The first half of the game was over. The score at the end of the half
stood U. A. A., 18; Fardale, 6.
Fardale's one touch-down and goal had been made on a fluke.
The teams had lined up as follows:
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FARDALE SPRINGVALE
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Jolliby Right end McElroy
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Hoyt Right tackle Kerns
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Gardner Right guard Seaton
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Tubbs Center Redmond
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Shannock Left guard Hicks
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Bradley Left tackle Clack
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Lewis Left end Iott
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Smart Quarter-back Loppinger
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Merriwell Right Waldron
half-back
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Buckhart Left Chase
half-back
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Singleton Full-back Durkee
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This was a great change about on the home team from the regular order.
Buckhart had been taken off left end and given Darrell's position at
half-back, while Darrell was dropped entirely. Lewis, a plebe, had been
substituted for Buckhart. Merriwell, Singleton, Smart, and Tubbs were
the only men who held their positions. Bradley had been shifted from
right guard to left tackle, Shannock had been removed from right end to
left guard, Jolliby had moved over from right tackle to right end, Earl
Gardner had been given Bradley's position as right guard, and these
things had served to break the team up completely, quite taking the
confidence out of it.
Gardner had made the run with the ball, which he secured on a bad pass
and a fumble, and his had been the glory of Fardale's only touch-down.
It seemed that Uniontown had the game "on ice."
The visitors had played a rushing, thumping, rough-house game. At first
the cadets had met them in this business, but they lost spirit when
Uniontown kept the ball in the territory of the home team nearly all the
time, seeming altogether too heavy and strong.
Dick was desperate. He was determined to do something to bring about a
change. With the team as it was, he had small hopes of winning.
Strangely enough, all through the first half, for all of the rough
tactics of the visitors, no man was knocked out so that he was forced to
retire from the game.
Brad walked off the field by Dick's side when the half was over. The gym
was near enough for the men to run over to it, and this they did.
"The jig is up, pard," said Buckhart. "They've got us! And it is all the
work of that dirty dog Arlington! He has ruined the team! I swear it
would have been better if I had cheated and kept him from getting on the
committee!"
Dick did not seem to hear Buckhart's words. He was thinking swiftly just
about then.
"We must win this game! I am determined to do it!" he muttered.
"No matter how determined you are," said Brad, "you can't do it with
this team as it stands."
Dick heard this, for he nodded. Reaching the gym, Dick found two fellows
ready to give him a rubbing if he wished it.
"We'll cut it out," he said. "You fellows go for Hal Darrell. Bring him
here."
Then he turned to Brad, asking:
"Dare, Kent, and Bradley are with the substitutes, are they not?"
"Sure."
Darrell was found in a minute or so, and brought into the gym.
"Hal," said Dick, "do you want us to win this game?"
"Sure thing," said Hal.
"Well, I want you to know that I did not drop you from the team. I was
given orders by the committee to play the team just as it lined up
to-day. Arlington is the man who did this."
Hal shrugged his shoulders.
"I want you to get into your rig," said Dick. "Will you do it?"
"Are you going to play me?"
"Yes."
"In defiance of the committee?"
"Yes!"
"I'll be on hand."
Dick sent for Bradley, Dare, and Kent, with all of whom he talked.
Just as the team was leaving the gym for the field, Arlington and Warne
came hurriedly into the place.
"Just in time!" exclaimed Warne.
"Go on, fellows," said Dick. "I will be with you in a moment."
At the same time he made a gesture to Buckhart. Brad was surprised. He
did not quite understand, but he hurried the others out and followed
them.
"In this final half," said Warne, "there is one thing we want you to do,
Merriwell. Of course, you can't expect to win, as that team is much
older and heavier, but----"
"I must have dropped it in the shower-room," said Dick, pretending to be
searching for something. "I've got to have it. And I must be out on the
field in two minutes. If you fellows have anything to say, come on and
say it while I'm searching."
He ran into the room where the boys took their shower-baths. There was a
plunge in the same room.
Warne and Arlington followed. Dick seemed to be searching, looking
swiftly about, his eyes on the floor.
"As I was saying----" resumed Warne.
He got no further. Out of the room darted Dick, and the heavy door
banged, shutting in Chester Arlington and the chairman of the athletic
committee. Outside there was a heavy bolt, which Dick shot into place.
"Say on, Warne!" he exclaimed exultantly and defiantly; "but I can't
stop to listen. I can't afford to be bothered by this committee during
the last half of the game."
He hurried from the now deserted gymnasium. As he was leaving he heard
his astonished captives banging on the door of the bathroom and shouting
for him to open it.
"Pound away! Yell away!" he said. "I think there will be sufficient
noise on the field so that your cries will not be heard for a time, at
least."
He ran from the gym toward the field, and was just in time to go out
with the team.
When the disappointed cadets saw the team go on the field for the second
half they started up and showed interest, for there had been a big
change. With a single exception, the old players were back in their
regular positions.
Kent, who had not entirely recovered from injuries received in a
previous game, was not at left tackle, although he was waiting among the
substitutes. Gardner filled his place. Gardner was not quite large
enough for guard, but he was so very fast that Dick had decided to
retain him in the line. Shannock and Buckhart were again on the ends.
Dare and Bradley were the guards, Jolliby was at right tackle, and
Darrell assumed his old position at left half-back. Three members of the
athletic committee stared and wondered.
"What does it mean?" asked Anson Day. "Why, I thought Merriwell had been
given orders to----"
"Where's Warne?" asked Oliver Stone excitedly.
