But always the path that is narrow
And straight for the children of men_.
--ALICE CARY


CHAPTER VII

THE DAY OF RECKONING

_Oh, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but tyrannous
To use it like a giant_.
--SHAKESPEARE

OF course, there came a day of reckoning for Victor Burleigh, now the idol
of the Walnut Valley football fans, the pride of Lagonda Ledge,
the hero of Sunrise. But the reckoning was not brought to him;
he brought himself deliberately to it.

The jollification following the game threatened to wreck the chapel
and crack the limestone ledge beneath it.

"Dust off your halo and wrap it up in cotton till next fall, Vic," Trench
whispered in the closing minutes. "We've got to face the real thing now.
We're civilians in citizens' clothes, amenable to law henceforth; not a lot of
athletic brigands, privileged outlaws, whose glory dazzles all common sense.
Quit bumping your head against the Kansas motto up in the dome, get your
hob-nailers down on the sod, and trot off and tackle your Greek verbs awhile.
And say, Vic, tackle yourself first and forget the pretty girl who
covered you with roses down yonder five days ago. It was n't you,