Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
[Illustration: “Go out and play full-back as it should be played”]
LEFT END EDWARDS, QUARTER-BACK BATES, FULL-BACK FOSTER, ETC.
Copyright, 1921 By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.
CHAPTER PAGE I THE THREE GUARDSMEN 1 II KIDNAPPED! 17 III HELD BY THE ENEMY 29 IV HARMON COMES TO TERMS 37 V THE WRONG BOY 53 VI FIRST DAYS AT ALTON 65 VII IN THE COACH’S ROOM 76 VIII THE BOY IN THE GREEN SWEATER 87 IX MCNATT ON SCIENCE 101 X ALTON SQUEEZES THROUGH 116 XI THE FIRST DEFEAT 128 XII “DO YOUR BEST” 146 XIII A FORTY-YARD RUN 157 XIV ONIONS! 167 XV MARTIN CALLS QUITS 180 XVI DIPLOMACY 193 XVII MCNATT JOINS THE TEAM 213 XVIII REVENGE! 227 XIX BLACK PAINT 239 XX EVIDENCE 250 XXI BOB SAYS SO 262 XXII ON PROBATION 274 XXIII MCNATT TRIES PHOTOGRAPHY 287 XXIV ALTON CELEBRATES 302
“Go out and play full-back as it should be played” _Frontispiece_
“You don’t come that, Harmon! That’s off! You hear me?” 54
One brief instant they tarried to admire 242
At a few minutes past three o’clock on a particularly warm afternoon in late September of last year three boys removed themselves and their luggage from the top of a Fifth Avenue stage in New York City and set forth eastward along Forty-second Street. Although decidedly dissimilar in looks and slightly dissimilar in build, they showed, nevertheless, a certain uniformity of carriage and action and, to a lesser degree, of attire. There was nothing strange in that, however, since, for the last two years, at least, they had spent nine months of the twelve in the same place, at the same pursuits and under the same discipline. The likeness of attire was less in material and color than in a certain tasteful avoidance of the extremes. Joe Myers and Martin Proctor wore blue serge and Bob Newhall a brownish-gray tweed, and in no case was the coat snugged in to the figure or adorned with a belt in conformity to the dictums of the Rochester school of sartorial art. Joe and Bob wore gray-and-gold ribbons about their straw hats, Martin a plain black. Each of the three carried a brown leather suitcase, and, had you looked closely, you would have discovered on each bag, amongst numerous other labels, a gray triangle bearing two A’s in gold snuggled together in a pyramid-shaped monogram.