Hansel found this note in the rack the next forenoon. Coming out of Academy Three after a geometry recitation at twelve, he ran into Phin and the two walked over to Hansel’s room together and discussed the events of the evening before and the meaning of Mr. Ames’s summons.

“He probably sent my note to the house,” said Phin thoughtfully. “I wonder whether he’s for or against us. Perhaps Bert and his crowd have asked him to call us down. Well——”

“O Phin!” called a fellow across the campus. “Folsom asked me to tell you he wanted you to come up to his room this afternoon.”

“All right, Billy; much obliged. Harry’s probably a bit excited,” continued Phin grimly. “I hope it won’t make him worse.”

Hansel was inclined to be elated over last evening’s skirmish, but Phin rather discouraged him.

“I don’t believe a fourth of the fellows cared a rap for the principle of the thing,” he said. “But they liked to see a fuss and were glad of an excuse for not pledging money.”

“But there was only about four hundred dollars pledged,” answered Hansel. “Surely that won’t be enough to pay the expenses of the team and Cameron’s tuition for the rest of the year.”

“No, it won’t, I guess; I don’t believe they’ll be able to afford to hand over ninety dollars of it to him. But it doesn’t help us much just at present, for Cameron’s tuition is paid up to Christmas; even if he has to get out then, he can play football all he wants to meanwhile.”

“That’s so,” said Hansel ruefully. “I had forgotten that.”

“It may keep him from coming back next year, though. And that’s what I had in mind when I decided to start things going last night. It didn’t enter my head until after the meeting had been called to order. Then it dawned on me that here was a chance too good to waste. I was afraid you wouldn’t understand what was wanted, though, when I’d read that ‘team expense’ item. But you did. By the way, we’ve got one new convert, anyway. Spring was down to see me this morning before I was through breakfast. You know he’s editor of The Record, and he says he’s going to write a hot editorial for the next issue, which comes out next week. I told him to go ahead, but I don’t believe it will amount to much.”

“But he seemed earnest enough last night?”

“Oh, Spring’s earnest enough, but you see The Record’s censored by the faculty, and if they don’t want a thing to appear, it doesn’t. And I don’t believe they’d let anything very vigorous get in for fear it would hurt the reputation of the school.”

“Oh, I see. Well, say, you stop here to-night and we’ll go over to see Ames together. I’ll be ready at seven, if you like.”

“All right. And I mustn’t forget to call on Harry this afternoon. I dare say he’s wild about it.”

But Phin found when he made his visit that he hadn’t done justice to the manager’s sense of humor. Harry seemed to think that it was a pretty good joke, and wasn’t satisfied until Phin had told his story of the mass meeting.

“Bert was up here this forenoon,” said Harry with a chuckle. “He’s red-headed, frothing at the mouth. Says it was all my fault; that I shouldn’t have given you the statement, that I had no business being sick, and a lot more poppycock. But, thunder! how was I to know you were going to read that statement? I thought you just wanted to have it in case somebody began asking questions. I wish I could have been there—in the back of the hall, I mean—and heard it all. Billy Cutler says Field looked just as though he was sitting on a hot stove!”

“I’m sorry if I’ve got you into trouble, Harry, but the chance was too good a one to let go by. And Hansel Dana——”

“Hansel Dana!” interrupted Harry with a grin. “There it is! He’s at the bottom of the whole shindy. Say, that fellow’s playing hob, isn’t he? He’ll have the whole school topsy-turvy if he keeps on! He’s woozy on the subject of ‘clean athletics,’ ‘school honor,’ and all the rest of it. He’s a perfect idiot, but you can’t help liking him.”

“You don’t think that, Harry,” said Phin gravely. “You know well enough that he’s right.”

“Right? Well, maybe he is right, but, great Scott! what’s the use of raising Cain about it? Why can’t he be satisfied with being right? What is it about virtue being its own reward? Besides, it’s all perfectly useless; Billy Cameron’s tuition is all paid for the term, and nothing on earth can stop him from playing football now!”

“We’re working for next year, Harry.”

“That’s all right then,” said the other heartily. “Go ahead; you have my blessing. I shan’t be here next year. But just at present I’m manager of the old team and I don’t want it beaten.”

“Neither do we,” said Phin quietly; “but we want it to win honestly.”

“You’re getting it, too,” said Harry sadly. “I shall have to stop associating with you chaps; first thing I know I’ll be as crazy as you are!”

“Wish you were,” answered Phin smilingly. “We need help. How are you coming on, by the way?”

“Physically I am doing very well, thank you; recovering strength, appetite, and the use of my limbs; Doc says I can go out to-morrow; but I am troubled in mind, Phin; it worries me to see you becoming a victim to Hanselitis.”

Hansel dropped in just before dinner time, after Phin was gone, and he, too, had to tell of last evening’s proceedings. And he had to listen to very much the same remarks that had been made for Phin’s benefit. But when Harry made the statement that nothing could prevent Cameron from playing football, Hansel took him up.

“You wait and see,” he said oracularly.

“Sure, I’ll wait and see,” answered Harry cheerfully. “Maybe you’d like to bet on it, Hansel.”

