CHAPTER XIV
A NIGHT ALARM
Before the two boys parted that afternoon, after the practice of the whole regular nine, barring Joel, who, taking Jack’s advice, laid off for one occasion, Joel had asked the captain to drop over when he had finished his supper.
“I want to see you about a number of things,” he had told Jack; “not so much in connection with the game we’re scheduled to play, as other affairs looking to the ambitious programme we’ve mapped out for Chester boys the rest of the summer, in the fall, and even up to winter. For one thing, I’d like to give you a few pointers about the fellows in our crowd, so that you can size them up for the football squad later on.”
That caught Jack in a weak spot.
“I’ll go you there, Toby,” he hastened to say, “because I’ve been trying to figure things out along those lines myself. When you’re placing men on an eleven, you ought to know their every strong and weak point; and I’m too new a hand here in Chester to be on to such things. So I’ll be glad to have you give me points.”
Accordingly, he knocked at the Hopkins’ door soon after seven that evening, and was immediately admitted by Toby himself. The Hopkins family consisted of Toby’s father and mother, and an older son just then away on a trip to the West, as he was attending college, and had been promised this treat if he passed with honors. There was also a very small girl, named Tessie, who naturally was the pet of the household, and in a way to be spoiled by the adoration of her two brothers.
Toby had a den of his own in the upper part of the rambling house. Here just as most boys love to do, he had the walls fairly covered with the burgees of various colleges, all sorts of mementos collected during his outdoor experiences, curios that in Toby’s eyes were precious because many of them bore an intimate relation with some little adventure or jolly outing in which he had taken part.
There were also football togs, baseball contraptions, fishing paraphernalia in unlimited abundance, as well as striking illustrations covering the field of sport as seen through the eyes of youth.
But one good thing about it all, you would look in vain for the slightest trace of any vulgar picture; Toby had no love for such so-called sport as prize fighting or any kindred subject.