faculty found out.”

“And probation would lose me my place on the team, wouldn’t it? That’s what I supposed. Well, then, how would you go about it, Tucker? So as not to be nabbed, I mean.”

“Why, I don’t know. Why not—well, why not forget it, Tubb? After all a fellow who does things like that harms himself more than he does any one else, and——”

“Yah!” interrupted Tubb rudely. “Sunday school stuff, Tucker! I’ll bet you wouldn’t talk that way if it was you who had half a dozen sore ribs some guy had given you!”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t,” granted Toby, “but I’d hesitate a long time before I’d risk probation for the sake of fighting him! And that’s what you’d better do.”

“Listen here, Tucker,” replied the other earnestly. “I’m going to get even with that fellow. I didn’t give him any cause to kick my ribs in. Even if I had, he’d no right to do it when I was down like that. What I want to know is how you fight a fellow here. I guess there are fights: I never heard of a school where they didn’t pull ’em off now and then.” Tubb viewed Toby hopefully.

“Maybe there are,” said Toby, “but I’ve never seen one. I suppose fellows get off by themselves somewhere sometimes,” he continued vaguely. “But if faculty hears of it——”

“Have to risk that,” said Tubb, more cheerfully. He was silent a moment. Then: “Of course what I wanted to do was wait around at the gym this afternoon and hand him a few, but I had a hunch that Lyle or some one would be there and get peeved. So I didn’t. Then this evening I caught him grinning at me in commons once. That grin’s going to cost him something, believe me, Tucker!”

“But look here, Tubb,” said Toby practically, “Frick’s two years older than you, I guess, and he’s bigger and heavier, and fellows say he’s a scrapper. I don’t know how good you are, but——” Toby cast a dubious glance over the other’s rather meager frame—“it’s something to think about, isn’t it?”

“How long did you think about it when Frick got gay with you down at the field the other day?” asked Tubb, with a twinkle in his eye.

“Not at all,” answered Toby, smiling. “But then, there wasn’t time!”

“Huh! Well, don’t you worry about me, Tucker. I can handle that big bully. I’ve had to scrap all my life, pretty near, and I know the tricks. Besides, I’ve got right on my side, ain’t—haven’t I? And that counts, doesn’t it?”

“It ought to,” the other agreed, “but I wouldn’t count too much on it.”

“Where does Frick room?” asked Tubb after a moment.

“I don’t know.” Toby frowned a minute. Then: “Look here, Tubb, let’s talk sense,” he expostulated. “Never mind whether faculty finds out or doesn’t. You say you’re willing to risk that. But if you beat Frick up or if he beats you up, Tom Fanning will hear of it, even if the coaches don’t. And Fanning will drop you from the team like a—a hot potato!”

“I don’t see why he should,” Tubb objected. “It’s not his affair, Tucker.”

“Why isn’t it? It’s his affair if you or any other fellow on the team breaks training. If Frick lays you up for a day or two——”

“Huh! Like to see him do it!”

“Never mind, it’s possible. You’d be a fat lot of use to the team, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s where it becomes Fan’s business, Tubb. Just as long as you’re on the team it’s your duty to go by the rules.”

“Is there any rule saying you mustn’t knock a fellow down after he’s kicked you in the slats?”

“Don’t be a chump! No, there isn’t, but there’s a general rule that says you must keep yourself in trim so you’ll be able to do your best for the team and the school. And when you fight another chap you’re taking chances you haven’t the right to take. Besides, Tubb, there’s another thing. You’re disturbing the—the——”

“Well, didn’t Frick disturb the same thing, whatever it is, when he kicked me this afternoon? Think he helped keep me in trim, like you say? Well, I don’t!”

“Frick took an awful chance and got away with it, but I don’t think that’s any reason you should. Hang it, Tubb, you’ve made the First Team and you’ve got a great chance of playing against Broadwood, and that’s something a lot of fellows would give their eye-teeth for! Don’t go and spoil it by having a mix-up with this chap. If you must get even with him, wait until the football season’s over, anyway. He won’t get away.”

Tubb scowled. “I might forget it by that time,” he objected.

Toby laughed. “All the better then! Take a chance on that, anyhow. Will you?”

Tubb hesitated, the scowl still lingering. At last: “I might,” he answered, “I’ll see.” Then, after a moment: “I’d sort of hate to lose my job with the team, Tucker,” he said frankly, “and that’s a fact. You could have knocked me flat with a feather when they yanked me onto the First. I—I guess I talked a lot of rot about ‘pull’ and that sort of thing, because there wasn’t any pull about my getting on the First, was there? It was just my playing. Not that I think I’m anything wonderful, Tucker. Halliday’s better than I am, and maybe Meadows is, too, but I’m going to beat him out for the place if I bust a leg doing it!”

“That’s the way to talk,” approved Toby warmly. “And if you feel that way about it, Tubb, I don’t see how you can think of risking your chance. Why, Frick isn’t worth it!”

“Maybe that’s so,” agreed Tubb thoughtfully. “Just the same, if that pup looks cross-eyed at me again, or tries to get fresh——”

“Keep out of his way,” laughed Toby.

“Huh! I guess not! He’d think I was scared of him.”

“Let him. After the Broadwood game you can show him you’re not. That’s a bargain, then?”

“I don’t promise,” said Tubb, “but as long as he behaves himself I guess I’ll let him alone. Say, Tucker, I suppose you wouldn’t want to—to sort of explain to him how it is, eh? So he wouldn’t think he was getting away with it!”

“Frankly, I would not, Tubb,” answered Toby, smiling. “Just forget all about him and remember Broadwood. That’s your game!”