They were just mad because he'd
done a fool thing and lost the team. I wouldn't blame anyone for
thinking me a--a coward, and I can't resent it if they say it."

"Can't, eh? Well, I can!"

Don smile wanly. "Thought you were telling me not to, Tim."

Tim muttered. There was silence for a minute in the twilit room. Then
Tim switched on the lights and rolled up his sleeves preparatory to
washing. "The whole thing's perfectly rotten," he growled, "but we'll
just have to make the best of it. Ten years from now----"

"Yes, but it isn't ten years from now that troubles me," interrupted Don
thoughtfully. "It--it's right this minute. And tomorrow and the next
day. And the day after that. I've a good mind to----"

"To what?" demanded Tim from behind his sponge.

"Nothing. I was just--thinking."

"Well, stop it, then. You weren't intended to think. You always do
something silly when you get to thinking. Wash up and come on to
supper."

"I'm not going over tonight," answered Don. "I'm not hungry. And,
anyway, I don't feel quite like facing it yet."

"Now, look here," began Tim severely, "if you're going to take it like
that----"

"I'm not, I guess. Only I'd rather not go to supper tonight. I am
through at the training-table and I funk going back to the other table
just now. Besides, I'm not the least bit hungry. You run along."

Tim observed him frowningly. "Well, all right. Only if it was me I'd
take the bull by the horns and see it through. Fellows will talk more if
you let them see that you give a hang."

"They'll talk enough anyway, I dare say. A little more won't matter."

"I just hope Holt gets gay again," said Tim venomously, shying the towel
in the general direction of the rack and missing it by a foot. "Want me
to bring something over to you?"

"No, thanks. I don't want a thing."

"We-ell, I guess I'll beat it then." Tim loitered uncertainly at the
door. "I say, Donald, old scout, buck up, eh?"

"Oh, yes, I'll be all right, Timmy. Don't you worry about me. And--and
thanks, you know, for--for calling Holt down."

"Oh, that!" Tim chuckled. "Holt wasn't the only one I called down
either." Then, realising that he had not helped the situation any by the
remark, he tried to squirm out of it. "Of course, Holt was _the_ one,
you know. The others didn't really _say_ anything, or--or mean
anything----"

Don laughed. "That'll do, Tim. Beat it!"

And Tim, red-faced and confused, "beat it."

For the next five