"Don't you believe it!" almost shouted coach. "Mr. Darrin, you will simply have to brace! Give us all the best that's in you, and don't for one instant allow any personal disappointments to unfit you. You'll do that, won't you?"
"Yes, sir."
Darrin certainly tried hard enough. Yet just as certainly the Navy's boosters shook their heads when they watched Darrin's work on the field.
"He has gone stale," they said. "The very worst thing that could happen to the Navy this year!"
Then came the first game of the season—-with Lehigh. Darrin roused himself all he could, and his playing was very nearly up to what might have been expected of him—-though not quite.
The visitors got away with a score of eight to five against the Navy.
Next week the Lehighs went to West Point and suffered defeat at the hands of the Army.
The news sent gloom broadcast through the Naval Academy.
"We get beaten by one of the smaller colleges, that West Point can trim," was the mournful comment.
It did, indeed, look bad for the Navy!