“He’s just as good a player maybe, Harry, but he isn’t half the general Al is. I see Burtis is playing right half on the second. I wonder if he will make the team this year. Of course he will get into the games now and then if only to kick goals, but I guess he’s got a lot of football to learn yet.” “Gee, they ought to make him a present of his position on the First Team,” responded Harry, flicking a peanut shell at a group of boys below. “Any fellow who will go into a Broadwood game without any experience and win for us by a goal from the field ought to have anything he wants.” “Well, I guess Payson will take him on all right. I hope so. I like Burtis. Do you know him?” “I met him once in your room last Spring. It was the day of the baseball game with Broadwood. He seemed a quiet sort of chap.” “Yes, he’s a bit shy at first,” Gerald chuckled, and then, in response to his friend’s look of inquiry, continued: “I’ll never forget the night last year he came into our room and told Dan quite seriously that he ‘would like to play on the football team, please.’ Harold Towne put him up to it. Burtis was a pretty green lad then.” “Towne always was a pup,” remarked Harry cheerfully. “There he goes now!” “Who? Towne?” “Burtis; he’s got the ball. Made a peach of a catch and―― Oh, good work, Burtis! Gee, Gerald, he must have made fifteen easily. Say, he can run with the ball, can’t he? Did you see him slip away from Fayette?” “Yes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made good this year. Goodness knows we need a couple of half-backs! We’re going to miss Tom Roeder and Stearns and Hammel like anything.” “We’re going to miss a whole lot of fellows. We’ll never have an end as good as Dan Vinton, nor a guard like Ridge. Did you hear Payson say at the meeting the other night that only once before since he’s been coaching have we had so few veterans to build the team around?” “Yes. So, too, I guess. Simms and Merriwell are really the only members of last year’s team we have; Holmes was more of a second-string man than anything else. Still, there’s good material out there; Marion for full, Stark for tackle, two good quarters, Fayette and Crandall and Greene for halfs; we’ll get along, I guess.” “I wonder what sort of a captain Merriwell will make,” mused Harry. “He’s a good player, but――――” “And a good fellow, and well liked, don’t you think? I don’t believe he’s the leader that Dan was, though.” “I should say not! You must miss Dan a whole lot, Gerald.” “It’s something fierce! Lonely’s no name for it! I had a letter from him yesterday. He’s out for the Yale Freshman Team, of course.” “I dare say they’ll make him captain,” asserted Harry loyally.