came back from the Websters in a deafening screech, and of all the voices on both sides, no two were used more vigorously than those of Jacquette and Louise, who stood in the front row of the Marston stand, and “osky-wow-wowed” with all their girlish might for the glory of their school.
“I don’t see Bobs anywhere,” Jacquette whispered, as she rested her lungs for a minute. “I can usually pick him out first, because he doesn’t wear any head guard, and by his white sweater, too. Does he wear a different colour from the rest because he’s captain? It’s lots more effective than the blue ones the other boys have.”
“I know,” Louise assented, with her eyes on the field. “The blue ‘M. H.’ is pretty on the white, isn’t it? Sh!—look!”
The whistle had blown and the teams were lining up for the game. People had settled down into their seats, and were watching eagerly. “There’s Reddy!” “Go it, Reddy!” “That’s Shorty!” “Look at Ned!” “Come on, Chub!” were the explosive cries that had taken the place of continuous yelling as the game began. Then—attention!
Jacquette clutched Louise’s hand. “Bobs isn’t there! Who’s quarter-back? It’s Quis!”
Quis it was, running the team in Bobs’s place. What did it mean? Where was Bobs? But the game had started.
Forward—and back! Forward—and back! Forward—and back!—struggled the two teams, now on Marston territory, now almost to the Daniel Webster goal. Two more evenly matched schools it would have been hard to find. Each had behind it that season an unbroken series of triumphs; to both of them this game meant more than the mere winning of the championship banner—it meant the overcoming of a hated rival.
Where was Bobs Drake? That question was the undercurrent of all the perfunctory cheering on the Marston stand, and with Jacquette, it swept away every other thought.
“It’s my fault!” she kept repeating in a horrified tone, to Louise. “It’s all my fault! Look! We’re losing ground! We are! Louise, I made him let Quis play. If Marston’s beaten, it’s all my fault!”
“Nonsense!” Louise insisted. “Do you think Bobs Drake would desert the team because a girl told him to? There’s some other reason. But look! Oh——”