Frank Armstrong, Drop Kicker Read online

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  "LISTEN, WHAT WAS THAT?" WHISPERED FRANK.--_Page 83._]

  FRANK ARMSTRONG DROP KICKER

  BY MATTHEW M. COLTON

  Author of "Frank Armstrong's Vacation," "Frank Armstrong at Queen's," "Frank Armstrong's Second Term," etc., etc.

  WITH FOUR HALFTONE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR O. SCOTT

 

  NEW YORK HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS

  Copyright, 1912, BY HURST & COMPANY

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. A NEW ENTERPRISE 5

  II. FAILURE AND A PROVIDENTIAL RESCUE 18

  III. QUEEN'S TRANSPORTATION COMPANY 33

  IV. BURTON'S ARRIVAL 46

  V. THE WATER CARNIVAL 57

  VI. AN OLD RIVAL'S STRATAGEM 70

  VII. COALS OF FIRE 84

  VIII. A SWIM FOR LIFE 96

  IX. SAVED 106

  X. PROFITS OF QUEEN'S FERRY 116

  XI. THE HAZERS' WATERLOO 129

  XII. CLASS NINES 144

  XIII. FRANK'S FOOTBALL EDUCATION 158

  XIV. THE TELEGRAPH COMPANY 172

  XV. FRANK TAKEN TO WARWICK 184

  XVI. THE WARWICK GAME 197

  XVII. FRANK SAVES THE GAME 214

  XVIII. MRS. BOWSER'S CAT 228

  XIX. IN THE BELL TOWER 241

  XX. A HEAVY PENALTY 255

  XXI. GAMMA'S DESPERATE TACTICS 270

  XXII. SAVED BY THE WIRES 284

  XXIII. END OF GAMMA TAU 299

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "Listen, what was that?" whispered Frank. _Frontispiece_

  PAGE

  Frank turned just in time to see a flash of white disappearing beneath the surface. 27

  "It's Choctaw!" cried the Codfish. "Who can read Choctaw?" 179

  Down it went to the ground, rose and was sent spinning on its long flight from Frank's toe. 225

  Frank Armstrong, Drop Kicker

  CHAPTER I.

  A NEW ENTERPRISE.

  On a certain warm afternoon in the early part of July any onepassing along the main street of the little summer resort of Seawallmight have observed, had he chanced to glance seaward, a trim sloopriding easily at anchor, her milk-white mainsail swaying idly in thescarce-moving breeze. The water was like glass, excepting that hereand there it was wrinkled for a moment by a puff of wind which passedinstantly, leaving the mirror-like surface as before. Midway of thesloop's cockpit sat the Ancient Mariner himself, nodding. His backwas braced against the gunwale and his pipe hung on his chest--agentle-looking old man with a long, grizzled beard, taking hissiesta as even Nature seemed to be taking hers that afternoon. Histoil-worn hand hung over the gunwale, and, had one been near enough,the old man might have been heard to snore softly.

  A quarter of a mile up the bay there appeared three black specksin the water. They might have been corks merely, but as they camesteadily along you could have imagined them to be seals. They camenearer, swimming noiselessly, scarcely making a ripple. Now theywere right alongside the sloop. Two of the seals, or whatever thedark forms were, glued themselves close under the sweep of thestern. The third swam cautiously toward the outstretched hand of theAncient Mariner, and tweaked one of the fingers which hung withinreach of any fish that might be bold enough to try a bite at thetempting morsel. Instantly the Ancient was in motion and the "seal"disappeared below the surface in a twinkling.

  "Shiver my bloomin' timbers, what was that?" yelled the Mariner ashe jumped to his feet. "Some ding-busted dog-fish trying to makea meal?" and he reached for his pike-pole to do execution to theattacking dog-fish.

  At this burst from the Ancient there came from under the stern ananswering burst of laughter. Another and still another joyfulchuckle followed, and in an instant there bobbed up three heads tothe astonished gaze of the occupant of the boat.

  "You young rapscallions, so it wasn't a dog-fish after all," saidthe Ancient. And then, rubbing his eyes, he looked again. "Bust mybulkhead, if it isn't little Frank Armstrong!"

  "Surest thing you know, Captain Silas," shouted Frank, treading waterand keeping his hands going at the same time with a fin-like motionthat held him out of the water to his shoulders. "Come on out, Jimmy;come out, Lewis; no use hiding now."

  "Well, I swan!" was all Captain Silas could say, for it was indeedthe old captain himself. "What are you doin' away out here in thebay? You're worse nor a parcel of fish."

  "Oh, Captain," cried Jimmy Turner, shooting out from the boat onhis back and splashing water in Lewis Carroll's face, "we expectedto have a lot of fun, but this galoot of a Lewis had to snigger outloud, and that spoiled everything."

  "You sniggered yourself," retorted Lewis.

  "We couldn't help it," said Frank. "Did it scare you much, Captain?"

