“We’ll have one advantage, anyhow,” said Bob Peters. “We’ve come along pretty steady and what we know we’ve learned. Kenwood has sort of gone one step forward and two back, and she doesn’t know just where she’s at, I guess. What about her condition, Billy?” “Oh, she’s got a first-class trainer in Connell and he will do his part all right. You mustn’t look for any advantage there, Cap. Her men will be in condition all right. As good as ours, I guess.” “We’ll outpunt her, Coach,” said Stone. “With Kirkendall in, yes. But that man of hers, Brighouse, has a clever foot. And he puts his punts where he wants them to go, I hear. We may outdistance him a few yards, but a lot depends on the wind. I have a sort of a hunch, fellows, that Kenwood is keeping something up her sleeve. I can’t tell you why I think that, or what the something is, but that’s my hunch.” “And your hunches are generally right,” mused Peters. “Any second-string fellow that looks as if he was being held back? A clever back-field man, for instance?” “I haven’t found any. No, I think it’s a goal-kicker, or maybe they’ve got a new scoring play that they haven’t shown. Well, I’m only guessing. We’ll know better a week from Saturday. Now let’s do some planning on the week from now to Thursday. We’ve got to buckle down and find a way of getting some punch into those split-plays. Or else drop them. What’s your idea, Cap?” Whereupon the meeting became very technical and abstruse. CHAPTER XVIII PUBLICITY Mr. Bates’ reply to Dick’s letter was contained in his regular weekly epistle and was decidedly non-committal. He appeared to accept Dick’s statements as to the latter’s studiousness and progress but made little comment. Only, a mail later than the letter, came two copies of the Leonardville daily, each with a paragraph circled in red ink. Seeing them, Dick sighed and shook his head even before he read them. Thursday’s paper held the following under the caption “High School Jottings”: “Richard C. Bates, for two years one of High School’s most popular students, is certainly making good at his new Alma Mater, Parkinson School, which he entered last September. Dick went out for the Parkinson Football Team and proceeded to show them how the position of quarter-back should be played. Now he is first substitute, we learn, and the season isn’t over yet. Dick’s loss was a severe blow to the High School Team, but his old friends are surely proud of his success and are rooting hard for him.”