Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

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Fantasy Football Challenge presents
The Adventure Club Afloat

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THE ADVENTURE CLUB AFLOAT by RALPH HENRY BARBOUR Author of _Left End Edwards_, _Left Tackle Thayer_, etc. With Illustrations by E. C. Caswell 1917 [Illustration: The two cruisers were chug-chugging out of the harbour.] TO H.P. HOLT, WHOSE THUNDER I HAVE STOLEN ILLUSTRATIONS THE TWO CRUISERS WERE CHUG-CHUGGING OUT OF THE HARBOUR "IT IS!" HE CRIED. "WE'VE GOT HER, FELLOWS!" "THOSE WAVES WILL BATTER HER TO PIECES" "THEY OFFER YOU--" MR. HYATT LEANED FORWARD IN THE PROTESTING CHAIR CHAPTER I HOW IT STARTED The Adventure Club had its inception, one evening toward the last of June, in Number 17 Sumner Hall, which is the oldest, most vine-hidden and most hallowed of the seven dormitories of Dexter Academy. It was a particularly warm evening, the two windows were wide open and the green-shaded light on the study table in the centre of the room had been turned low--Sumner prided itself on being conservative to the extent of gas instead of electricity and tin bathtubs instead of porcelain--and in the dim radiance the three occupants of the room were scarcely more than darker blurs. Since final examinations had ended that afternoon and Graduation Day was only some twenty-eight hours away, none of the three was doing anything more onerous than yawning, and the yawn which came from Perry Bush, didn't sound as though it cost much of an effort. It was, rather, a comfortable, sleepy yawn, one that expressed contentment and relief, a sort of "Glad-that's-over-and-I'm-still-alive" yawn. There was a window-seat under each casement in Number 17, and each was occupied by a recumbent figure. Perry was on the right-hand seat, his hands under his head and one foot sprawled on the floor, and Joe Ingersoll was in the other, his slim, white-trousered legs jack-knifed against the darker square of the open window. Near Joe, his feet tucked sociably against Joe's ribs, Steve Chapman, the third of the trio, reclined in a Morris chair. I use the word reclined advisedly, for Steve had lowered the back of the chair to its last notch, and to say that he was sitting would require a stretch of the imagination almost as long as Steve himself! Through the windows Steve could see the dark masses of the campus elms, an occasional star between the branches, and, by raising his head the fraction of an inch, the lights in the upper story of Hawthorne, across the yard. Somewhere under the trees outside a group of fellows were singing to the accompaniment of a wailing ukelele. They sang softly, so that the words floated gently up to the open casements just distinguishable: "_Years may come and years may go, Seasons ebb and seasons flow, Autumn lie 'neath Winters' snow, Spring bring Summer verdancy. Life may line our brow with care, Time to silver turn our hair, Still, to us betide whate'er, Dexter, we'll remember thee!_ "_Other memories may fade, Hopes grow dim in ev'ning's shade, Golden friendships that we made_--" "Aw, shut up!" muttered Perry, breaking the silence that had held them for several minutes. Joe Ingersoll laughed softly. "You don't seem to like the efforts of the--um--sweet-voiced choristers," he said in his slow way. "I don't like the sob-stuff," replied Perry resentfully. "What's the use of rubbing it in? Why not let a fellow be cheerful after he has got through by the skin of his teeth and kicked his books under the bed? Gosh, some folks never want anyone to be happy!" He raised himself by painful effort and peered out and down into the gloom. "Sophs, I'll bet," he murmured, falling back again on the cushions. "No one else would sit out here on the grass and sing school songs two days before the end. I hope that idiot singing second bass will get a brown-tail caterpillar down his neck!" "The end!" observed Steve Chapman. "You say that as if we were all going to die the day after tomorrow, Perry! Cheer up! Vacation's coming!" "Vacation be blowed!" responded Perry. "What's that amount to, anyway? Nothing ever happens to me in vacation. It's all well enough for you fellows to laugh. You're going up to college together in the Fall. I'm coming back to this rotten hole all alone!" "Not quite alone, Sweet Youth," corrected Joe. "There will be some four hundred other fellows here." "Oh, well, you know what I mean," said Perry impatiently. "You and Steve will be gone, and I don't give a hang for any other chaps!" He ended somewhat defiantly, conscious that he had indulged in a most unmanly display of sentiment, and was glad that the darkness hid the confusion and heightened colour that followed the confession. Steve and Joe charitably pretended not to have noticed the lamentable exhibition of feeling, and a silence followed, during which the voices of the singers once more became audible. "_Dexter! Mother of our Youth! Dexter! Guardian of the Truth!_" "_Cut it out!_" Perry leaned over the windowsill and bawled the command down into the darkness. A defiant jeer answered him. "Don't be fresh," said Steve reprovingly. Perry mumbled and relapsed into silence. Presently, sighing as he changed his position, Joe said: "I believe Perry's right about vacation, Steve. Nothing much ever does happen to a fellow in Summer. I believe I've had more fun in school than at home the last six years." The others considered the statement a minute. Then: "Correct," said Steve. "It's so, I guess. We're always crazy to get home in June and just as crazy to get back to school again in September, and I believe we all have more good times here than at home." "Of course we do," agreed Perry animatedly. "Anyway, I do. Summers are all just the same. My folks lug me off to the Water Gap and we stay there until it's time to come back here. I play tennis and go motoring and sit around on the porch and--and--bathe--" "Let's hope so," interpolated Joe gravely. "And nothing really interesting ever happens," ended Perry despairingly. "Gee, I'd like to be a pirate or--or something!" "Summers _are_ rather deadly," assented Steve. "We go to the seashore, but the place is filled with swells, and about all they do is change their clothes, eat and sleep. When you get ready for piracy, Perry, let me know, will you! I'd like to sign-on."

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