“He couldn’t run the game as Jack does,” said Harrison. “He could save touch-downs as Jack doesn’t,” asserted Talbot. “I think as much of Jack as you do, but my thinking a lot of him can’t make him play well.” “He has been on the team all the season. It is hard to put him off now.” “No one stays on the crew because he’s been on all the season—I’ll tell you that in advance!” blurted Pete, savagely. “I’ll fire myself if there are four better men.” Harrison smiled faintly. “It’s easy to say that now. Wait till spring.” “Sh! Here he comes,” exclaimed Yards, speaking for the first time. “We’ll think it over during the night.” Sumner came oscillating down the aisle from the seat which he had occupied, dismally brooding alone, during half the journey. He stopped at the end of the double seat and addressed Harrison, but his gaze, as he spoke, wandered uneasily away over the captain’s head; while his flushed cheek and hurried tones betrayed the strain under which he had been laboring. “I’ve been thinking the thing all over,” he began, “and I see perfectly plainly what’s the right thing to do. I’ve gone to the bad in my play. I know it as well as anybody. I want you to put little Mac into my place at quarter and give him a good, fair show to prove what he can do. He’s no good in the line because he’s so light, but he tackles like a little fiend in the open, and he can catch anything that can be kicked. I could tell him all he doesn’t know about signals and plays in twenty minutes. I believe the change would give the team a new start.” “By Jove, you’re the stuff, Jack!” cried Talbot, as he clutched his friend’s hand and gave it a wring. “If we win anything this year, that’s the spirit that’ll bring it. There’s something in a name, after all.” “Give McDowell the place and wrest it back from him,” suggested Mr. Adams, who felt the tension of the scene. “I shan’t wrest it back, if he has a fair show, sir,” answered Sumner, with a melancholy laugh. “We’ll try him, then,” concluded Harrison; “shan’t we, Yards?” Yards acquiesced with a vast sense of relief. He had already determined on this very change, though how he was to bring it about had greatly perplexed him. Sumner’s magnanimity relieved him of all anxiety. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER VIII A SLIGHTED OFFER