"I've been wanting to have a little chat with you for some time, Nick," the other hastened to say; "but somehow every chance I got something would interfere, and the best I could do was to wave my hand, or give you a nod. Now this morning, just as I started to skate through the crowd to say something important to you, the coach called me back and said they were ready to start play. Do you know what it was I meant to ask of you this morning, Nick?"
Nick looked puzzled and curious also.
"I might guess it in a week, Hugh," he said, grinning; "but not right away. You see, I ain't used to having anybody ask things of me. It's generally been a scowl, and a suspicious look, as if they thought I mean to play a trick on 'em if they so much as turned their heads on me. But then that's just what I used to do often enough; so I oughtn't to complain. What did you want with me, Hugh?"
"I was going to ask you to stand by during the entire game, because, in case one of my players was hurt so badly that he'd have to be dropped out, rather than cut both sides down to six, I meant to put you in as substitute, no matter what position had to be filled."
Nick caught his breath. His face flushed, and a glow appeared in his eyes. That expression of confidence shown in Hugh's words filled his aching heart with new encouragement. Hugh could see the muscles of his cheeks working, as though he found it difficult to control his emotions. Then Nick spoke.
"That was mighty kind in you, Hugh, to think of me," he said, with just a suspicious quiver to his voice. "I'd sure liked to have played in that game; but do you think it'd have been wise to have picked me for a substitute when there were plenty of other fellows on the ice competent to take the place?"
"Not one able to fill your shoes, Nick, and they know it," asserted
Hugh stoutly.
"But then if you'd done that there'd sure have been a howl raised later on by lots of folks who still have it in for me because of the past," urged Nick, though it could be easily seen that he felt particularly pleased by what the captain of the Scranton High Seven had just told him.
"Let them howl," Hugh went on to say. "There never yet was a fellow who nobly redeemed his past but what a bunch of wolves set up a howl on his heels. Don't you pay any attention to those fellows, Nick. Stick to your game through thick and thin. Every day you go on as you have been doing you win fresh friends. Even Mr. Leonard, who used to fairly detest you, is now singing your praises; and Dr. Carmack told me he was pinning his faith on you. He's a long-headed man, Nick, a very far-seeing man, who knows boys and is not easily deceived. He believes in you; so do I, and a lot of other fellows. You're going to make good, and I know it."
"Well, I'm going to keep on fighting, that's all I can say, Hugh," replied Nick grimly. "I'll get there, or bust the biler trying. But sometimes I have an awful time with myself, just because I can't wholly believe folks will respect a chap who's done as many mean things as I have in the past."