Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/105



ARRY laced up his canvas jacket with trembling fingers. His hands were clammy, and he had a scared feeling that to-day he was more brittle than usual. But he was not going to let any one see that he was scared.

All the boys of both elevens were dressing in the athletic house, and there was not by any means the noisy chatter that preceded the practice on an ordinary afternoon. The talk was in low tones and the laughter was subdued.

Two boys who were to be opponents in the line-up were dressing side by side, and boasting humorously of what they were going to do to each other, but generally the atmosphere of the athletic house this afternoon was business-like and serious.

Frank Windsor went round, nervously touching one after another of his eleven, and saying, "Hurry up, old man! Hurry up!"