The fact that Madelaine and Mary knew the Fenwick signals helped considerably, for they managed to keep them from getting some baskets which they might otherwise have made. The ball seemed to be always at their end of the floor.
To the girls on the side lines it looked hopeless, when suddenly things began to happen. Alice fouled three times for roughness and was put out of the game.
“Thank goodness,” Polly whispered as Betty took her place. “Don’t forget the old signals.”
Up went the ball again, but when it came down, it was in Polly’s hands. A cry went up from the school. Betty raised her arm and put up two fingers, and Polly threw her the ball, low, swift, and straight as a die. Betty bounced it to the line and threw high to Florence, who, as she afterwards declared, was dreaming, for the ball struck her full on the nose, and in a second her handkerchief was covered with blood.
Time was called and although Florence insisted that she would be all right in a minute, Miss King made her leave the floor. Louise called Lois to take her place.
“Now to show them some real playing,” Betty exclaimed excitedly.
From the second the ball touched Polly’s hands after the toss-up until, by a few swift passes, Louise had thrown it in the basket, the Fenwick team never had a chance at it. It sped like
lightning from Polly to Betty, to Lois, to Louise. Seddon Hall had never seen such passing, and the girls showed their appreciation by prolonged cheers.
Time after time they repeated the same thing. Without doubt they had found themselves, and the Fenwick team seemed powerless to stop them.
“Yi! That’s the way to do it!” shouted Betty as Louise made her fifth basket and the Fenwick captain asked to put in a substitute for center. But substitutes were of no avail; nothing could stop the Seddon Hall team. Once in a while the ball would trickle towards one of the Fenwick forwards, only to be batted back by Mary or Madelaine into Polly’s or Betty’s waiting hands. Once there, it was but a few swift passes, and Louise would throw it triumphantly into the basket.