"Ready!" Pete Halleck's voice came out of the silence of the waiting crowd.
"All set!" and the class was up and off on a trot toward the Sophomore players, who were trying not to walk away any faster than was usual. One after another the baseball men were overtaken and went down in clouds of dust and hard language.
Yet the Sophomores would not rush. Frank Lyman had exhorted them simply, while the Freshmen were attacking their nine. One or two of the hot-heads hurried to the Hall for old clothes, but the majority stood looking on, angry but quiet.
"Now for Smith!" yelled Halleck. His men turned toward the co-ed section of the bleachers.
"Shall we get out of this?" Cap asked Ashley.
"Get out nothing! Stay right here with the girls. They wouldn't have the gall."
But the lust of fight was in the Freshman heart as the dust of fight was on the Freshman skin. They lined up, a ragged mass of impertinence, as near the women as they dared, and waited for the leader of the opposition. He chatted on, explaining the college rush to the girl with him, and gave no sign of moving.
"Shall we go in and take him?" asked an excited youngster.
"I'll give him a chance to come easy," said Halleck. He squared himself, adjusted his dusty hat, and went straight up the steps.
"Excuse me, Mr. Smith," said he, "you are forgetting an engagement you made with some of your friends yesterday."
This was the freshest thing in the history of the college. The Sophomore's fingers twitched.
"I think you can wait until later, Halleck," he said slowly. Then he turned to the girl.
From the time Halleck climbed the bleachers and went toward Smith and his guests, the spectators were stiff with astonishment; nobody did anything. They saw Halleck look for one moment into Smith's angry blue eyes, go down the steps, and bring back two big fellows. Before the Sophomore could move away from the girls, the three men had dragged him down the bleachers; one heave of Halleck's broad back and Smith was under them, with his wind gone, and a Freshman was getting a rope ready.
Then just as Ashley tore down the steps in a rage, a slip of a girl darted past him and put her hands on Halleck's shoulders; a small, sandy-haired girl with blazing eyes.