CHAPTER VI

_A Friend in the Foe’s Camp_

Larry Kirkland, filled with new resolutions and abounding with life and spirits after a vacation of work and play, was returning to college determined to recover his lost standing and to win his way.

He and “Gatling” Krag were waiting for the Shasta Flyer to roll down from the North and bear him over the mountains to Cascade College. They had talked of the summer, of the ball games at the ranch, the annual camping trip to Crater Lake Park, and of the hopes and plans for Larry’s success at college.

“Don’t come back without your C, Larry, boy,” said the big ex-pitcher. “Remember, it is more the victory over yourself that counts than the mere making of the team.”

“I’m going to try Bill,” said the boy. “I want to thank you for showing me my mistakes. I guess I was a pretty swelled-headed kid.”

“Was?” asked Krag, laughingly. “It’s all right if it is in the past tense. A fellow has a right to think well of himself if he does not let it blind him.”

At that moment an automobile dashed up to the station platform in a cloud of dust, and turning, they recognized the car as the new one from the Rogue River ranch. They had seen Harry Baldwin driving it at a reckless rate of speed over the roads at intervals during the summer, but Harry Baldwin was not among those who alighted. Two servants were busy removing luggage and checking it, while a slender, graceful girl, pouting and evidently in a bad humor, was standing by the machine, petulently replacing the wind-blown locks of fair hair that had escaped from beneath her motoring cap. The girl was obviously annoyed, and she tapped her foot impatiently upon the platform and gazed up and down as if expecting someone. Larry Kirkland gazed at her in frank admiration. He recognized in her the fair-haired, pretty child who had accompanied Barney Baldwin to Shasta View ranch three years before, to witness the game between the teams of Shasta View and Rogue River ranches. Larry recalled with a sense of hurt that she had applauded the Rogues.

“Chance to start a flirtation on the train, Larry,” said Krag teasingly. “I guess our pretty little friend is going on the train with you. She seems in distress. Why don’t you rush to the rescue and make yourself solid with the fair maiden?”

“Oh, shut up,” said Larry, reddening under the teasing. “I guess I wouldn’t be very welcome as a champion. She is related to the Baldwins, cousin or something of Harry’s, and she probably would snub me.”

“I’ve noticed,” laughed Krag, “that the female of the species is less hateful than the male in these family feuds. Maybe she could influence Harry to let you alone.”

A few moments later the Flyer roared down the valley and Krag gripped the hand of his young friend.

“Good-bye, Larry,” he said. “Don’t quit. Fight it out—you’ll win.”

“Thanks,” said Larry, “I’ll win—if only over myself. Good-bye.”

In spite of his plan, not to pay any attention to the pretty girl, he scarcely had placed his grip in his berth when the opportunity to meet her was forced upon him. She was struggling with several pieces of baggage, and the overloaded porter was helpless. The girl seemed ready to weep from annoyance, as she strove to pass down the aisle to her section.

“May I assist?” asked Larry, quickly observing her plight.

“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed gratefully, as he seized upon her hand baggage and carried it for her. He arranged the baggage, saw her seated, and lifted his cap.

“Thank you, again,” she said, smiling. “It was so annoying. Cousin Harry promised to go with me on this train, and he went away with some friends and failed to appear. I was left to make the trip alone.”

“He is not appreciative of his opportunities,” said Harry, struggling with his first compliment.

“Oh,” she laughed, “Harry still regards me as a child. He never appreciated me—or anyone else, excepting himself.”

“Are you going far?” inquired Larry, after an embarrassing pause.

“To St. Gertrude’s. It is a girl’s school near Cascade. I am to go there because Harry is in Cascade and he is supposed to watch over and protect me.”

“Won’t that be fine?” ejaculated Larry enthusiastically. “I’m in Cascade—perhaps we may see each other occasionally.”

“You a Cascade man?” she asked. “Harry never mentioned any of the Pearton boys”——

“I beg pardon,” said Larry flushing quickly. “I forgot to tell you who I am—— Your cousin and I are—well, we are not friends. I am Larry Kirkland.”

“Larry Kirkland?” she said. “I never heard the name”——

“I’m Major Lawrence’s ward”——

“Oh!” the girl exclaimed.

The tone was a commingling of surprise, consternation and half disappointment.

Larry reddened, and an embarrassing pause ensued.

“I see you have heard of me,” he remarked lamely. “I saw you several years ago.”

“Yes-s,” the girl said hesitatingly. “I have heard Harry speak of you. I remember seeing you—at a baseball game, but you have grown so I did not recognize you.”

“Your cousin and I have not been—well, friends,” he remarked. “So I suppose you have not heard much good concerning me.”

“Oh, as for that,” she said smiling, “Harry and I are not friends either. He is a bear and he treats me as if I were still a child.”

“I do not see why we should be enemies, just because our families are,” remarked Larry, feeling as if he had turned traitor to Major Lawrence when he said it. “It is not our quarrel.”

“No,” she said doubtfully. “You do not seem a bit as Harry said you were. I expect he just told those horrid stories about you because he does not like you.”

“I’m sorry he chooses me as an enemy,” said Larry, remembering Krag’s advice and striving not to permit his temper to be ruffled.

“Harry says he will not let you play on the teams at Cascade,” she replied quickly. “He says the fellows do not like you and will not play if you do.”

“I wasn’t very popular last year,” said Larry, laughing to conceal his embarrassment. “You see I didn’t know them and thought they did not treat me well. I hope it will be better this year.”

In a few moments their embarrassment passed, and the boy and girl chattered away merrily. Larry told of his boy life back in the East, of the death of his parents and Major Lawrence’s kindness in taking him as his own son; of his trip West, and of his meeting with the Giants and Krag the pitcher. Helen Baldwin was sympathetic.

“I can understand,” she said. “My father and mother are poor and we are a large family, so it was hard for papa to give us all he would have liked to. Uncle Barney offered to take me and educate me, so I am much in the same situation that you are—only when Uncle Barney goes East, he takes me, and I visit with my parents, and next summer he is going to bring Bertha, my younger sister, to the ranch as company for me, as Harry and Bob and I do not play well together.”

By bedtime they were fast friends. The feud of the Lawrence and Baldwin families seemed buried so far as they were concerned. And the following morning, when they arrived, Larry Kirkland carried the girl’s baggage to the wagonette that was to take her to St. Gertrude’s and promised that he would call on Thursdays when the girls were allowed visitors.

As the wagonette turned up the avenue he seized his own neglected baggage and springing into a carriage, started for Cascade campus, filled with a new determination to win his C.