Air pilots -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
This soldier, who found keen enjoyment in the coquetry of a tropical
native girl, the roar of a sixteen-inch gun or the intricacies of a
Wright motor, lounged in a box at the Yale Bowl, visibly bored with the
activities going on about him, and completely unresponsive to the spirit
of the play; a direct contrast to the Marine beside him, who sat,
seething with emotion.
Over by the Yale bench, the worried coach, now confronted with the
reality that his star player was lost to this game, entered into a
hurried conference with his assistants.
Each man viewed the row of players sprawled on the bench before them
until the eyes of the coach fell upon the tall, gaunt figure of a
fair-haired youth who sat, wrapped in a blanket, twitching his large
fingers from nervousness.
“I’m going to send in Phelps as Baer’s substitute,” the coach announced
at length, his words almost deafened by the roars of objections raised
by his assistants.
“Lefty Phelps?” Scotty, the coach’s chief aid, questioned, “Why, he’s
never been in a big game in his life!”
“If you put him in as quarter,” another assistant ventured, “we’re bound
to take plenty of punishment.”
“Why?” the coach asked, visibly determined in having his own way.
“Well, for one thing, he’s the nervous type,” Scotty explained, “and
it’s just that failing that may break up the game.”
The coach smiled broadly as if his assistant had grasped the very
purpose behind his idea in selecting Lefty.
“Nervous is right. His over-anxiety may get him so rattled that he’ll
come through with a touchdown!”
Lefty, of course, could not help but overhear this discourse on his
failings and, at the words uttered by the coach, leaped to his feet and
joined the little group of men.
“You have been itching for a chance to win your ‘Y’,” the coach
explained as Lefty confronted him. “Get in there as quarter. Carry the
ball around left end. You’ve only got time for two plays. Now get that
ball and come through with a touchdown! Do you hear?”
Lefty didn’t stop to reply, but darted off to the umpire with the words
of the coach still ringing in his ears: “A touchdown, do you hear?”
The whistle blew for time up as Lefty announced his substitution. Over
in the grand stand, on the Yale side, a white-haired man and woman rose
with pride. There were smiles of triumph written over their aged faces
as their boy entered the field for Yale and victory.
“Mother, it’s our boy!” cried the man. “He’s going in!”
The old lady’s eyes were moist with tears of joy. “God bless him—and
Yale!” she murmured softly.
“God help him!” bellowed the father. “Come on, Son. Touchdown! Come on!”
In the box occupied by the Marines, enthusiasm had reached its peak with
all the occupants save Panama.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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