Later Mr. York went off in his automobile and Sam lay down on a couch in the big living-room, and, to please his host, tried to take a nap. He didn’t succeed, however. Dinner came at seven, with the dining-room windows wide open and the blue-black sky, a-twinkle with white stars, in sight whenever Sam looked away from the mellow radiance of the candles. And after that he had his initiation into the mysteries of chess. Mr. York said he did very well, but Sam feared that he had been terribly stupid when the chessmen were finally put away. “That,” said Mr. York, seating himself again in a big easy-chair and taking one knee into his hands, “almost did me out of my diploma at college. One of the instructors and I used to play chess five evenings a week until all hours. I just scraped through my finals. Speaking of college, Craig, I suppose you’ve got yours all picked out, eh?” “Me? No, sir. I--I guess I won’t go to college.” “Won’t go! Why not?” “Can’t afford it, sir,” replied Sam, with a twinkle. “They say it costs money.” “Oh, that!” said Mr. York carelessly. “You’d like to, wouldn’t you?” “Yes, sir, I’d like to well enough, but----” “Lots of chaps go through without a cent, or, at least, with almost no money. There were half a dozen chaps in my class at Warner who were a heap--er--who had less to spend than you have.” Sam looked puzzled. “But how did they do it, sir? You mean scholarships?” “Partly, in one or two cases. The trouble is with scholarships, Craig, that you usually have to work hard for them and you can’t ever be certain you’ll pull one down. No, the chaps I was thinking of were fellows who were rather prominent in sports--football, baseball, track. They found jobs waiting them. A couple were managers of frat houses, one was a sort of assistant in the Athletic Director’s office and had the programme privilege. There are quite a few jobs like that to be had by wide-awake chaps with--er--athletic ability.” “Oh,” said Sam softly, “I see.” CHAPTER XVIII MR. YORK MAKES A PROPOSITION “It works well both ways,” continued Mr. York. “The college gets the services of, say, a good football man, and the student gets an education. It’s a fair exchange.” “But isn’t it a good deal like--like paying a fellow to play for the college, sir?”