As they entered the coat-room his volatile mind leaped to another topic. “There’s one good thing, old top; you can come out for the troop team now. That’ll be great! Don’t forget there’s practice right after school this aft.”
Dale slapped his cap on a hook and turned away. “I’m not coming out,” he said gruffly, making for the door.
Court’s eyes widened. “Not coming out for football!” he repeated amazedly.
“No!”
“Why not, for goodness’ sake?”
“I don’t want to,” was the almost ungracious retort.
Court sniffed incredulously. “Tell that to your grandmother! Haven’t I seen you play often enough to know better? Wait a second.” At the entrance of the coat-room he caught Tompkins by the arm, and, whirling him around, stared into his face. “If you think for a minute,” he went on with some heat, “that anybody– You old idiot! You make me sick with your silly notions. I’ll–I’ll settle you, though.”
With which cryptic and somewhat fragmentary comment, he slapped Dale briskly on the back and slipped into his seat, leaving the other to seek his own place on the farther side of the room, unconsciously heartened a bit by his fellow’s friendliness. But a moment later his forehead wrinkled perplexedly. Court had a little habit of impulsively settling the affairs of nations offhand, and his last remark seemed to indicate that something of the kind was in his mind at present.
“Well, whatever it is, he won’t get me to come out for the team,” decided Tompkins, his jaw squaring stubbornly. “They don’t think I’m good enough for them, and I’m not going to force myself where I’m not wanted.”
Those few words overheard just before had opened afresh the wound of the night before and confirmed Dale’s conviction that he was not wanted in Troop Five. With the exception of one or two of the boys who had been friendly before, he felt that the scouts agreed with Ranny Phelps in resenting his presence in the crack troop of Hillsgrove. Because his father was a working-man, because he himself sold papers to eke out the family income, because, in short, he was poor and had come to meeting in rather shabby clothes instead of a natty uniform, they looked down on him as an interloper who had no business to be there. He would merely be inviting further slights by appearing on the football field and trying for a position on the troop eleven.