“No, sir, we haven’t heard anything from it yet.  He’d hardly be likely to say much, would he?”

“I fancy not.  Have you met him since?”

“Oh, we see him every day.  He rooms next door in Torrence.”

“And what about the chap whose violin he broke?”

“Durkin?  Oh, Penny’s making about as much noise as before.  He says the fiddle he’s using now isn’t nearly as good as the one Dreer busted, but I can’t see much difference myself.  Can you, Clint?”

Clint shook his head sorrowfully.  “Sounds even louder to me,” he said.

“I must drop around some time and hear him perform,” laughed the coach.  “He must be something of a character.”  Amy agreed that he was, and narrated two or three anecdotes concerning Penny to prove it.  Mr. Detweiler evidently found Amy’s discourse amusing and drew him out until he was in the full flood of his eloquence.  But when they had been there a half hour or so their host abruptly switched the conversation.

“I want to talk shop with Thayer a little,” he announced.  “You won’t mind, Byrd?  There are some magazines in front of you if you like to read.”

“Thanks, I’ll just listen, sir.  It always amuses me to hear folks get excited about football.”

“Oh, we’re not going to get excited, Byrd.”  Mr. Detweiler hitched his chair around a trifle and faced Clint.  “How did you get on today?” he inquired.

“Fairly well, I reckon.  I didn’t know the signals very well.  I don’t yet, for that matter.”

“No, it’ll take a day or two to forget the others and remember ours.  There are two or three things I noticed about your playing this afternoon, Thayer, and I want to speak of them while they’re fresh in my mind.  In the first place, you played too close to your guard on defence as a general thing.  Open up there and, above all, don’t play between opponents.  I mean by that, don’t try to get through on defence between two men.  Select one and play him.  Usually it will be the outside man, and your game is to put him against his inside man or side-step him.  As a general thing your position on defence is a foot or so outside the opposing end player, although there are one or two formations when that isn’t so.  Another thing I noticed was that, while you watched the ball well, you were liable to let the other man get the jump on you.  As soon as the ball is snapped, Thayer, get busy with your arms.  There are two main factors in the playing of a tackle position.  One is head and the other is arms.  Use your head all the time and your arms most of the time.  As soon as the ball is snapped, out with your arms, Thayer.  Lunge against the opponent.  Get him first and hold him off until you can see where the ball’s going.  Don’t try to break through blindly.  Hold him at arm’s length, keep your legs out of the way and then put him in or out, as the case may be, and go through for the runner.  If you can get your arms on the other fellow before the ball is snapped, do it, but don’t try it too long before or you won’t be able to hold it.  Try for the neck and arm position.  It’s the best.  You can swing a man either way if you have that.  If he gets under your arms and boxes you don’t try to push forward by main force, because you’ll be only wasting your strength.  Back away and get around him.