“Mighty little, I’d say,” answered Katie. “There are just as many ways of numbering from the ends to the middle as there are from one end to the other, or from the middle out. Seems to me this Eddie boy put the brakes on at about the right minute!”
“Eddie ought to get a season ticket,” said Chas.
“Well, the fat’s in the fire and there’s no use trying to pull it out now,” said the coach resignedly. “If we find they’re on to our signals we’ll have to switch. I guess we’d better arrange a new code before the game, Cater.”
“That’s easy, Coach. Just change about and number from the centre out.”
“Wouldn’t do, Cater. The fellows would get balled up unless they had a good hour’s drill first. We’ll have to think up some simpler method.”
“Double the odd numbers,” suggested Chas. “Call 1, 11, 2, 22; and so on. They did that last year on the second and we couldn’t get it at all till they told us after the season.”
“That might do,” agreed the coach, and the rest nodded. “That would make outside left end 99,” he reflected. “Sound all right to you, Cater?”
“Sure! That’s easy enough, but what about 11, 13 and 15? Call them 111, 113 and 115?”
“I think so. We’ll have to change the sequence call, though. We’ll make it any even number over 100.”
“Your friend Cooke wouldn’t approve, though, Foster,” said Farnsworth. “He’d say they were too complicated.”