By the end of the first week of the term Evan had settled down into his appointed groove and school routine was in full swing. At lessons Evan was neither a dullard nor a wonder; just an average student. He soon found that if he gave a fair amount of time to study he got on very well in class, and that if he didn’t he met with trouble. Having a good fund of common sense he decided to keep out of trouble. At first it wasn’t easy to buckle down in the evenings to study, for Rob was a disturbing factor. Rob had a fashion of spending the study-hour in working on his marvelous inventions and then burning the “midnight juice,” as he called the electric-light, until all hours. But after a while Evan got used to Rob’s interruptions and accustomed to going asleep with the light shining in his face. Rob squirmed through recitations somehow, just how Evan couldn’t comprehend, and didn’t let the thought of impending examinations worry him. At present Rob was very busy with a combined comb and brush for the use of travelers, the comb working on a pivot at the end of the brush-handle and snapping back along the top of the brush when not in use. Rob was convinced that the invention was destined to great success and spent many hours of his time making drawings of it. He had discarded the foot-scraper, having discovered that the cost of manufacturing it would prohibit its use to all save millionaires.

Meanwhile the foot-ball situation remained practically unchanged. The team was still occupied with the rudiments, and day after day the candidates were falling on the ball, tackling, blocking, breaking through, passing, kicking and catching. Had there been any system apparent Evan and some of the other dissatisfied ones might have commended such a thorough schooling in preliminary work. But as it was the work was gone through with in a perfunctory way and no one seemed to understand the reason for anything. Hopkins took a hand now and then, but for the most part was content to superintend practice from the side-lines, leaving the brunt of the instruction to his three lieutenants, Carter and Ward and Connor. The Second Team had organized and Gus Devens was captain, and Evan, after four homeless days, found himself playing substitute end on that team. It was a new position to him and truth compels me to state that so far he hadn’t covered himself with glory. It is possible that in the course of time, had he had any one to coach him, he might have developed into a good end. As it was, however, he had to teach himself by watching the other ends and reading what he could find regarding the duties of his position. The School Team’s first game was only a week away, and while it wasn’t an important one Evan, for his part, couldn’t see that the team was any nearer being a team than it had been the first day of practice. He confided as much to Jelly one afternoon when they were changing their togs after practice. Jelly was strenuously trying for a guard position on the Second and was plumb full of enthusiasm.

“Why, they don’t know a thing yet,” he replied ecstatically, referring to the members of the First Team. “You wait until they get into a scrimmage with us. I’ll bet we’ll rip them all up the back the first try!”

“What sort of a team has Cardiff got?” asked Evan.

“Oh, they don’t amount to anything. They don’t give us much more of a game than we’d get in practice. They’re a light lot; just easy pickings.”

“Well, what is the first real hard game on the schedule?”

“Mountfort High,” answered Jelly promptly. “Two weeks from Saturday. Last year the best we could do was to tie them; 10 to 10, it was; and it was a hard old game, too.”

“Do you think our team’s as good this year as it was last?” Evan inquired. Jelly studied a moment.

“I guess so,” he replied finally. “But how can any one tell when they haven’t been in action yet? Why doesn’t Hopkins get a move on and have a scrimmage? He’s daffy this year about ‘grounding the team in the rudiments of the game’; I heard him spouting to Prentiss about it yesterday.”

“It’s a fine thing,” said Evan dryly, “to know the rudiments, but it seems to me that a little squad work wouldn’t be a bad idea, to say nothing of getting the team together in a scrimmage once in a while.”

“That’s what I say,” replied Jelly importantly. “Gus is going to have us away ahead of the First if Hopkins doesn’t watch out.”

Perhaps Jelly’s prediction came to the captain’s ear. At all events, the following afternoon the First, or School, team began signal practice, and two days later the first scrimmage of the year took place. Devens had done his work pretty well and the Second was successful in standing off the First during two ten-minute periods. Evan played at left end for a few minutes toward the finish of the last half and made rather a mess of it. He recognized the fact and wished that some one might tell him where his mistakes were. But there was no one to do it save Captain Devens, and Devens had too much on his hands already. The quota of candidates had swollen to over forty and just before the first contest, that with the Cardiff High School, Hopkins made his final cut, retaining seventeen candidates. Devens went over what was left and retained fifteen in all. The School Team, as it lined up against Cardiff on Wednesday afternoon, contained five of last years veterans, while the rest had played on the Second.

