THE MEETING WITH HIXLEY HIGH
Football talk now filled the air at Colby Hall, and for the time being most of the cadets forgot about how the Rovers had been treated on the lake by Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown.
Nappy was particularly angry, because of the way he had been treated by Jennie Mason, on whom he had been sweet ever since they had become acquainted. Slugger, too, was hurt over what the girls had said about his meanness. But he was far more put out over the fact that he could act only as a substitute on the regular eleven, and that Gif Garrison had finally concluded to put Jack in his place. Fred had not won out for the first eleven, but Gif had told him he stood so high on the scrub that he might possibly make the team before the season came to an end.
"It's all those Rovers' fault," growled Slugger Brown to Martell.
"Of course it is!" was the unreasonable reply. "I'll tell you, Slug, we ought to do something to get square with those chaps."
"If I break loose and do that, it'll be something they'll remember as long as they live!" declared Slugger Brown, vehemently.
Nappy Martell looked at his crony knowingly, and then glanced around to see if anybody was listening.
"Let's do it right now, Slug," he said in a low voice. "I don't care what it is, so long as we can get the best of those Rovers."
"We'll think it over, Nap. This isn't to be any one-cent, every-day affair, you know."
"Right you are! I'm game for anything—just remember that!" added the other cadet.