“I’m afraid it’s no good,” said Varrell. “What they want is evidence complete and certain, that can’t be dodged or questioned or denied. This is proof only to those who will accept its authority; it isn’t what they call irrefragable.”
Melvin groaned. “You might at least have spared me a word like that.”
The grin stole back upon Varrell’s face. Melvin turned away indignant and disheartened.
Varrell clutched the stern-faced youth by the arm. “Dick, don’t go off mad! I’m not so useless as I seem. Come up to the room and let me show you something.”
Ten minutes later, the athletic manager came plunging down the stairs four steps at a time, his face aglow with smiles, his whole being radiant with the joy that follows a long-borne disappointment, as the sun comes forth more glorious after slow dark days of northeast storm.
“The old rascal!” he muttered; “the shrewd old foxy rascal! and he’s had the thing in his pocket all day! I felt like kicking him and hugging him at the same time. If I could only have a try at the high jump now! Couldn’t I do six feet!”
Two flights down, across the yard, two flights up! He found Dickinson with his nose in a dictionary of antiquities, packing away learning by the cubic inch. The nose came out in a trice; when it went back, a good half hour afterward, it had lost somewhat the keenness of its scent for facts, and the two eyes above it gleamed bright and determined. Thence the manager hied him home to bed, and slept nine solid, refreshing hours.
The official student representative on the Hillbury-Seaton athletic committee was the captain of the team. As Dickinson was naturally excluded from the discussion by the fact that his own name was under protest, Melvin was to take his place. He was accompanied to the station by Curtis and Varrell.
“Rub it in if you get the chance,” said Curtis, savagely. “It’s one of their tricks; don’t spare ’em.”
“I hope you’ll do no such thing,” said the pacific Varrell. “It wouldn’t be either courteous or safe. I believe they’re quite square about the thing; and you must assume that they are, anyway, even if you think differently.”