“Oh, you fellows make me tired, always talking about your old relics!” broke in Kindlings. “You had much better be considering some new football plays, or how to help Randall out of the hole she’s in.”
“Out of the hole some rascally lawyers got her in, you’d better say,” corrected Holly Cross. “This trouble never would have developed, if it hadn’t been that some legal sharps stirred it up, for the hope of a fat fee, I presume.”
“And Langridge’s father, of all lawyers!” put in Sid. “You’d have thought that since his son once went here, he’d have had the decency not to appear in the case, and would have left it for some one else.”
“Maybe he’s doing it on purpose, just because his son had to leave here,” suggested Tom.
“Shouldn’t wonder a bit,” agreed Captain Woodhouse. “But, say, don’t let this trouble get on your minds, fellows, so that you can’t play football. We’re going up against Newkirk day after to-morrow, you know, and while we’ll probably roll up a big score against ’em, we can’t take any chances. Hard practice this afternoon. We want to wipe up the field with the scrub.”
“We’ll be on hand, captain!” promised Phil, and the other players shouted their assents. The students went to their various studies, still talking over the scene of the morning, and what it portended.
It was learned, later in the day, that the best legal talent possible had been engaged to fight the claim of the Hess heirs for the Randall land, and that a vigorous search would be made for the missing quit-claim deed, without which the college could not prove a clear title to the property.
It also was hinted that Mr. Langridge was not altogether actuated by purely legal motives in prosecuting the claim against the college. When it became known that the father of Garvey Gerhart was associated with him in the law business, there were few students who did not believe that the two men were acting as much out of revenge because their sons had been forced from Randall, as from any other motive.
“But it will take some time to get the land away from the college trustees, even if they lose the case,” explained Frank Simpson, “so there won’t be any football games cancelled.”
He was in his uniform, and was walking out on the field with Tom and the others to the practice.