ten o'clock
And , '' he added , as he returned to his desk , `` unless I 'm mistaken , he 's done it to-day . Now to mail this list and then for the ` antidote ' ! '' That night in Mills 's room the assembled coaches and captain talked over Sydney 's play , discussed it from start to finish , objected , explained , argued , tore it to pieces and put it together again , and in the end indorsed it . And Sydney , silent save when called on for an explanation of some feature of his discovery , sat with his crutches beside his chair and listened to many complimentary remarks ; and at ten o'clock went back to Walton and bed , only to lie awake until long after the town-clock had struck midnight , excited and happy . Had you been at Erskine at any time during the following two weeks and had managed to get behind the fence , you would have witnessed a very busy scene . Day after day the varsity and the second fought like the bitterest enemies ; day after day the little army of coaches shouted and fumed , pleaded and scolded ; and day after day a youth on crutches followed the struggling , panting lines , instructing and criticizing , and happier than he had been at any time in his memory . For the `` antidote , '' as they had come to call it , had been tried and had vindicated its inventor 's faith in it .