Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/112

88 tion, and the Pythian quarter-back gave a signal that meant a rush through right guard.

"Wait!" called Rupert, straightening up.

He ran to the quarter-back and whispered in his ear, then back to his place again. And in another moment another signal was shouted. Then, as the ball was snapped back, Herrick was hurled to one side like a pillow, and when he picked himself up he found that the Pythians had made ten yards round his end.

He took his place in the line. Rupert stood opposite him, with his eyes sparkling and a broad, good-natured smile on his face. And Herrick appreciated fully that Rupert had had his revenge.

The mild and legitimate character of it made it no more tolerable to the victim; and there was a deep, smouldering wrath in his heart, a bitter resentment of Rupert's greater strength, an angry wish to get even by taking some sharp advantage if the opportunity rose.

In the occasional breathing spaces as the game went on Herrick set his mind to devising some means of getting even—of com-