Back on the field Molly had a very good time during the intermission, for the Second Juniors of House and Hall were very attentive. Mrs. Linn discovered her, too, and she was presented to Mrs. Butterfield and Mrs. Kendall, the latter matron at the Hall and wife of the mathematics instructor. When Mrs. Kendall invited Molly to come and see her at the Hall Clara scowled. To visit at the Hall savored to him of high treason, especially during the football season! Molly also met Mr. Kendall. Grouch, as the boys called him, could be very pleasant on occasions and this proved to be one of the occasions. The boys looked on in amazement while he laughed and conversed with Molly, for so much amiability on the part of the teacher was unprecedented in their experience.
House began the second half of the game with the breeze at her back, and Brooks’s kick-off went over the goal-line. From the twenty-five yards Hall worked back to near the center of the field and there lost the ball on a fumble. The Fungus got a nasty whack on the head in this melee and had to be doctored up a bit before play could go on. A few minutes later Brooks sent him off and H. Westlake took his place. M’Crae kicked on second down from Hall’s forty yards and the ball was caught on the five yard-line. House cheered mightily at that, but Hall started in to rip things up and tore off twenty yards by a bewildering variety of smoothly working plays before House got together and stopped her. Then over-eagerness cost House five yards for off-side and after another attempt at the line Hall kicked. Westlake, at left half, ran the pigskin back fifteen yards by excellent dodging, and House started for Hall’s goal. For the first time in that period House got thoroughly together and the plays went off like clock-work. Across the fifty-five yard-line the teams went, Hall retreating stubbornly, and across the forty-five, Ned and Boyle making good gains through the left of Hall’s line. There, however, the Blue tightened up. A plunge by Ned netted a scant two yards and Boyle could do no better. M’Crae went back to kick, but for once Hall broke through, and the quarter, finding himself besieged, dodged off to the left with the ball under his arm. But although he ran half-way across the field, throwing off tackler after tackler, he was unable to find a place to turn in and was at last brought down on the side-line. House had failed of her distance by a couple of yards and Hall took the pigskin.
For the next ten minutes play was confined between one forty yard-line and the other. M’Crae and Brooks took turn at booting the leather, but their gains on kicks were not great, for Hall’s backs always managed to run the ball in five or ten yards before being stopped. Spud showed himself a good end that day, but Miller was slow and uncertain and it wasn’t long before Welch was given his place. Hall made two changes. Harris substituted McDonald at quarter because of his greater kicking ability and Barnes took Borden’s place at left half. Already fifteen minutes of the twenty-five had expired and the spectators were beginning to reconcile themselves to a scoreless contest. But there is no telling what is to happen in a football game.
It was House’s ball on her own forty-five yards. Boyle plunged at center and secured three yards. Then M’Crae dropped back as though to kick and the ball went at a side pass to Ned who ran wide into the field, with good interference, and found his chance of turning in. Apparently a run of any distance was out of the question, for the blue-stockinged youths were all about him. But Westlake spilled one, Ned dodged a second, Spud put a third out of the way, and almost before anyone realized it, Ned had a practically clear field before him. Behind him came friend and foe alike, stumbling, falling, going down together often enough, and in front of him were quarter and left half. Ned feinted near the forty yards and shook off the clutch of the half-back, but quarter was wary and in a moment that run was over and Ned was down, thrown out of bounds on the thirty yard-line. But it had been soul-stirring while it lasted and House cheered from the side of the field.
In came the ball fifteen paces and it was House’s first down. If she could only work nearer the center of the field, a goal from placement or drop-kick would be practicable. But naturally Hall was expecting such an attempt and Westlake’s try around Smith’s end lost House a yard. But the ball was in front of the right-hand goal-post, and Boyle, on second down, smashed through left-tackle for a dozen feet. It was now House’s chance to win the game if win she could. Brooks and M’Crae consulted hurriedly. The ball was near the twenty-five yard-line and a placement kick was more certain if the House line could hold. But it had given way once today and Brooks feared that it might again. So M’Crae was directed to try a drop-kick. The little quarter-back turned and walked to his place behind the thirty-five yard-line, held out his hands and gave the signal.
“Now hold them!” called Brooks.
Back went the ball, straight but too high. The lines heaved for an instant and then the blue jerseys broke through here and there and sprang toward the path of the ball. M’Crae’s foot swung forward and the ball sped upward and away, barely missing one eager, frantic hand. Down went M’Crae, with the Hall center on top of him. There was one tense instant of suspense, an instant in which it seemed at first that the kick would fall short of the bar. But M’Crae had counted on the wind and the wind did its duty. Down settled the pigskin, turning lazily over and over and for a brief moment something obscured it. That something was a wooden cross-bar. House had scored!
Eleven red-shirted youths leaped about like maniacs. Spud did a series of hand-springs and Boyle, only one generation from the Ould Sod, jumped into the air and cracked his heels together gayly. On the House side of the field Molly stood on a settee and shrieked shrilly, small juniors shouted and capered, substitutes waved blankets and sweaters and members of the faculty smiled and clapped their hands approvingly. Across the gridiron the Hall supporters cheered earnestly in the face of defeat.
Three to nothing was good enough if only House could keep the score at that. With seven minutes of playing time left she started in again with every effort bent on defence. Hall now had the wind in her favor again and Harris put all his strength into his kicks. Slowly House was forced back. But the sands were running and there was but five minutes remaining. And now, with the ball in House’s possession under the shadow of her own goal, but four. A plunge at left guard; two yards. A slide off right tackle; two yards more. Brooks, tired and panting, stepped back under the cross-bar.
“Hold them hard, fellows!” he cried hoarsely.