On Your Mark! A Story of College Life and Athletics Page 15

  CHAPTER XIV

  HOCKEY--WITH VARIATIONS

  Allan, Tommy, and Hal stood at the side of the rink, up to their anklesin snow, and watched Pete play hockey. The rink was built at thefar end of Erskine Field, and looked, from the locker house, like abrand-new cattle-pen.

  This Saturday afternoon it was snowing in a half-hearted way, makingthe ice slushy and hiding the town from view. There were about fiftyother fellows looking on, for the Midyears had begun, and anythingto take the mind off examinations was welcome. The varsity team hadtraveled down the river to play Hastings High School, and the freshmanteam was making the most of its opportunities.

  There were only twelve candidates present, and so the opposing teamseach lacked a forward. But in spite of this the play was fast andfurious, making up in enthusiasm what it lacked in science. Pete wasplaying cover-point on the first team, and thus far his performancehad not lacked of applause. If some of the applause was unmistakablysarcastic, still it was applause.

  Pete was a hard skater and very much at home on the ice, but therewasn't much of grace about him. He hadn't as yet learned the subtletiesof stick-handling, but he usually managed to get the puck by the simpleexpedient of skating full-tilt against the opponent and knocking himdown in a good-natured, inoffensive way. Allan, Tommy, and Hal felt,as they watched, that they were being fully rewarded for tramping outthere through the snow.

  "Let's see you skate backward, Pete," called Allan in a lull of thegame. Pete grinned.

  "Give us the grape-vine, Pete," begged Tommy. Pete grinned again.

  "How are you on the outer-edge, old man?" asked Hal. Pete continued togrin.

  Then the puck came sliding down toward him, dribbled this way and thatby the hockey of an opposing forward. Pete drew himself together,grasped his stick in both hands as though it was a bludgeon, and rushedtoward the foe. Down went the foe, and the three admirers laughedjoyfully. But Pete didn't get the puck, for the vanquished one hadsucceeded in passing it across to another forward, exhibiting thefirst suggestion of team-play of the afternoon, so far as the secondteam was concerned, and Pete skated wildly in pursuit. The point wentout to meet the attack, another clever pass was made, and then--Presto! goal was shaking his head and pulling the disk out from underthe netting. The second had scored.

  "Ah, that was great work, Pete!" cried Allan, admiringly.

  "That was _playing_!" said Hal. "Oh, it was great!"

  "Real science, _I_ call it!" declared Tommy. "How'd you do it, Pete?"

  "Don't you mind their scoring, Pete," said Allan, encouragingly. "Youknocked your man down. Just you kill all you want to."

  Pete skated over and scattered them with his hockey.

  "You wait till I get these skates off," he threatened, "and I'll rollyou three little snipes in the snow!"

  "Don't waste your strength on us, Pete," begged Tommy from a safedistance. "Slaughter the enemy. Don't be discouraged; there's only sixleft."

  "Eat 'em up, Pete!" cried Hal.

  Pete shook his stick at them and turned away. As he skated back to hisposition a chorus of admiring "A-a-ahs!" followed him. When the secondhalf was almost done the score was 5 to 6, in the first team's favor,and the captain of the second, a big, round-faced chap who playedcenter, called on his support for a goal.

  "Play hard, fellows, and let's tie this!" he commanded. "Play togethernow!"

  Fortune seemed to be favoring them. They secured the rubber and sweptwith it down the rink. As usual, Pete put one man out of the play, butby the time he had recovered from the check the advance was past himand was threatening the goal. Both teams were mixed in wild confusion,and the puck was carroming about from goal to attack and from attack todefense. Then it was sped knee-high at the net, was luckily stopped bythe goal, and shot out to the side right at Pete's feet.

  Pete started off with it, but was in such a hurry that he overskated,and had to fight for it. When he again secured possession the attackwas thick about him. But he started off again, and the forwards ofhis side skated to their positions. Pete kept close to the boards,fooled the opposing cover-point by carroming the puck against them, andfor an instant had a clear shot at goal. But shooting wasn't Pete'sspecialty, and so he charged on until, well past the center of theice, the second team's captain charged him fiercely from the side,hurling him against the boards and knocking his stick into the air.

