"No, I'd like all the fellows to be together when they hear it and then they won't get it twisted. I'll meet you all here after grub, and tell you what I think of doing."
"All right; it's a go."
Dick found a goodly crowd waiting for him in the main room of the club house, for word had gone around of what was about to take place. Our hero wasted no time on preliminaries.
"Boys," he began, "you know as well as I do, that we have received an insulting letter from the Blue Hill academy. Our football team, of which I have the honor to be a member——"
"Hurray for the team!" cried Paul Drew. "Long may she wave, o'er the land——"
"Order in the ranks!" cried Innis Beeby, who was presiding.
"Our team needs strengthening," went on Dick. "There is no use ignoring the facts before us. We never have had a first class team—that is, to judge by the records of the past. We have not a good team now, and I'm as bad as the worst member, so I'm not shielding myself. That being the case, what's to be done?"
"Get a new team!" called someone.
"Revamp the old one," cried another.
"That's my idea exactly," went on Dick. "We must use the material we have, but with this restriction—there must be a fair field and no favors. The best men must be picked on the team."