“Brace up!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs. “I wish to thutteration I could git some dry dirt on my hands, then I guess I could hold on to one of them ’tarnal critters.”
Buckhart was blustering, but bluster did not amount to anything in this game. New Era had Fardale on the run, and she kept the work up. Again the ball was rushed down to Fardale’s line, the cadets being unable to hold the greased players. This time, however, Austin failed to kick a goal.
Dick talked to his men.
“Hold ’em, fellows,” he urged—“hold ’em as well as you can this half. I have an idea. We’ll get after them hard in the last half. They’re not our match. We can down them handily on even terms.”
Dick was satisfied from what he had seen of New Era’s playing that the team was not a match for Fardale on even terms. Had the suits of the visitors not been greased they could not have held their own with the cadets.
Having arrived at this belief, Dick began to think swiftly, and an idea soon flashed through his head. So he urged his men to hold New Era down as well as possible in the first half, promising a change in the final half.
The boys responded as well as they could under such discouraging conditions. Covered with dirt and grease, they stuck their toes into the mud and fought every inch of the ground. But New Era pushed her advantage, and before the half ended she had made three touch-downs, failing, however, to kick but one goal. And the whistle blew for the end of the half with the ball again less than seven yards away from Fardale’s line.
CHAPTER XXIX—THE MAGIC POWDER
Sympathizers with the cadets crowded about the gate as they passed out to trot over to the gym.
“Too bad, fellows!”