"Where's Arlington?" exclaimed Hadley Burrows. "We must see about this!"
But they looked in vain for either Warne or Arlington.
The cadets were cheering with new life now. Everywhere the red and black
was waving. What a difference there was! Confidence seemed restored.
There was a lull as the spread-out teams waited for the kick-off. In
that hush and pause Dick Merriwell's keen ears seemed to catch the sound
of faint, muffled shouts coming from the direction of the gymnasium, and
he smiled grimly.
Fardale went into the game with a whirl and a rush that almost swept
Uniontown off her feet. The home team had snap, ginger, vim, and go to
it. Every man was in the game. They played together, and they were out
for victory. Getting the ball, Fardale began hammering against the
enemy, at their thirty-yard line. The funnel-play was tried, and
Singleton hit the left wing of the enemy, going through for five yards.
The same play was repeated, the funnel seeming pointed in the same
direction. Singleton rushed ahead until near what seemed the point of
assault, then suddenly darted out through the side of the funnel, where
an opening had been made for him, and went through the left wing of the
enemy for seven yards. Well, this was the kind of stuff! This was
playing football!
A third time the ball was given to big Bob. And now he went forward
protected by a wedge that hit the line in the center. The wedge pressed
on steadily until the opposing team began to tear it to pieces. Bob saw
a tackler coming through, and, with a deft movement, he tossed the ball
out to Dick Merriwell, who had been keeping just back of him on the
outside of the edge.
The next moment Singleton was dragged down. But the ball was gone, Dick
had it, and he was away like a flash. To the right ran Dick, darting
past Iott, who tried in vain to reach him. He circled the end and
started down the field.
When Chase brought him down he had made full fifteen yards, and the
cadets on the seats were mad with delight.
The Uniontown team was startled and not a little dismayed. Instead of
coming out weak in the second half, the cadets were stronger and faster
than they had been at the beginning of the game.
The ball was carried into Uniontown's territory and steadily driven down
toward the goal-line of the visiting team. Fardale hammered into the
enemy with a dogged persistency that was admirable and told of the sand
possessed by the academy lads.
Several times through the game Uniontown had resorted to slugging, and
now she tried it again. Jolliby was thumped and Dare was kicked in the
stomach. The umpire detected the fellow in the act of kicking and gave
him a warning, but the kicker said he had not meant to violate the
rules.
Still Fardale would not be stopped. Time after time she made her
distance, and the ball was forced down to within ten yards of the goal
of the visiting team. Then the cadets were set back for holding, and an
off-side play lost them the ball when they had the taste of success on
their lips. It was hard, but Dick stiffened up his team, and they
prepared to hold the enemy.
Uniontown seemed to prepare for a kick. Instead of kicking, however,
Uniontown gave the ball to Waldron, while her line buckled down to hold
Fardale. Waldron shot forward, rose into the air, hurdled the line
handsomely, and made six good yards before Darrell pulled him down. It
was a very handsome play, and the visiting crowd had good cause to
cheer.
Now Uniontown began to push Fardale back steadily. Now and then, when it
was necessary to make a yard or two without fail and Fardale seemed to
hold fast, Waldron hurdled. Repeatedly he was successful, and Fardale
was driven back to her forty-yard line.
Dick saw that the hurdling was counting against them, and he determined
to stop it. He watched closely, and the next time Waldron came flying at
the line, the captain of the cadets charged from the opposite side.
With a flying leap, Dick shot upward and met the hurdler in the air
above the line. Waldron had not expected this, and he was flung backward
for a loss, Dick coming down upon him. The cadets roared their delight
at this.
Twice after that Waldron was stopped in the same manner by Dick, who
completely ruined the success of his hurdling.
When Fardale got the ball again she marched straight down the field and
pushed it over for a touchdown without being checked at any point.
A goal was easily made.
Dick had a word to say to his men as they spread out for the next
kick-off. He was determined to waste no time. Thus it happened that
Fardale did not return the kick. Darrell caught the ball and ran sixteen
yards with it before being grassed.
The signal was given for the center-back play. The Uniontown players
were surprised to see little Smart take the place of the ponderous
Tubbs, while Tubbs retired to full-back and Singleton became temporary
quarter-back.
When they started to walk over Smart, however, Singleton backed Ted up,
and then Tubbs, with the ball, came smashing into the line and bored his
way along. They seized him and tried to drag him down, but he kept on
for full ten yards before they could stop him.
"Great work!" laughed Dick. "On the jump now, fellows!"
"On the jump!" cried Ted Smart.
It was the signal for the old "ends-around" play. Fardale had never met
Uniontown on the gridiron before, therefore the visitors were not on to
the cadets' little play of the previous year.
When the ball was snapped the ends and sides of the line seemed to melt
backward before the assault of the enemy. The center held fast, while
the ends swung round, followed by the opposing men, who were pushing. As
they swung round they came in behind the man who had the ball, and he
was thrust forward, a portion of the visitors working against themselves
without knowing they did so.
Dick kept this play up, working it once or twice by pulling Tubbs back
and letting him slam into the line, until the ball was driven down to
within six yards of the goal-line. There Uniontown made a stand and held
for three downs. But Dick himself went through on the last trial, and he
managed to squirm forward after being dragged down so that the ball was
six inches over the line when the piled-up men untangled.
Dick was pretty badly hurt, but he succeeded in getting on his feet,
turning the ball over to Singleton. Darrell held the ball, and big Bob
kicked the goal, tieing the score.