Steve ran nearly to the center of the field before he was brought down, and the Fardale witnesses were given another chance to cheer, while Hudsonville snarled at its own luck.
"Well, darn my hoofs!" laughed Brad Buckhart, as the two lines formed again. "This bunch seems to be headed in the other direction all of a sudden."
"Luck!" declared Haggerty. "You may thank your stars."
Fardale’s courage was good, but she could not shove the ball over the center line, try as she might. The battle raged fiercely, but Hudsonville managed to keep it in Fardale’s territory, and it was apparent all along that something might happen almost any time to give the visitors another tally.
The minutes passed, and to the watchers it became more and more apparent that the cadets were "up against the real thing."
"Oh, for Dick Merriwell!" sighed more than one of the watchers.
Fardale was doing her best, but the game was lost unless she could do better.
With the ball in her possession, the home team attempted a center-back play, in which they had been coached by Merriwell; but they did not carry it through skilfully, and the result was a loss of two yards.
This caused Merriwell’s enemies to sneer again at his secret practise and original plays. But Frank, who was watching everything closely, knew the lack of success came through the failure of the team to perform the play rapidly and without hesitation. It would require still further practise to make Fardale efficient in the new formation.
Now and then Frank looked at his watch. At last he called Teddy[Teddy] Smart to his side and whispered something in his ear.