The game was not exciting, Cardiff proving to be weak in every department. On the other hand, Riverport carried off few honors. Law’s punting was good and Hopkins at left guard, and Reid at right tackle showed that they had not forgotten how to play. But the line, as a whole, was slow and listless, and against a faster team would have made a sorry showing. The backfield was rather a farce, if we except Joe Law at left. Miller, the quarter, was neither brilliant nor steady, and in the second half, in which Cardiff showed for a few minutes a flash of real form, Hopkins ran the team himself. In the last few minutes of play every substitute was used, and Grove, who replaced Miller, seemed to put some drive into the play. On the whole the game was featureless and rather valueless, since the opponents were not strong enough to show up Riverport’s real weaknesses. However, nothing much is expected of the first contest, and Hopkins seemed well enough satisfied. At least, there was little criticism from him. Prentiss, who spent his time making memoranda on the side-line, had a good deal to say afterwards and was generous with stricture. But nobody paid much attention to Prentiss. He wasn’t popular and the players resented his meddling, since, as he didn’t play the game himself, he wasn’t presumed to know much about how it should or shouldn’t be played.

On Thursday Evan was tried at end again on the Second. He did a trifle better, but Devens soon took him out in favor of Abbott and he spent the rest of the scrimmage sitting disgruntled on the side-line. Later, in the gymnasium, Devens came over to him.

“You don’t seem to fit in at end, Kingsford,” he began kindly enough. “You never played there much, eh?”

“Never until the other day,” answered Evan soberly. “I told you when I started in that quarter or half was my line.” Devens nodded.

“I remember, but we have pretty good halfs and a good quarter. So I thought maybe I could make an end of you. What do you think? Want to try it some more?” Evan thought a minute. Then,

“I don’t believe it’s much use,” he said frankly. “If there was some one to coach me a bit I think I could get the hang of it, but there isn’t. I’d like to get a show at quarter, Devens; I think I could make good there.”

“Well, we’ll see. There’s lots of time yet. You hang on, Kingsford.”

So Evan “hung on,” and, although the opportunity to prove himself at quarter-back didn’t at once present itself, he gradually became a more useful member of the Second. He began to push Abbott and Robins, the first string ends, fairly hard, for he had speed, was certain on his feet and tackled hard and surely. But there are niceties connected with the position of end that Evan didn’t know, and there was no one to tell him. Somerset High School was barely defeated 6 to 5. Riverport managed to score on a blocked kick and subsequently made the 5 a 6 by kicking a nice goal. Somerset made her score by hard work and only a narrow miss at goal saved her opponent from a tie game. In the last half Grove went in in place of Miller at quarter and, although not individually brilliant, ran the team in good shape and showed some generalship. It was difficult, though, to determine just what amount of credit was due to Grove and what amount to Hopkins, for the captain was always taking a hand in the running of the team.

The Somerset game was on Saturday and for the following week the team was put through hard practice in preparation for the Mountfort contest. On Tuesday Evan had his first chance at quarter, Devens sending him in with the second squad for signal practice and later putting him into the scrimmage for some ten minutes. He did well enough considering that he had not played the position before for a year, and got speed out of the Second. But he was a little uncertain on signals and, with the Second on the First’s twenty yard-line and the ball in their possession, made an error of judgment that lost them a possible score. The Second had been making its ten yards in three downs for some minutes through the right side of the opponent’s line and there was apparently no reason to suppose that it could not continue to do so and cover that last twenty yards. But on the second down Evan called for a forward pass, got it off nicely and then saw Robins miss it on the five yard-line. If the play had worked Evan would have been commended for his daring. As it failed he got only criticism. Devens could find no fault, since he had not protested against the play, and I think that he would have given Evan other chances in the position had not Evan made that impossible for the time by falling on the steps of the gymnasium the next afternoon and turning his ankle. It was a bad twist, and for the next week he was out of togs, limping around at first with bandages and later with a rubber anklet.

He gave up his last hope then and accepted the inevitable as cheerfully as he could. Devens was honestly sorry for him and told him so, but Evan noticed that he didn’t say anything about staying in training and coming back to the team. So he nursed his injury and looked forward to the middle of October, when the dormitory teams would be formed to fight for the School Championship. Rob was sympathetic, and so was Malcolm, but they each treated the affair with a sort of I-told-you-so smugness that grated.