Football -- Juvenile fiction; Schools -- Juvenile fiction
“Oh, sure, nothing rough, you understand. But they had a fake note from
Coach Cade asking Slim to stop and see him, and one of them was to
give it to him, the rest being out of sight. The coach went away over
Sunday at five-forty, but Reilly had in some way got him to leave the
key to his rooms. Well, the plan was that Slim was to call at the house
over there on the corner, and some one was to say ‘Come in,’ and the
room would be dark and then, the first thing Slim would know he’d be
safe in the big closet for the evening.”
“But Slim knew--we both knew--that Mr. Cade was going home, Johnny.”
“Maybe, but likely he wouldn’t have remembered it, or perhaps he’d have
figured that Mr. Cade was going on a later train. Anyway, that’s how
they had it fixed. But you fellows didn’t start along early enough, and
the gang had to go to supper. So Shawley locked you in the room, to
keep you there until they could get out from supper. He’d swiped the
key earlier in the afternoon, do you see. Well, when you did start out
they knew it was too late to spring that fake note on you and so they
fixed to keep you away from the restaurant. That is, Slim. They didn’t
care so much whether you got there. You were only a--a complication, as
you might say. Remember, I tipped Slim off the other evening. I didn’t
know then what the scheme was, but I knew they were after him.”
“So that was it,” mused Leonard. “We saw the freshies hiding around
behind trees when we got back from the game, but I didn’t suppose they
meant anything much. Neither did Slim; until we found ourselves locked
in the room.”
“How was it Slim got there finally?” asked Johnny. “Young Shawley says
you were in a taxicab, with Slim’s white sweater on--”
“Yes, we changed clothes. That is, I put on Slim’s sweater and he put
on my coat and an old felt hat I was wearing. You see, they’d already
seen Slim with that sweater on, and so they’d be looking for it again.
I got in the taxi on Market street and Slim walked away around by
Morrison street, coming back on Moody. We’d fixed ‘zero hour’ at seven
fifteen so he’d have time to get to the corner when I did. Of course
the freshies thought I was Slim as soon as they saw the white sweater,
and I didn’t show myself before I had to. Slim just walked into the
crowd, with my hat pulled down over his face, and while the freshies
were all clustered around the taxi he sauntered along down the street,
no one paying any attention to him. It was as easy as pie.”
“Sure, I wish I’d been there,” chuckled Johnny. “And they say you
butted a cop out of your way afterwards and no one could stop you!”
“I didn’t butt him. He made a dive at me and I side-stepped, showing
the value of football training, Johnny.”
“Did you have a good dinner?”
“Did we? Wow! And, gee, I was so hungry I couldn’t eat fast enough. We
didn’t get through until half-past nine, pretty nearly!”
“I suppose you heard about Renneker and Jimsy Carnochan?” asked Johnny.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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