Instead, after ten minutes of furious play, Filmore forced Gridley to make a safety.  Then again the ball was forced down toward Gridley’s goal line, and at last pushed over.

Gridley hearts, over on the grand stand and bleacher seats, were beating with painful rapidity.  What ailed the home boys?  Or were the Filmore youths, as they themselves fondly imagined, the gridiron stars of the school world!  Filmore, like Gridley, had a record of no defeats so far this season.

It was a hard pill for Captain Wadleigh and his men to swallow.

In the interval between the halves the local band played, but the former dash was now noticeably absent from its music.

The Gridley colors drooped.

CHAPTER XXIII

SULKER AND REAL MAN

Dave Darrin glanced covertly, though anxiously, at his chum.

Was Dick really unfit to play?  Dave wondered.

It was not that Prescott had actually failed in any quick bit of individual or team play that he had been signaled to perform.  But Darrin wondered if Dick could really be anything like up to the mark.

During the interval Captain Wadleigh went quietly among his men, murmuring a word of counsel here and there.

Nothing in Wadleigh’s face or tone betrayed worry; intense earnestness alone was stamped on his bearing.

“Now, remember, fellows, don’t get a spirit of defense grafted on you,” were Wadleigh’s last words before the second half began.  “Remember, its to be a general assault all the time.  If you get on the defensive nothing can save us from losing.”

No sooner was the ball in motion than Gridley’s line bore down upon the enemy.  So determined was the assault that Filmore found itself obliged to give ground, stubbornly, for a while.  Yet Captain Pike’s men were not made of stuff that is easily whipped.  After the first five minutes Pike’s men got the ball and began to drive it a few yards, and then a few yards more, over into Gridley’s territory.

As the minutes slipped by the ball went nearer and nearer to Gridley’s goal line.  Another touchdown must soon result.

Twice Pike tried to throw the ball around the left end.  Wadleigh, Hudson, Darrin and Prescott, backed by quarter and left half, presented such a stubborn block that the ball did not get another yard clown the field in two plays.  But Pike, who was a hammerer, made a third attempt around that left end.  This time he gained but two feet, and the ball passed to Gridley.

Of course, after having had its left wing so badly haltered Gridley was bound to try to work the ball through Filmore’s right.  As Wadleigh’s signals crisped out, the Gridley players threw themselves out for a play to right.

Quarter received the ball, starting fiercely to the right.  Left half dashed past quarter, receiving the ball and carrying it straight to Dick Prescott.  For a moment this blind succeeded so admirably, that even those on the grand stand did not see the ball given to Prescott, but believed that quarter was rushing the ball over to the right.