CHAPTER XIII
A FORTY-YARD RUN
Mawson yielded position and head-guard unwillingly. He even sneereda little, but Willard was far too excited to see it. He took hisposition two yards away from Cochran, eyeing that youth's dirt-streakedcountenance with speculative interest as he did so, and awaited Hutch'ssignals. Slightly behind him, Browne was breathing stertorously, a cutat one corner of his mouth lending him a particularly ferocious look.
"Third down!" chanted the referee. "About six to gain!"
Then Willard was squirming in between Leroy and Myers, while Browne,hugging the ball, smashed past center on the other side. The play wentfor three yards. Then Hutch punted miserably, barely over the headsof the forwards, and the ball plumped into the Lorimer quarter-back'sarms and that youth came dodging, dashing back up the field to thethirty-one yards. On the first play Macon was off-side and Alton lostfive yards. A complicated criss-cross sent a back plunging betweenNewhall and Proctor, and Browne's tackle missed and it was Hutch wholaid him low twelve yards behind the line. The visitor's cohortscheered madly. Lorimer tried a forward to an end far to the right,but Lake and Willard each had the man marked and the pass grounded. Askin-tackle play off Proctor netted four yards, and, on third down,faking a kick, the Lorimer full-back plunged straight through Nichols,at center, for four more. Willard emerged from that pile-up with aringing head and was glad when time was called, even though, as itproved, the interlude was necessitated by an injury to Browne. Willardsat down on the ground and tried to look happy, but he was horriblydizzy and the group around the recumbent full-back wavered before hiseyes. Eventually they took Browne off and replaced him with Linthicum,and the game went on.
Lorimer was on her mettle now and she made it first down on Alton'sforty-one with a smashing attack at left tackle. Finding that spotweak, she tried it again and, although Captain Myers worked like aTrojan to stop up the gap, an enemy back charged through for nearlyfive yards. Leroy was pretty well played out after that, and Putneytook his place. Lorimer made her distance in two more downs, usinga shift to the left followed by a quarter-back plunge through theopponent's short side that netted the needed five yards and placedthe pigskin almost on the home team's thirty. There, however, Altonstiffened and, after two attempts at the line, Lorimer faked a forwardand sent a half straight through between Nichols and Newhall for sevenyards. With three to go on fourth down, and the ball on the twenty-two,Lorimer walked back and talked it over. Then the stage was set for aplacement kick and the cheering and shouting ceased.
Followed a still, tense moment, broken only by Hutch's imploring"_Break through, Alton! Block it!_" and the quarter's precise, slowsignals. Back went the ball, too high but straight enough, and thequarter, kneeling on the turf behind the Lorimer line, caught itdeftly, lowered it quickly to earth and pointed it. Cries, warnings,the rasping of canvas against canvas, smothered gasps, and the scene,so orderly an instant before, broke into confusion. Alton tore throughdesperately, shouldering, plunging, reaching into the path of the ball.But the Lorimer full-back, deliberate to the point of danger, swung hisfoot and the ball sailed off, barely above the charging foe, risingslowly and turning lazily over and over on in its flight. There wasa moment of suspense and then a white-sweatered timekeeper swung hishands above his head and Lorimer cheered wildly, triumphantly! On thescore-board an important young Alton sophomore placed a glaring white 3.
Willard followed his teammates back to midfield in silence. Therewasn't much chatting just then, although Hutch called cheerfully enoughfor a score. There was less than six minutes remaining, but that,Willard assured himself, was enough time to win in. On the stand Altonwas cheering heartily, undismayed. Coach Cade was sending in three newmen: Johnston for Proctor at right tackle, McLeod for Macon and Moncksfor Cochran. For a moment, seeing Moncks trotting on, Willard's heartsank, but it was Cochran's head-guard that the newcomer donned. Martinhad done none so badly at tackle, but the position was a strange one tohim and he had had his bad moments.
Lorimer kicked off and the battle began again. The ball went to Moncksand Willard swung in ahead and was joined by Hutchins and the threewent sweeping diagonally across the field. Then Willard met an enemyand both sprawled, and Linthicum darted away from the interference andran straight into the arms of a big Lorimer guard. The teams lined upin the twenty-four yards close to the side-line. Hutch's heave to JoeMyers went short, was tipped by a Lorimer end and fell to the ground.On the next play, Willard, ball hugged tight, swept around his own endbehind Hutch and Myers, dodged the opposing end, turned in and dodgedand twisted for eight yards before he was dragged, still fighting hard,to earth. Linthicum tried the right of the line and lost a yard andMoncks made it first down past tackle. A short forward over the linelanded safely in Joe Myers' hands for nine yards and Willard added twothrough left guard.
