This confession from Dick’s lips made Brad feel better. Why, here was Dick, who had detected him on the point of filching the votes—Dick had been tempted and had fallen. Dick was not holding himself coldly above Brad as his moral superior; instead, he freely acknowledged that he had stumbled. Buckhart’s feelings about the affair began to undergo a change. A little while before he had been thinking of his roommate as looking down on him in pity from a moral height far above him; but now Dick had made it plain that he had no thought or desire to exalt himself in the least. “You may be right,” said Brad. “I know I am,” came positively from Dick’s lips. “You will see it in the same light when you are cooler. Besides, there was another reason why I could not afford to let you get rid of those votes.” “What other reason?” “I saw you—I knew what you had done.” “Well?” “With that knowledge, had I permitted you to work the scheme, I should have been just as guilty as you. It was to save myself from regret and shame, as well as you, that I told you you must put the votes back.” This confession drew Brad still closer to his friend. In all these things Dick was perfectly honest with his companion, and the Texan trusted and relied in him. “I never thought of it that way,” he said. “But you see I am right,” said Dick. “I was compelled to ask you to put the votes back in order to save my own feelings.” “Then, if you had not seen me——” Dick interrupted with a laugh. “Why, I should have known nothing about it. But,” he added soberly, “I am glad I saw you, even though Arlington won.” “Well,” acknowledged the Texan, brought round at last, “I believe I am glad of it, too; but it was a howling shame to have that greaser get on the committee! It was, I know!” CHAPTER XIV—ARLINGTON SHOWS HIS HAND The football-team soon began to feel the hand of Chester Arlington. He sent men out to practise and directed that they should be tried on the regular team. And he seemed to have the athletic committee behind him, for they backed up his demands. Two of these men, Peter Hicks and Rufus Hoyt, knew something about football and played fairly well. Dick chafed, for he saw that serious trouble was brewing. He saw that Arlington would try to manage the team through the committee, and that was just what Dick determined he should not do. “It’s a fight, pard,” said Brad Buckhart. “Mark what I say, you’ll have your troubles with that galoot right along.” Phil Warne was chairman of the committee. In the past he had permitted Dick to run the team on the field just about as he pleased. Now, however, he advised a shifting about of the team and trying them in other positions. Dick felt that this was more of Arlington’s work, for Warne was not the fellow to dip in like that without being put up to it by another.