“He fell, Thatcher, and it looked to me like an ugly foul. That’s my decision.”
“I can’t blame you, Mr. Thomas, for he did make it look real. He’s a good fakir. If I—”
Gould, enraged now, stepped in front of the Freshman forward, and shaking his clenched fist under Thatcher’s nose, roared:
“I’ll smash your face if—”
“Stop! Enough of that. Get off the floor, both of you. You’re ruled out of the game. Hoffman, shoot the basket,” snapped the referee, realizing suddenly that he had already permitted matters to go too far.
Hoffman toed the foul line, coolly lifted the ball, took careful and accurate aim and shot it upward and forward. The sphere went whirling prettily through the air, thumped against the back board and dropped neatly through the basket. The referee’s whistle sounded. He reached for the ball to carry it to the center again when the timekeeper sounded his whistle and the game was over. The score was 15 to 14 and the Sophomores had won. Pandemonium reigned in the running track gallery where crowds of second year men cheered and stamped and whistled to the consternation of a big group of chagrined Freshmen.
Thatcher, who had lingered on the side line of the court long enough to see Hoffman shoot the basket and win the game, was joined by the four other freshman players and two substitutes and together they made their way to the spiral stairway that led to the locker room in the basement. No one spoke a word for some time until Buck Hart, the captain and center, a second year man but taking some Freshman work in class and thus eligible for the “fresh” team, crossed over to the bench on which Thatcher was sitting and slipping an arm across his shoulder affectionately, said:
“It’s a doggone shame, Jeff, but don’t you take it too hard. You were playing to win, that’s all.”
“Yes, I was playing to win, but I wasn’t playing dirty, Buck. And the worst of it is I believe Mr. Thomas still thinks I tripped him, the dirty fakir that he is.”
“Well—er—ah—he sure fell hard, Jeff. Didn’t you have something to do with it?” asked Buck.