[CHAPTER VI]
THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT
The next afternoon Beechcroft played Kensington High School. Kensington’s men were light, and Bert’s warriors had no difficulty in piling up seventeen points in the first fifteen-minute half. Only old-fashioned formations were used, and there was little in the game to awaken the onlookers to enthusiasm. In the second half the team was materially changed, Bert, Conly, and Cotton giving their positions in the back field to substitutes, and Hansel and two other linemen retiring. They hurried through the showers and rubdowns in the gymnasium and were back on the side lines in time to watch most of the second half.
The leavening of subs in the Beechcroft team made a good deal of difference. The line developed holes and the back field was slower. Several times Kensington made her distance, and Bert, who was entertaining hopes of reaching the Fairview game with an uncrossed goal line, displayed signs of uneasiness. The substitute who had taken Cotton’s place at quarter did not prove as good as expected, and twice a poor pass resulted in a fumbled ball. On each occasion luck stood by the home team and the pigskin was recovered, but there was no knowing what might happen the next time.
Kensington was unable to make gain consistently through the line, and so, having obtained the ball on a punt, she set to work trying the ends. The first attempt, a run outside left end, was nipped in the bud by King, who got through and nailed the high school captain behind his line. But the next try worked better. There was a long pass from quarter to left half and the interference, admirably arranged, swung wide and rushed across the field. Cutler, who had taken Hansel’s place, was put out of the way without difficulty, and when the Beechcroft right end penetrated the interference and brought down the runner, the latter had managed to reel off a good fifteen yards and the ball was in the middle of the field. The little group of high school supporters yelled delightedly. The next play was a straight plunge at center, which came to nothing. This was followed by a cross-buck at left tackle and a yard had been gained. The Kensington quarter fell back for a kick on the third down, but the ball went to right half and again there was a gain, this time around King’s end. For the first time during the game, Kensington was inside Beechcroft’s forty-yard line.
Kensington’s spirits rose. She hammered at left tackle for a yard, secured two more between right guard and tackle, and made her distance through left tackle. On the side line, Bert scowled wrathfully and Harry made notes at Mr. Ames’s directions in a memorandum book. It began to look like a score for Kensington. But her next three attempts only netted four yards, and Bert sighed with relief as the substitute quarter dropped back for a kick. Royle passed well, but Kensington, massing her attack at the right of the line, broke through, and when the ball left quarter’s toe it struck full on the breast of a leaping high school player, bounded back, and went rolling toward Beechcroft’s goal line. Like a streak of lightning, the Kensington captain was on it, rolled over, and found his feet again and raced toward Beechcroft’s goal. There was but a scant thirty yards to go, and for a moment it seemed that he had every chance of making it. Two Beechcroft pursuers were shouldered away by the hastily formed interference, and another white line passed under the feet of the speeding high school captain. Then a light-blue jersey broke from the straggling pursuit, left the others as though they were standing still, and bore down like a flash on the runner with the ball. It was Cameron. He eluded the first of the interference, was shouldered aside by the second, recovered instantly, and gained at every stride on the Kensington player. They were both inside the ten-yard line now and Cameron’s arms were stretched forth for the tackle. But surely he was too late! No, for just short of the line he dived forward, his arms locked themselves about the opponent’s knees, and they crashed to earth together a yard from the last white streak!
Bert smiled contentedly. Hansel, nearby, shouted his delight. It had been a heart-stirring run, and Cameron’s tackle was one of the cleanest and hardest seen on the green that fall. Beechcroft lined up on her goal line and Kensington hammered despairingly at her, only to lose the ball on downs and race back up the field under a punt which this time was got off without hindrance. A moment after the whistle sounded and Beechcroft’s goal line was still uncrossed. As he trotted up the terrace toward his room, Hansel reflected ruefully that the fellow against whom he had undertaken to arouse school sentiment was the one who had saved them from being scored on. His task looked more difficult every day; while, to make matters worse, each day brought him an increase of liking and admiration for Cameron.
“Hang it all!” he muttered. “I wish he wasn’t such a decent chap!”
The next day was Sunday, and in the afternoon he set forth for the village to find Phineas Dorr. It wasn’t an easy task, for no one seemed to know where Mrs. Freer lived. Finally, he remembered that Phin had said something about the Congregational church, and after that it was easy. The house was a tiny white cottage with green blinds and a general look of disrepair. The paint was so thin that in many places the warped clapboards showed through it. But in spite of its neglected exterior, which, after all, was somewhat mitigated by the cleanliness and neatness of the little front yard, the interior proved very homelike and attractive. Hansel didn’t penetrate farther than the hallway on that occasion, for Phin was not in, but what he saw from there pleased him. Everything was scrupulously fresh and neat. The strip of rag carpet in the hall looked as though it had just come in from the line after a hard beating, and the dainty dimity curtains in the parlor made him think, somehow, of his own home, although he couldn’t recollect any similar window draperies there.