With Malcolm’s assistance, Evan got Rob down on his bed and buried him under pillows—and then sat on the pillows. But all his reward was a stifled: “Wait! The hour is at hand!”
The school was pretty well disgusted with the football situation, and the disgust increased when on the following Monday the Second Team tore up the First and scored a touch-down and a field-goal. Certainly the fact that the First’s line-up contained five substitutes had something to do with the Second’s easy conquest, but didn’t account for it entirely. The fact is that the First Team was suffering from something very much like nervous prostration. On Tuesday the feeling against the team was manifested on the field. Some forty boys marched down in procession and shouted derisive, unkind remarks during practice. Hopkins came in for more attention than he relished, while Prentiss lost his temper on several occasions. The Second held the First to a no-score tie throughout the two periods of scrimmaging, in spite of the fact that the First had all its best players back. Whenever the Second gained a yard the audience cheered wildly; when the First gained it was accorded hoots of derision. Nothing of the sort had ever happened before at Riverport and the school that evening was in a state of unwonted excitement. There was talk of a mass-meeting to protest against the present conduct of football affairs, but the project fell through because none of the upper class fellows would consent to issue the call. They took the stand that while the situation was pretty discouraging it was the school’s duty to stand by the team, that only harm could result from embarrassing the management. So the mass-meeting degenerated into a procession which marched through the yard at nine o’clock carrying placards and hooting derisively. One of the placards read: “We Want a Football Team”; another, “Riverport 0, Mountfort, 25”; another, “Try Jamaica Ginger”; another, “Wanted, A Nurse. Apply to Manager R. S. F. A.” After circling the yard the procession marched around to the rear of Holden and serenaded Hopkins and Prentiss. I use the word serenaded for want of a better; music is music even if it contains discords. Then there were “three long groans for the eleven!” given with a will, and demands for a speech by Prentiss. The latter made the mistake of losing his temper and emptied a pitcher of water from the window. As the serenaders were momentarily expecting some such delicate attention no one was dampened. Neither was their ardor. The concert, which had been on the point of ending, took a new lease of life and continued until faculty took a hand and threatened trouble for the disturbers.
Neither Evan nor Rob took part in the demonstration, while as for Malcolm he studied calmly through it all. Rob had been hand and glove with the ring-leaders earlier in the evening and had himself decorated the placards carried in the procession, but for some reason known only to himself he had refrained from joining the parade. When Evan dropped off to sleep that night Rob was writing busily at the table, and although Evan didn’t know what he was up to he was fairly certain from the concentration displayed that it had nothing to do with studies. And Evan was right. The result of Rob’s labor appeared on the notice board in Academy Hall the next morning.
“A Meeting will be held this evening at 7:15 in 8 First House to consider the formation of an Independent Foot-ball Eleven. All are asked to attend, whether players or not.
“Howard Wellington.
“Robert Langton.”
[CHAPTER XVII]
THE INDEPENDENTS ORGANIZE
Howard Wellington was a senior, a quiet fellow, much respected by the rest of the school, with a positive passion for reforming things. Rob was well aware of this passion and had counted on it to secure Wellington’s coöperation in his plan. And Wellington had not failed him. Rob had a persuasive tongue and it hadn’t been difficult for him to convince Wellington that if anything ever needed reformation it was the foot-ball situation at Riverport School. Wellington had held off at first, viewing Rob’s scheme as merely a revolt on the part of disappointed foot-ball candidates, but Rob had soon persuaded him that the movement was purely patriotic and Wellington had enthusiastically pledged himself to the cause.
The announcement on the notice-board created a deal of excitement and discussion and both Wellington and Rob were kept busy parrying questions. All either would say was: “Come to the meeting and find out.” So they came to the meeting. The rooms in First House are fairly good-sized, but none of them will hold a hundred-odd boys, and so by a quarter past seven the audience was overflowing through the door into the corridor. Neither Hopkins nor Prentiss was there, but they were represented by two of their ablest lieutenants, Carter and Law. Besides these there were at least a half-dozen of the First Team present, probably out of mere curiosity. The Second Team was much better represented. In fact, Riverport School, with the exceptions already indicated and save for the absence of a handful of older fellows who looked on the thing as utter nonsense, was on hand when Wellington, jammed tightly against the window-ledge, called the meeting to order.