Page:The Winning Touchdown.djvu/105

Rh will tell you the truth as nearly as I and the gentlemen associated with me can come at it.

"Randall College, as you know, was built many years ago. The land was purchased from a fund left by a gentleman who had the good of the youth of this land at heart. Other endowments enabled buildings to be put up. In all these years no hint of trouble has come to us, but now we are confronting a fact, not a theory, as your political science teaches you.

"The land whereon Randall and the various buildings stand, yes, where there is laid out the fields for the pursuit of baseball and football, and I think I am right in assuming this to be the football season?"

The president paused, and glanced questioningly at the proctor, whom he evidently took for an authority on sports. For Dr. Churchill, while an enthusiastic supporter of every team in the college, knew rather less about the various terms, and times of games than the average baby. The proctor nodded in acquiescence.

"Even the very football field is under suspicion," continued the president, and there was another great sigh, mainly from that section of the chapel where sat Tom and his chums. "In fact the entire ground on which the college is built has been claimed by outsiders.

"The facts, in brief, are these: When the land