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[Illustration: HE RAISED THE BALL IN HIS ARMS, AND PLACED IT OVER THE
CHALK MARK.]


THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN

A Story of College Football

by

LESTER CHADWICK

Author of "The Rival Pitchers," "A Quarter-Back's
Pluck," "Batting to Win," etc.

Illustrated







New York
Cupples & Leon Company

       *       *       *       *       *


BOOKS BY LESTER CHADWICK


 =THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES=

 12mo. Illustrated

 Price per volume, $1.00 postpaid

 THE RIVAL PITCHERS
 A Story of College Baseball

 A QUARTER-BACK'S PLUCK
 A Story of College Football

 BATTING TO WIN
 A Story of College Baseball

 THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
 A Story of College Football

 (Other volumes in preparation)

 _Cupples & Leon Company, Publishers, New York_

       *       *       *       *       *

Copyright 1911, by
Cupples & Leon Company

THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN

Printed in U. S. A.




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                           PAGE
      I  A MYSTERY                    1
     II  MORE BAD NEWS                8
    III  ON THE TRAIL                19
     IV  ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE       26
      V  FOOTBALL TALK               36
     VI  IN PRACTICE                 43
    VII  A NEW TIMEPIECE             53
   VIII  ANOTHER IDEA                61
     IX  A CLASH WITH LANGRIDGE      67
      X  THE BIG CALIFORNIAN         73
     XI  A NEW COMPLICATION          80
    XII  THE MISSING DEED            89
   XIII  THE FIRST GAME              98
    XIV  THE HAZING OF SIMPSON      109
     XV  THE MIDNIGHT BLAZE         120
    XVI  ANOTHER CLEW               129
   XVII  A CRASH IN THE GALE        136
  XVIII  WITH HAMMER AND SAW        141
    XIX  SUSPICIONS                 150
     XX  THE CLOCK COMES BACK       158
    XXI  SEEKING EVIDENCE           167
   XXII  BASCOME DENIES             173
  XXIII  HALED TO COURT             181
   XXIV  DEFEAT                     188
    XXV  BITTER DAYS                200
   XXVI  MOSES IN PHYSICS           206
  XXVII  THE DANCE CARD             213
 XXVIII  THE LEGAL BATTLE           225
   XXIX  ONE POINT LOST             233
    XXX  AN UNEXPECTED CLEW         240
   XXXI  AFTER THE CHAIR            249
  XXXII  "THIS ISN'T OURS!"         260
 XXXIII  A GREAT FIND               271
  XXXIV  THE EXCITED STRANGER       276
   XXXV  THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN      283




THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN




CHAPTER I

A MYSTERY


"Great Cicero's ghost!"

That was Tom Parson's exclamation.

"It's gone!"

A horrified gasp from Sid Henderson.

"Who took it?"

That was what Phil Clinton wanted to know.

Then the three college chums, who had paused on the threshold of their
room, almost spellbound at the astounding discovery they had made,
advanced into the apartment, as if unable to believe what was only too
evident. Tom came to a halt near his bed, and gazed warily around.

"It's sure enough gone," he went on, with a long breath.

"Somebody pinch me to see if I'm dreaming," begged Sid, and Phil gave
him such a vigorous nip on the fleshy part of his leg that the tall
youth howled.

"Turn over; you're on your back," advised Tom, as he got down on his
hands and knees to peer under the beds.

"What are you looking for?" demanded Phil.

"Our old armchair, of course. I thought maybe some of the fellows
had been in here trying to be funny, and had hidden it. But it isn't
here--it's gone."

"As if it could be under a bed!" exploded Sid, rubbing his leg
reflectively. "You must be getting batty!"

"Maybe he thought it could be reduced to fractions or acted on by
chemicals, like some of the stuff in the laboratory test tubes," went
on Phil.

"That's all right!" fired back the varsity pitcher, rather sharply,
"it's gone, isn't it? Our old armchair, that stood by us, and----"

"And on which _we_ stood when we couldn't find the stepladder,"
interrupted Phil.

"Oh, quit your kidding!" expostulated Tom. "The old chair's gone; isn't
it?"

"You never said a truer word in all your life, my boy," declared Sid,
more gravely.

"Sort of queer, too," declared Phil. "It was here when we went out to
football practice, and now----"

"Well, all I've got to say is that I'd like to find the fellow who took
it!" broke out Tom, dramatically. "I'd make a complaint to the proctor
about him."