Just short of the middle of the field, with the minutes running fast,Hutch called for Formation C and the Alton line spread widely. Lorimeredged out in answer. Willard, crouched behind his left guard, lookedstraight ahead. Hutch called his signals. Linthicum swung and ranacross the field to the left. Back shot the ball to Hutch, five yardsbehind center. Lorimer charged, coming through the wide gaps in theAlton line. Hutch stepped back while Willard crossed in front of him.Then came a short pass and the left half, the ball snuggled in hisright elbow, shot straight into the line. Linthicum's diversion haddrawn the Lorimer backfield from position, and Willard, having dodgedone slow-moving Lorimer forward, found an open field for several yards.Then, however, the enemy closed about him and his race seemed run.There was no interference to aid him, for Hutch was down, and Moncks,having run the end out, was far behind. McLeod made a desperate effortto get into the running, but Willard was fleeter. He side-stepped aLorimer half and was momentarily free, and swung toward the middle ofthe field as he crossed the enemy's forty. Behind him raced friend andfoe. He had slipped through the worst of the opposition, but ahead ofhim a determined quarter awaited and from the left speeded a half. Thelatter Willard scarcely feared, for he had a fair lead, but the quarterspelled disaster. Nearer and nearer he came to the latter, a smallish,hard-fighting youth who held his distance grimly, only moving slightlyto the right as though anticipating Willard's intention. The Altonstand was shouting wildly, confusedly, but Willard had no knowledge ofit. The thumping of his heart and the rasping of his breath seemed tobe the only sounds in the world!
Then the supreme instant came. Close to the thirty-yard line theenemies met. Something had told Willard that the opponent was tooknowing, too quick and agile to be fooled by side-stepping, and so,a few yards away, Willard shifted the ball to his stomach, claspedboth hands over it and put his head down. Straight into the quarter hecharged, with every ounce of strength thrusting his body forward. Andas he charged he twisted and spun.
Arms encompassed, his thighs and hands clutched desperately, yet hefound his stride again and went forward. Something clung for a momentto one leg and he staggered, fell to a knee and threw his body forward.The weight was gone and he was on his feet again! He set his strainingeyes on the goal posts and struggled forward. But now it seemed thathis feet were huge pieces of lead and his head swam dizzily. Fourstrides, five, six, and again he felt the touch of fingers that gropedfor a hold. Summoning his remaining strength, he moved free, head backand lungs bursting. He was past the fifteen-yard line and the gray,padded posts wavered in the sunlight, close at hand. But he was not toreach them.
If Willard had run a good race, so, too, had the Lorimer righthalf-back, and the latter had been but a scant five yards away whenWillard had shaken himself free of the quarter's tackle. And so, justshort of the ten yards, the struggle ended. A last supreme effortand the pursuer's arms wrapped themselves around the quarry's legs.One short stride followed and then pursued and pursuer lay prone andunmoving across the lime mark!
That ended Willard's usefulness for that day, just as it ended theusefulness of his captor, for both boys were fairly run out. But theball lay well inside
the ten yards, and Alton's cheers were exultantand unceasing while the half-fainting youths were administeredto, Longstreth raced out to replace Willard and Lorimer sent in asubstitute right half. Willard saw the last three minutes of the gamefrom a pile of blankets at the end of the bench, saw his teammates makethree gallant attempts to conquer those last stubborn nine yards, saw,with a sinking heart, Moncks stopped two yards from the line and hurledback, saw Captain Myers walk determinedly back up the field to kickingposition.
Hopeless gloom shrouded the bench. Myers was no goal kicker, and allknew it. Had there been a single, solitary player out there who knewthe least thing about that art he would never have attempted it. Butsubstitution had deprived the team of Cochran and Tarver and Macon, andnone of those who remained on the bench could be depended on. When allwas said and done, perhaps Hutch might have chosen more wisely had herisked a forward-pass on that final down. Yet Hutch knew that Lorimerwould be looking for that play and knew that if it failed Alton's lastopportunity to score would be lost. And he didn't make the choiceunaided, for Joe Myers counseled it. Joe said afterwards that he had nomore idea of booting the ball over than he had of flying. Yet a moreeffortless, more perfect drop-kick than he made would have been hard toimagine! Straight between the uprights and well over the cross-bar itsailed, and no one needed the corroboration of the official's upthrownhands to tell him that Alton had tied the score!
And a tied score it remained when the final whistle blew.
Alton showed as much delight over the drawn battle as though she hadwon overwhelmingly, and Lorimer, trying hard to smile, took whatcomfort she could. But if the School felt jubilant and triumphant, itwas plainly to be seen that Coach Cade did not share its emotions.That game had clearly demonstrated the fact, long suspected, that theGray-and-Gold backfield was far from the scoring combination it shouldbe. With Lake playing left end, a position he had proved his fitnessfor that afternoon, the left half-back position was left to Mawson orHarmon. Each, while he showed much promise, was inexperienced. Cochran,on the other side, was steady but far from brilliant. The full-backposition was the weakest spot of all. Neither Browne nor Linthicumhad the hard-fighting spirit needed. That Alton had not met defeatwas due to a flash of cleverness on the part of Harmon and not to anydependable team-work by the backs. The coach, while he appeared tobe listening attentively enough to Joe Myers' short-breathed remarksas they walked together to the gymnasium, was in reality grimlydetermining on a backfield shake up when Monday arrived.
"If there'd been anyone around him to put that Lorimer half-back out,"said Joe, "he'd have made it easily."
"Who?" Mr. Cade asked blankly.
"Why, Brand Harmon! He made a corking try, anyway!"
"Harmon? Yes, that's so," agreed the coach thoughtfully. "Think it wasan accident? Suppose he could do it again?"
"He's got it in him," answered Joe convincedly. "Give him a try, sir. Iwould."
"I think I shall," mused the other. "He certainly deserves it."