  "Well, I reckon it wouldn't have scared me so much if I hadn't beendreaming I was hauling in a big sword-fish, and just as I was goingto grab him with my gaff, up he jumps and grabs my hand. I give sucha jump that I near fell out the other side o' the boat."

  The boys laughed again and splashed water.

  "Come on into the boat," said the captain, grinning at the joke thathad been played on him. "Come on in and let's see how you look," andhe held out a gnarled hand to Frank, who seized it and was soon overthe side. Jimmy followed easily, but it took two of them to get Lewisaboard, who, in spite of all his athletic endeavors, continued togrow more like an ordinary washtub every day. But finally, after muchtugging, they landed Lewis safely. The three swimmers sat and drippedwater over Captain Silas' seats.

  "Must have come into a fortune, Captain," exclaimed Frank, lookingover the trim boat and aloft at the white sail, which was nowswinging a little more widely with the land breeze.

  "Oh, no," was the reply. "Couldn't make much outen my old fishingjob, so I took my little nest-egg outen the bank and put it in thishere boat."

  "Going pirating?" inquired Jimmy.

  "Not 'xactly that, kinder social piratin' maybe. I carry the cityswells that want to go fer a sail. It pays better nor lobsters."

  "Just a different kind of lobster, eh?" broke in Lewis.

  "I take parties out for sails at twenty-five cents the head,"continued the captain, not noticing the interruption by Lewis, "butit's been bad business these last two or three days, not a breezebig enuff to blow a han'kerchief. So I was havin' a snooze when youfellers give me such a start," and the old man grinned pleasantly."But it's breezin' up a bit now and maybe we can have a sail beforethe sun goes down. Want to come?"

  "You bet we do!" was the simultaneous response of the three, who hadscattered themselves comfortably around on the little deck forwardwith their faces up to the blue sky.

  "Hadn't you better go and git some clothes on your backs? You'llfreeze to death in th
em there skinny little bathing suits of yours."

  "Oh, no, we'll be as warm as toast. See, our suits are nearly dry.We've put in most of the time these last two weeks in these rigs andwe're used to it," said Frank.

  The breeze was picking up every minute, and the captain, castingan eye to the pier end without seeing any prospective passengers,and apparently nothing loth to have back with him again the threespirited youngsters, began to pull up his anchor and make ready. Inthis the boys helped, and soon the sloop was heading off down the baycareening to the freshening breeze.

  "Gee whiz!" sighed Jimmy, prone on his back and stretched out like astar-fish, arms and legs extended, "but this beats school all hollow."

  "And what ye been doin' at school? Learnin' your lessons, I s'pose?"said the captain, who had heard the remark. "S'pose your heads arejust crammed full of knowledge, eh?"

  "Not exactly that," replied Frank, grinning. "There are a lot ofblank spaces in my cranium that haven't been touched yet. But Lewisis fearfully educated."

  "Yes," added Jimmy jokingly, "he's what they call a high-stand man."

  "Wouldn't think it," said the old man, scrutinizing Lewis closely."I'd say he was a wide-stand man," still looking Lewis overcritically. Frank and Jimmy laughed heartily at this, and thecaptain joined in when it was explained to him that this particularkind of stand had nothing to do with the physique.

  "I say, Captain," said Frank, coming down from the deck to whereCaptain Brown sat at the tiller, "can't we do something to help yourun the ship?"

  "She don't need no running mor'n she's doin' now. All you got to dois just keep 'er steddy, same's I'm doin' now. You're not big enuffto steer. I'm 'fraid she'd wallop ye all about in a heavy sea."

  "Oh, I don't mean sailing her; I'm not much on that. But couldn't wehelp with the passengers? Couldn't we put up the gangplank or putit down or whatever you do with it?" continued Frank. "We are threehusky fellows, and we want to do something to keep in training."

  "Trainin', what fer?" said the old man.

  "Oh, just training for football. We want to be ready for the fall andhave our muscles hard and our wind good."

  "Yes," broke in Lewis, "we are going to be on the football team thisfall up at Queen's School. Frank is going to be drop kicker, andI----"

  "Oh, ho," laughed Jimmy from his place up in the bow-sprit, wherehe had just stretched himself full length, face downward, with hislegs coiled about the timber to keep himself from rolling into thesea, "did you hear Lewis say 'we'? Lewis has to keep in condition, soplease, Captain, give him some heavy work to do; let him spank thespinnaker and reef the anchor and splice the jib-boom."

  "I could do any of them," said Lewis, throwing out his chest; and thecaptain chuckled.

  "I tell you," he said, "we can let Lewis dust the mains'l; thatwould give him good exercise. But leavin' jokin' behind, ef ye wantsomethin' to do, why don't you get a motor boat and take out peoplefor little runs among the islands here, same as I do? Lots o' peoplewant to go quicker nor I can go, but I wouldn't touch one of thepesky things."

  "By jiminy!" exclaimed Frank, "that's an idea!"

  "Yes, and where's your motor boat coming from?" said Jimmy. "Motorboats cost something, and I don't see any good, kind gentlemancoming around handing us one."

