Kent’s face was white and his heart was full of shame over his bad piece of work. He fancied he could hear the spectators saying that Merriwell would never have done anything like that, had he been playing the position.
Hudsonville was bristling with confidence, feeling sure Fardale would be easy in this half, but this very confidence made the visitors altogether too sure of carrying things their way. And they little realized what a desperate stand the cadets could make in the last ditch.
Fardale gave the enemy only a single yard in the first onset. The second resulted in no gain, but the third made another yard. However, that left three yards to gain on the next attempt in order to retain the ball.
Still overflowing with confidence, the visitors tried a double pass for a round-the-end play, and right there they lost the ball to the home team on downs.
Again the dogged spirit of resistance instilled into the Fardale team by Frank Merriwell had enabled the cadets to prevent the enemy from making a touch-down when the goal seemed within reach. But Hudsonville was determined to keep the fighting close to Fardale’s goal, and the line-across play now proved utterly worthless in enabling the cadets to advance.
"You’re pretty good," said Haggerty; "but we’re better."
"Maybe so, partner," retorted Brad Buckhart; "but we haven’t reached the end of this here drive. Can’t always count on your steers till you have them in the corral."
"Well, we’ve got this lot pretty nearly into the corral," laughed Haggerty.
Shannock gave the signal, and, with the line holding hard, Don Kent shot across and round Hudsonville’s right end. He had made ten yards when Tilton brought him down.
The ball escaped Kent as he fell, and that accident, which seemed unfortunate for the moment, proved lucky, for Nunn had come through with Don, and he scooped up the ball on the jump, getting off with it.