“Face-off!” cried the referee, diving into the mêlée and separating Scotty and Frederick, both of whom had fallen over the puck.
“You’re not mad are you?” joshed Scotty, and grinned.
As the puck was dropped between them, Scotty knocked the puck to the side. It whanged against the sideboards with Frederick again in furious pursuit. He bumped shoulders with Melville’s solidly built right defense and sat down suddenly but was up in an instant and trailing the defense man who had set off down the ice. Frederick was using his speed and his natural skating wizardry now as he glided around from behind, crouched low, hooked the puck away from the defense man, sent up a shower of ice as he swerved and did an about-face. Most of the Melville team was ahead of him as he cut back toward the Melville goal amid the wildest sort of clamor. A pop-eyed Rand Downey came sliding in from nowhere, pounding his stick on the ice.
“Shoot it to me!” he yelled, “to me!”
And Frederick shot, scooting the puck across the ice on a perfect pass.
Almost at once, Rand was covered, so that he stopped short and swung to the side.
“Right back at you!” he shouted, and backhanded the puck on a sizzling drive.
“Holy cats!” screamed Kirkwood’s veteran right wing, dancing about on his injured ankle. “Who said Freddy couldn’t play hockey? The guy’s gone goofy! He’s a whiz! Look at him spear that puck, will you? And look at him dodge in there—right on top of the goalie! Oh! Oh!... A perfect feint! He’s pulled the goalie out of his cage and there goes his shot!... It’s IN.... Man alive! Freddy’s the first to put a puck inside that Melville net!!!... Oh, am I glad I had to leave the game?... Oh, this is wonderful!... Look at Scotty!... Where’s that grin now, Scotty?... Tied the old score, didn’t we?... How much time, somebody?... Three minutes?... You will kid that baby about his fancy skating, will you?... Well, how was that for a fancy exhibition?”
On the ice, Rand Downey put an arm around the fellow he had cussed, and cried his apology. Team members clapped a fussed Frederick on the back. He knew what team spirit meant now ... knew why fellows fought shoulder to shoulder to try to win for each other ... knew what real comradeship felt like for the first time in his life. And knew it simply because he had been wounded to the quick by an opponent who had thought to have some fun at his expense. Thwarted at answering Scotty’s fancy skating challenge, Frederick’s only way of getting back at him had been through direct competition. And now he was finding what a thrill actual combat really was! That backward flip-flop that Scotty had taken as a result of their meeting head-on had done Frederick a world of good!
“I’m not through with you yet!” the fancy skating champion told Melville’s star centre as the puck went back to be faced off in the centre circle.