Bert went to the training table with the more important members of the squad on Wednesday, and, contrary to expectation, Mr. McFadden, Second Team coach, gathered his charges together on Friday and started to whip them into shape. While Bert had not actually feared being released to the Scrub, he nevertheless experienced some relief when Mr. McFadden began operations without him. The removal of the Scrub players from the big squad made quite a difference about the First Team gridiron and practice on Friday seemed more methodical. Bert had a long try-out at half-back during the scrimmage and managed to show speed and clean handling of the ball. But the plays used against the first-string fellows were not of the sort calculated to advantage a light back, no matter how fast, and Bert had small success when carrying the ball. Fitz Savell, who played inside half, did much better, and after work was over Bert tried in vain to believe that he had made an impression on Coach Cade. Saturday Banning High School came and presented a light but snappy opposition. In the first half the ball was seldom far out of Alton territory, for Banning had developed a clever passing game last season, by which she had scored twice on the Gray-and-Gold, and hadn’t forgotten how to use it this fall. She had, too, a punter who managed to get some five yards more than Nip Storer, who did the kicking in the first half, and as a result of punts and passes Alton was placed on the defensive early and kept there most of the time. Banning failed to score, however, although a difference of a few inches would have converted a failure into a field-goal in the second period. When the last half began Coach Cade used his second-string players extensively; Kruger and Thomas and Wick at the left of center, Tifton in Captain Lowe’s place, Lovell at quarter, Savell and Keys in the half-back positions. Since the first-string men hadn’t been able to more than hold the enemy in the first half, there were those among the audience who censured the coach’s move. But Johnny had his own notions, and he seldom bothered about what the School thought of his methods. Here was an enemy strong enough to offer real opposition and yet of slight importance as a rival. Usually the early season opponents were unable to provide more than good practice for Alton; were, of course, selected for that reason. But Banning, partly because of having held over some seven or eight of last fall’s players, was well advanced, while Alton, for some reason not so easily determined, was fully a week behind normal development, and what had been looked on as an easy contest had assumed the aspects of a real struggle.