“No, I don’t. That’s puzzled me a little, too. I haven’t seen his name more than twice all the fall, and last year he looked like a real find. I presume Mr. Otis had some information on Grosfawk, but I don’t know a thing. Anyhow, we’ve laid our lines for that chap, and he will be watched pretty closely. But Wolcott hasn’t showed much in the overhead game so far, and maybe she’s intending to use it only as a last resort.” “She hasn’t shown it in public, sir,” said Loring, “but she’s practiced forward-passing ever since she started work.” Mr. Babcock looked interested. “Is that so? How did you learn that, Deane?” Loring indicated a binder filled with newspapers that lay on a chair nearby. “I’ve been reading the Wolcott football stuff in the papers, sir. Their correspondent is pretty close-mouthed, but he lets something out now and then. I’ve been all through the papers from the seventeenth of September to yesterday, and I’ve learned two or three rather interesting things, Mr. Babcock. One is that Wolcott’s been using the forward-pass in practice, although in outside games she’s made only about fourteen passes in all, an average of a little over two to a game. But the important thing, sir, is that out of those fourteen ten were successful. That’s an unusual average, isn’t it?” “Decidedly! What were they, Deane, long or short?” “Both, apparently. I couldn’t always make out which they were. But they went all right in nearly every case, and that’s something to think about, Mr. Babcock.” “It’s something to think a whole lot about,” was the answer. “Did Grosfawk figure in any of those plays?” “Not one, sir.” “Cocky” stared thoughtfully at Loring and Loring looked thoughtfully back at him. Finally: “Hm,” said the instructor. “What do you make of that? Do you suppose Grosfawk petered out this year? He’s rather a youngster, I believe, and it may be he couldn’t find himself.” “What I think, sir, is that he got hurt, hurt badly enough to keep him from hard work.” Loring took a slip of paper from his leather wallet. “Grosfawk’s name appears eight times in the stories written for the paper by the Wolcott correspondent up to October Fifth. After that it doesn’t appear at all. The Fifth of October was Friday, and Wolcott played Nelson the next day. Wolcott won by 23 to 6, or something like that. It was a slow game and Wolcott used a whole string of substitutes in the last half. But she didn’t use Grosfawk. Grosfawk was spoken of in the paper as having taken part in practice on Thursday. Now I think something happened either Thursday or Friday. Either he got hurt or he got in wrong with the faculty over studies. Up to that Fifth of October, the fellow who writes the stuff for the paper was always mentioning him. Once he spoke of him as ‘Wolcott’s spectacular end,’ and another time as ‘the speedy runner who grabbed last year’s game from Wyndham,’ or something like that. Then he drops him entirely!”