“These high flyers are always the worst grafters,” said Skillen. “They’ll cheat fast enough when they have to.”
“But we changed some of the signals,” remarked Thorne, “and that outside-tackle signal that they knew was one of the new ones.”
“That was only one,” said Newbold. “They knew at least half a dozen. Callahan sold us, that’s the fact. We’ve got proof. Fritz Schaefer saw him at the Westcott grounds last Wednesday, talking with one of their men. It’s a steal. We’ll protest the game.”
“I don’t believe they did it,” said Thorne. “I know one or two of their fellows, and they aren’t that kind. Williams (the quarter-back) always gives the same numbers, anyway. No one who kept his ears open could help hearing some of them.”
“That’s right, stand up for ’em!” said Hexam, bitterly. “Go back on your own school and try to get the Westcott fellows’ favor! They may let you into one of their societies when you get to college.”
“I don’t feel as if I’d gone back on my own school much to-day,” returned Thorne, quietly. “It’s bad enough to be beaten without playing the baby.”
“It’s a steal!” Newbold reiterated. “They got our signals and won unfairly. Smith says so.”
Smith was saying so at that very moment, in strongly rhetorical language, to an eager crowd outside the quarters, including in its front rank a stout man with a diamond pin, and—on the outskirts—Mike McKay and Dickie Sumner. The high-minded president was sorely pained—not at the defeat of his school—oh, no! Nor by the anti-climax of his first gala day—certainly not! Nor by his loss of prestige with Alderman Skillen. He was pained, but only impersonally and officially, as the offended guardian of the moral majesty of the league.
“They was too smart for you, that’s about the size of it,” Mr. Skillen was saying. “If the’ isn’t any rule against buying up a coach, why, they’ve got you pinched.”
“No rule is needed,” answered President John, pompously. “The league stands for the highest ideals in sport. It won’t countenance low tricks or dishonorable methods of winning or anything at all in the games that isn’t absolutely fair and right.”