There was an insouciant, self-confident air about the Claflin fellows that impressed Brimfield and irritated her too.

"You'd think," remarked Benson, watching from a window in the gym the visitors passing toward the field, "that they had the game already won! A stuck-up lot of dudes, that's what I call them!" But Benson was not in the best of tempers to-day and possibly his judgment was warped! The Claflin team arrived in one of Hoskins' barges and took possession of the meeting-room upstairs to change into their togs.

They were a fine-looking lot of fellows, and they, too, had that same air of confidence that Benson had found annoying.

By a quarter past two the stage was set.

The grand stand was filled to overflowing, the settees and chairs, which had been brought out to supplement the permanent seats, were all occupied, and many spectators were standing along the ropes.