who was doing capital work, so that there seemed no opening for
Teddy. He consoled himself by the determination to make the shortstop
position on the baseball team the following spring.

But Fred was husky enough to fill any position, either in the line or
the back field, and he had been picked out by Melvin Granger as a
"comer."

Melvin was the captain of the team and played centre. He was always on
the lookout for any one who could strengthen the team, and had promptly
spotted Fred as first-class material.

"Ever play football?" he had asked him, the day after his arrival at
Rally Hall.

"A little," answered Fred modestly. He was averse to boasting and did
not add, as he might have done truthfully, that he had been, far and
away, the best player in his school league.

"What position have you played?" asked Melvin, interested at once.

"Oh, I've played left end and right tackle at different times, but I've
had more experience at fullback than anywhere else."

"Great!" exclaimed Melvin. "Welcome to our fair city. We've got a lot of
good players for almost every other position on the team, and, if one
gets hurt, we don't have much trouble in finding a substitute from the
scrubs, which is almost as good as the regular. But in the fullback job
there's only one first-class fellow, and that's Tom Eldridge, who's
playing it now. Tom's a dandy, but he might get hurt at any time, and
we'd have hard work to find any one who could fill his shoes.

"Of course," he went on, "there isn't any vacancy now, and the boys who
have been here longest will be given first chance. But, to hold his
position, he'll have to prove that no one of the new fellows is better
than he is. You won't mind playing on the scrubs at the start, will
you?"

"Not a bit," answered Fred stoutly. "I'll go in there and work my head
off just the same as if I were on the regular team."

"That's the talk," cried Melvin. "That's the spirit I like to see. And I
can see right now that Tom will have all he wants to do to hold his
job."

So Fred had gone in on the scrub. There had not been as much chance for
practice as usual, as there had been an unusually large number of rainy
days that fall, but already he had loomed up as by far the best player
among the substitutes. He was right in line for promotion.

And this afternoon his chance came, sooner than he had expected.

The playing had been unusually spirited, and the scrubs had been giving
the regulars