Bert Wilson on the Gridiron

by Madeline Leslie

  CHAPTER IX

  HAMMERED INTO SHAPE

  LIKE a sheaf of arrows, the other telegrams sped over the country, andmost of them went straight to the mark. A mining engineer in Montana gotone, and pulled up stakes at once. A rising young lawyer in Minneapolisfound it necessary to look up some data in the old college library. Aguest on a houseboat down near Jacksonville made hurried excuses andcame North by the first train. Others felt urgently the need of a briefvacation from their accustomed duties and acted promptly on the impulse.Not a week had elapsed before ten of the dozen were on the scene ofaction. Of the remaining two, one was up in the North Woods and couldnot be reached, and the other was on his honeymoon.

  They had a royal welcome from the coach, who had not doubted for amoment that they would heed the call. He knew that the old war horseswould "sniff the battle from afar" and come galloping to the fray. Nowthat they were there, he felt the lightening of the tremendous load ofresponsibility he had been carrying since the beginning of the season.These men were not theorists, but from actual experience knew everypoint of the game from start to finish. Now he could divide his men upinto squads, each one presided over by an expert who could coach eachindividual player in the duties of his position, while Hendricks himselfcould exercise a general supervision of the whole.

  "It was bully of you fellows to come," he said, as they gathered in hisrooms, as full of life and ginger as so many two-year-old colts. "And,now that you are here, I'm going to give you plenty of work to do.Heaven knows there's enough to keep you busy if we're to have a ghost ofa show to win this fall."

  "What's the seat of the trouble?" asked Ames. "Are they shirking? Arethey too light? Many accidents? Come, get it off your chest. Tell us thesad story of your life."

  "It wasn't so sad until lately," grinned "Bull," "and up to a week ago Ididn't feel the necessity of weeping on any one's shoulder. In fact, Iwas beginning to think that the team was the real goods. They walked allover the Army, and what they did to Dartmouth was a sin and a shame.Then somebody must have wished a hoodoo on us and things began tohappen."

  And he narrated in detail the unexpected way in which three of his bestmen had been whisked off the team, and the results that followed.

  "The fellows simply got in the doldrums," he went on, "and, with a fewexceptions, have played like a lot of schoolboys. They seem to haveforgotten all that they ever knew. Now you fellows know as well as I dothat when a team slumps in that fashion there's only one thing to do.We've got to have new blood, new faces, new tactics. That's the reason Isent for you fellows. The boys know you by reputation. They've heard ofthe big things you did when in college, they look up to you asheroes----"

  "Spare our blushes!" exclaimed Hadley.

  "And it will give them a new inspiration," went on the coach, notheeding the interruption. "They'll forget their troubles and play likefiends to justify your good opinion, and to show you that the honor ofthe old college is safe in their hands. I want you to teach them all youever knew, and then some.

  "I'm not asking you to make bricks without straw," he continued. "Thestuff is there for a crackerjack team. We're a bit short on beef, andI'd like to have an average of five pounds more in the line. But I'vegot the finest back field in the country, bar none. Wilson at full issimply chain lightning, and the whole country will be talking of him byNovember. Axtell is one of the most savage tacklers I've ever seen, andif he can only get his conditions worked off soon, we won't have toworry about right half. Morley, the man I put in his place, is a dandy,but doesn't come up to Axtell. Henderson at quarter is as quick as a catand as cunning as a fox. Trent at center and Drake at right end are asgood as they make 'em. Those fellows I've named are stars. The rest aregood, but I've seen as good and better on many a Blue team.

  "Now that's the way I size them up, and I want you fellows to go to it.There are just about enough of us to take a man apiece. Do what you likewith them. I'll stand for anything short of murder. Work them till theirtongues hang out. Knock it into them if you have to use an axe. Everyday counts now. Do you realize that the game with the 'Maroons' is onlythree weeks off? If it were to-morrow they wouldn't leave anything of usbut a grease-spot. And the 'Greys' wouldn't leave even that."

  "Leave it to us," answered Ames, grimly voicing the general sentiment."We'll give 'em medicine in allopathic doses, and it will be a case of'kill or cure.'"

  And promptly the next afternoon they proceeded to make good theirthreat. They went at their men hammer and tongs from the start. And theboys responded at once to this drastic treatment. There was a generalbrace all along the line. A new factor had been injected into thesituation. The listlessness of a few days back gave place to animation,and before half an hour had passed the coach was delighted at the wayhis plan was working.

