“You had a hand in it, too. It’s lucky he didn’t decide to stick to you instead of Arthur. By the way, speaking of protégés, your friend down the hall has got tired, I notice.”
“Who is that, Dan? Oh, I remember. You mean he’s given up football?”
“Yes, I was looking over the list this afternoon and saw his name scratched off. Cowles says he’s stopped coming. Another ‘natural-born player’ gone wrong.”
“That’s rather funny. I told you, didn’t I, that I had him in one afternoon? He seemed—well, not the sort of fellow to quit. I meant to look him up again. I rather liked him. But this cross-country work has kept me busy. Did he show anything in practice?”
“N-no, I believe not. I think you prophesied quite a career for him, didn’t you?”
“I said maybe,” laughed Gerald. “There was something about the chap that made me—sort of believe in him.”
“I remember there was something,” Dan agreed. “Well, he will probably find himself in the course of time. Evidently football isn’t what he was looking for. Perhaps it’s just as well he dropped out, though, for the first cut comes next week and I guess most of Holmes’s ‘rookies’ will retire to private life.”
“What does Payson think of the outlook, Dan?”
“Says it’s an average one. There’s no one very startling in sight. That rather pleases Payson, though; you know he doesn’t fancy ‘stars.’ Says he’d rather have a team of common or garden variety of peggers.”
“I thought Billy Norton was considered a ‘star,’” said Gerald with a smile.