“Is this your last term here, Emerald?” asked Dale.

“I think so—­if I am lucky and get through.  How about you?”

“I hope to graduate next June.”

“And so do Jack and I,” added Pepper.  “But you can’t always tell.  I’ll be sorry to leave Putnam Hall.”

“That’s so; such good times as we have had here,” added Jack.

As soon as the cadets were settled down at the Hall, and the excitement over the runaway, the loss of Andy’s things, and the fight between Jack and Ritter, was at an end, the talk of the boys turned to football and other Fall sports.  As in the past, the cadets hoped to have a good eleven and win some substantial victories.

“Wonder if we’ll be allowed to play Pornell,” said Jack.

“I don’t know,” answered Dale.  “I rather think the captain is sore over the reply he got from the head of that school, over the carryall affair, and maybe he won’t let us play them.”  And in this Dale was correct.  Pornell was cut out that season, but it played Putnam Hall the year following.

Dale Blackmore was at the head of the football eleven, and, as before, he organized a fine team.  Jack, Andy, Hogan, and Bart Conners were in their usual places.

“And I want you, too, Pepper,” said Dale.

“Oh, I can go on the sub-bench,” was the answer, for Pepper did not care very much for football.  “Give Fred Century and Bert Field a chance.”

“I know what Pepper wants,” said Andy.  “He wants us to play, while he sits in the grandstand, having a good time with the girls.”

“Sure thing,” answered The Imp, coolly.  “Somebody has got to entertain ’em.”

“They ought to be entertained by the game,” came from Dale.

“Girls make me tired when they are at a football game,” put in the cadet named Brown.  “I took one once, and she said she knew all about football.  After the game was half over she asked me how many runs and base hits had been made, and what they had done with the bats!”

Reff Ritter felt extra sore when the football eleven went out for practice.  He wanted to play, but Captain Putnam would not allow it, and the bully went off by himself, up the lake-shore, where he sat down on a rock to smoke cigarettes and brood over his troubles.  While he sat there he took from his pocket a letter and read it over several times.

“Twenty dollars by Saturday!  I don’t see how I am going to raise it,” he muttered to himself.  “I guess I’ll have to send mother a telegram for a remittance.”

The first football game of the season was arranged to take place between Putnam Hall and an eleven from Cedarville called the Dauntless.  The Dauntless players were made up of former college boys and some all-around athletes, and the cadets were told that they would have a stiff time of it trying to beat the aggregation.  The game was to take place on the grounds at Cedarville.  These were roped off and an admission fee was charged, the entire proceeds to go to a local Old Folks’ Home.