Orkney nodded. “I’d be likeliest to hear it—last fellow in the club, you know. So I’m told things that might not be said directly to the rest of you.”
“What sort of things?”
“Well, that the club flocks by itself, and puts on airs, but never amounts to much when it comes to a pinch; that it never gathers in any prizes except the mathematical ones, and they’re just the Shark’s meat; that here’s a big prize we won’t get because no one in the crowd has the sand to make a fight for it.”
“Exactly!” said Sam. He was quite aware of the jealousies due to cliques in a school, and more than once had noted some very open fishing for an invitation to join the Safety First Club. Also, when the angling had resulted in failure, there had been, generally, an increase in the unfavorable comment about the club by critics who didn’t belong to it.
Orkney coughed a little dubiously. “Ahem, ahem! Of course, all that sort of thing is plain yapping, but, all the same, I’d like to see us getting into this game. If I could do anything to help—say, though, I’m no use when it comes to writing. But in digging for facts, I’ll be ready to hold up my end. And facts are what are going to count. And there’s nothing to prevent the crowd pulling together—the prize essay doesn’t have to be one person’s work. Why, two or three of the girls have teamed up, and make no bones about it. The principal told ’em it was allowable, especially since the person who is putting up the hundred dollars really wants to get data on the town’s settlement and early history, and regards this plan as merely a way of securing assistance he is glad to pay for.”
“Well, then, it’s my notion some of the girls will win,” declared Sam. “They’re better pluggers—more persistent—than the fellows. Besides, the composition will count for something—can’t help counting—and that’s where they’ll do better work.”
“Then you’re against our going in?”
Sam protested. “No; I’m not. Only I don’t think any of us would have a living chance. But if any of you fellows want to sail in, I’ll wish you all the good luck there is. Still, short of finding the lost diary of Dominie Pike——”
“What’s that?” Orkney interrupted. He was comparatively a newcomer, and still had many of the town’s traditions to learn.
“Dominie Pike was the first minister,” Sam explained. “He came with the very earliest of the settlers—some people say he himself was the very first. He kept a diary, and put in it everything of interest that happened to himself or his neighbors, and all their dealings with the Indians——”