boy
turned this way and that under the spattering water the half-back looked
critically at his compact body and firm muscles. To be sure, Teeny-bits
was small, but he was shaped like a young god and modeled with perfect
symmetry. Something else, however, attracted Neil's attention.

"That's a peculiar mark you have on the back of your shoulder," he said,
as Teeny-bits turned off the water.

"It's a sort of birthmark, I guess," said Teeny-bits. "My trademark."

What Neil Durant referred to was a five inch, terra-cotta colored
blemish on Teeny-bits' smooth back. The shape of the mark was what made
it peculiar. It resembled strikingly a dagger-like knife with a tapering
blade and a thin handle. Once seen it was not likely to be forgotten.

In the same manner that the true story of Teeny-bits had spread through
the school after his unknown ill-wisher had tried to injure his name by
posting the notice on the Gannett Hall bulletin board, the news spread
from boy to boy that the conqueror of Bassett and the new candidate for
the scrub bore on the smooth skin of his shoulder a strange and
curiously formed mark, and during the days that immediately followed
Teeny-bits' first appearance on the football field, more than one
candidate for the team made it a point to be present in the shower-bath
room in order that he might cast seemingly casual glances at the unusual
mark. Some of the Ridgleyites were more open in their curiosity and did
not hesitate to question Teeny-bits, but they all received answers
similar to the one that Neil Durant had received. To Teeny-bits there
was nothing strange about the mark, for it had been there from the time
of his earliest memory and he had thought little more about it than he
had of the fact that he possessed hands and feet. Snubby Turner, whose
bump of curiosity was as big as a watermelon, lingered one night in
Teeny-bits' room while the new boy was undressing.

"I want to see that knife-thing on your back that I heard the fellows
talking about," said Snubby frankly. "Come over under the light so I can
get a good look. That _is_ queer--the hilt of the knife is curved a
little just the same on both sides. It looks to me as if somebody had
drawn it on your back--only the color doesn't look like a tattoo."

"Just a freak of nature," said Teeny-bits with a laugh. "I guess I was
born with it."

Sudden popularity has been the downfall of many a schoolboy and many a
man, but it did not seem to