But the joy was short-lived, for Keyes punted miserably from behind his goal line and the ball was St. James’ again near the twenty-yards. She got five on the very first play between Kinley and Franklin and followed it with three more off Franklin. The latter was hurt in the play and Parker took his place. St. James lost slightly on a run around end, but gained her distance on the next down when a fake kick developed into a line-plunge through center.
Grafton, flocking along the edge of the field, implored her warriors to “Hold ’em!” But with less than ten yards to go and four downs at her command the prospect looked extremely good for the visitor. A plunge at Kinley was stopped for no gain. Then a complicated crisscross play sent a half-back past Captain Trafford for three yards, Tray being boxed to the king’s taste. Grafton began to breathe easier then, but the third down added two yards more when the St. James full-back tore through Kinley. That brought the ball to the five-yard line, and the Brown team arranged itself for a try at goal. Ted Trafford diagnosed the play as a fake and Nick hustled his back-field close in. When the ball went back it was caught by a half who faked an end run and then, when the left wing of the Grafton line had been drawn in, threw across to his right end. That youth had only to drop across the line to score the touchdown. In fact drop was all he could do, for Bert tackled him the moment the ball settled into his hands. The punt-out landed the pigskin directly in front of the crossbar and St. James added another point, bringing her total to 10. The whistle sounded a moment later.
Grafton had now to score at least five points to win. A field goal and a safety would do it, or two field goals or a touchdown, but with only ten minutes left none of those seemed very likely. When, however, Nick had sent Vail around the enemy’s right flank for some eighteen yards and followed it by breaking through the Brown’s center himself for six more, putting the ball on the St. James’ thirty-two yards just three minutes after the last period had begun, the Grafton supporters became more hopeful. Keyes smashed into the line twice for a total of five, and it was first down on the enemy’s twenty-seven yards. Then, when the Scarlet-and-Gray scented a touchdown or, at the least, a field-goal, Vail fumbled a pass and a St. James forward squirmed through and snuggled the pigskin beneath him.
St. James kicked on second down and Bert caught on his own forty-three yards and ran back five. Grafton opened her line wide and passed obliquely to Vail and the right half dodged past two white marks before he was stopped. Delayed passes brought short gains and the pigskin was on the Brown’s forty. Keyes got two off left tackle, Bert failed to gain at the center and Keyes punted to St. James’ five-yard line. Tray stopped the quarter for little gain and St. James kicked from behind her goal after one weak attempt at rushing. Nick caught near the sideline at about the thirty-two yards and started a run that wrought Grafton to a condition of frenzied excitement. He passed four of the enemy, running straight along the white boundary, dodged a half-back near the fifteen yards and was only stopped when the St. James quarter forced him out at the eight yards.
Grafton cheered exultantly and shouted “Touchdown! Touchdown!” and Coach Bonner, thus far chary of substitutes, sped four into the line-up. Yetter went in for Kinley, Weston for Nick Blake, Milford for Tray, and Zanetti for Vail. It was Zanetti who made the first try and gained two yards on a wide end run. That brought the ball directly in front of goal. From a kick formation Bert plunged at left guard and when the resulting confusion of bodies had been untangled the pigskin lay almost on the three yards. With the crowd yelling like mad, Keyes again went back and held out his hands, Nick called his signals and Roy Dresser, on an end-around play, carried the ball across the line almost unmolested, the fake attack on the center fooling the defenders completely!
Just to prove that he could kick a goal, even if he had failed in his previous attempt, Keyes put it over from a wide angle, and Grafton’s score was 13. The period came to an end a minute or so later, the final score, 13 to 10, and St. James cheered a bit disgruntledly and Grafton quite contentedly.
Hugh, having passed through a succession of thrills that had left him rather limp, loitered back to the tennis courts and, finding a seat on a stone roller, watched a game of doubles without seeing much of it. The contest he had just witnessed had settled his conviction that he wouldn’t be at all happy unless he was allowed to return to the football field and try for a place on the scrubs. Just now he felt quite certain that, given the opportunity, he could prove his right to a position there, and, while the white balls darted to and fro across the nets unseen by him and the voices of the players fell on deaf ears, he drew beautiful mental pictures in all of which he, Hugh Oswald Brodwick Ordway, clad in canvas and leather, stood out very prominently.
After a while he discovered that the courts were almost deserted and that he was shivering, and so, plunging hands in pockets in Grafton fashion, he tramped thoughtfully back to Lothrop.