Right End Emerson

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  RIGHT END EMERSON

  THE FOOTBALL ELEVEN BOOKS

  BY

  RALPH HENRY BARBOUR

  LEFT END EDWARDS LEFT TACKLE THAYER LEFT GUARD GILBERT CENTER RUSH ROWLAND FULL-BACK FOSTER QUARTER-BACK BATES LEFT HALF HARMON RIGHT END EMERSON

  Now he was blocked, now he had broken free again!]

  Right End Emerson

  BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR

  AUTHOR OF LEFT END EDWARDS, LEFT TACKLE THAYER, FULL-BACK FOSTER, ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY LESLIE CRUMP

 

  GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

  Made in the United States of America

  Copyright, 1922 By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I A TIP TO THE WAITER 1 II PARTNERS CONFER 15 III A NEW YEAR BEGINS 26 IV JIMMY READS THE PAPER 37 V RUSSELL EXPLAINS 45 VI BILLY CROCKER DROPS IN 54 VII JIMMY GOES SHOPPING 65 VIII THE SECOND TEAM COACH 78 IX AT THE “SIGN OF THE FOOTBALL” 88 X JIMMY CONSPIRES 104 XI FAIR PROMISES 114 XII BACK IN HARNESS 124 XIII THE NEW ASSISTANT 136 XIV JIMMY’S DAY 148 XV MR. CROCKER CALLS 162 XVI ALTON SQUEEZES THROUGH 173 XVII STICK CONFIDES HIS TROUBLES 184 XVIII NOT IN THE GAME 195 XIX STICK FINDS A BUYER 211 XX JIMMY HAS A CLEW 224 XXI STICK SELLS OUT 238 XXII MR. PULSIFER SHAKES HIS HEAD 248 XXIII A MEMBER OF THE TEAM 255 XXIV “WE’VE WON!” 263

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Now he was blocked, now he had broken free again! _Frontispiece_

  PAGE “Rather an unusual proceeding, Emerson,” pursued the doctor 48

  “Yes,” said Russell faintly. “I’m--fearfully--soft!” 132

  “I wish to goodness I’d never gone into this fool thing” 170

  RIGHT END EMERSON

  CHAPTER I

  A TIP TO THE WAITER

  A very gaudy red automobile whirled up the circling drive that led tothe white-pillared portico of the big hotel at Pine Harbor, announcedits approach with a wheezy groan of the horn and came to a sudden stopbefore the steps, a stop so disconcerting to the extreme right-handoccupant of the single seat that he narrowly escaped a head-oncollision with the wind-shield. Taking advantage of the impetus thathad unseated him, he flung his legs over the door and alighted on thewell-kept gravel.

  “This car may be sort of cranky when it comes to _going_, Mac,” hesaid, “but she sure can _stop_!”

  “Well, she got you here,” chuckled Harley McLeod. “Give the kid a handwith the suit-cases, Jimmy. Pile out, Stan, and I’ll take Matildaaround to the garage and give her some oats. You fellows register, andtell the guy at the desk that we want one room and no bath; tell himwe had a bath last week. Don’t let him soak you, either. We’ve gotfour more days of this foreign travel before we get home, and the oldsock’s mighty near empty. Something about twelve dollars for the crowdwill be pretty near right.”

  “Fine,” agreed the third member of the trio, sarcastically, viewing ashe spoke the long front of the building and its general air of hauteurand expensiveness. “Twelve dollars apiece is likely to be closer to it.If you want economy, Mac, why the dickens do you pick out the swellestjoints on the route?”

  “Well,” answered McLeod, glancing rearward to see if the suit-cases hadbeen wrested from their place, “we don’t seem to have much luck thatway, and that’s a fact. Gee, that place last night pretty nigh ruinedme! You do your best, anyway. All clear, Jimmy? Let go their heads!Back in a minute!” The small red car leaped forward impetuously, dasheddown the drive to the road, swerved precipitately to the right andwas lost to sight--if not to hearing--beyond a hedge. Stanley Hasselljoined Jimmy Austen and together they followed a small uniformed youth,laden with three suit-cases, up the steps, across the wide porch andinto the hotel.

  It was Stanley who took the pen from the politely extended hand of theclerk and inscribed the names of his party on the register. After eachname he added “N. Y. City.” This was less truthful than convenient,for although he and Harley McLeod lived in widely separate sectionsof that far-stretching metropolis, Jimmy hailed from Elizabeth, NewJersey. But, as Stanley had explained soon after the beginning oftheir two-weeks tour in Mac’s disguised flivver, “Elizabeth, N. J.”was too long to write. Besides, he added, it wouldn’t be long beforeElizabeth became a part of New York, anyway, and there was no harm inanticipating.