  Luckily, the puck struck the adversary's skate and carromed back to theside, and Pete, thrusting his skate against it, held it there while theother pushed and shoved with his body and tried to work the puck loosewith his stick. About them hovered friend and foe, awaiting the instantwhen the disk should slide out of the _melee_.

  The second-team player fought like mad and at last, by a fierceshove, moved Pete's foot. Pete, fearing loss of the precious prize,swung quickly around, bringing his adversary to the boards, and then,catching him with one hand at the knee, tipped him over the barrierinto the soft snow.

  Pete tipped him over the barrier.]

  Without waiting to see him safely landed, Pete rescued the puck froman interloping enemy and went straight down the rink with it, scorningfriend and foe alike, and drove it furiously into goal. When he swungaround and looked back, it seemed that a devastating gale had sweptover the rink, for along his route first-team men and second-team menwere picking themselves up from the ice. But what surprised him morewas the appearance of the second's captain, who, snow-covered, blackof face and scowling, was swaggering up to him.

  "What did you do that for?" he growled.

  From the sides of the rink came shouts of laughter. Allan, Hal, andTommy were hanging feebly over the barrier, beating the planks withtheir hands in gasping impotence.

  "Do what?" asked Pete, plainly at a loss.

  "Throw me over the boards," answered the other, belligerently.

  "Oh, that?" asked Pete. "Why, you were in my way, you see."

  "You shouldn't have done that, Burley," said the first team's captain."But you needn't try and scrap here on the ice," he continued, turningto the other. "Play the game!"

  "Look here," said Pete, "wasn't that all right? Mustn't I do that?"

  "Of course you can't. You ought to know the rules. The puck goes backthere again." The first's captain turned away impatiently.

  "It's on me, partner," said Pete. "Sorry, and hope I didn't hurt you."

  "All right," muttered the other, as graciously as he could. Theknowledge that he had served as a source of intense amusement preventedhim from putting much cordiality into his tones. The puck was takenback to where Pete had transgressed the rules, and again faced off byhim and the second's captain. The latter got possession and the playwent on, but to the onlookers it was very dull, and none cared when,after a minute or two, the game came to an end.

  Allan, Hal, and Tommy, still very red of face and still grinning,awaited Pete and escorted him back to the college in triumph, Halmarching ahead and chanting an improvised paean of praise until Peteseized him and rolled him over in the snow. Thereupon Hal retired to asafe distance and threw snowballs at Pete. He was not, however, a verygood shot and, as a result, Tommy and Allan were hit more often thantheir companion. It ended with the three joining forces against theobnoxious Hal and chasing him all the way down Poplar Street.

  When he reached Mrs. Purdy's, in his retreat, he withdrew into Allan'sroom, locked the door, and sent Two Spot, a white handkerchief tiedaround her neck, out by way of a window, to treat with the besiegers.The flag of truce was respected. Hal opened the window and agreedto surrender if allowed to march forth from the citadel with colorsflying, and his terms were accepted. He retired from view and presentlyreappeared in Allan's plaid dressing-gown, and holding aloft a Hilltonflag. Silently and proudly he marched forth and twice paraded thepiazza. Then the enemy, violating the rules of warfare, fell upon himas one man, and he was borne, struggling and kicking, back into thecitadel and deposited on the couch.

  Allan returned to the front yard and rescued his handkerchief,
whichwas trailing in the snow as Two Spot chased an imaginary mouse aroundthe bare and solitary rose-bush. Tommy had meanwhile poked the fireinto a blaze, and victors and vanquished drew up to it, while Petesmoked the pipe of peace and the others ate sweet chocolate, which, asTommy pointed out, represented the fruits of victory.

  Two Spot sat on Pete's broad knee and purred and blinked at the flamesand occasionally stuck her claws tentatively through Pete's trousers asa proof of her affection. And everybody felt very jolly and comfortableuntil the six-o'clock bell sent them to prepare for dinner.