“I said I would,” he whispered, as she disappeared through the door. “But will I? I wonder?”
“Tomorrow,” he thought with a thrill one minute later, “tomorrow is the big day.” Already the mysterious girl and her giant escort were crowded from his mind. The team, the game, these filled his entire horizon.
One more recollection slipped into Johnny’s mind and out again before he fell asleep that night. A half hour after their landing at Hillcrest he had come upon Kentucky practicing football all by himself. He was dropping the ball and picking it up, bouncing it on the ground and catching it, retrieving it in every manner imaginable. One thing was strange, the ball was soaking wet and the field was dry.
“How’d your ball get wet?” he had asked.
“I soaked it,” Kentucky dropped it, then fell upon it.
“Why?” Johnny had asked in surprise.
“Well,” Kentucky had replied quite soberly, “the weather man predicts dampness for tomorrow. If it rains, somebody’s going to drop the ball. And I’ll be ready to pick it up.”
“He doesn’t miss much, that boy,” Johnny murmured to himself just before he fell asleep.
CHAPTER XXI
DYNAMITE TAKES IT ON THE CHIN
Never before had there been such excitement about a Hillcrest football game. By one o’clock in the afternoon, Hillcrest was deserted. Coaches, busses, trucks and private cars had been forced into service. All Hillcrest, professors, students, men, women, boys, and girls, everyone journeyed to Naperville where the game was to be played.