“Where is he?” the girl asked. “I think I’ve met all the other members of the team, haven’t I?” “He’ll be over, after a little,” said Dick; and just then MacClay butted in and took his cousin away to meet another group of his classmates. It was shortly after this that MacClay took his turn at drawing Dick Maxwell aside. “You were talking to Bess a few minutes ago: it was about Donovan, wasn’t it?” he asked. “Yes.” “Didn’t I hear you say that he was coming here?” Dick was beginning to be a trifle nettled. “You might have, if you ‘listened in’ hard enough.” “Who invited him?” “I did.” “Now see here, Maxie; you’re not a dead one, and you must have heard the stories that are going around about Donovan. For that matter, you come from the same town, and you must know what sort of a fellow he is.” Dick straightened himself belligerently. “You’re just the man I’ve been looking for, MacClay; somebody who can tell me precisely the sort of fellow Larry Donovan is. It’s just possible that I don’t know; I haven’t been acquainted with him more than ten or a dozen years.” MacClay looked embarrassed. He was a very decent fellow in the main, though somewhat inclined to take himself and his own little world a trifle too seriously. “I’ll just ask you one question, Maxie: have you any sisters?” “Yes; two of ’em.” “Would you be willing to have Donovan meet them?” “Rats! They’re only kids, but, barring the difference in ages, he’s known them as long and as well as he has me.” “And he’s accepted by your people――in your home?” “Of course he is. Why shouldn’t he be?” MacClay looked still more embarrassed. “There’s a mistake out, somewhere,” he said. “Shubrick was telling me――” “Who told Shubrick?” Dick cut in. “Underhill, I believe. The story goes that Underhill lived for some time in your home town and knew all about the Donovans.” “Exactly,” snapped Dick. “Just after the Rockford Poly game last fall, Bry Underhill took occasion to black-list Larry to a bunch of the fellows for no better reason than that his father was a workingman. Larry happened to overhear what he said and was going to lick him, but the other fellows got in and stopped it. Bry bragged then that he’d run Larry out of Old Sheddon, and he tried to do it, using Snitty Crawford for a cat’s-paw. Now he is trying, in another way, to get him shoved off the team. There isn’t a single word of truth in the stories he’s telling around about Larry and his people, and I’d be willing to bet my next year’s allowance that he never so much as heard of Larry until he came here to Sheddon.” MacClay spread his hands. “Of course, I’m taking your word for it, Maxie, straight from the shoulder,” he said, heartily enough. “I didn’t want to believe this mess of gossip about Donovan; but at the same time, Bess is my only girl cousin, and――well, you know how a fellow feels about such things.”