“I will.” Cotton patted his jacket as though he wasn’t at all sure where he had placed the sheet, and nodded. “Good-night.” Kendall, hunting his books, reflected that Cotton wasn’t so bad, after all. Why, to-night he had been quite human! Of course, he shouldn’t have taken possession of the room in the absence of the occupants. There was an unwritten law at Yardley that if a fellow was not in, you went no further than the threshold unless you happened to be a particular friend and had permission to make yourself at home. However, Cotton had behaved so amiably that Kendall was ready to forgive the breach of manners. He had almost liked the fellow to-night! CHAPTER XV THE _NEWS_ PREDICTS DEFEAT Gerald sat on the lowest step in front of Oxford. It was Friday morning and a chilly, depressing gray fog was driving in from the Sound. Somewhere in the distance a whistle buoy was moaning and at intervals a steamer, creeping along off shore, bellowed hoarsely. It was twenty minutes before first recitation hour and Gerald had the entrance to himself. A copy of the morning’s Greenburg _News_ was held in front of him, getting damper and limper every minute, and Gerald was perusing the football column. The _News_ chronicled each day the progress of the Yardley and Broadwood teams, and as the game between the rival schools approached the _News_ devoted more and more space to them. To-day the football specialist of the paper came out flat-footed with the prediction that Broadwood would win the contest. The _News_ had of late years shown a strong partiality to Yardley and this prediction troubled Gerald the more for that reason. “It’s some time,” said the _News_, “since the Green has defeated the Blue and lots of people around here have begun to wonder whether she is ever going to repeat. Even the longest road has its turning, though, and the luck has to change some time. And it looks very much now as if the change would take place a week from to-morrow when Broadwood and Yardley meet in their fourteenth annual contest. In fact those who have seen both teams in action don’t hesitate to hand the victory to the Green right now. This may sound rash, but they have plenty of good argument to support their verdict with.