  In order that the newcomers might get a line on their style of play, thewhole team was put through the fundamentals. The tackling dummy wasbrought out, and the players in turn launched themselves against it tothe accompaniment of stimulating cries:

  "Harder."

  "You're too low."

  "That was a love tap."

  "Batter it."

  "Above the knees."

  "Slam the life out of it."

  "Too ladylike."

  "Once more."

  "Murder it."

  And there was no let up until the tackling was as savage as even themost exacting of the visitors demanded.

  Then followed practice in falling on the ball in such a way as toshelter it with hands and knees, while avoiding having one's breathknocked out by the fall; running with it tucked under the arm sosecurely that no grab of the enemy can dislodge it; getting down underkicks fast enough to take advantage of any fumble by the enemy in tryingfor a "fair catch;" getting a quick start the moment the ball wassnapped back, and a dozen other elemental features that constitute thealphabet of the game. The boys had practiced these things a hundredtimes before, but they can never be done too often or too well; andto-day under the new stimulus they outdid themselves. Each tried tosurpass his fellows and worked as he had never worked before.

  After an hour of this, they were lined up for two ten-minute sessionswith the scrubs. The play was sharp and snappy and every move wasfollowed by keen and critical eyes that nothing, however trivial,escaped. By the time the team had rolled up twenty points and held theiropponents scoreless, the volunteer coaches knew pretty well the defectsthat would have to be corrected, and just what work was cut out forthem.

  The coach was immensely pleased. Once more he saw daylight ahead.

  "What do you think of them, Butch, now that you've clapped your eyes onthem?" he asked, as they strolled off the field.

  "All to the good," said Ames, sententiously. "Of course it's far frombeing a finished team as yet, but you've got some first-class materialto work on. You're a little weak at the end of the line, and righttackle can stand a lot of improvement. But all the fellows seem willing,and that goes a long way. I didn't see one that appeared to be holdingback."

  "That fullback of yours is a peach," broke in Hadley. "He comes prettynear to being a team in himself. If he once gets a start, there'snothing that can ever catch him."

  "He's the fastest man in college," replied Hendricks. "He's the fellowthat carried off the Marathon at the Olympic Games in Berlin. And he'sas game as he is speedy. You ought to have seen the way he stood McAlpinon his head when we played the Army. That fellow was as big as a houseand as full of grit as a gravel path, but he wasn't one-two-three withWilson. If all the boys were like him I'd have the championship wonright now."

  "What made a hit with me," commented Lawrence, "was that classy bit ofdodging when he went down the field for sixty yards toward the end ofthe game. At least six of them tried to stop him, but he slipped by themlike a ghost. And yet he ran almost in a straight line. All the dodgingwas done by the swaying of his hips and shoulders. A man that can dothat comes pretty near to being the king of them all."

  "You haven't any kick coming on your
center and quarterback either,"broke in Allen. "Jove, they're a pair of dandies. They work togetherlike a well-oiled machine. They're playing with their heads as welltheir feet all the time. They've got the snap-back and the forward passdown to perfection. And they're a stone wall when it comes to thedefense."

  "Two of my very best," assented Hendricks, "and as sandy as the Saharadesert. It's around those three that I've had to build up my team."

  "Those three," all unknowing of the comments that were being made ontheir work, were at the moment engaged in getting their bath andrubdown, never more grateful than just now after their strenuous laborsof the afternoon.

  "That was a course of sprouts for fair," remarked Tom when they wereputting on their clothes.

  "They certainly put us through our paces," assented Dick. "I haven'tbeen so tired since the Army game."

  "Just what we dubs needed," affirmed Bert. "Did you notice the snap andpepper in the team? It's the first time for a week that we've known wewere alive. We're going to be a real football team after all. 'The catcame back,' and why shouldn't we?"

  "I suppose it was due to that lot of 'old grads' looking on," surmisedTom. "Gee, when I thought of all those fellows leaving their work andtraveling hundreds of miles for the sake of the old college, it made meashamed of myself. I felt like going through a knot hole and drawing thehole in after me."

  "Same here," said Dick. "And they can bully-rag me all they like.There'll be never a squeal from me. I'll work my head off to show themthat we're fit to wear the Blue."

  "Hear! hear!" exclaimed Bert. "That's the real tobasco. And I'll betthere isn't a fellow on the team that doesn't feel the same way."

  They were still stirred by this feeling of elation when, after a heartysupper, they reached their rooms. What was their surprise on opening thedoor to find Axtell sprawled out in a chair, his feet upon the windowsill. He grinned affably.