“I don’t bet.”

“All right, then I’ll do the betting. If Billy doesn’t play in the Fairview game I’ll give you—what do you want?”

“Well,” said Hansel, looking about the study, “I need a good sweater. I’ll take that white one over there on the couch.”

“Done! The old thing’s got me into trouble enough already, and you can have it if— But I don’t believe you’ll own it.”

“You wait and see.”

“Get out, you old raven!” laughed Harry.

Hansel didn’t much think the white sweater would ever come into his possession, himself, but there’s nothing to be gained by acknowledging defeat beforehand, and, besides, he felt rather hopeful and pleased this evening. In the first place, if Phin and he had accomplished no more they had at least stirred things up, for all day long the chief subject of discussion among the students of Beechcroft Academy had been the mass meeting and the status of the star half back. And, in the second place, Hansel had suffered public martyrdom, and there’s nothing like martyrdom to bolster up one’s self-respect and increase one’s self-importance. When he had reached the green that afternoon he had quickly noticed a difference in the attitude of the other members of the football team. It was not that they showed animosity, but they apparently viewed him distrustfully and seemed to avoid him as though he had suddenly become an outsider.

When the line-up for the short game came, Hansel found himself relegated to the position of right end on the second team. It was evident that Mr. Ames did not approve, and there followed a long discussion between him and Bert. But in the end the coach shrugged his shoulders as though persuaded, but not convinced, and Hansel went on to the second and played there all during the short practice. He was on his mettle, and the way he “made rings around Cutler,” to use the popular expression, was highly pleasing to his adherents, of whom there were not a few among the audience that followed the play. Hansel knew, and every other fellow there knew, that his banishment to the scrub team was in the nature of a public disgrace as punishment for siding against Cameron. If there had been any doubt in his mind on this point, it would have been speedily dispelled when he reached his room after his visit to Harry.

“Well,” asked Bert, who was getting himself ready for supper, “how do you like the scrub?”

“All right,” answered Hansel calmly.

“Glad you like it. For that’s where you’ll probably play. We can’t have fellows on the first eleven who are trying to get us beaten.”

“Don’t you worry about me, Bert,” replied Hansel. “I can take what’s coming to me. You won’t hear any kicking if I stay on the second from now until I leave school.”

“Well, you would stay there if I had my way,” growled Bert angrily.

At a few minutes after seven Phin and Hansel knocked on the door of Mr. Ames’s study on the first floor of Weeks. As soon as they were comfortably seated the coach plunged into his subject.

“I’ve asked you fellows around here,” he said, “because I want to know just what you’re up to; and I want you to tell me fairly and squarely.”

Hansel looked toward Phin and the latter accepted the office of spokesman. He told Mr. Ames just what they hoped to do, why they wanted to do it, and what they had accomplished already. And the instructor heard him through without an interruption. When Phin had ended, Mr. Ames was silent for a moment. Then,

“Thanks, Dorr,” he said gravely. “I’m glad to know this. And what is the sentiment of the school on the subject?”

“Divided, sir. I think most of the fellows don’t care one way or the other.”

“I dare say not. Dorr, there’s been a big change in the spirit of the school during the time that I’ve been here as instructor. Five years ago Cameron couldn’t have played on the team for a moment. I don’t know just what or where the trouble has been, but I do know that we’ve been getting laxer and laxer right along as regards athletics. There have been two or three things done here during the last three years which you fellows have probably never heard of. And, by the way, what I am telling you to-night is quite between us three, if you please. I don’t like this sort of thing any better than you do, and several times I have made myself unpopular by trying to correct it. But for the last two years I’ve been drifting along with the crowd; it’s a thankless task to pull a lone oar against the current, and there hasn’t been the help from—” The instructor pulled himself up abruptly. “But that’s no matter. Now what I want to know is why you fellows haven’t come to me before this and asked my assistance.”

“Well, sir,” answered Phin after a moment’s hesitation, “we thought it would hardly be fair. You’re coach, and, of course, you want to turn out a good team, one that will beat Fairview, and it seemed to us that to ask you to—to——”

“In short, Dorr, you and Dana thought I’d rather defeat Fairview than help you? Well, let me tell you, and you, too, Dana, that I don’t give a hang who wins. This may sound strange to you, but it’s a fact, nevertheless. I’ve watched things pretty closely for several years, and I’ve just about reached the conclusion that the school that wins more than a fair share of athletic contests is in a good way to slide downhill. There is nothing, it seems, so demoralizing to a school or college as a reputation for winning in football year after year. It brings a flood of undesirable material to the school and the morale suffers in consequence. Fellows who come here because they want to play football on a winning team aren’t the fellows we want. They introduce the ‘win-at-any-cost’ spirit, and its that spirit, as you fellows know, that causes just the sort of trouble we’re experiencing here now. ‘Win at any cost’ means trickery and dishonesty.”

