  There was a hint of autumn in the air as Jerry James swung Old Faithful off the highway and up the ramp leading to Valley View. Both boys felt a deep surge of pleasure run through them as they picked out the familiar landmarks that told them they had come home again. The dusty old jalopy rolled along Ridge Road and past the March mansion. “Doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” Sandy said. “That’s what I thought,” said Jerry. “I wonder what happened to our friend Pepper.” Sandy shrugged. “I don’t know. But it sure was good spending all those weeks without him. Jerry!” he yelled. “Did you hear that?” Jerry James had, and his eyes sparkled with delight. What the two boys had heard was the unmistakable thud of a foot meeting pigskin! “Boy!” Sandy said. “I can hardly wait for school to open. Sounds funny, I know, but if the fall means school, it means football, too!” “You bet, Sandy. The only thing I missed on the Great Lakes was not having a chance to practice.” “Oh, we’ll be all right. At least, we stayed in shape.” They had. They were as hard as the decks of the James Kennedy and their bodies were burned the color of walnut. “Well, here we are,” Sandy said, as Old Faithful swung into his street. Jerry nodded. In another instant, he had mechanically lifted his foot from the gas pedal, as he always did when he approached Sandy’s house, and the jalopy had begun to slow down. Grasping his jam-packed suitcase in one hand, Sandy Steele vaulted lightly to the pavement. “See you tonight at the drugstore, Jerry,” he called, and then he turned and ran into the house. “Mom!” Sandy Steele called as the screen door slammed shut behind him. “Mom! It’s me. Sandy. I’m home!” The whole crowd from Valley View High had gathered at the James drugstore that night, and, of course, most of the talk was about how the school’s football team would fare in the league competition that season, and especially how its heroes stacked up against those from the arch rivals in Poplar City. As usual, Quiz Taylor was the center of a crowd as he spieled off the weight, height and past season’s record of nearly all the boys who would be playing for Poplar City in the coming fall. “Honestly, fellows,” he said, his round face gloomy, “I don’t see how we can beat them. Of course, we have Jerry and Sandy, but we don’t have a runner to compare with their fullback, Tomkins.” “What about Pepper March?” someone asked. “He scored six touchdowns for Valley View last year.” “Yes, Quiz,” Sandy said. “What about Pepper? Where is he, anyway? You’d think he’d be here, the night before school opens.” Quiz Taylor began to shake with laughter. “D-didn’t you hear about Pepper?” he sputtered, his face crinkling with merriment. “Haven’t you heard about what happened to Stanley Peperdine March?” “No. What happened?” “Yeah, Quiz,” someone else said. “Cut the comedy, and let us in on the joke, too.” Still chuckling, Quiz Taylor said, “Pepper won’t be home for another two weeks. A couple of the sailors aboard that ship they were on came down with one of those rare, tropical diseases. Pepper and his father had to spend the summer in quarantine.” There was a roar of laughter at the expense of the unpopular Pepper. Sandy Steele turned to his friend and said, “Well, Jerry, we may have had a stormy voyage, but I’ll bet we had a better summer than Pepper did.” |
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