The chances of Kay's in the inter-house Football Competition were notthought very much of by their rivals. Of late years each of the otherhouses had prayed to draw Kay's for the first round, it being acertainty that this would mean that they got at least into the secondround, and so a step nearer the cup. Nobody, however weak compared toBlackburn's, which was at the moment the crack football house, everdoubted the result of a match with Kay's. It was looked on as a sortof gentle trial trip.

　　But the efforts of the two captains during the last weeks of thewinter term had put a different complexion on matters. Football is notlike cricket. It is a game at which anybody of average size and acertain amount of pluck can make himself at least moderatelyproficient. Kennedy, after consultations with Fenn, had picked outwhat he considered the best fifteen, and the two set themselves toknock it into shape. In weight there was not much to grumble at. Therewere several heavy men in the scrum. If only these could be brought touse their weight to the last ounce when shoving, all would be well asfar as the forwards were concerned. The outsides were not sosatisfactory. With the exception, of course, of Fenn, they lackedspeed. They were well-meaning, but they could not run any faster byvirtue of that. Kay's would have to trust to its scrum to pull itthrough. Peel, the sprinter whom Kennedy had discovered in his searchfor athletes, had to be put in the pack on account of his weight,which deprived the three-quarter line of what would have been a goodman in that position. It was a drawback, too, that Fenn was accustomedto play on the wing. To be of real service, a wing three-quarter mustbe fed by his centres, and, unfortunately, there was no centre inKay's--or Dencroft's, as it should now be called--who was capable ofmaking openings enough to give Fenn a chance. So he had to play in thecentre, where he did not know the game so well.

　　Kennedy realised at an early date that the one chance of the house wasto get together before the house-matches and play as a coherent team,not as a collection of units. Combination will often make up for lackof speed in a three-quarter line. So twice a week Dencroft's turnedout against scratch teams of varying strength.

　　It delighted Kennedy to watch their improvement. The first side theyplayed ran through them to the tune of three goals and four tries to atry, and it took all the efforts of the Head of the house to keep aspirit of pessimism from spreading in the ranks. Another frost of thissort, and the sprouting keenness of the house would be nipped in thebud. He conducted himself with much tact. Another captain might havemade the fatal error of trying to stir his team up with pungent abuse.

　　He realised what a mistake this would be. It did not need a great dealof discouragement to send the house back to its old slack ways.

　　Another such defeat, following immediately in the footsteps of thefirst, and they would begin to ask themselves what was the good ofmortifying the flesh simply to get a licking from a scratch team bytwenty-four points. Kay's, they would feel, always had got beaten, andthey always would, to the end of time. A house that has once gotthoroughly slack does not change its views of life in a moment.

　　Kennedy acted craftily.

　　"You played jolly well," he told his despondent team, as they troopedoff the field. "We haven't got together yet, that's all. And it was ahot side we were playing today. They would have licked Blackburn's."A good deal more in the same strain gave the house team thecomfortable feeling that they had done uncommonly well to get beatenby only twenty-four points. Kennedy fostered the delusion, and in themeantime arranged with Mr Dencroft to collect fifteen innocents andlead them forth to be slaughtered by the house on the followingFriday. Mr Dencroft entered into the thing with a relish. When heshowed Kennedy the list of his team on the Friday morning, thatdiplomatist chuckled. He foresaw a good time in the near future. "Youmust play up like the dickens," he told the house during thedinner-hour. "Dencroft is bringing a hot lot this afternoon. But Ithink we shall lick them."They did. When the whistle blew for No-side, the house had justfinished scoring its fourteenth try. Six goals and eight tries to nilwas the exact total. Dencroft's returned to headquarters, askingitself in a dazed way if these things could be. They saw that cup ontheir mantelpiece already. Keenness redoubled. Football became thefashion in Dencroft's. The play of the team improved weekly. And itsspirit improved too. The next scratch team they played beat them by agoal and a try to a goal. Dencroft's was not depressed. It put theresult down to a fluke. Then they beat another si............