"I tell you, Frank," came from Bill, in a voice tense with excitement, "you've got to lay off that poolroom crowd before it's too late!" CHAPTER X INTO THE FRAY "Oh, you make me sick," came in another voice, lower-toned but angry, the voice of Bill's older brother, Frank. "Do you think I'm going to have a kid like you bossing me? The crowd's all right. They make a lot of noise, that's all, and all the old crabs in town take turns in picking on them." As Garry backed out on the porch and was pulling the door shut behind him he heard Bill say: "That sounds just like Sandy Podder or Lent Stewart. You can think I'm a crab all you like, Frank, but I'm telling you that if you don't leave that bunch alone they'll get you in Dutch some day. That's as sure as my name's Bill Sherwood." Garry, once outside, pressed his finger on the bell button. Bill himself answered the ring a moment later, his face wearing an angry frown. "Hello!" he said, his face clearing as he saw Garry. "Why didn't you come right in? I left the door open on purpose." Garry did not tell Bill that he had overheard part of the conversation between him and Frank. But he thought of it a good deal during the day and wished there were some way in which he might add his warning to Bill's. Ugly rumors of dirty work about Mooney's poolroom had been circulating ever since the trouble over Mr. Podder's three thousand dollars that had so mysteriously disappeared while in Sandy Podder's possession. Garry's father was a lawyer, and Garry had heard at the home table of many things unknown to his mates. A movement was taking form among the better citizens of the town to have the poolroom wiped out as a public nuisance. Garry felt with Bill that if Frank did not break with the fast crowd that hung out at the resort he might soon find himself in trouble, involved in some ugly scandal that might prove a bad blot on his reputation. However, in the days that followed Garry had a great deal to think about besides Frank Sherwood's recklessness. For football was in the air and engrossed all the time of the players that could be spared from their studies. On the day after the appointments for the two teams had been made, the boys met in the gymnasium to don the suits they had brought with them, eager for the feel of the gridiron under their feet and the pigskin in their hands. Coach Garwin was there, eyes alert and keen behind their half-closed lids. He assigned each boy a locker and directed them curtly to get into their togs as soon as possible. "That guy means business to-day," said Rooster to Garry, as he pulled on his cleated shoes. "He'll make us work for our positions even on the scrubs, let me tell you." "And past reputations won't cut any ice with him," affirmed Nick. "It matters not what once you were, it's what you are to-day," chanted Ted.