“Yes,” said Evans.
“That’s a nice example to set the younger boys!” said Mortimer. “How can we make anything of the fire brigade if the fellows in the graduating class quit in an emergency like that? You ought to be put in the jug.”
The eyes of half a dozen boys standing near were on Evans, but he said nothing. The fire brigade was formally dismissed, and the boys repaired to the gymnasium where they dressed for football practice. As they were dressing, Evans spoke to no one, and no one spoke to him. In the line-up between the first and second teams, Evans, being one of the smallest on the squad, played quarterback on the second. Usually his game was not remarkable; he was criticized for too much deliberation in the choice of plays. To-day he seemed possessed; he was all over the field at once, picking up the ball on fumbles, darting through the line and gaining ground, till Mortimer, captain of the first eleven, coached his team to watch Evans and stop him. In spite of all he could do to rally his team, Evans made a touchdown which resulted in the defeat of the first eleven by the second, a humiliation it had hitherto been spared.
As the boys were walking back to the locker building in their reeking football clothes, the head-master drew Mortimer aside and said to him: “Didn’t you have your whole fire brigade on the south side of the pond?”
“Yes, sir,” said Mortimer.
“I suppose you thought the swamp on the north side would be too wet to burn, and the fire would stop there anyway,” said the head-master.
“Surely.”
“I should have thought so, too,” said the head-master; “there’s usually standing water all through there. Fortunately some one who knew better than you or I went in there and saved the pine grove. I’ve just been looking over the ground and found that the fire had gone right into the middle of the swamp to where some one had scraped away the leaves and stopped it. It was dry as tinder everywhere. Have you any idea who could have done it?”
Mortimer was staggered.
“Jim Evans was in the swamp,” he said. “It must have been he. And I called him down for not being on the job. Why didn’t he tell me?”