CHAPTER VII.
Dick Meets the Boy-with-a-Kick Evil thoughts can never be cherished, day after day, without leading the more daring or brutal into some form of crime.
Phin, the first three or four times he tried to appear on Main Street, was "spotted" and hissed by High School boys.
Even the boys of the lower schools heard the news, and took up the hissing with great zest.
So Phin was forced to remain indoors during the day, which drove him out by night, instead.
Had he been older, and known more of human nature, he would have known that the hissing would soon die out, and thereafter he would meet only cold looks.
At home, be sure Phin was not happy.

His mother, a good woman, suffered in silence, saying little to her son.
Phin's father, a hard-headed and not over scrupulous man of business, looked upon the incident of expulsion as a mere phase in life.
He thought it "would do the boy good, and teach him to be more clever." Gridley met Milton High School and scored another victory, Milton taking only two points on a safety that Gridley was forced to make.
And now the game with Chester was looming up ahead.

It was due for the coming Saturday.
Three times a week, Dick Prescott had his squad out for drill and practice, though he was careful to follow Mr.Morton's suggestion not to get the young men trained down "too fine." Early one evening in mid-week, Dick sat at his desk in "The Blade" office, "grinding out" some local copy.

He was in a hurry to finish, for he was due to be in bed soon.

Every member of team and squad was pledged to keep early hours of retiring on every night but Saturday.
In another chair, near by, sat Dave Darrin, who dropped in to speak with his chum, and was now waiting until they could stroll down Main Street together.
"I've just thought of something I want to do, Dick," muttered Dave suddenly.