“But one thing,” he added in a low tone, “you’ll swear on the Bible you won’t let them tackle you. You’ll throw the ball away—anything at all.”
“Swear it on a stack of Bibles,” Kentucky grinned happily.
Never had Dave worked, hoped, and prayed for a scoring punch as he did in that third quarter. Never did the team back him up with greater determination. Never had they attempted such dazzling plays.
“Eighty-six,” was the first order they received as they went into a huddle.
“Eighty-six coming up,” Artie Stark gasped.
The team lined up as usual, balanced formation. Punch Dickman dropped back as if for a punt. The ball was snapped to him. He held it for a period of seconds. Dynamite came sweeping in close behind the line of scrimmage. Punch shot a shovel pass to him. He dashed round right end for a gain of five yards. As he was about to be tackled he shot it to Rabbit Jones. In the meantime Punch had followed Dynamite around right end. As Rabbit saw the end of his own eight-yard break for liberty, he lateralled it back to Punch and Punch went forward for a clean twenty yards.
“Yea! Yea! Yea!” came from the bleachers. “Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown!”
“Ninety-three,” Dynamite whispered. They were in a huddle and out again. They snapped into position, five men behind the line, three a yard back of the line, and two others one yard farther back. Punch received the ball. Artie Stark touched the ground. He was behind the line but this made him a technical lineman. Bud Talliver, a quarter who was also temporarily quartered behind the line, took a short pass from Punch to shoot around left end for a gain of twelve yards and one more first down.
“Repeat,” Dynamite whispered in the next huddle. There was a growing note of confidence in his tone.
They did repeat and at once met with disaster. The right guard of the enemy smelled the play. Somehow he broke through to throw Bud so hard that the ball bounced out of his hands and was lost to the enemy.