ZLED 260

XXIII CROSS-EXAMINATION 268

XXIV "ALL READY, BRIMFIELD?" 277

XXV TIM GOES OVER 289

XXVI LEFT GUARD GILBERT 300

ILLUSTRATIONS

"WELL, COME ON! HOW DID IT HAPPEN?" (PAGE 14) _Frontispiece_

FACING
PAGE

FINALLY, DON WAS UNCEREMONIOUSLY YANKED UP AND THROUGH 90

"WILL YOU UNLOCK THAT DOOR?" DEMANDED DON ANGRILY 224

THE RUNNER SMASHED INTO SIGHT, WILD-FACED FOR AN INSTANT BEFORE
HE PUT HIS HEAD DOWN AND CHARGED IN 306

LEFT GUARD GILBERT

LEFT GUARD GILBERT

CHAPTER I

THE BOY FROM KANSAS

"HOLD up!"

Coach Robey, coatless, vestless, hatless, his old flannel trousers held
up as by a miracle with the aid of a leather strap scarcely deserving
the name of belt, pushed his way through the first squad players. The
Brimfield Head Coach was a wiry, medium-sized man of about thirty, with
a deeply-tanned face from which sharp blue eyes looked out under whitish
lashes that were a shade lighter than his eyebrows and two shades
lighter than his sandy hair. As the afternoon was excessively hot, even
for the twenty-first day of September and in proximity to Long Island
Sound, Mr. George Robey's countenance was bathed in perspiration and the
faded blue silk shirt was plastered to his body.

"That was left half through guard-tackle, wasn't it? Then don't put the
ball in your arm, St. Clair. You ought to know better than that. On
plays through the line hold it against your stomach with both hands. How
long do you think you'd keep that ball in your elbow after you hit the
line? Someone would knock it out in about one second! Now try it again
and think what you're doing. All right, Carmine. Same play."

The panting and perspiring backs crouched once more, Carmine shrilly
called his signals, Thayer and Gafferty plunged against an imaginary foe
as Thursby shot the ball back and St. Clair, hugging the pigskin
ecstatically with wide-spread fingers, trotted through the hole,
stopped, set the ball on the grass and wiped his streaming face with the
torn sleeve of a maroon jersey.

"All right," said the coach. "That will do for today. In on the trot,
everyone!"