The whole progress of the corps across the field was accompanied by lusty cheering, by applause and by the mad waving of the gray, black and gold Army pennants.  Most of the spectators who carried the Navy’s blue and gold pennants so far forgot their partisanship as to cheer and wave for the Army’s young men.

Hardly was the corps of cadets seated when another loud strain of joyous music was heard.  The brigade of midshipmen, from Annapolis, behind the Naval Academy Band, was now entering the field.  All the cheering and all the other frantic signs of approval were repeated, the corps of cadets from West Point lending heavy additional volume to the rousing send-off.

In the meantime rival football squads had been hustled off to dressing quarters.

As the Army squad made quick time to the dressing rooms, Dick and Greg had their eyes on the alert for even the briefest glimpse of any of the Navy eleven.  It was two years and a half since Dick and Greg had had even a glimpse of Dave or Dan.  How the two West Pointers yearned for even an instant’s look at the chums of old days!

But no such exchange of glimpses was possible at this time.  The Army players and substitutes got into their togs, then waited.

“All ready?” called Brayton at last.  “Then fall in and out on to the field in double time!”

Another wild outburst of cheering was let loose when the Army eleven trotted in into view.  The Military Academy Band began playing.  An instant later the Naval Academy Band fell in, playing the same air by ear.

The ball was turned loose, and after it went the players.  The practice work was brisk and warm.

Hardly had the combined bands stopped playing when another great yell broke loose.  Young men in the blue and gold striped stockings of the Navy were trotting on to the field.  The Navy band turned itself loose, followed in an instant by the Army band.

The din was something bewildering.  Those in the further seats could not hear the music of the bands at all.

Dick and Greg watched covertly as they saw the Navy team come on at the other end of the field.  Which was Dave, and which was Dan?  Hang it, how disguising these football suits were!

Both teams went on with their practice.  There came a moment when the Army and Navy teams came closer to each other.

Then the eager spectators saw something that was not on the programme.

The chums of the old Gridley days had made each other out in the same moment.  There was a rush.  In mid-field Dick Prescott and Dave Darrin gripped hands as if they could never let go again.  Across their outstretched arms Greg and Dan found each other in a right-hand clasp.

So delighted were the old chums that they fairly hugged each other.

Over it all, while the spectators gazed in silent wonder, came the strains from the Army band, for the leader, more with a sense of the fitting than from any knowledge of facts, waved his men into the strains of “Auld Lang Syne.”