The final score was 7 to 0, for Captain Ted Trafford, with Nick holding the ball for him, had finished his football career at Grafton by sending the pigskin straight and high over the crossbar and registering the last point for the Scarlet-and-Gray.
But where all had played well and some more than well, it was Left Half Winslow who had emerged the hero of the game and of the season. It was Bert who had torn off that last thirty yards on a brilliant, zig-zag rush around the unsuspecting Mount Morris left end and past a half-dozen desperate defenders, and one cannot perform a feat like that and escape the consequences. As Mr. Smiley said when he stopped to shake hands with Bert at the entrance of Lothrop later, “Sic itur ad astra,” very freely translated by Nick into “Thus one becomes a star”!
Hugh, who had patiently waited for Bert to emerge from the field house and had walked back through the dusk with him and Nick and Pop and several others, was still bubbling praise and congratulations as, having left the rest, they toiled up the last flight.
“It was simply corking, Bert!” he declared for the tenth time. “I don’t see yet how you ever got through! Why, there were at least five fellows between you and the goal line! Twice I was sure you were done for and closed my eyes, and each time, when I looked again, you were still nipping it! It was perfectly ripping!”
“Just the same it ought to have been you, old man. I don’t forget that, you bet!”
“I’d never have done it,” replied Hugh with conviction. “They’d have nailed me sure as shooting.” He swung open the door of the study and, followed by Bert, groped his way toward the switch. As he did so a discreet cough sounded in the gloom. “Hello,” exclaimed Hugh. “Who’s there?”
“Bowles, sir. I tried to find the switch, sir, but——”
“Who?”
“Bowles, sir. I——”
“Bowles!” The light flared and Hugh faced the occupant of the study in amazement. Then he sprang forward and seized the embarrassed Bowles by the hand. “Bowles! I say, wherever did you drop from? What are you doing here, eh?”