"Oh, you wouldn't do that; would you, Tom?" and Phil Clinton stepped
over to a creaking old sofa, and peered behind it, brushing up against
it, and causing a cloud of dust to blow out about the room. "You
wouldn't do that, Tom. Why, it isn't Randall spirit to go to the
authorities with any of our troubles that can be settled otherwise."

"But this isn't an ordinary trouble!" cried the pitcher. "Our old chair
has been taken, and I'm going to find out who's got it. When I do----"

He clenched his fists suggestively, and began to strip off his football
togs, preparatory to donning ordinary clothes.

"It isn't back there," announced Phil, as he leaned upright again, after
a prolonged inspection behind the big sofa. "But there's a lot of truck
there. I think I see my trigonometry." Getting down on his hands and
knees, and reaching under the antiquated piece of furniture, he pulled
out not one but several books.

"Oh, come out and let the stuff back of the sofa alone," suggested Tom.
"We can clean that out some other time," for the big piece of furniture
formed a convenient "catch-all" for whatever happened to be in the way
of the lads. If there was anything they did not have any immediate use
for, and for which room could not be found in, or on, the "Chauffeurs,"
as Holly Cross used to call the chiffonniers, back of the sofa it went,
until such time as the chums had an occasional room-cleaning. Then many
long-lost articles were discovered.

"Yes, there's no use digging any more," added Sid. "Besides, the chair
couldn't be there."

"Some of the fellows might have jammed it in back of the sofa, I
thought," spoke Phil. "But say, this is serious. We can't get along
without our chair!"

"I should say not," agreed Tom, who was almost dressed. "I'm going out
scouting for it. Bascome, Delafield or some of those fresh sports may
have taken it to get even with us."

"They knew we cared a lot for it," declared Sid. "Ever since we had that
row about it with Langridge, the time we moved into these dormitories,
some of the fellows have rigged us about it."

"If Langridge were here we could blame him, and come pretty near being
right," was Phil's opinion. "But he's at Boxer Hall yet--at least, I
suppose he is."

"Yes, he's on their eleven, too, I hear," added Tom. "But this sure is a
mystery, fellows. That chair never walked away by itself. And it's too
heavy and awkward for one fellow to carry alone. We've got to get busy
and find it."

"We sure have," agreed Phil. "Why, the room looks bare without it;
doesn't it?"

"Almost like a funeral," came mournfully from Sid, as he sank into the
depths of the sofa. And then a silence fell upon the inseparable chums,
a silence that seemed to fill the room, and which was broken only by the
ticking of a fussy little alarm clock.

"Oh, hang it!" burst out Tom, as he loosened his tie and made the knot
over. "I can't understand it! I'm going to see Wallops, the messenger.
Maybe he saw some one sneaking around our rooms."

"If we once get on the trail----" said Phil, significantly.

"It sure is rotten luck," spoke Sid, from the depths of the sofa. "I
don't have to do any boning to-night, and I was counting on sitting in
that easy chair, and reading a swell detective yarn Holly Cross loaned
me. Now--well, it's rotten luck--that's all."

"It certainly is!" agreed a voice at the door, as the portal opened to
give admittance to Dan Woodhouse--otherwise Kindlings. "Rotten luck
isn't the name for it. It's beastly! But how did you fellows hear the
news?"

"How did we hear it?" demanded Tom. "Couldn't we see that it wasn't here
as soon as we got in our room, a few minutes ago? But how did you come
to know of it? Say, Kindlings, you didn't have a hand in it, did you?"
and Tom strode over toward the newcomer.

"Me have a hand in it? Why, great Caesar's grandmother! Don't you suppose
I'd have stopped it if I could? I can't for the life of me, though,
understand where you heard it. Ed Kerr only told me ten minutes ago, and
he said I was the first to know it."

"Ed Kerr!" gasped Phil. "Did he have a hand in taking our old chair?"

"Your chair?" gasped Dan. "Who in the world is talking about your fuzzy
old chair?"

"Hold on!" cried Tom. "Don't you call our chair names, Kindlings,
or----"

"Tell us how you heard about it," suggested Sid.

"Say, are you fellows crazy, or am I?" demanded Dan, looking about in
curious bewilderment. "I come here with a piece of news, and I find you
firing conundrums at me about a chair that I wouldn't sit in if you gave
it to me."

