"Perhaps, with the help of some of the rest of you," he replied, "I shall be able to find a way of cooling some hot heads. I hope so, anyway." "Dick has his plan all fixed, now," Dan whispered, hopefully, to Tom. "If he has," quoth Reade, under his breath, I wish he'd tell us his scheme." "Humph!" retorted Dan. "You know Dick Prescott, and you know that he never shoots until he has taken time to aim." CHAPTER VIII DICK FIRES BOTH BARRELS "Oh---great Scott!" gasped Tom Reade, as he paused at an item in "The Blade" the following morning. That item had been written by Prescott. There could be no doubt about it in Reade's mind. "What's the matter?" asked Tom's father. "Oh, Dick has been paying his respects to a certain clique in the High School, I take it," Tom replied, with a grin. "I heard, yesterday, that he was going to shoot into that crowd. But---and here's a short editorial on the same subject, too. Wow! Dick has fired into the enemy with both barrels!" A moment later Tom passed the paper over to his father. Dick's article read: _There is a possibility that Gridley High School will not be in the front ranks in football this year. Those who know state that a "sorehead" combination has been formed by the young male representatives of some of our wealthier families. These young men, having elected themselves, so it is said, the salt of the earth, or the cream of a new Gridley aristocracy, are going to refuse to play in the football eleven this year. Even young men who belong to "prominent" families may have some gifts in the way of football ability. Three or four out of the dozen or more "soreheads" are really needed if Gridley High School is to maintain its standing this year. The remainder of the "soreheads" may, with advantage to the High School eleven, be excused from offering themselves. The "soreheads," it is stated, feel that it would be beneath the dignity of their families for them to play on an eleven which must, in any event, be recruited largely from the sons of the Gridley families less fortunately situated financially. Strangely enough, though they don't intend to play football this year, these "soreheads" have been training hard of late, one of their practices being the taking of an early morning cross-country run together.