Some got off easy; Neil was among them; and so was Devoe, for it is not a good policy for a coach to endanger a captain's authority by public criticism; but when it was all over no one felt slighted.

And when all were beginning to breathe easier, thinking the storm had passed, it burst forth anew.
"Cowan, I don't see how you came to drop that ball," said Mills, in fresh exasperation.

"Why, great Scott, man, there was no one touching you except a couple of schoolboys tugging at your legs! What was the matter?
Paralysis?
Vertigo?
Or haven't you learned yet, after two years of football playing, to hang on to the ball?
There's a cozy nook waiting on the second scrub for fellows like you!" Cowan, his pride already sorely wounded, found the last too much for his temper.
"No one can help an occasional accident," he blurted.

"If I did fumble, there's no reason why you should insult me.

Lots of fellows have fumbled before and got off without being walked on.