"None of us is likely to sit in it now," spoke Phil, gloomily.

"Why not?" asked Dan.

"Because it's gone!" burst out Tom.

"Stolen," added Sid.

"Vanished into thin air," continued Phil.

"And if that isn't rotten luck, I don't know what you'd call it," put
in the pitcher, after a pause, long enough to allow the fact to sink
into Dan's mind. "Isn't it?"

"Say, that's nothing to what I've got to tell you," spoke Dan.
"Absolutely nothing. Talk about a fuzzy, musty, old second-hand chair
missing! Why, do you fellows know that Ed Kerr is going to leave the
football team?"

"Leave the eleven?" gasped Phil.

"What for?" cried Tom.

"Is that a joke?" inquired Sid.

"I only wish it were," declared Dan, gloomily. "It's only too true. Ed
just got a telegram stating that his father is very ill, and has been
ordered abroad to the German baths. Ed has to go with him. I was with
him when he got the message, and he told me about it. Then he went
to see Dr. Churchill, to arrange about leaving at once. That's the
rottenest piece of luck Randall ever stacked up against. It's going to
play hob with the team, just as we were getting in shape to do Boxer
Hall and Fairview Institute. Talk about a missing chair! Why, it simply
isn't in it!"

Once more a gloomy silence, at which the fussy little alarm clock seemed
to rejoice exceedingly, for it had the stage to itself, and ticked on
relentlessly.




CHAPTER II

MORE BAD NEWS


"And so Ed is going to leave," mused Tom, after a momentous pause. "It
sure will make a hole in the team."

"Oh, it's got me all broke up," gloomily declared Kindlings, who was
captain of the recently organized eleven. "I don't know what I'm going
to do to fill his place, and Mr. Lighton, while he says we'll make out
somehow, feels pretty bad over it. But it can't be helped, of course,
for Ed has to go."

For the time being, the news of the loss of one of Randall's best
football players overshadowed the matter of the missing chair. Tom had
changed his mind about going out to see if he could get on the trail
of who had taken it, and sat with Kindlings and his two other chums,
discussing what could be done to replace Kerr as right half-back.

"Bricktop Molloy might work in there," suggested Phil, "only he's too
good a tackle to take out of the line."

"Why can't you go there yourself, Phil?" asked Tom. "You've done some
playing back of the line."

"No, I need Phil at quarter," objected Dan. "We'll have to think of
something else. If I didn't need you at end, Tom, I'd try you in Ed's
place."

"Oh, I'm no good bucking the line," objected the tall lad who pitched
for the 'varsity nine.

"What's the matter with one of the Jersey Twins?" asked Sid.

"Both Jerry and Joe Jackson are too light," and Dan shook his head.
There were many suggestions, and various expedients offered, and, while
the discussion is under way perhaps a moment can be spared to make our
new readers a little better acquainted with the main characters of this
story.

In the initial volume of this "College Sports Series," entitled, "The
Rival Pitchers," there was told the story of how Tom Parsons, a rather
raw country lad, came to Randall College, made the 'varsity nine, and
twirled the horsehide in some big games, thereby doing much to help win
the pennant for Randall. He had an uphill fight, for Fred Langridge, a
rich bully, contested with him for the place in the box, and nearly won
out. There was fierce rivalry between them, not only in baseball, but
concerning a certain Miss Madge Tyler.

In the second volume, called "A Quarter-Back's Pluck," there was related
how Phil Clinton went into the championship game under heavy odds, and
how he won out, though his mind dwelt more on a fake telegram in his
pocket, telling him that his mother was dying, than on the game, and on
the players whom he at last piloted to victory.

A winter of study followed the games on the gridiron, and with the
advent of spring, longing eyes were cast toward the baseball diamond
whereon, as soon as it was dry enough, the Randall lads gathered to
prepare for the season.

In the third book of the series, called "Batting to Win," there was told
the story of how Randall triumphed over her rivals, though at first it
looked as if she would lose. A loving cup had been offered, to be played
for by members of the Tonoka Lake League, of which Randall College was a
member, and how it was won forms the subject of the story.

Incidentally, there was quite a mystery concerning Sidney Henderson, or
"Sid," as he was universally called. From the opening of the season his
conduct was peculiar, and there were many unjust suspicions regarding
him