"It certainly has, suh," agreed the Virginian. "We're certainly going to feel the loss of Prescott and Holmes when we come to face the Navy eleven with such men as Darrin and Dalzell."
"Hang it, yes. I'm shivering already," growled Douglass. "Now, of course, we can't ask Prescott to join."
"And he wouldn't come in, suh, while in Coventry, if we asked him."
"But Holmes, who is almost as good a man, ought not to hold back where the Army's credit and honor are at stake. Holmes ought to stand for the Army, asleep or awake!"
"If I were in Holmesy's place, I wouldn't come in," rejoined the
Virginian. "I'd stay out, just as Holmesy is doing."
"But you were one of Prescott's thick friends, too."
"I'm not his roommate, or his schoolboy chum, suh. Holmesy is.
"It's hard to lose either of them," sighed Douglass, "and fierce to lose both of them. We've worked like real heroes, but I can't see any such team coming on as the Army had last year. And the Navy eleven will undoubtedly be better this year than it was last."
"The Army must stand to lose by the action of the first class," insisted Anstey doggedly.
Though every man in the corps would have thrown up his cap at the announcement that Prescott and Holmes were to play again this year, the leaders of first-class opinion could see no reason to alter their judgment of Dick. So he continued in Coventry.