Irving spoke to the three or four other substitutes standing by.
“I don’t know much about football; was there anything wrong with that tackle—that it should be criticised?”
“It looked all right to me,” said Briggs.
“If there is any question about it, I shall want to talk to my brother—”
“Oh, it was all right,” Windom spoke up. “It was a good, clean, hard tackle—the right kind. Wes is always down on the enemy, aren’t you, Wes?”
Westby stood in sullen silence. The next play was started; St. Timothy’s gained five yards, and in the movement of the crowd Irving and Westby were separated.
For a few moments Irving’s thoughts were diverted from his brother, and his joyous excitement was overshadowed by regret. He felt less indignant with Westby than sorry for him; he knew that the boy had repented of his hasty and intemperate words. If he would only come up and acknowledge it—so that he might be forgiven!
Then Irving put Westby out of his mind. St. Timothy’s had kicked; Ballard had recovered the ball for Harvard on St. Timothy’s forty-yard line, and then Warren, the quarterback, had made a long pass straight into Lawrence’s hands; Lawrence started to run; then, just as Chase and Baldersnaith were bearing down for the tackle, he stopped and hurled the ball forward and across to Newell, the other Harvard end.
It sailed clear over the heads of the intervening players; Newell had been signaled to, had got down the field and was ready for it; three St. Timothy’s players ran to get under the ball, but instead of blocking Newell off and merely trying to spoil his catch, they all tried to make the catch themselves; they all leaped for it. Newell was the quickest; he grabbed the ball out of the air and went down instantly, with the three others on him—but he was on St. Timothy’s ten-yard line.
It was a brilliant pass and a brilliant catch; St. Timothy’s stood looking on disconsolate, while the Harvard players gathered exultantly for the line-up. Three rushes through tackle and centre and one run round Lawrence’s end carried the ball across St. Timothy’s line for a touchdown. Ballard kicked the goal.