Neil nodded. After a moment he said tentatively: “This oughtn’t to stop you from playing, Stuart.”
Stuart laughed shortly and mockingly. “Oh, of course not! I ought to keep right on, eh? Maybe I could get a job lugging the water pail! Don’t be a coot, Neil! If I’m not good enough for captain, I’m not good enough to play quarterback.”
“How about the team, though? This isn’t going to make you want Pearsall to win, is it?”
“No, but they won’t need me. Wheaton’s a good man, and once I’m out of his way he’s bound to be a lot better.” Stuart didn’t sound convincing even to himself, though, and he added: “Anyway, I’ve got some pride, Neil, and I’m switched if I’ll go back there as a private in the ranks to be grinned at by every whippersnapper of a fourth-string substitute and lorded over by Haynes! No, by golly, they’ve got what they wanted and now they can go ahead and make good. All I say is, whoever the new captain is I pity him!”
That ended the subject for a while, for during the next few days it was carefully avoided by both.
The School heard the news that afternoon, and, as was to be expected, excitement prevailed. On the whole, however, the thing created less sensation than Stuart, for one, looked for. Among the players sides were taken and argument raged, but Stuart’s partisans were vastly in the minority, and if he had secretly hoped for anything approaching a protest against his resignation he was disappointed. His own attitude in public was one of smiling, half-contemptuous amusement. He made no charges in words, no matter what his manner expressed. A fair sample of his explanations to those who questioned, was his reply to Greg Trenholme, the baseball captain.
“I just couldn’t get along,” he said. “There was only one thing to do and I did it.”
Of course there were many who surmised that Stuart’s resignation had not been offered solely without suggestion from the Committee on Athletics and who freely published that surmise, but the truth of it was never established. Stuart dropped out of the team and remained away from the field, and what news he had of football affairs he received from Jack. Jack was plainly sympathetic and sorry, but Stuart couldn’t help feeling after the first few days that Jack was accepting the situation with surprising equanimity. The fact was that the unfortunate incident once accepted, Jack’s principal sensation was one of relief. Affairs had been going far more smoothly at the field since Stuart’s departure. The feeling of tension had disappeared, and, with Coach Haynes alone in command, the players knew where they stood. Of course Stuart was missed at quarter, and there was no one in sight who promised to more than half fill his shoes, but Jack’s loyalty to his friend couldn’t disguise for him the fact that so far as the welfare of the team was concerned Stuart’s absence was more of a blessing than a misfortune. He, like Neil and several others, had suggested that the loss of the captaincy need not keep Stuart off the team, but with a similar result.
“Nothing doing,” laughed Stuart. “When I quit, I quit. When Haynes appoints a new captain you won’t need me.”