  "We might hire one," said Lewis, "and pay the rent from our profits.If we had luck we might be able to buy her by fall."

  "Yes, and a house and lot and two yachts," said Jimmy, who wasskeptical about the plan.

  "Guess I know where you boys might pick up one cheap," broke in thecaptain, as he dexterously swung the boat over on the starboard tackand headed her up the bay. "Old man Simpkins has a motor boat hehasn't used for mor'n a year. It's layin' hitched up to his wharfdown Turner's Point way."

  "Oh, I know who he is," said Frank. "Lives in that big house by thepine grove a little way this side of the Point."

  "That's the feller," said the captain. "Has a little girl, all kindercrippled up with some disease or other. Comes down to sail with metwo or three times a week. Had a son at college who died of fever orsomething. It was his boat. That's the reason the boat's never used,I guess; old gentleman don't care for it no more."

  "Great whippoorwills, but there's our chance!" said Frank. "Jimmy,get over your pessimism and think up some scheme for renting thatboat. Why, man," as Jimmy just grinned, "there's millions in it.We'll organize a company."

  "I'll be with you on condition that you'll let me steer it," saidJimmy. "You can be captain if you want to."

  "All right, my son, you may, and I'll take care of the motor," saidFrank. "That's a job for the best man."

  "And what am I to be?" said Lewis. "Can't I be skipper, or somethinglike that?"

  "You'll be the ballast," said Jimmy, grinning from his perch on thebow-sprit. He had turned over on his back now and was balancingprecariously, one toe hooked in a coil of rope at the foot of themast being his only anchorage from a bath in the cool green searacing along a couple of feet below him.

  "We are talking as if we had the boat in commission already. But'nothing venture, nothing have,' as the old saying goes. I'm goingdown to-morrow to see Mr. Simpkins and try my powers of persuasion onhim."

  "Beware of the dog," warned Jimmy.

  "Dog or no dog, I'm going to try."

  "What's this navigation company going to be called?" inquired Lewis.

  "The name will be the 'Queen's Ferry,'" said Frank.

  "Sounds like an old English romance, but it's good," commented Jimmy;"the Queen's Ferry, Armstrong, Captain, Carroll, first mate----"

  "I don't want to be first mate," corrected Lewis. "I want to be askipper."

  "Well, if you want to have such a lively name go ahead and take it.If skipper means anything speedy, you've got the most terrificallymisplaced confidence in yourself I ever saw,--but if you must, youmust, so you are to be the skipper."

  "And James Turner will be first mate and helmsman," said Frank.

  "Aye, aye, sir," came the response.

  "Now, that being done, we've got to have an agent to drum up ourbusiness, to see that the great and waiting public may know thatat last in Seawall there is a proper conveyance; a guide andcourier, a kind of advertising man who will present our magnificentpossibilities in transportation."

  The three boys looked at each other.

  "The Codfish!" they shouted in chorus.

  "The Codfish is the man. And he's coming to visit me in a week,"added Frank.

  "Too long to wait," said Jimmy, shaking his head. "We are losingprofits every minute. Let's telegraph him to come now. 'Do itnow'--or before--is my motto."

  "Good!" said Frank; "we'll telegraph to-night and offer him the job.Let's see, this is Thursday; we ought to begin our trips Monday. Yes,Monday's the best day to begin anything on. We might get started onSaturday if the Codfish comes right away."

  "Did you kids ever hear tell of countin' chickens before they washatched?" broke in the voice of Captain Silas. "You haint got theboat yit," and the old man chuckled. "But that's the way youth do runon. And then how about drivin' poor old Captain Silas Brown out ofbisness with one o' them fast motor boats?"

  "Oh, Captain, do you think it would hurt your trade? We wouldn't doit for the world. We'll give it up. I didn't think of that," criedthe generous boys in a breath.

  "Go along with you, 'twon't hurt me. I was only jokin'. There'll bemore than we all can do and I'm a thinkin' you'll get tired of itpretty quick. I'll help you all I can to git hold of the old boat,but don't ever ask me to go to sea in one o' the consarned things.'Member what happened to your old boat last year?"

  The boys looked at each other.

  "You bet we do!" they exclaimed in a breath.

  "But there are to be no matches aboard any boats I command in thefuture," cried Frank.

  "Well, here we are back again," said the captain, as he brought the_Seagull_, for such was her name, up into the wind. "I'll take youoff in my dinghy in a minnit."

  "Thank you, Cap
tain, for a fine sail and a brilliant idea, and wewon't bother you to take us off; we have our fins," said Frank. "Seeyou later," and one after the other the boys popped into the waterlike so many porpoises, and, led by Frank, swimming a graceful andeasy overhand, they went ploughing up the beach in the direction ofthe Armstrong cottage.

  "Water rats, nuthin' but derned water rats," said the old man, as hiskindly eye followed the three swimmers pulling rapidly away towardsthe shore.