“The doctor forbids it. The leg isn’t broken anywhere, but it’s had a bad wrench and Morris says he simply laughed at him when he asked if it would be well enough by the eighteenth for him to play. He’s on his back to-day and must stay there until Tuesday at least. I went around there this afternoon. Morris isn’t――” Dick smiled slightly――“isn’t awfully cheerful company just now!” “But――but that puts us in a beast of a hole!” exclaimed Lanny. “Can Tupper kick a goal if he has a chance?” “The best Tupper has done is something like four out of ten tries from around the twenty-yard line and at almost no angle. I think by next year George will be a fairly good drop-kicker, but there isn’t much hope for this year. Of course, we’ll keep him at it and make him do the best he can, but there’s no use counting on him much in the Springdale game, fellows.” Lanny laughed mirthlessly. “Pleasant news, isn’t it?” he asked of the assemblage. “It might save us trouble to forfeit the game.” “We’re not beaten yet,” responded Dick. “Besides you chaps and me and the doctor, no one knows of this; excepting Morris’s folks, of course, and they, as well as the doctor, have been sworn to secrecy. Now I want you fellows to agree not to breathe a word of it to anyone; not to even talk of it amongst yourselves.” They each nodded, looking, however, rather mystified. “There’s just one thing left to do,” continued Dick. “We’ve got to change the campaign. We’ve planned around Morris’s drop-kicking and place-kicking; we’ve got to plan now on a rushing game. But Springdale knows that we’ve got Morris Brent to put the ball over for us from anywhere inside the twenty yards, and Springdale doesn’t look for us to try to rush it over if the going’s tough. Once inside her twenty she will expect a try-at-goal. Our one hope lies in allowing her to continue thinking that. That’s why this has got to be kept quiet, fellows. If she gets news of it she’ll know too much. Just as soon as Morris is able to get out he will put togs on and report every afternoon. Since practice is secret no one will know that he isn’t playing. I shall tell every member of both teams to-morrow that anyone giving out a particle of news will be dropped at once. In the Weston game I’ll have Morris show himself on the field. The same any time we hold open practice. No one need know of this except ourselves.” “But if we don’t use him in the Springdale game won’t they guess?” asked Gordon. “They’ll worry,” replied Dick calmly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Morris sitting in plain sight on the bench was as much use to us as though he played. For that matter, if the right conditions arrive I mean to put him in.” “In spite of the doctor?” gasped Chester. “No, I’ll get the doctor’s permission for Morris to go in _if he doesn’t play_!” “If he doesn’t play? Then what――” Lanny, pausing, viewed Dick with dawning comprehension. Then he grunted. “I see. There might be something in that at a pinch.”