Fifteen minutes more marked the close of work for the day. As Tom and Phil were hurrying to the dressing-rooms, they were met by Langridge and Gerhart. The latter still had his football togs on. "Clinton, why did you tell Lighton I had been smoking?" asked Gerhart in sharp tones. "Tell him you had been smoking? Why, I didn't know you had been." "Yes, you did. I saw you whispering to him, and then he came over and called me down." "You're mistaken." "I am not! I saw you!" Phil recollected that he had whispered to the coach. But he could not, in decency, tell what it was about. "I never mentioned your name to the coach," he said. "Nor did I speak of smoking." "I know better!" snapped Gerhart. "I saw you." "I can only repeat that I did not." "I say you did! You're a----" Phil's face reddened. This insult, and from a freshman, was more than he could bear. He sprang at Gerhart with clenched fists, and would have knocked him down, only Tom clasped his friend's arm. "Not here! Not here!" he pleaded. "You can't fight here, Phil!" "Somewhere else, then!" exclaimed Phil. "He shan't insult me like that!" "Of course not," spoke Tom soothingly, for he, too, resented the words and manner of the freshman. "Langridge, I'll see you about this later if you're agreeable," he added significantly, "and will act for your friend." "Of course," said Tom's former rival easily. "I guess my friend is willing," and then the two cronies strolled off. CHAPTER VI PROFESSOR TINES OBJECTS "Are you going to fight him?" asked Langridge of Gerhart, when they were beyond the hearing of Tom and Phil. "Of course! I owe him something for being instrumental in getting me put out of the game." "Are you sure he did?" "Certainly. Didn't I see him sneak up to Lighton and put him wise to the fact that I'd taken a few whiffs? I only smoked half a cigarette in the dressing-room, but Clinton must have spied on me." "That's what Parsons did on me, last term, and I got dumped for it. There isn't much to this athletic business, anyway. I don't see why you go in for it." "Well, I do, but I'm not going to stand for Clinton butting in the way he did. I wish he had come at me. You'd seen the prettiest fight you ever witnessed." "I don't doubt it," spoke Langridge dryly. "What do you mean?" asked his crony, struck by some hidden meaning in the words. "I mean that Clinton would just about have wiped up the field with you." "I'll lay you ten to one he wouldn't! I've taken boxing lessons from a professional," and Gerhart seemed to swell up. "Pooh! That's nothing," declared Langridge. "Phil Clinton has boxed with professionals, and beaten them, too. We had a little friendly mill here last term. It was on the quiet, so don't say anything about it. Phil went up against a heavy hitter and knocked him out in four rounds." "He did?" and Gerhart spoke in a curiously quiet voice. "Sure thing. I just mention this to show that you won't have a very easy thing of it."