The Guarded Heights. Camp Wadsworth

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      "Wandel," George promised himself, "will get away with nothing as far as I am concerned."

      Yet all that night the thought of the little man made him uncomfortable.

      XIV

      George watched his first big varsity game the following Saturday. It was the last of the season, against Yale. He sat with Goodhue and other members of the Freshman eleven in an advantageous part of the stands. The moment the blue squad, greeted by a roar, trotted on the field, he recognized Lambert Planter's rangy figure. Lambert's reputation as a fullback had come to Princeton ahead of him, and it had scarcely been exaggerated. Once he had torn through the line he gave the Princeton backs all they wanted to do. He kicked for Yale. Defensively he was the deadliest man on the field. He, George and Goodhue agreed, would determine the outcome. As, through him, the balance of the contest commenced to tip, George experienced a biting restlessness. It wasn't the prospect of the defeat of Princeton by Yale that angered him so much as the fact that Lambert Planter would unquestionably be the cause. George felt it unjust that rules should exist excluding him from that bruising and muddy contest. More than anything else just then he wanted to be on the field, stopping Planter, avoiding the reluctance of such an issue.

      "We ought to be out there, Morton," Goodhue muttered. "If nothing happens, we will be next year."

      "It's that fellow Planter," George answered. "He could be stopped."

      "You could stop him," Goodhue said. "You could outkick him."

      George's face was grim.

      "I'm stronger than Planter," he said, simply. "I could beat him."

      The varsity, however, couldn't. Lambert, during the last quarter, slipped over the line for the deciding touchdown. The game ended in a dusky and depressing autumn haze. George and Goodhue watched sullenly the enemy hosts carry Planter and the other blue players about the field. Appearing as if they had survived a disaster, they joined the crowd of men and women, relatives and friends of the players, near the field house. The vanquished and the substitutes had already slipped through and out of sight. The first of the steaming Yale men appeared and threaded a path toward the steps. Lambert, because he had been honoured most, was the last to arrive, and at that moment out of the multitude there came into George's vision faces that he knew, as if they had waited to detach themselves for this spectacular advent.

      He saw the most impressive one first of all, and he stood, as he had frequently stood before her portrait, staring in a mood of wilful obstinacy. It was only for a few moments, and she was quite some distance away. Before he could appreciate the chance, she had withdrawn herself, after a quick, approving tap of her brother's shoulder, among the curious, crowding people. George had seen her face glow with a happy pride in spite of her effort at repression; but in the second face which he noticed there was no emotion visible at all. The hero's mother simply nodded. Dalrymple stood between mother and daughter, smiling inanely.

      Lambert forged ahead, filthy and wet. The steam, like vapour from an overworked animal, wavered about him. The Baillys and the Alstons pushed close to George and Goodhue, who were in Lambert's path, pressed there and held by the anxious people.

      At sight of Betty, Lambert paused and stretched out his hand. She was, George thought, whiter than ever.

      "You'll say hello even to an Eli?"

      She gave her hand quickly, the colour invading her pallor. For an instant George thought Lambert was going to draw her closer, saw his lips twitch, heard him say:

      "Don't hold it against me, Betty."

      Certainly something was understood between these two, or Lambert, at least, believed so.

      Betty freed her hand and caught at George's arm.

      "Look at him," she said clearly, indicating Planter. "You're going to take care of him next fall. You're not going to let him laugh at us again."

      George managed a smile.

      "I'll take care of him, Miss Alston."

      Lambert's dirty face expanded.

      "These are threats! And it's – George. Then we're to have a return bout next fall. I'll look forward to it. Hello, Dick. Good-bye, Betty. Till next fall – George."

      He passed on, leaving an impression of confidence and conquest.

      "Why," Betty said, impulsively, in George's ear, "does he speak to you that way? Why does he call you George like that?"

      For a moment he looked at her steadily, appealingly.

      "It's partly my own fault," he said at last, "but it hurts."

      Her voice was softer than before.

      "That's wrong. You mustn't let little things hurt, George."

      For the first time in his memory he felt a stinging at his eyes, the desire for tears. He didn't misunderstand. Her use of his first name was not a precedent. It had been balm applied to a wound that she had only been able to see was painful. Yet, as he walked away with Goodhue, he felt as if he had been baptized again.

      XV

      Wandel, quite undisturbed, joined them.

      "You and Dicky," the little man said, "look as if you had come out of a bad wreck. What's up? It's only a game."

      "Of course you're right," George answered, "but you have to play some games desperately hard if you want to win."

      "Now what are you driving at, great man?" Wandel wanted to know.

      "Come on, Spike," Goodhue said, irritably. "You're always looking for double meanings."

      George walked on with them, desolately aware of many factors of his life gone awry. The game; Lambert's noticeable mockery, all the more unbearable because of its unaffectedness; Dalrymple's adjacence to Sylvia – these remembrances stung, the last most of all.

      "Come on up, you two," Goodhue suggested as they approached the building in which he lived, "I believe Dolly's giving tea to Sylvia Planter and her mother."

      George wanted to see if the photograph was still there, but he couldn't risk it. He shook his head.

      "Not into the camp of the enemy?" Wandel laughed.

      Of course, George told himself as he walked off, Wandel's words couldn't possibly have held any double meaning.

      He fought it out that night, sleeping scarcely at all. In the rush of his progress here he had failed to realize how little he had really advanced toward his ultimate goal. Lambert had offhand, perhaps unintentionally, shown him that afternoon how wide the intervening space still stretched. Was it because of moral cowardice that he shrank from challenging a crossing? The answer to such a challenge might easily mean the destruction of all he had built up, the heavy conditioning of his future which now promised so abundantly.

      He faced her picture with his eyes resolute, his jaw thrust out.

      "I'll do it," he told the lifeless print. "I'll make you know me. I'll teach your brother not to treat me as a servant who has forgotten his place."

      The last, in any case, couldn't be safely put off. Lambert's manner had already aroused Betty's interest. Had she known its cause she СКАЧАТЬ