Quick as a flash Dave Darrin sprang to the megaphone, swinging it around at the enemy, and bawling this atrocious pun:
"Now you spider! But now you can't!"
That brought a laugh, even from the visitors. The hapless girl, with the help of some of her male friends, was hoisted up once more to a seat and safety.
"Look at the poor girl," laughed Dick to Darrin. "She's wearing our colors now—-crimson face and a gold locket under it."
"If she wasn't a girl, I'd yell that over to 'em," laughed Dave.
The band was playing again, in its most rollicking rhythm, the old air from "Olivette," "Then bob up serenely!"
The laughter started on the Gridley side, but it spread all the way around to the Cobber seats.
As the minutes flew by it became apparent, from a survey of the filled seats, that at least two thousand, outside of the Cobber and the Gridley H.S. delegations, were present at the game. This meant a healthful addition to the athletics fund.
By and by Cobber recovered its nerve on the seats. Cobber yells floated forth on the air. Yet, for every sing-song taunt the visitors found that the home fans had an apt retort. This was where Dick Prescott's ready wit came in, for it was his task to call for all the cheers, yells, songs or taunts.
Two-thirty came. Dick called for the High School song. The band accompanied, while the entire student body sang.