“Won’t you be captain of the basket ball team this winter?” asked Laura quickly.

“No; I can’t take everything.  Hudson will probably head the basket ball team.”

“Why, I heard that you were going in hard for basket ball.”

“So I am.  Mr. Morton is so busy, with the new evening training classes, that he has asked me to be second coach to the basket ball crowd.  I’ll undoubtedly do that.”

“Oh, then you’ll still be leading the athletic vanguard at the High School,” murmured Laura, and, somehow, there was a note of contentment in her voice.

“I shall be, until I’m through with the High School,” Prescott answered.  “But think—–­just think—–­how soon that will come around for all of us!”

CHAPTER XIV

Fordham Plays a Slugging Game

For half an hour before the first section of the special pulled out, the Gridley Band played its liveliest tunes.  A part of the time the band played accompaniment to the school airs, which the crowd took up with lively spirit.

There is a peculiar enthusiasm which attaches to the Thanksgiving Day game.  This is due partly to the extra holiday spirit of the affair.  Then, too, there is the high tension that precedes the last game of the season.

With a team that has won every game to that point, yet often with great difficulty, the tension of spirits is even higher.

As the first section of the special rolled in at the railway station the part of the crowd that was “going” began to break up into groups headed for the different parts of the train.

Herr Schimmelpodt went, of course, to the car that carried the team.  The boys wouldn’t have been satisfied to start or to travel without him.  The big German had come to be the mascot of Gridley High School.

Just before the train started Herr Schimmelpodt waddled out to the rear platform of the car.

In his right hand he brandished a massive cane to which the Gridley High School colors were secured.

“Now, listen,” he bellowed out.  “Ve come back our scalps not wigs!  You hear dot, alretty?”

While the cheering was still going on, and while the band was crashing out music, the first section pulled out, making room for the second section.

A run of a little more than an hour at good speed, and with no way stops, brought the Gridley invading forces to Fordham.

At the depot, the local team’s second coach awaited the players.  He had two stages at hand, into which the team and subs piled.  A wagon followed, carrying the kits of the Gridley boys.  There were two more stages for the band.  All the other travelers had to depend on the street-car service.

Finding the stages rather crowded, Dick nudged Darrin, then made for the kit wagon.

“I really believe we’ll have more comfort, Dave,” proposed Prescott, “if we get aboard, this rig and ride on top of the tog bags.”