"No help from your quarter, then, Darry," sighed Midshipman Wolgast.
"Farl, help me out. Tell me some way in which I can improve
my fitness for the post of honor that has been thrust upon me.
I assure you I didn't seek it."
"Wolgast, my objection to you has nothing personal in it," Farley went on. "With me it is a case simply of believing that Darry could lead us on the gridiron much better than you're likely to."
"That I know," retorted Wolgast, with emphasis. "But what on earth are we going to do with a fellow like Darrin? He simply won't allow himself to be made captain. I'd resign this minute, if we could have Darry for our captain."
"You're going to do all right, Wolgast. I know you are," Dave rejoined.
"Then what's the trouble? Why don't I suit all hands?" demanded the Navy's football captain.
Darrin was silent for a few moments. The midshipmen visitors waited patiently, knowing that, from this comrade, they could be sure of a wholly candid reply.
"Have you found the answer, Darry?" pressed Wolgast at last.
"Yes," said Dave slowly; "I think I have. The reason, as I see it, is that there are no decidedly star players on this year's probable eleven. The men are all pretty nearly equal, which doesn't give you a chance to tower head and shoulders above the other players. Usually, in the years that I know anything of, it has been the other way. There have been only two or three star players in the squad, and the captain was usually one of the very best. You're plenty good enough football man, Wolgast, but there are so many other pretty good ones that you don't outshine the others as much as captains of poorer teams have done in other years."
"By Jupiter! Darry has hit it!" cried Farley, leaping from his seat. "Wolly, you have the luck to command an eleven in which most of the men are nearly, if not quite, as good as the captain. You're not head and shoulders over the rest, and you don't tower—-that's all. Wolly, I apologize for my criticisms. Darry has shown me the truth."
"Then you look for a big slaughter list for us this year, Darry?"
Wolgast asked.