Chick was maintaining his attitude of wounded dignity, an attitude which didn’t sit well on him and which his team-mates resented and ridiculed. Many of them got sorely out of patience with Chick about this time and perhaps wondered how they had ever come to consider him for the captaincy. The things which had made for popularity were conspicuously absent, and he had become what Ted Ball called “snorty.” Nevertheless Chick managed to play some good football that week and possibly caused Mr. Cade to wonder whether he had made a mistake in shifting him out of the first line-up. Off the field he seemed to Bert about the same old Chick, save that he was a trifle moody and had periods of testiness during which he was hard to get along with. He pretended that he didn’t care much whether he or Savell ended the season in possession of his old position and managed to convey the idea that he considered it below his dignity to compete for it. Just the same he did compete, and Fitz was seldom more than a leap ahead in the race during that week. He still played pool three and sometimes four evenings out of seven, but he generally managed to get to bed if not promptly by ten, at worst a few minutes after. Bert gathered that luck still favored Mr. Devore, although Chick had become close-mouthed on the subject of his favorite pastime. All Alton journeyed to Warren on Saturday. The town was a small, sleepy place, with elm-shaded streets and old white houses at wide intervals, and when the Gray-and-Gold cohorts descended upon it, as they did every other fall, it seemed to fairly shiver with outrage. Mt. Millard School lay on the outskirts of the village, at the end of a wide and shadowed street from which this afternoon clouds of dust arose under the tread of the invaders. There was no lofty eminence in sight to account for the school’s name, but the buildings did occupy a perceptible rise in the landscape, beyond which, on a level plateau of still verdant sod, stretched the playing field. As the day, while not nearly so hot as the middle of the week, was decidedly warm, the visitors were grateful for the shade supplied by a row of giant elms that traversed one edge of the field. Scorning the half of a small grandstand reserved for them, they made themselves comfortable on the grass, while those of affluence and foresight produced provender purchased on the way and did their best toward supplying the school caretakers with a real day’s work for Monday. Alton took the field at three with the same line-up used last week with the exception of Lovell for Ball at quarter-back. Ted’s ankle was still “backward in coming forward” and, although Jake had consented to his playing if necessity required, he had resigned himself to an afternoon of idleness. Mt. Millard had requested shortened periods in deference to the warmth and thirteen- and twelve-minute quarters had been decided on. Alton won the toss and chose to receive the kick-off and the contest started.