“No, sir? Oh, very possibly, very possibly. What I alluded to is the part where you face each other, Mr. Bingham, and then――er――mix it up! But perhaps Mister Loring has misled me. I understood from him that using the fists was permissible, quite the usual thing. I have the wrong――er――dope, sir?” “You certainly have, Wattles!” Clif laughed. “Loring’s been ‘having’ you, as you’d say!” “Very likely, sir,” sighed Wattles. “Thank you.” Cupples Institute, Wyndham’s opponent the next afternoon, had been defeated by Wolcott a fortnight before, 19 to 7. To those who delighted in comparative scores to-day’s contest was of much interest. The Dark Blue was expected to win, but by a close score, and whether that score would better 19 to 7 was problematical. However, Cupples didn’t show as strong as expected. Wyndham outpunted her all through the game and outrushed her during two periods. Fargo went over for Wyndham’s first score four minutes after the kick-off and Stoddard kicked goal. Again, in the second, Fargo added another touchdown, and again Stoddard did his part. The half ended: Wyndham 14, Cupples 0. With Ogden replacing Jensen and two second-string men relieving Fargo by turns in the fourth period, the Dark Blue was less assertive. There were two long runs and some decent gains through the Cupples line around midfield, but the best Wyndham could do in either of the remaining quarters was to add two field-goals to her score. Wyndham was highly pleased with the result of that afternoon’s performance since, any way you looked at it, 20 to 0 was eight points better than Wolcott’s score of 19 to 7. There was also a pleasant conviction that, had she wanted to, Wyndham could have done even better. The only fly in the ointment came to light the next day when a perusal of the morning papers revealed the fact that Wolcott had defeated Toll’s Academy 26 to 9. Toll’s was Wyndham’s next opponent, and had been counted on to give the Dark Blue a lot of trouble. The New York team had gone through five contests without having her goal-line crossed and it had been expected that she would hold Wolcott to a very meager score. Indeed, there were plenty at Wyndham who had, no later than yesterday, predicted for Wolcott nothing better than a tie game. Tom refused to believe his own paper and was only convinced of the correctness of the score when Clif’s journal told the same story. In the light of that result it was necessary to either revise their former opinion of Toll’s or to credit Wolcott with being about fifty per cent better than they had considered her. Tom’s well-known capacity for pessimism helped him make out a very good case in favor of the latter alternative. “If Wolcott can make four touchdowns on Toll’s she can trim us, Clif,” he declared gloomily. “But she didn’t. She made three touchdowns and a field-goal. Can’t you read?” “Well, three, then. It makes no difference. Say, I’ll bet Toll’s will hand us an awful wallop next Saturday!”