  “We’d like a room for three,” announced Stanley when he had put downthe last dot. “With single beds, if possible, and without a bath. Asreasonable a room as you have, please.”

  The clerk, a carefully attired gentleman, frowned hopelessly. “I’mafraid we haven’t a room with three single beds,” he said, as heconsulted a book. “I can give you a nice large room on the front of thehouse, however. That has a double bed in it, and I can have a cot putin also. I’m afraid that’s the best--”

  “What’s the price of it?” interrupted Stanley anxiously.

  “How long are you staying?”

  “Just overnight.”

  “Eight dollars, in that case.”

  “For the bunch?” inquired Jimmy eagerly.

  The clerk shook his head and smiled again, this time commiseratingly.“Eight dollars a day apiece,” he said in his nicely modulated tones.“Our regular price, gentlemen.”

  It was Stanley’s turn to do a little head-shaking. “Look here,” heconfided earnestly, “you’ve got us wrong. We weren’t thinking of_buying_ the room; we just want to _rent_ it. Now, what about a room onthe _back_ of the house? Something about fifteen dollars for the threeof us? We aren’t crazy about the view, anyway; besides, we couldn’t seemuch at night, could we? You just take another peep into the old bookthere and talk reasonable!”

  The gentleman seemed inclined to be haughty for a moment, but Stanley’ssmile was captivating and he went back to the book good-naturedlyenough. “There’s a room on the third floor,” he announced at last.“It’s rather small, but perhaps it will do. The rate is sixteen-fifty.”

  Stanley mused a moment, mentally dividing sixteen dollars and fiftycents by three, and then nodded. “All right,” he agreed. “Guess that’llhave to do.”

  “Front! Show the gentlemen to 87!”

  “Say,” broke in Jimmy with very evident anxiety, “that includes meals,doesn’t it?”

  This time the clerk smiled quite humanly. “Certainly,” he replied. “Weare on the American Plan.”

  “Idiot!” breathed Stanley as they turned away.

  “That’s all right,” replied Jimmy doggedly. “It’s just as well to besure. Look at the time they held us up for seven dollars apiece andthen we found we had to pay extra to eat!”

  “That was in a city, you chump,” reminded Stanley. They bade the boywith the luggage wait a minute, but Harley McLeod came hurrying in justthen and
they began the ascent of the stairs. Harley showed a wrathfulcountenance.

  “Those robbers want three dollars for the car!” he sputtered.

  “Three dollars for the car?” echoed Jimmy. “Let ’em have it, I say.It’s worth five, maybe, but three dollars is three dollars, and theroom’s costing us sixteen-fifty--”

  “_What!_” exclaimed Harley, standing stock-still on the landing.“Sixteen _dollars_?”

  “And fifty cents,” confirmed Jimmy cheerfully. “The fifty cents is forthe food.”

  Harley McLeod stared darkly at Stanley. “You’re a swell littlebargainer, you are! Why, that’s five and a half apiece!”

  “Well, what of it?” asked Stanley huffily. “We had to pay six and ahalf last night, didn’t we? Say, if you don’t like the way I do it, whydon’t you do it yourself? If you think you can get better terms--”

  “That includes the meals, Mac,” interrupted Jimmy soothingly. “I askedthe Duke of Argyle, and he said so.”

  “Oh, shut up,” begged Harley. “Gosh, these summer hotels are regularrobber dens! All right, I’ve still got a few sous left, and when I’mbroke I’ll borrow from Jimmy. Say, where is this room? On the roof?”

  “Third floor, sir,” answered the bell-boy. “Nice and cool up here.”

  “Ought to be if altitude has anything to do with temperature,” agreedHarley with sarcasm. “What time’s dinner, son?”

  “Seven, sir, and runs to eight-thirty.”

  “And it’s only a bit after five,” groaned Jimmy. “I’ll tell youone thing, fellows, right now, and that’s this: When the Earl ofBuckminster down there charged me five-fifty he committed a fatalerror. If I don’t eat five-fifty worth of food at dinner to-night youfellows can throw me in the ocean!”

  “Not so horrid,” commented Stanley as they strode after the boy intothe apartment. “Small, but sufficient, eh?”

  “Do they think we’re going to sleep three in a bed?” demanded Harley,aghast.

  “They’re going to put in a cot for you,” said Jimmy comfortingly.

