“Huh! You’ll have to get Bonner to let you back first. And I don’t think he will.” Hanrihan paused. “He might, though, if I put it up to him. Confound you, Ordway, you seem to think you can do as you please and play hob all around and then――then get folks to square things for you! You _are_ a cheeky youngster, and no mistake!” “I dare say,” replied Hugh, “but you’ll speak to Mr. Bonner, eh? You know yourself it wasn’t my fault, old chap, now don’t you?” “Well, no, I suppose it wasn’t――in a way,” acknowledged Hanrihan more graciously. “Well, I’ll see if we can do anything. But look here, now. You keep in shape, do you understand? And keep in right with faculty. No more nonsense, Ordway!” “Right-o! And thanks awfully, Hanrihan.” “Don’t thank me until it happens――if it does,” grumbled the other. “I’ll let you know if――if anything comes up. So long.” That conversation left Hugh hopeful again, but when he recounted it to Bert the latter threw cold water on the project. “Tom will do his part,” he said, “but there isn’t a chance that Bonner will let you back. I know him too well. I’m sorry, Hugh. I wish he would. But I wouldn’t expect too much if I were you.” “I shan’t,” replied Hugh untroubledly. “But there isn’t any harm in hoping, eh? Even if you don’t get what you want you’ve had the fun of wishing for it, if you know what I mean!” CHAPTER XI THIRTEEN TO TEN Being on probation didn’t prevent Hugh from seeing the game that Saturday afternoon, and he and Guy and a lower middle youth named Stiles sat together through the best part of two hours and watched Grafton play two twelve-minute and two ten-minute periods with the Leeds High School team. It was unseasonably warm for the first week in October and the players felt the heat. The game dragged along uninterestingly until, in the final period, Coach Bonner put in a number of second-string players. That brought the two teams nearer equality and, although there was no more scoring, the last ten minutes contained several exciting incidents. Weston, at quarter-back in place of Nick, got away on a sixty-five-yard run and all but scored. A Leeds left end pulled down a forward pass for a twelve-yard gain that momentarily looked like a touchdown. Keyes, the only one of the back field to play the game through, fooled the enemy with a short punt that almost resulted in a score when a Leeds player dropped the ball and it was pulled out of the air by Siedhof. But in the end the score remained as at the finish of the first half, 13 to 0, in favor of the home team, and Grafton dawdled back to the campus not greatly impressed.