Do you see?"
The lad's head went up. "I see," he said, his eyes glowing. "It was
fine! I'm awfully glad he didn't quit, 'specially when he felt like it.
You tell him for me." His idol was firm again on his pedestal.
"All right, old chap," said his big brother. "You'll never quit, I bet!"
"Not if I'm fit, will I?"
"Right you are! Keep fit--that's the word!"
And with that the big brother passed out to find the man who was
writhing in an agony of self-contempt; for in the face of all Scotland
and in the hour of her need he had failed because he wasn't fit.
After an hour Dunn found his man, fixed in the resolve to there and then
abandon the game with all the appurtenances thereof, and among these the
dinner. Mightily his captain laboured with him, plying him with varying
motives,--the honour of the team was at stake; the honour of the country
was at stake; his own honour, for was he not down on the programme for
the pipes? It was all in vain. In dogged gloom the half-back listened
unmoved.
At length Dunn, knowing well the Highlander's tender heart, cunningly
touched another string and told of Rob's distress and subsequent relief,
and then gave his half-back the boy's message. "I promised to tell you,
and I almost forgot. The little beggar was terribly worked up, and as
I remember it, this is what he said: 'I'm awfully glad he didn't quit,
'specially when he felt like it.
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