The High School Captain of the Team Dick & Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard   By: H. Irving Hancock (1868-1922)

or Dick & Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard

By H. Irving Hancock

CONTENTS

CHAPTERS I. "Kicker" Drayne Revolts II. A Hint from the Girls III. Putting the Tag on the Sneak IV. The Traitor Gets His Deserts V. "Brass" for an Armor Plate VI. One of the Fallen VII. Dick Meets the Boy With A Kick VIII. Dick Puts "A Better Man" in His Place IX. Could Dave Make Good? X. Leading the Town to Athletics XI. The "King Deed" of Daring XII. The Nerve of the Soldier XIII. Dick Begins to Feel Old XIV. Fordham Plays the Gentleman's Game XV. "We'll Play the Gentleman's Game XVI. Gridley's Last Charge XVII. The Long Gray Column XVIII. The Would Be Candidates XIX. Tom Reade Bosses the Job XX. When the Great News was Given Out XXI. Gridley Seniors Whoop It Up XXII. The Message From the Unknown XXIII. The Plight of the Innocent XXIV. Dave Gives Points to the Chief of Police XXV. Conclusion

CHAPTER I

"Kicker" Drayne Revolts

"I'm going to play quarter back," declared Drayne stolidly.

"You?" demanded Captain Dick Prescott, looking at the aspirant in stolid wonder.

"Of course," retorted Drayne. "It's the one position I'm best fitted for of all on the team."

"Do you mean that you're better fitted for that post than anyone else on the team?" inquired Prescott. "Or that it's the position that best fits your talents?"

"Both," replied Drayne.

Dick Prescott glanced out over Gridley High School's broad athletic field.

A group of the middle men of the line, and their substitutes, had gathered around Coach Morton.

On another part of the field Dave Darrin was handling a squad of new football men, teaching how to rush in and tackle the swinging lay figure.

Still others, under Greg Holmes, were practicing punt kicks.

Drayne's face was flushed, and, though he strove to hide the fact, there was an anxious look there.

"I didn't quite understand, Drayne," continued the young captain of the team, "that you were to take a very important part this year."

"Pshaw! I'd like to know why I'm not," returned the other boy hotly.

"I think that is regarded as being the general understanding," continued Dick. He didn't like this classmate, yet he hated to give offense or to hurt the other's feelings in any way.

"The general understanding?" repeated Drayne hotly. "Then I can tell the man who started that understanding."

"I think I can, too," Prescott answered, smiling patiently.

"It was you, Dick Prescott! You, the leader of Dick & Co., a gang that tries to boss everything in the High School!

"Cool down a bit," advised young Prescott coolly. "You know well enough that the little band of chums who have been nicknamed Dick & Co. don't try to run things in the High School. You know, too, Drayne, if you'll be honest about it, that my chums and I have sometimes sacrificed our own wishes to what seemed to be the greatest good of the school."

"Then who is the man who has worked to put me on the shelf in football?" insisted the other boy, eyeing Dick menacingly.

"Yourself, Drayne!"

"What are you talking about?" cried Drayne, more angry than before.

"Don't be blind, Drayne," continued the young captain. "And don't be silly enough to pretend that you don't know just what I mean. You remember last Thanksgiving Day?"

"Oh, that?" said Drayne, contemptuously. "Just because I wouldn't do just what you fellows wished me to do?