"Not I, you thin-skinned beggar. All I meant was that Forge knows the rules backwards way. He'll hold the scales even and favour neither side."
"That's as may be," remarked Grain. He had come up behind them with his customary cheek to butt into the conversation. "Some people know how to wangle things. Even school-captains swallow butter occasionally."
Robin looked at Grain with cold contempt. "Here comes Forge," he said. "Time to start. If you'll ask your men to stand back, Osbody, we'll toss for ends."
A cordial cheer greeted Forge, who concealed an amused smile with difficulty as he saw, through the corner of his eye, the long faces the Squirms were pulling at his appearance. Doubtless they would have preferred a milder and shorter-sighted referee.
Dick shook hands with both captains in a manner of becoming gravity. It might have been a First League match, so seriously did he take it.
"Good afternoon, chaps," he said. "Ideal afternoon for footer. Winning the toss won't help either of you much. Hope we'll have a pleasant game."
The news that Dick was refereeing quickly spread. It was a totally unexpected honour for a junior match. Usually the captain was too busy leather-hunting himself to take any notice of scratch games. That he had decided to referee this contest between the Merry Men and the Squirms excited curiosity, resulting in a rapid thickening of the ring of spectators round the ropes.
It was all very depressing to the Squirms. They had hoped against hope that the crowd of onlookers would be small, having a lively fear that they were bound to make fools of themselves. The advent of the captain as referee had turned the limelight full on them, and more than half Foxenby would now be present to deride their floundering efforts at football.
"Arkness did it on purpose, the crafty bounder," they told one another. "This is his revenge for the tournament licking. Nice figures of fun we'll look after a bit."
"Buck up, chaps, and put all in," Osbody counselled them. "We're eleven against eleven, after all. Use your weight and knock some of the steam out of them at the start."