Football Fugitive Read Online Free Page A

up by all concerned, Yancey’s victim still lies in the hospital. But why should Yancey
     Foote, a former USC football star andrunner-up for the Heisman Trophy, suddenly disappear? Is it because this tough Packer is afraid he might be found guilty when
     his trial comes up in the fall?
    Friends of the big guy have begun to wonder about him: What is he — a good guy or a bad guy? Did he really start the fight,
     or did the other guy — a man some fifty pounds lighter than the vanished pro? Did the man step too hard on the toes of the
     football star whose close friends had always considered him an easy-going, mild-mannered guy?
    Larry couldn’t believe it. Was it really Yancey Foote he was reading about? Was he the kind of guy who would beat up a man
     fifty pounds lighter than himself?
    There must have been a reason behind it. A darn good reason. Yancey wouldn’t beat up anybody unless he was provoked.
    But, as the article said, why should hesuddenly disappear? Did he really believe he was guilty and was afraid to face the consequences?
    There was more to the article, but Larry just skimmed over the rest of it. A full-page color picture of Yancey bulldozing
     through the line after the ball carrier was opposite the title page of the article. The picture was so clear that, with a
     little imagination, you could almost hear the grunts and the groans, and the pounding of cleated shoes on the turf.
    There in the article was the answer as to why Larry’s letters to Yancey had come back. It was plain that it wasn’t any use
     to write to the Packers. Even they didn’t know where Yancey was — unless it was a secret that they had refused to tell the
     writer of the article.
    Larry closed the magazine and placed it on a shelf in his room. He tried to avoidlooking at the pictures of Yancey hanging on the walls, but they attracted him like magnets.
    ‘Where have you disappeared to, Yancey?” he said aloud to one of the pictures in which Yancey was standing, hands on his hips
     and a grim look on his face.
    With a heavy heart he left the room, intending not to return to it again until bedtime. He didn’t want Yancey’s pictures reminding
     him of that question posed by the title in the football magazine:
Yancey Foote
—
Good Guy or Bad Guy?
    The next day he told Greg Moore about the article. Although Greg had never written a letter to Yancey Foote, nor to any other
     football player, he sympathized with Larry.
    “Maybe he’s gone away on a vacation,” he said. “The Caribbean, or someplace like that, where nobody knows him.”
    “But why would he want to do that?”
    “To get away from reporters,” replied Greg, who was an avid newspaper reader. “Once the story broke, a famous guy in his situation
     would be hounded by reporters all the time.”
    “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Larry answered thoughtfully.
    There was practice after school and Coach Ellis had Larry work out at center. Larry did okay centering the ball, but was poor
     at blocking. He couldn’t seem to put his entire effort into it, getting tossed aside like a windblown leaf when, instead,
     he should have been doing the tossing.
    “C’mon, c’mon, Larry,” Coach Ellis laid into him. “You’re daydreaming. Get with it.”
    Daydreaming was right; thinking constantly about Yancey Foote’s plight was what was causing Larry to perform so poorly.
    The Digits had been practicing for nearly half an hour when Greg suddenly tapped Larry on the arm and said, “Larry, look who’s
     standing there by the bleachers.”
    Larry looked, and saw the big man with the sunglasses and short beard. The same man who was at the Whips game last Wednesday.
    All at once he felt a cold sensation sweep through him. He felt glued to the spot, his eyes riveted on the man, while a thought
     raced through his mind like wildfire.
    It can’t be, he told himself. Yet — why not? Why can’t that man be Yancey Foote? The magazine article said that nobody knew
     where he