Billy whistled. “So that’s it? I wondered. He kind of acts as though he wanted to keep you off the team. I don’t suppose the fellows would stand for it, though. Still, George is captain and――well, if I were you I’d try my level best to get out to-day. So long. How’s The Ark running?” “Fine, thanks. Much obliged. See you later.” Tom went on thoughtfully. He was fond of football and was a good player, and he wondered whether George Connors was going to hold his grudge against him. If he did he could make it pretty hard sledding. Tom had fairly earned the position of right tackle last season, and he wanted to play it, but if Captain Connors was going to dislike him there wouldn’t be much fun for him on the gridiron. Well, he’d go out for practice to-day anyhow. And he could soon tell how the land lay. At noon Willard appeared breathlessly with a telegram from Jimmy. A telegram was a good deal of an event in the lives of the boys and this one worked them up to a high pitch of excitement. The message had been sent from New York at eleven o’clock and said: “Back on eight-forty to-night. Got it. Meet me at station.” The rest of the day the boys speculated as to what “it” was. “That’s the worst of telegrams,” complained Willard. “They never tell you anything. They just get your curiosity up and stop short. Why the dickens didn’t he tell us something about it?” “Well, he used up his ten words, I suppose,” said Tom. “What’s that got to do with it? Couldn’t he have spent ten cents more and told us whether it was a new one or an old one and how much he paid for it?” “No, not for ten cents, I guess,” laughed Tom. “Anyway, we’ll know all about it this evening.” They went out to the field in The Ark in the afternoon, Tom, in a faded and worn suit of football togs, to join practice, and Willard to look on. George Connors’ greeting of the delinquent member of the squad was decidedly ungracious. “Why didn’t you stay away until Thanksgiving, Benton?” he demanded sarcastically. “I suppose you think you’re so good you don’t have to practice, eh? I don’t know as we need you very much now. We’ve been at it a week.” “Nobody said anything to me about practice,” replied Tom quietly. “If you’d sent me word I’d been out.” “Maybe you’d have liked me to come and fetch you in a carriage,” sneered Connors. “You’re in the second squad to-day, Benton.”