"Oh, well, but you're not playing back now," responded the head girl. "So there's no need to worry over that! We've got to buck up like anything this half, though, for we're a goal behind. Mind you keep up if I do get away with the ball. And if it comes out to you when you're anywhere near their goal, pass it straight in, and then you'll be all right."
Muriel succeeded in scoring for the Pink Dormitory soon after the second half started, and the Pink team and their partisans breathed again. The score was now one all, and for some time it seemed likely that it would remain so. Nearly every girl in the school was up on the ground, watching the struggle, and as time passed on and still the goals stood at one all, the most intense excitement prevailed.
"Oh, they're going to tie again! They're going to tie again!" wailed Vera Davies, some seven minutes before time was up. "And I made the favour for Monica myself, on purpose to bring her luck! And now the Pinks aren't going to win after all!"
"It isn't over yet," said Marjorie Brown, the small girl from the Pink Dormitory whom Muriel had so nearly to put in to play instead of Gerry on the previous occasion. "Oh, look, look! Muriel's got the ball and she's got a clear run! No; she's lost it! Jack Pym's got it. No; she's passed. Oh, Vera, look! Dorothy Pemberton's got it now, and she's taking it up. Play up, Pink Dorm! Play up! Play up!"
Her cry was taken up by the whole school.
"Play up, Pink!"
"Play up, Green!"
"Stick to it, Dorothy!"
"Alice! Alice! Into her, Alice!"
"Play up, Muriel! Play up, Muriel!"