Harry reluctantly admitted the truth, and then urged all the extenuating circumstances. Herrick had not meant to hurt Rupert; he had had a long grudge against him—which he ought not to have had, to be sure; he had been no match for Rupert in the game; and he had done what was often done in the big college games when the umpire was not looking.
The members of the eleven and the members of the Crown, to whom Harry made this appeal, were not disposed to judge Herrick harshly. But it was different with the mass of the boys. They remembered only that Herrick had played foul, and had crippled the captain of the school eleven, and they shunned him.
He for his part did not at once alter his habitual manner. He remained, as he had always been, proud and defiant, and his attitude did not tend to make the other boys more lenient.
But he showed a different side to Rupert Ormsby. The day after the game he was taken into the room of the infirmary where the
