“No, why should he? And I haven’t said I didn’t want his advice. Of course I want it if it’s any good. I just don’t suppose it will be, that’s all. The big thing is to give him a better time here, don’t you see?”
“Yes,” answered Clif dubiously, “but, just the same, it seems sort of mean to fool him, Tom.”
“I’m not fooling him until he finds it out,” replied the other philosophically, “and he never will find it out unless you tell him.”
“I’d be likely to,” jeered Clif.
“Exactly. So that’s that. See you at supper, old timer.”
Coach Otis made several shifts in the First Team on Monday and it was late when the Scrub was called over. During one fifteen-minute session the First scored two touchdowns, Whitemill making the first on a long run from midfield and Fargo going over for the second from the Scrub’s seven-yards. Tom’s team was on the defensive most of the time and, if truth must be told, played rather raggedly. On the First, Billy Desmond was displaced by Quinlan, and Couch and Williams held the ends. The First, nettled by Saturday’s defeat, played savage ball. Jimmy Ames, in tackling Jensen soon after the trouble started, sustained a bad wrench of his left knee and was out for the day and for many more days to follow. Clem Henning retired early, too, after some zealous First Team man had put his knee into him, but Clem’s injury was only temporary. On the whole, the Scrub got pretty well battered up during that brief session, and minor injuries were numerous.
That afternoon Loring watched the Scrub during its practice and then followed it across to the First Team field, and after supper, when Clif and Tom dropped in on him he was well primed with criticism. But the faults Loring had discovered were already known to coach and captain, and while Tom treated Loring’s disclosures with the utmost respect Clif knew quite well that he was not taking them seriously. Loring pointed out that several of the Scrub linemen were slow in starting, that “Wink” Coles played too high, that Stiles had a bad habit of slowing up before reaching the line and that Clif Bingham had missed two tackles! Loring also criticized Jackson for attempting a forward-pass on fourth down on his own thirty-eight yards, which attempt resulted in an interception by the First and brought about the latter’s second touchdown. Tom declared that he was glad to get the tips and that he would pass them on to “Cocky.”
“Of course some of it won’t be news to him, though. He’s been trying to speed up the forwards right along, for instance; and that stuff about Clif is old, too. He does miss too many tackles, and that’s no joke.”
“I don’t see why, either,” Clif complained. “I try hard enough.”
“I thought to-day that you tried too hard,” said Loring. “That time you tried for Whitemill, Clif, you weren’t near enough when you grabbed, and you got only one hand on him. It’s possible that you’re too anxious, isn’t it? Hadn’t you better try getting closer to your man before tackling?”