“Fellows, we’ve had good names put before us. Crandall, bless his old hide, would make a good captain! So would Girard, if he could keep awake! (Sit down, Pete!) Either one of them would do to lead us――I mean the rest of you fellows, because some of us will be out of it next year――to lead you to victory. But, fellows, there’s one here who hasn’t been named yet, and I know you’re waiting for it. We’ve got a fellow here who would make the sort of captain we want, the sort we love to follow, the sort that Chase was in the old days before we came here, and that Vinton was, and that Merriwell has been. He hasn’t served his three years, fellows, but that can’t be helped. It isn’t his fault, it’s our misfortune. He’s only been two seasons on the team, but in that time he’s yanked one game out of the fire for us and saved us from defeat in the other! And, fellows――――” Simms paused and seemed debating with himself. Then: “Fellows, when the rest of us were feeding our faces here to-night and jollying up, this chap was staying away because he thought he’d failed us to-day and that we didn’t want him here! Fellows, I nominate for the captaincy of the Yardley Hall Football Team for the Season of 1911, Mr. Kendall Burtis!” CHAPTER XXVI GERALD IS SURPRISED Simms must have been right when he said they were waiting for that name, for such a burst of applause went up as to set the fixtures shaking above the table. Napkins waved and goblets rang. Kendall, staring bewilderedly, told himself that it was a dream; that he had not heard aright! And yet they were all looking at him and waving at him and crying his name! He gazed about, the color rushing into his cheeks, and showed such a terrified countenance that the cheers grew into laughter. Merriwell was rapping for silence again. “Are there any more nominations?” he asked, trying to make himself heard. It seemed that there were not. “Then please come to order, fellows. You have three candidates to vote on――――” “Leave me out, Charlie!” called Pete Girard. “I decline the honor!” “Then two,” began Merriwell again. But Crandall was on his feet. “I want to thank the fellows who nominated me,” he announced, “but I withdraw, too, please. And I’d like to make Burtis’s nomination unanimous!”