“Rowlandson will probably do very well,” reported McNatt, “but Putney isn’t the right sort for tackle, and I wish Mr. Cade would see it. He hasn’t the proper temperament, Harmon.”
“How about the backfield?” asked Willard. “How--how’s Mawson getting on?”
“Mawson is a hard worker, but he’s lighter than he should be and he’s not so clever at finding the holes as you were, Harmon,” answered McNatt judicially. “Cochran is remarkably good when at his best, but he--ah--fluctuates.”
“It doesn’t sound hopeful,” murmured Willard.
“Oh, I’ve no doubt that we will win from Kenly,” answered McNatt. “You see, since we lost Proctor and Newhall we’ve come together a lot better, and the morale of the team is much finer. Kenly, as I figure it, will enter the game fairly sure of winning. We’ll go in realizing that, while we may win it, we’ve got to play powerful football to do it. When you just have to do a thing, you do it,” concluded McNatt convincedly.
Willard considered that conclusion a moment in silence, a silence broken at length by his host. “I presume,” he said, “that there’s no hope of Newhall and Proctor--and you--getting back on before Saturday.”
“Hardly,” answered Willard, smiling wryly. “We’re on pro for the rest of the term.”
“I didn’t know,” murmured McNatt sympathetically. “Just--ah--just what was it that happened, Harmon? I don’t think I ever heard the rights of it.”
So Willard told him, giving a very complete and detailed account of the affair, and McNatt listened and nodded and blinked occasionally until he had finished. Then, after a moment’s consideration, he said: “It seems, then, that you fellows made your mistake in painting the score on the Principal’s wall. I mean, you did no worse than Hillsport did otherwise.”
“We didn’t do as much as she did,” answered Willard resentfully. “Those fellows painted the score all over the town here; more than a dozen times, I guess; we only painted it twice.”
“Yes, I recall seeing the signs,” McNatt reflected. “Has it occurred to you as possible that a proper presentation of your case has not been made to the Hillsport Principal?”
“I don’t know. Anyway, what he thinks doesn’t worry us. It’s what faculty here thinks. And they think we ought to be punished. And we are.”