Stanford's Axe, long held symbol of Big Game supremacy, is resting comfortably -- somewhere -- after a wild week of deception, trickery, hard-nosed bargaining and flying tackles both on and off the football field.

"It's in a secure place," Axe Commission Chairman Robert Matteri said. "The police department knows where it is."

The Axe returned to Stanford -- following a three hour absence -- Saturday afternoon after the Cardinal football team whipped California 26-17. But it made an earlier appearance on campus last Tuesday after the Infamous Three of Theta Delta Chi stole it from the Cal Rally Committee.

The Berkeley school had possession of the Axe after winning the 1972 Big Game, but the Infamous Three tricked Cal into bringing it out of hiding by imitating Bear football coach Mike White over the telephone. Then they stole it in a classic strong-arm heist.

"We didn't really know what he sounded like, but we figured no one else did either," explained junior Dave Suliteanu, an economics major who composes one third of the Infamous Three.

Economics senior Tim Conway and his brother Matt, a San Francisco law student, were the other two figures in the Axe-napping.

Not only did the Infamous Three steal the Axe, but they refused to give it back for a time. They asked instead that a new tradition -- letting the two schools steal it from eachother each fall -- be inaugurated. Only after two meetings with the University did they agree to give it up, and the football team captains presented it to Cal just before kickoff Saturday.

Negotiations began when Stanford administrators recognized a Theta Delt who helped carry the Axe from the parking lot of Ming's, where the theft actually occurred, and sent a University security officer over to the fraternity to set up a meeting.

"We walked into the meeting stone serious and gave them a list of 10 demands," Suliteanu recounted. "We said, 'We won't even negotiate until you meet these.'" The demands included $6000 cash, Thanksgiving dinner with President Lyman, admission to any Stanford graduate school and the services of Law Prof. John Kaplan as defense council.

"They sort of smiled, and from then on everything was all right." Conway said.

Suliteanu and Conway said they gave up their idea of theft and counter-theft when they realized that further reluctance would damage their central goal -- "making the Axe more important as a symbol of the Stanford-Cal rivalry," according to Suliteanu.

At least one of their biggest complaints -- that the Axe is hardly ever seen by Stanford students -- is apparently almost resolved. Spokesmen in the office of the Dean of Student Affairs said yesterday that alumni interest, stirred up by the Axe theft, will probably result in financial contributions for a new trophy case or room.

Meanwhile, the Axe Commission is negotiating with Wells Fargo to temporarily display the trophy in a case in the bank's Tresidder office.

"The only hangup is security," Matteri said, indicating that the bank management would be reluctant to fight off a gang of would-be Axe thieves if they should appear.

And the Infamous Three are trying to decide what to do as a followup. "We thought we might steal the Axe back from Stanford and give it to Cal," Suliteanu said last night. "That would be really classy."