That night Hansel had his talk with Phineas Dorr. The latter put in an appearance at eight o’clock, armed with a six-foot white-enameled board, three iron brackets and a canvas bag of tools. The couch was moved away from the wall, and he went to work. Hansel helped him once or twice by holding up the shelf during the operations of leveling it and screwing in the first bracket. Presently he broached the subject of Cameron and the condition of Beechcroft athletics. Phin heard him through in silence, barring an occasional encouraging grunt as he worked his screwdriver. Then,
“What you say is just so, Dana,” he said earnestly. “And I’m glad to find some fellow who thinks that way. It’s bothered me ever since I came last fall. I’ve talked with some of the older fellows about it, and from what they’ve said, I think there’s been a decline during the last five or six years in the school’s ethics, so to say. I think a whole lot of the blame belongs to Johnny.”
“Johnny? Oh, you mean Dr. Lambert. But I should think the principal would be the first one to—to——”
“He ought to be, but Johnny’s not quite the man for the place, according to my thinking, Dana. He doesn’t get close enough to the fellows. Those who don’t take Greek of him don’t see him sometimes for a month. Last year one of the fellows asked me what sort of a looking man he was! You see, too, athletics here are left to a committee of two members of the faculty, Ames and Foote, and three members of the two upper classes. But they very seldom get together. If any question comes up, instead of calling a meeting and discussing it and finding what’s best to be done, some one goes and asks Bobby—that’s Ames, you know—and Bobby says, ‘All right, go ahead,’ or, ‘No, I don’t think you’d better.’ As for Johnny, I don’t believe he ever saw a football game!”
“He hasn’t been here very long, has he?”
“Five years. He came from the South somewhere; some small college; I think he was just an instructor in Greek and Latin. The school had been running behind for a few years, and the trustees wanted a man who would do what they told him to do, and who hadn’t any very strong convictions of his own. Well, that’s Dr. Lambert. Personally, I think he’s not half bad. But for one thing he’s too old; he’s nearly sixty if he’s a day; and he sticks too much to his office. He ought to get out and use his eyes, and see what’s going on. I don’t believe he knows that the fellows are paying Cameron’s way through school; don’t believe he knows who Cameron is, except for seeing his name on the books now and then. He ought to know a whole lot he doesn’t. And that’s why I say that I think a lot of the blame for the present lax condition of things belongs to him.”
“But Mr. Ames?” asked Hansel.
“Well, Bobby’s a good fellow and he means well; every fellow likes him; but I suppose he tells himself that since the principal doesn’t bother his head about such affairs it isn’t up to him. As for Foote, he doesn’t bother himself much about anything outside his own province, which is looking after the fellows’ physical condition.”
“Well, who are the student members of the athletic committee?”