“Piffling poppycock!” said Hugh.
CHAPTER XXV
BOWLES ATTENDS A FOOTBALL GAME
At a little before three that afternoon a carriage, drawn by a weary-looking gray horse, turned into the campus from River Street and finally stopped in front of School Hall. The single occupant alighted, paid the driver and ascended the steps with a suggestion of dignified haste. Some three minutes later, by which time the carriage which had brought him from the Junction was out of sight around a corner, the passenger reappeared and crossed the campus in the direction of a large open plot of ground from which loud and at times quite appalling sounds broke upon the afternoon air.
He was a neatly attired man of about thirty-five, clean-shaven, and of a serious cast of countenance. He was quite evidently English, and self-respecting to a degree. That was apparent in his carriage, his expression, and his attire. He crossed the green, entered the gate of Lothrop Field, and paused inquiringly in front of a youth with a scarlet ribbon on his coat who guarded the entrance to the stands.
“Fifty cents, please,” said the youth.
The latecomer put a well-gloved hand in a pocket, drew forth a pigskin purse and selected the required amount. Then he passed around a corner of a grandstand and found himself confronted on one side by sloping tiers of seats crowded with onlookers and on the other by an expanse of yellowing turf over which a number of persons were hurrying about in an apparently purposeless way. A second ribbon-badged youth arose from the steps of the stand and said:
“You’ll find a seat further along, sir; about three sections down.”
“Thank you, sir, but I am looking for—for Mr. Ordway.”
“Ordway?” The youth shrugged. “I can’t tell you where he’s sitting. He was to have played, but something happened. I’m afraid you can’t stand here, sir. You’re obstructing the view of people in the lower seats.”