“Monday. Come on in and let’s look over your list, Mal; there’s half an hour to supper yet. By the way, Evan, remind me to get Pierce up here this evening, will you? We’ve got to get the fellows to pay their money into the exchequer before we begin cutting down the candidates. There’s going to be a howl from some of them when they find they’re not going to get on the team, and they might want to keep their half-dollars. And that wouldn’t do, for we need the money, my friends. We’ll have to have that scrub gridiron marked out, Mal; we can’t play without the lines. We’ll talk about that later. By the way, have you written for any games yet?” “I’m going to do that to-night,” answered Malcolm, “and I wanted to ask you where I’d better write.” “We’ll go over that, then, after study. Now let’s see those names. Pull up a chair. Evan, turn on the juice like a good chap. It certainly is getting late early these days!” On Saturday the School Team journeyed to Providence to play Bannard and the Independents used their gridiron while Malcolm and a dozen helpers marked off the scrub field with whitewash brushes and pails of lime. There was a little signal work that day for the more advanced candidates, Evan handling the first squad and a middle class youth named Rogers playing quarter for the second. The work was decidedly encouraging, although somewhat ragged. The Second Team, with nothing to do, watched from the side-lines and had their fun, but it was all good-natured. Gus Devens told Rob that he was doing wonders and declared that he wouldn’t have thought it possible to find eleven players as good as those in the first squad. “Oh, we haven’t started yet,” answered Rob quietly. “Our coach comes Monday and after that things will take a brace. One thing we need, Gus, is a good guard. You’d better think it over.” Devens stared. “Meaning me? I’d look nice, wouldn’t I, throwing up my place and leaving the Second in the lurch in the middle of the season? You must be dippy, Rob.” “N――no, I don’t think so. I guess they’d find some one else to take your place. You’ve been trying for the First for three years and you’ve got as far as captain of the Second. Maybe, if you stay where you are, they’ll take you on the First next year as a sub. Depends who falls heir to the captaincy, I suppose. You come over here and you can have a guard position and next year――” “What about next year?” asked Gus curiously. “You won’t tell?” “No.” “Next year, then, you’ll find yourself on the First.” “How do you mean?” “I mean that this will be the First next year, of course.” “Oh, you’re crazy, Rob. How do you figure that out?” “Never mind how I figure it out, Gus. I’m right. You wait and see. The school’s back of this team, my friend, and the school’s bigger than Frank Hopkins and Ed Prentiss. Think it over.” “Even so,” answered Gus, “I’m not the sort to quit my job now when having a good Second Team may mean winning the big game, and you know it, Rob.”