Page:The secret play (1915).djvu/108

 *tridge, who had started the season as captain of the Scrub, found himself elevated to the upper squad, and it was Tom Nostrand who fell heir to his honor. That alone was sufficient to excite comment, for Nostrand had never shown any particular ability as a player. He had, however, a full set of brains, as Dick pointed out to Lanny when the latter showed surprise at the selection.

"Nostrand won't make a first-class player in a hundred years," said Dick with conviction, "but, unless I'm away off my track, he's just the fellow to run the Scrubs. He's smart, thinks like lightning, can handle fellows and knows the way things ought to be done even if he can't do them. I expect him to work out a mighty good team of what he's got to work on."

Dick's prediction proved correct, although the fact didn't appear just yet. On Saturday the eleven journeyed to Norrisville and played the Norrisville Academy team. The forty or fifty supporters who made the trip with the team scarcely looked for a victory for the Purple, for rumor credited the Academy with being unusually strong this Fall, while it wasn't apparent to the Clearfield rooters that Dick's aggregation was one whit better than a