When the pistol shot came the Yale team dropped like one man to the general eye.
It seemed as if the Harvard team dropped at exactly the same instant, but when the excited spectators looked at the ribbon on the rope, they saw that it was fully six inches upon the Yale side of the chalk mark.
After the fall there was a silent moment of hard tugging upon each part, but the ribbon did not budge.
Meantime Bruce was manipulating the rope that ran around his belt, and keeping his eyes fixed upon the Harvard anchor opposite.
"How is it, Bruce?" whispered Frank.
"We've got 'em," muttered Bruce, in reply.
Frank said nothing, for in the course of training he and Bruce had discussed this matter so many times that Frank knew well what policy the anchor would pursue.
It is often said that a miss is as good as a mile, and in the case of a tug of war an inch is certainly as good as a yard.
It might have been possible for the Yale team by constant tugging and by occasional surprises to get the ribbon much farther over to their side, but that was not the policy that had been decided on.
If the team should win, there was Princeton still to be pulled, and every ounce of strength would be needed then; so, having the advantage of Harvard, the boys simply held to the rope, using only enough strength to keep what they had gained.