“Johnny” shouted to the candidates and they came from all quarters of the field and flocked about him. There seemed to be some fifty or sixty of them altogether.
“A lot of show I’d have,” said Jim, “in that bunch. Some of those chaps must be nineteen years old.”
“I dare say,” Jeffrey replied. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean much. You are going to try, aren’t you?”
Jim shrugged his shoulders. “I’d sort of like to,” he acknowledged, “but I’d just make a show of myself, I guess.”
The coach had finished his instructions and now the candidates were forming in groups about the field. For the beginners football was still drudgery; passing, falling on the ball, starting and tackling. But the veterans were learning signals and getting ready for the first game now only three days distant. The first and second squads were soon scampering up and down the field in short rushes under the directions of shrill-voiced quarter-backs. In Squad A a substitute had Duncan Sargent’s place at left guard and the captain, draped in a faded red blanket that trailed behind him and tried to trip him up in moments of excitement, followed the play. Now and then Jim could hear him calling a halt and laying down the law.
“Hold on! Let’s try that again. And don’t go to sleep, Smith, this time. They’d have got you about three yards behind your line then. Take your time from quarter. This is a delayed pass, but not a misplaced one. And now try again. Same signals, Arnold.”
On this first squad Gil was at left end, Poke at right half-back and Gary at right guard. To Jim’s surprise the fellows were not very heavy in weight, while as to age the squad would have averaged about seventeen. The quarter, Harry Arnold, was a mere youngster, and with the exception of Captain Sargent himself there was no member over eighteen. LaGrange, a big good-natured youth who played center, was but sixteen, in spite of his size.
Jim and Jeffrey looked on with interest. Jeffrey, who had made other trips to the field, knew many of the more prominent players by name and pointed them out to his companion. At the end of half an hour the signal work ceased, the linemen were taken to the upper end of the field for special instruction and the backs and ends were put to work getting down under kicks. As it happened Poke took up his position at a little distance from Jim and Jeffrey, and, turning to run back for a long catch, caught sight of them.
“Hello!” he shouted. “Seen Sargent, Jim?”
Jim shook his head. Poke curled the ball against his arm and hurled it back across the field.