Читать книгу Danforth Plays the Game: Stories for Boys Little and Big онлайн

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On Squad C Harry performed creditably for a week. Work at the dummy had begun and a provisional eleven had been made up. The first game was but a few days away. Harry had been placed with the halfbacks, a position for which his experience recommended him. Squad C began to thin out as the first contest drew near. Some of the fellows went to the first team as third substitutes, others went to Squad B, which had now developed into the second team, in like capacities, and a few fell out of the race. Just before the Belton game Harry was taken on to the second and a few days later Squad C, like Squad Z, ceased to exist. By that time the number of candidates had dwindled from sixty-odd to about forty, and most of those who remained were certain to last the season out either on the school team or the second, barring accidents. Harry was glad to get into the second team fold, but he had no intention of remaining there.

The Belton game, looked on beforehand as not much more than a good practice, proved a tough contest and Barnstead won out eventually by the slim margin of a kicked goal, the final score being 7–6. That was on a Saturday, the last Saturday but one in September, and on the following Monday Coach Worden made a number of changes in the line-up of the first team. Several substitutes were given opportunities to show what they could do, while Jones, who had exhibited remarkably poor generalship as quarter in Saturday’s game, gave place to Bob Peel, a small, freckle-faced youth with red hair and any amount of vim. Unfortunately, however, Peel, while a good director, was only a mediocre player in the backfield, and that Monday afternoon a fumble by him of a long punt paved the way for a touchdown by the second and a subsequent victory. Harry got in that day at left halfback for a full ten-minute period, and after the scrimmage was over the school was relishing the knowledge of a discovery. For in ten minutes Harry, using every bit of the daring, reckless courage that had brought him fame at Hillston, and all the knowledge he had gained since, dashed through the first team’s defense or around its drawn-in ends for long gains time after time and opened Coach Worden’s eyes to the fact that here was a youngster worth watching and cultivating. Hugh Barrett, even when a play with Harry hugging the ball went through his position, grunted commendation and nodded his head knowingly. He had, he told himself, seen from the first that Danforth had something in him. So Barnstead Academy took a sensation with it up the hill and back to the dormitories, and the sensation was the sudden appearance on the football horizon of a new star whose name was Danforth!