CHAPTER VII. THE DAY OF RECKONING
_Oh, it is excellent To have a giant"s strength, but tyrannous To use it like a giant_.
--SHAKESPEARE
OF course, there came a day of reckoning for Victor Burleigh, now the idol of the Walnut Valley football fans, the pride of Lagonda Ledge, the hero of Sunrise. But the reckoning was not brought to him; he brought himself deliberately to it.
The jollification following the game threatened to wreck the chapel and crack the limestone ledge beneath it.
"Dust off your halo and wrap it up in cotton till next fall, Vic,"
Trench whispered in the closing minutes. "We"ve got to face the real thing now. We"re civilians in citizens" clothes, amenable to law henceforth; not a lot of athletic brigands, privileged outlaws, whose glory dazzles all common sense. Quit b.u.mping your head against the Kansas motto up in the dome, get your hob-nailers down on the sod, and trot off and tackle your Greek verbs awhile. And say, Vic, tackle yourself first and forget the pretty girl who covered you with roses down yonder five days ago. It was n"t you, it was just the day"s hero.
She"d have decorated old Bond Saxon just the same if he had waddled across the last goal line then. You"re a plug and she"s a lady born, and as good as engaged to Burgess besides. I had that straight from Dennie Saxon, and you know Dennie"s no gossip. They were far gone before they came West--the Wream-Burgess folk were--stiffen up, Burleigh. You look like a dead man."
"I was never more alive in my life." Vic"s voice and eyes were alive enough.
"By heck! I believe it," Trench exclaimed. "Say, you got away with Burgess about the game. If you want the girl, go after her, too. But gently, Sweet Afton, go gently. Most girls want to do the pursuing themselves, I believe. I"ll block the interference, if necessary, and you"ll be the sought-after yet, not the seeking, dear child."
A circular stairway winds from the Sunrise chapel down the south turret to Dean Fenneben"s study, intended originally as a sort of fire escape.
Some enterprising janitor later fixed a spring lock on the upper door to this stairway (surprises had been sprung through this door upon the chapel stage by prankish students at inopportune moments), so that now it was only an exit, and was called by the students "the road to perdition," easy to descend but barred from retreat.
In the confusion following the chapel exercises Vic slipped into the south turret, and the lock clicked behind him as he hurried down "the road to perdition."
The door to Dean Fenneben"s study was slightly open and Vic heard his own name spoken as he reached it. He hesitated, for a group of girls was surrounding Elinor Wream, discussing him. There was no escape. The upper door was locked, and he would rather have met that unknown villainous face in the dark cave than to face this group of pretty girls. So he waited.
"Oh, Elinor, you mercenary creature!"
"What if he is a bit crude?"
"I don"t blame you. I"m daffy about Professor Burgess myself."
"He"s got the grandest voice, Vic has!"
"I just adore Greek!"
"I think Vic is splendid!"
So the exclamations ran.
"Now, Norrie Wream, cross your heart, hope you may die, if big, handsome Victor Burleigh had his corners knocked off, and he was sandpapered down a little, and had money, wouldn"t you feel a whole lot different about him, Norrie?"
"I certainly would. I couldn"t help it."
Norrie"s eyes were shining and her cheeks were pink as peach blossoms.
To Vic she seemed exquisitely beautiful.
"But now?" somebody queried.
"Oh, now, she"ll be sensible, and the Professor will take advantage of "now." He won"t wait till it"s too late. Great hat! there goes the bell."
And the girls scuttled away.
Vic came in and sat down by the window through which one may find an empire for the looking.
"Burgess was right," he said to himself.
"I"m not only ill-bred on the outside, I"m that way clear through. A disreputable eavesdropper! That"s my size. But I didn"t mean it. Fine excuse!" He frowned in disgust, and turned to the window.
The Thanksgiving weather was still blessing the Walnut Valley. Wide away beyond Lagonda Ledge rolled the free open prairies, swept by the free air of heaven under a beneficent sky.
As Vic gazed his stern face softened, and the bulldog look, that he had worn since the night of the storm, relaxed before some gentler mood. The brown eyes held a strange glow under the long black lashes, as if a new purpose were growing up in the soul behind them.
"No limit out there. It"s a FREE LAND," he murmured. "There shall be no limit in here." Unconsciously he struck his breast with his fist.
"There"s freedom for such as I am somewhere."
"h.e.l.lo, Burleigh, what can I do for you?" As Dr. Fenneben came into the study he recalled how awkwardly the same boy had filled the same chair only a few months before.
"I"ve come in to be sentenced," Vic replied.
"Well, plead your case first."
If ever a father-heart beat in a bachelor"s breast, Lloyd Fenneben had such a heart.
"I want to settle about Thanksgiving Day," Vic said. "I had a moral right to play on the team in that game, but I had to get the legal right by force. Professor Burgess refused to permit me to play until I MADE him do it."
Fenneben"s eyes were smiling. "Why didn"t you knock him down and fight it out with him?"
"Because he"s not in my cla.s.s. When I fight I fight men. And, besides, I was in a hurry. If I"m expected to apologize to Professor Burgess or be expelled, I want to know it," Vic added, hotly.
He knew he would not apologize, and he wanted the sentence of expulsion to come quickly if it must come.
"We never expel boys from Sunrise. They have done it themselves sometimes. Nor do we ever exact an apology. They offer it themselves sometimes. In either case, the choice lies with the boy."
"What do you do with a fellow like me?" Vic looked curiously at the Dean.
"If a boy of your build wants to meet only men when he fights, we take it he is something of a man himself, and therefore worth too much for Sunrise to lose."
Oh! blessed power of the college man to lead the half-tamed boy into the stronger places of life; nor shove him to the dangerous ground where his feet must sink in the quicksand or the mire!
Vic sat looking thoughtfully at the man before him.
"Your confession here is all right. Your claim to a place on the team in Thursday"s game was just." The simple fairness of Fenneben"s words made their appeal, yet, it was so unlike what Vic had counted on he could hardly accept it as genuine.
"You have made a great name for yourself as an athlete. I paid for the roses. I know something of the degree of that greatness." Dr. Fenneben smiled genially. "You played a marvelous game and I am proud of you."
Vic did not look proud of himself just then, and Lloyd Fenneben knew it was one of life"s crucial moments for the boy.
"The big letter S cut over the doorway out there stands for more than Sunrise, you remember I told you." Fenneben spoke earnestly. "It means also the strife which you have already met and must expect to meet all along the way. But, Burleigh"--Lloyd Fenneben stood up to his full height, an ideal of grace and power--"if you expect to make your way through college with your fists, come to me."
"You?" Vic"s eyes widened.