“I tackled that quarter! I brought him down good and hard when we were both a couple of yards from the ball, and I wound my arms around him and held him tight. I can still remember the surprised grunt he gave when I crashed into him. Don’t ask me why I did it! Heaven only knows, Merrill! Call it mental aberration, that’s as good a name for it as I know of. I did it, though. And I thought I knew football!”
“And—and what happened to the ball, sir?”
The coach shrugged his shoulders. “A Bursley man came along and picked it up and romped back a few dozen yards with it before anyone got to him. That ended our chance and we lost the game.”
“That was too bad,” said Rodney sympathetically.
“I thought so then. I didn’t dare look anyone in the face the rest of that day. The coach called me all the kinds of a fool he could think of. I didn’t mind that half as much as I minded what the fellows didn’t say but thought! A week after I was surprised to discover that I was holding my head up again, that the world was still turning around, and that from a tragedy the thing had become a joke. It was a pretty sore joke for me, but I took it many and many a time, and gritted my teeth and smiled. Well, it took me two years to even up. The next season I was so afraid I’d do some other fool trick that I didn’t play half the game I could have. Every time we got into a tight place I was haunted with the fear that I’d make another costly mistake. As a result I played everything safe, and was probably one of the worst ends the team ever had. I don’t know now why they kept me on. But the next year I got together again and—I made good.”
“How, sir?”
“Oh, it’s ancient history now, Merrill. I had my chance in the Bursley game and took it, that’s all. They said I won the game, but I didn’t win it any more than you lost to-day’s. I’ve told you all this just to show you, Merrill, that the world doesn’t bust up and blow away because you make a mistake or let a chance slip in a game of football. If it comes to that, every game that is lost can be traced to someone’s failure at some moment in the contest, Merrill. If there were no mistakes the game would be pretty uninteresting. We’re all human and all likely to fall down at a critical moment some time or other. My advice to you is, forget it, Merrill. Have you got time to come in for a minute?”
They had reached the steps of the house in which the coach had his rooms.
“Yes, sir, if you want me to,” replied Rodney.