Well, after that there was just one thing to do, and Bert did it. He shut his trap.
Scrub threatened a second time, but lost the ball when Parkhurst intercepted a forward-pass and had to be satisfied with her six points. Although the session had been but half-length, casualties were heavy on both sides, with the First Team substitutes receiving the lion’s share of the injuries. None of them was serious, but they were uncomfortable enough to engender resentment, and back in the gymnasium, already deserted by the regulars, acrimonious debate ensued up and down the aisles between the lockers. Bert, still feeling rather outraged because of the way in which he had been treated by the Scrub, and indignant because Jake had pulled him out in the middle of the fight, was not in a mood for ragging. So, when Laidlaw, a Scrub end, referred to an occasion when Bert had failed to stop his mad career, Bert resented it. One word led to another, a shoe was thrown, a bench was overturned, an appreciative audience, forgetting its own disputes, closed about and Bert had the extreme satisfaction of knocking Laidlaw to the floor in something under sixty seconds. Laidlaw, undaunted if staggered, would have continued the engagement, but Jake issued wrathfully forth from the rubbing room and made remarks which indicated that the bout didn’t have his sanction. So the audience, jeering good-naturedly, dispersed, leaving Bert to fondle a swelling chin and Laidlaw to staunch a flowing nose. Then Bert came on Laidlaw’s shoe and politely if coldly returned it to him, and Laidlaw said “Thanks” very gravely and departed to his shower. And ten minutes later, meeting on the way out, they both grinned and, without a word uttered, parted somewhat better friends than before.
The next morning the Alton Team piled into two busses and hit the trail for Lorimer, while the School cheered the departure and prepared to follow later by train. Bert sat beside Chick and was secretly very elated and somewhat excited. Last season, although he had witnessed every game that Alton had played away from home, he had never made the journey with the Team. If proof was lacking of his new status on the Eleven this happening supplied it. Here he was, with Captain Jonas, large and good-humoredly taciturn, but two seats away, Chick at his right shoulder and Hop Meecham at his left, really and truly, positively and absolutely at last one of the gang! The October morning was gray and chill, with a suggestion of mist at intervals, but Bert didn’t know that the sun wasn’t shining!
[CHAPTER X]
CHICK MISSES A FORWARD-PASS
Lorimer presented a hefty team that afternoon, one that outweighed Alton in the line and equaled her in the backfield. And it was a hard-fighting, aggressive and shifty team as well. It didn’t display a great variety of plays, but what it showed it knew remarkably well and used to advantage. Lorimer’s best ground-gainer was a sweep from kick formation, a play which started slowly enough but gathered momentum rapidly and, when it reached the line, had all the power of a war tank. The interference was well placed and effective, the runner being concealed until well past his end and after that nicely protected by a moving wall of players. All through the first half of the game, whenever Lorimer used that sweep she gained, sometimes many yards—especially when her full-back carried—and sometimes only a few. Toward the end of the second quarter it was less effective, since the secondary defense had learned to concentrate on the runner and pay no heed to the interference as long as the play went toward the side-line, but even up to the last it was good for some slight gain. Since Lorimer sent off passes, slid off tackle, plunged at the center and kicked from that one formation the visitor was kept busy guessing what was coming. And not infrequently she guessed wrong.
The first score came as a result of a fumble on the part of the home team’s quarter on Alton’s thirty-six yards. Billy Haines dived through on the pigskin and Jim Galvin, on the first play, romped clean through the Lorimer center for twelve yards. But Jim wasn’t able to repeat that stunt, and the ball went slowly to Lorimer’s forty-one and a first down, Jim and Nip Storer alternating on the tackles. Then Alton tried a sweep herself and, while the play lacked the finish of the enemy’s performance, Pete Ness swung through for seven yards. Pete made four more and first down again on a criss-cross outside tackle. Lorimer braced at her thirty-yard line and two downs went for less than that many yards. Storer went back to kicking position, but he tossed the ball over the line to Joe Tate who, although downed where he had caught, added four yards. Nip Storer tried to put the ball over on a drop-kick, but it went short and rolled over the line. Lorimer kicked high and Ted Ball made a fair catch on the enemy’s forty-seven. Ted carried the ball sixteen yards on a wide end run and Jim Galvin hit the line twice and reached the twenty-five yards. With four to go on third down, Ted passed to Nip and Nip hurled twenty yards to Chick. But Chick failed to quite get into position and the ball grounded. [On the next attempt], standing just inside the thirty-five-yard line, [Nip put the ball over the cross-bar].