  “For me!” Harley viewed him coldly. “How do you attain that condition,Jimmy? What’s the matter with your sleeping on the cot?”

  Jimmy shook his head. “I don’t rest well on the things,” he answered.“Maybe Stan had better--”

  “We’ll draw lots,” said Stanley. He tossed a dime to the grinningbell-boy and then pulled three strands from the tattered fringe of thestraw matting rug. “Short piece gets the cot. Help yourself, Mac.”

  Stanley himself fell heir to the shortest straw and good-naturedlyaccepted his fate. “I’m the smallest, anyway,” he said. “Let’s wash upand look the place over. Any one for a swim?”

  “I’d like a swim,” said Jimmy, “but it always gives me a fierceappetite, and I’m hungry enough right now to chew nails! Let’s sit onthe porch and look wealthy. You don’t get so hungry if you sit still.”

  Some two hours later the three boys were conducted across a largedining-room by an awe-inspiring head-waiter and seated at a table setfor four. Jimmy looked approvingly at the crowded menu and passed itacross to Harley. “Let’s not be choosey,” he suggested. “Let’s startright at the top and take things as they come.”

  “Well, we can’t eat three kinds of soup,” said Harley.

  “I could,” Jimmy replied. “But I’m going to have some clams first.Which soup is the fillingest?”

  A boy of about their own age, which is to say seventeen or eighteen,began pouring water into the glasses, which led Jimmy to observe forthe first time that the waiters were all masculine and youthful, thoughmost of them were older than their own attendant. Just then Harley’sfoot collided painfully with Jimmy’s ankle and the latter emitted aloud howl of anguish that attracted the disapproving curiosity of theneighboring diners.

  “Shut up, you idiot!” whispered Stanley severely.

  “That’s all right,” returned Jimmy aggrievedly, rubbing the injuredankle under the table, “but he pretty near killed me with that big hoofof his! Gee, Mac, what’s the prodigious conception?”

  “Sorry,” muttered Harley, his eyes on the menu. “Do we all want clams?All right, clams for three, then.” This latter to the waiter at hiselbow.

  “Will you order your soup and fish now, please?” asked the waiter. “Itsaves time.”

  “Sure. Let’s see. I’ll have the cream of celery. What’s yours, Stan?”

  “Same, I guess.”

  “Oxen tails for me,” said Jimmy. “And a large portion of that bluingfish.”

  The waiter took himself off and Harley leaned toward Jimmy with ascowl. “Didn’t you see who that was, you dumb-bell?”

  “See who what was?” asked Jimmy, glancing around blankly.

  “The waiter, of course.”

  “No, who was he? Charlie Chaplin?”

  “Emerson, one of our fellows. You know him. A junior, I think.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “I don’t know any Emerson, Mac. You mean the chapthat’s waiting on us is an Alton fellow?”

  “Sure! What did you think I kicked you for?”

  “I thought you just wanted to show your love for me. What’s he doinghere?”

  “Waiting on table,” replied Stanley. “Haven’t you any eyes?”

  “Yes, but I mean-- Well, it seems a funny thing for an Alton fellow,doesn’t it?”

  “Guess all these waiters are students,” returned Stanley. “College men,a lot of them. I suppose Emerson needs the money.”

  “Well, yes, he would,” agreed Jimmy readily, “if he’s staying at thisjoint. I must have a look at him. I dare say I know him by sight.What’s he do?”

  Harley shrugged. “Nothing much, I guess. Seems to me, though, he wasplaying on the second team last fall.”

  “Football?”

  Harley nodded, and Stanley confirmed him. “Yes, he’s been on the seconda couple of years. You’ll remember him when you see him, Jimmy, for youmust have played with him year before last.”

  “Well, if he isn’t any faster on the field than he is here,” Jimmygrumbled, “it’s no wonder he’s never made the first. Do you fellowsknow him? I didn’t notice any warm hand-clasps!”

  “Oh, I know him to nod to,” replied Harley, “but you don’t exactlyexpect to find your school fellows waiting on table in a public hotel.I dare say he doesn’t want to be recognized. Anyway, he didn’t speak tome.”

  “Suppose he thought it was up to you to signal first,” said Jimmy.“After all, Mac, waiting in a summer hotel isn’t much different fromwaiting at college, and lots of corking chaps have done that. Here heis now, I guess. Making good time through a broken field, too! Justmissed a tackle then! If that other fellow had got him it would havebeen good-by, clams! Yes, I’ve seen him lots of times, but I never knewhis name.”

