Bert nodded. “Did you notice it?” he asked, mildly surprised. “Did I notice it? Well, rather! You’ve been as――as grouchy as a bear.” “Have I?” asked the other penitently. “I guess I have. I’m sorry, Hugh. I guess I was particularly nasty the other night, wasn’t I?” “Well, you weren’t exactly sweet-tempered,” chuckled Hugh. “I guess I was a regular beast. I wish you’d――er――forget it.” “All right. I fancy I lost my temper a bit too.” “I didn’t mean”――Bert spoke from behind a towel――“what I said about rooming with you, Hugh. I――I’m sorry I was such a cad.” “Oh, don’t talk so sick,” muttered Hugh, backing away from the door. “I didn’t pay any attention to it. Now shut up. I’ve got to wash.” CHAPTER XV GRAFTON SCORES The second team were not exempted from work on Saturday, rather to their annoyance, and it wasn’t until the Rotan College game was nearly half over that they were dismissed and allowed to flock over to the first-team gridiron and crowd into seats at the end of the stand. Rotan had already scored once and the board announced “Grafton 0――Visitors 7.” Rotan was a small college, but it rather specialized in football and its teams were invariably clever. Naturally the eleven blue-stockinged youths averaged superior to Grafton in age, size, weight and experience, and a defeat for the home team was a foregone conclusion. Rotan had played a mid-season contest at Grafton regularly every fall for six years, and in that period Grafton’s best performance was a 0 to 0 game four years previous. Rotan was a light team, as college teams went, but it knew a lot of football and provided just the experience that Coach Bonner desired for his charges at that period of development.