“Mr. Babcock,” asked Loring, “do you know why Wolcott hasn’t used Grosfawk more this season?”
“No, I don’t. That’s puzzled me a little, too. I haven’t seen his name more than twice all the fall, and last year he looked like a real find. I presume Mr. Otis had some information on Grosfawk, but I don’t know a thing. Anyhow, we’ve laid our lines for that chap, and he will be watched pretty closely. But Wolcott hasn’t showed much in the overhead game so far, and maybe she’s intending to use it only as a last resort.”
“She hasn’t shown it in public, sir,” said Loring, “but she’s practiced forward-passing ever since she started work.”
Mr. Babcock looked interested. “Is that so? How did you learn that, Deane?”
Loring indicated a binder filled with newspapers that lay on a chair nearby. “I’ve been reading the Wolcott football stuff in the papers, sir. Their correspondent is pretty close-mouthed, but he lets something out now and then. I’ve been all through the papers from the seventeenth of September to yesterday, and I’ve learned two or three rather interesting things, Mr. Babcock. One is that Wolcott’s been using the forward-pass in practice, although in outside games she’s made only about fourteen passes in all, an average of a little over two to a game. But the important thing, sir, is that out of those fourteen ten were successful. That’s an unusual average, isn’t it?”
“Decidedly! What were they, Deane, long or short?”
“Both, apparently. I couldn’t always make out which they were. But they went all right in nearly every case, and that’s something to think about, Mr. Babcock.”
“It’s something to think a whole lot about,” was the answer. “Did Grosfawk figure in any of those plays?”
“Not one, sir.”
“Cocky” stared thoughtfully at Loring and Loring looked thoughtfully back at him. Finally: “Hm,” said the instructor. “What do you make of that? Do you suppose Grosfawk petered out this year? He’s rather a youngster, I believe, and it may be he couldn’t find himself.”