  While the waiter placed the orders on the table Jimmy observed him.He was a well-made boy, slim yet muscular, a fact not entirely hiddenby the ill-fitting waiter’s jacket that he wore. He had brown eyes,rather quiet seeming eyes, and brown hair that was very carefullybrushed away from his forehead, and a fairly short nose. On the whole,Jimmy decided, Emerson, so far as his appearance went, was a creditto Alton Academy. That he had recognized the trio was very evidentto the observer, and that he had no intention of making use of hisslight acquaintance with Harley was equally evident. He spoke only whenaddressed and then carefully avoided the speaker’s eyes. Jimmy didn’tknow whether Emerson felt any embarrassment, but he somehow wishedthat the impressive head waiter had seated them elsewhere. It wasrather jarring to be served in this fashion by a chap you were likelyto meet on the Green a week or so hence!

  But Jimmy soon forgot that, for he was extremely hungry, the food wasexcellent, the waiter, in spite of having two other tables to serve,attended to their wants in quite professional fashion and the dinnerpassed off pleasantly and expeditiously. Toward the last of it Stanleypresented a problem to them. “Say, fellows, how about tips?” he asked.

  Harley frowned. “I was wonderin
g,” he said. “Of course these fellowsmust take tips. I’ll bet the hotel doesn’t pay them much. But, just thesame, it sort of goes against the grain, Stan.”

  “Leave it till morning,” advised Jimmy. “Then we can slip a dollarunder a plate when he isn’t looking.”

  “A dollar!” ejaculated Harley. “Listen to the millionaire! It’s alwaysbeen fifty cents for the bunch so far.”

  “Oh, well, this is different,” replied Jimmy. “This guy’s one of us,you see. You can’t be a piker with one of your own School!”

  And so the matter was left, and they moved from the dining-room ratherponderously and sighingly seated themselves in three rocking chairs onthe broad veranda and, almost in silence, watched a huge orange-coloredmoon arise beyond the rim of the quiet ocean. The longest speech ofthe ensuing quarter of an hour was made by Jimmy. “Allowing fifty centsfor breakfast and a dollar for my third of the bed to-night, I figurethat I’ll be just twenty-five cents ahead of the house when we go ourway!”

  Later, having decided to play some pool as an aid to digestion, Jimmypaused as they passed through the lobby and fixed what he afterwardsexplained was an expression of triumphant gloat on the clerk behindthe desk. This expression he continued until the clerk, happening toglance toward him, returned his look with one of mingled surprise andconcern. Thereupon Jimmy ceased gloating and hurried after the others,who, meanwhile, had reached the billiard room just in time to securethe last pool table ahead of two disgruntled elderly plutocrats indinner-jackets. These latter gentlemen, grumbling their displeasure,seated themselves, behind large and expensive cigars, on a leatherndivan and watched the play of the trio with basilisk stares thatinterfered seriously with Stanley’s game. Harley and Jimmy refusedto be intimidated, but after five games, all won by Harley, theyacknowledged defeat and yielded the table to the besiegers. However, itwas just on nine o’clock then, and, as Stanley wisely observed, theywere paying good money for that room and so might as well make useof it. At ten they were fast asleep, as was befitting those who hadtraveled one hundred and eight miles since morning in Matilda!

  Yet it was well after nine o’clock the next day when they descendedfor breakfast. They were unanimous in declaring regretfully that theywere not really hungry, but they managed to do fairly well with cereal,eggs, steak, hot biscuits and coffee. Their waiter again attended tothem in a manner that was beyond criticism, and Jimmy acknowledged awarm admiration for his skill and dexterity. “Some garsong, if youask me,” said Jimmy. “Has everything under perfect control and hasn’tdropped a plate yet!”

  “I feel a bit mean about not speaking to him,” said Stanley. “Afterall, he’s one of us, and we know it, and he knows we know it, and--”

  “Yes, and he doesn’t want us to do anything of the sort,” interruptedJimmy. “The chap’s incog. Let us--let us respect his wishes, eh?”

  Harley looked relieved. “Jimmy’s right, I think. Besides, it isn’t asif we were personal friends. We only know him by sight, as you mightsay. Who’s got a dollar?”

  Jimmy produced a crumpled bill with less hesitation than usual andcurled it cunningly under his plate. Then they departed hurriedlybefore the waiter returned. Half an hour later Matilda jumped away onthe next lap of her journey, honking asthmatically as she disappearedfrom sight.

  Russell Emerson, clearing the dishes from the table lately occupied byhis school-mates, discovered the crumpled dollar bill and frowned atit. Then the frown vanished and he shrugged his shoulders and slippedthe money philosophically into his pocket.