out there and play just as
good a game as ever on Monday if Robey would let you and you cared to
try. Now couldn't you!"

"I don't know. What does it matter, anyhow? I tell you I'm all through,
and so there's no use chewing it over."

"Oh, all right. Nuff said." Tim walked to the window, his hands thrust
deep in his pockets, and, after a minute's contemplation of the
darkening prospect without, observed haltingly: "Look here, Don. If you
hear things you don't like, don't get up on your ear, eh?"

"What sort of things?" demanded the other.

Tim hesitated a long moment before he took the plunge. Then: "Well, some
of the fellows don't understand, Don. You can't altogether blame them, I
suppose. I shut two or three of them up, but there's bound to be some
talk, you know. Some fellows always manage to think of the meanest
things possible. But what fellows like that say isn't worth bothering
about. So just you sit snug, old man. They've already found that they
can't say that sort of thing when I'm around."

"Thanks," said Don quietly. "What sort of things do you mean?"

"Oh, anything."

"You mean that they're calling me a quitter?"

"Well, some of them heard Robey get that off and they're repeating it
like a lot of silly parrots. I called Holt down good and hard. Told him
I'd punch his ugly face if he talked that way again."

"Don't bother," said Don listlessly. "I guess I do look like a quitter,
all right."

"Piffle! And, hang it all, Robey had no business saying that, Don! He
couldn't really believe it."

"Why couldn't he? On the face of it, Tim, I'd say that I looked a whole
lot like a quitter."

"But that's nonsense! Why would you or any fellow want to quit just
before the Claflin game? Why, all the hard work's done with, man! Only a
little signal practice to go through with now. Why would you want to
quit? It's poppycock!"

"Well, some fellows do get cold feet just before the big game. We've
both known cases of it. Look at----"

"Yes, I know what you're going to say, but that was different. He never
had any spunk, anyway. Nobody believed in him but Robey, and Robey was
wrong, just as he is about you. Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that
there's no use getting waxy if some idiot shoots off his mouth. The
fellows who really count don't believe you a--a quitter. And the whole
business will blow over in a couple of days. Look how they talked about
Tom at first!"

"They didn't call him a quitter, though.