  "Come right in and make yourself at home," he greeted.

  "What are you doing here, you old flunker?" laughed Bert.

  "Take back them cruel woids," demanded Axtell. "Flunker," he went onmeditatively, "it hath a right knavish sound. Beshrew me, if I fling itnot back in the teeth of any caitiff knight that dare put such shameupon me."

  A great light dawned upon them.

  "What!" cried Dick. "You old rascal. You don't mean to say that you'veworked off your conditions?"

  "You speak sooth," was the reply, "albeit your wonder at the samepleasureth my pride but little. For less than that my sword hathofttimes drunk the blood of churls."

  They fell upon him and pounded him till he was out of breath.

  "Glory hallelujah!" shouted Tom.

  "The best news I've heard since Hector was a pup," declared Dick.

  "Now we've got a fighting chance," exulted Bert. "By Jove, old scout,you don't know how the team has missed you."

  Axtell flushed with pleasure.

  "Maybe I won't be glad to get back with the gang again," he ejaculated."Gee, for the last two weeks I've felt like a sneak. I can't forgivemyself for getting in such a fix, just when we were in such good shapeand going like a house afire. You bet that from now on my record will beas clean as a hound's tooth."

  "Bully!" said Bert. "I think you've done wonders though, to get rid ofthe conditions so soon. You must have worked like a horse."

  "I've worked all right," said Axtell grimly. "It was the least I coulddo, heaven knows. Some nights I haven't gone to bed at all. Even atthat, I felt a little skittish when I went up for my exam. But I wasdesperate and went in largely on my nerve. When the Prof. looked over mypapers I thought I heard him mutter to himself something that soundedlike: 'All Gaul is divided into three parts and you've got two of them.'But that may simply have been my guilty conscience. At any rate I gotaway with it, and the old sport gave me a clean bill of health."

  "It's like getting money from home," affirmed Dick. "Maybe 'Bull'Hendricks won't be tickled to death. He'll kill the fatted calf if hecan find one straying loose around the training quarters."

  "O, he'll fall on my neck all right--with a club," remarked Axtelldrily. "When it comes to disguising his joy, 'Bull' is a dandy actor."

  "Don't you believe it," said Bert. "But how about your accomplice incrime?"

  "O, Hodge will be coming along soon," was the reassuring reply. "He'sbeen working just as hard as I have or harder. But he's had two to makeup, where I had only one. He's hired a tutor to coach him and iscramming away like mad. He told me this morning he thought he'd beready to go into the torture chamber by the end of this week."

  "That'll be all to the merry," jubilated Tom. "Honest, Axtell, we'vebeen all at sea since you fellows have been away. Winston has donefairly well at tackle, but he can't seem to start quickly enough when itcomes to blocking. 'Bull' has been trying out Chamberlain in place ofEllis, but he gets mixed on the signals. He plugs away like a beaver,but finds it hard to get them straight. Morley is doing fine work athalf, but he can't fill your shoes when it comes to tackling. Of courseI don't know what 'Bull' will do, but I have a hunch that he'll takeChamberlain out and put Morley there permanently, as there isn't achance in the world for Ellis to come back in time."

  "Poor old Ellis," mourned Bert. "Game to the core, that boy. It nearlybroke his heart when his ankle went back on him, but he never whimpers.He hopes to be out on crutches in time to see the big games. Told meyesterday, when I dropped in to see him, that when it came to yellingfor the boys we'd find his voice was all right even if his leg was onthe blink."

  "Plucky old scout," agreed Axtell, "and one of the best men we had. Butnow I must be going. I'll toddle over and give 'Bull' a chance towelcome back the prodigal son. It'll be an affecting greeting," hegrinned.

  But if he had expected to be "skinned alive" for his shortcomings, hewas agreeably disappointed. The coach was too delighted at thestrengthening of the team to dwell too much or too sternly on thedefection that had thrown it out of gear. He gave him a fatherly talk,pointed out the necessity of keeping his studies up to the mark fromthat time on, and put it up to him to "play the game" both in theclassroom and on the field for all it was worth. Then he dismissed himwith an injunction to turn up early for practice the following day.

  The reinstated halfback went away with his eyes shining and his heartelate. Once more "his foot was on his native heath." And the dignified"Bull," after a cautious glance around to make sure that no one waslooking, indulged himself in the luxury of an impromptu Highland fling.