“Oh, no, but――I know what you’re getting at, Peaches. Of course I mightn’t have drowned. I might have floated and worked my way in around the Head. But I _was_ sort of nervous, and when you’re nervous――” “You get over it if you’re any kind of a swimmer. Come on, tell the truth. If Allen hadn’t ‘rescued’ you you’d have got ashore farther along the beach. Only, he thought he was saving your life and you didn’t like to tell him he wasn’t. Isn’t that about it?” Barry looked pathetically uncomfortable. “Maybe he didn’t actually save me from drowning,” he acknowledged, “but he did come to my rescue, and he _thought_ I was drowning, and it would have been just the same if I had been!” “Oh, I’m not trying to detract from Allen’s stunt. What he did was plucky, all right. But the main point, if you’ll only see it, is that he _didn’t_ save your life, no matter what he thinks; and if he didn’t you certainly don’t owe him a blamed thing!” “Well, but――don’t you see――” “Of course I do! He thinks he rescued you from death and takes good care you don’t forget it. And you were too soft-hearted to tell him then and――you never have. But if I were you I’d get rid of the notion that I owed my life to him. I’d use my own judgment about things instead of his. And if I wanted to play football, I’d play football!” Barry sat silent but unconvinced. Finally: “You said yourself I couldn’t tell Clyde the――the truth,” he protested. “And he thinks I owe him something, naturally, so I’ve just got to show some gratitude!” “All right,” answered Peaches, grimly. “But you’re not going to get out of football to please him, my bucko, and you may take my word for it. If you go to Major Loring with any cock-and-bull story like you tried on me I’ll see him myself and tell him the facts.” “That’s not fair,” Barry protested. “Fair enough for me. If it comes to that, no one’s being fair. Allen isn’t, and that’s a cinch! And you’re not, if you let the team down now when it needs you. No, sir! you tell Allen that there’s nothing doing. I suppose he’s afraid some of his swell friends will give him the raspberry if he doesn’t get on the team. I hope they do. He’s trying to train with a lot of sap-heads, anyway. I know the bunch. I started in with them the first year I was here. They made me so sick I had to quit. It would be the best thing in the world for Allen if they gave him the shake. And you might tell him that, too.” “He didn’t used to be so――so――” Barry sought unsuccessfully for a word.