“You fellows can count on me, but you must recollect that I am in a difficult position. I can’t put Cameron off the team; he would appeal to Dr. Lambert, in which case he would, I fancy, be reinstated. In fact, there is very little chance of doing away with Cameron this year. Perhaps if you succeed in changing the sentiment of the school from the present one of apathy and worse to one of opposition to unfair methods in athletics, you will have done enough for this year. In fact, you’ve got to begin at the bottom and lay your foundation; once establish a principle of athletic purity and fellows like Cameron won’t trouble you. It isn’t Cameron that’s to blame, but the spirit of the school.”

“We know that, sir,” said Hansel. “I wish we didn’t have to interfere with him; he’s so—such a good sort, I think.”

“He is,” said the coach heartily. “He’s one of the best-hearted chaps here. I don’t believe he would willingly hurt a fly; but for all that he isn’t capable of seeing anything out of the way in his position here. He would probably be highly indignant were you to suggest to him that his presence on the team was not quite square.”

“Speaking of beginning at the bottom, Mr. Ames,” said Hansel. “I was talking to Folsom the other day, and he said he thought the trouble was with the colleges; that they weren’t strict, and that the schools naturally copied their methods.”

“There’s something in that,” answered the instructor, “but not a great deal. I don’t think the college’s example influences the school very much. What does harm, however, is the frantic hunt for material at the school on the part of the college captain, or coach, or trainer. That’s something that ought to be stopped. The competition becomes so keen when a good athlete is at stake that if the good athlete has a tendency toward crookedness he can get most anything he wants. I don’t mean that he can command a salary, but he can secure the equivalent in scholarships, or employment at wages out of all proportion to the services.”

“That’s so,” said Phin. “And I think there must be more in Harry’s theory of example than you think. Aren’t we doing just about the same thing for Cameron?”

“Well, that’s a fact, but I’m not willing to lay the blame on the colleges,” answered Mr. Ames. “The incongruous feature of it is,” he continued, “that the fellows who connive at such things are usually fellows who would spurn the suggestion of a dishonest action. It’s a case of distorted point of view, I fancy. Now, as I say, I can’t take the law into my hands and disqualify Cameron on the grounds we’ve discussed, but if you can work school opinion around so that there will be a demand for his removal, I’ll do my part. I’d hate to have to hurt Cameron, but I wouldn’t let personal liking or team success interfere.”

“I’m afraid school opinion can’t be altered in a moment,” said Phin.

“Perhaps not, but why not ask a few of the most prominent and influential fellows to meet some evening, put the case before them and see what they think about it? If there was sufficient support pledged, you might call a mass meeting to take action on the subject; even if you lost, you would have made a stride in the right direction; the more you make the fellows think about the question the nearer you must be to your goal, for any fellow who considers the thing fairly will have to acknowledge that it’s all wrong.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Phin. “That seems a good idea. Would you attend the first meeting?”

Mr. Ames hesitated.

“It may look to you like cowardice, Dorr,” he said finally, “but I’d rather not. It seems to me that I ought to preserve neutrality as far as is possible. Besides, I don’t think it would be wise to bring the faculty element into such a meeting; you fellows could do more on your own initiative.”

“Very well, sir, we’ll try it.”

“And I wish you luck,” said Mr. Ames as the boys arose. “Come around whenever you can and report progress. And whatever I can do for you I will. Oh, by the way, I wouldn’t expect too much of that editorial in The Record; it’s just possible the faculty will think it, too—er—strong. You understand? Good night!”

The meeting was duly called and met in Spring’s study, in Weeks. The attendance was not encouragingly large; out of twenty-eight fellows invited by Phin, thirteen appeared. Phin, Hansel, and Spring all spoke. It was difficult at first for the audience to eliminate the personal element from the matter, and the general sentiment seemed to be that “it was hard lines on Billy Cameron.” Ultimately, however, most of them consented to look at the subject from an abstract point of view, after Phin and Hansel had assured them time and again that there was nothing against Cameron personally, and that it was the principle of the thing they were concerned with. When the meeting broke up there were six certain converts, most of them fellows whose names carried weight, and some of the others had consented to “think it over”; these latter promised in any event to attend the mass meeting which, it was decided, was to be called for the following Saturday night. On the whole, Hansel and Phin were encouraged.

Meanwhile the former had been reinstated on the first team. The powers, represented by Bert, came to the conclusion that two days of disgrace was all that could be afforded, owing to the fact that there was no one who could fill the culprit’s place at right end. Hansel went cheerfully back to his position and, as always, played as hard as he knew how. Cameron, who had been laid off because of injuries received in practice, was back again once more at right half, and got into things in a way which showed that his enforced idleness had done him good. The team as a whole was coming fast now, and there was hope among the more sanguine of a victory over Warren. The game with Warren school was not considered nearly so important as the contest with Fairview, and, coming as it did only two weeks before the final contest, it frequently happened that the game was purposely sacrificed in order to spare the light blue players for the supreme conflict. But for all that the Warren game was worth winning, and a decisive victory for Beechcroft was considered conclusive proof of the team’s ability to cope with Fairview. This year the wearers of the light blue were in unusually good physical condition, were well advanced and, it was understood, would enter the Warren game with a determination to win. That game was not quite two weeks distant.