HEROES IN MOLESKIN

“Third down, four yards to gain!”

The referee trotted out of the scrimmage line and blew his whistle; the Hillton quarter-back crouched again behind the big center; the other backs scurried to their places as though for a kick.

“9—­6—­12!” called quarter huskily.

“Get through!” shrieked the St. Eustace captain.  “Block this kick!”

“4—­8!”

The ball swept back to the full, the halves formed their interference, and the trio sped toward the right end of the line.  For an instant the opposing ranks heaved and struggled; for an instant Hillton repelled the attack; then, like a shot, the St. Eustace left tackle hurtled through and, avoiding the interference, nailed the Hillton runner six yards back of the line.  A square of the grand stand blossomed suddenly with blue, and St. Eustace’s supporters, already hoarse with cheering and singing, once more broke into triumphant applause.  The score-board announced fifteen minutes to play, and the ball went to the blue-clad warriors on Hillton’s forty-yard line.

Hillton and St. Eustace were once more battling for supremacy on the gridiron in their annual Thanksgiving Day contest.  And, in spite of the fact that Hillton was on her own grounds, St. Eustace’s star was in the ascendant, and defeat hovered dark and ominous over the Crimson.  With the score 5 to in favor of the visitors, with her players battered and wearied, with the second half of the game already half over, Hillton, outweighted and outplayed, fought on with the doggedness born of despair in an almost hopeless struggle to avert impending defeat.

In the first few minutes of the first half St. Eustace had battered her way down the field, throwing her heavy backs through the crimson line again and again, until she had placed the pigskin on Hillton’s three-yard line.  There the Hillton players had held stubbornly against two attempts to advance, but on the third down had fallen victims to a delayed pass, and St. Eustace had scored her only touch-down.  The punt-out had failed, however, and the cheering flaunters of blue banners had perforce to be content with five points.

Then it was that Hillton had surprised her opponents, for when the Blue’s warriors had again sought to hammer and beat their way through the opposing line they found that Hillton had awakened from her daze, and their gains were small and infrequent.  Four times ere the half was at an end St. Eustace was forced to kick, and thrice, having by the hardest work and almost inch by inch fought her way to within scoring distance of her opponent’s goal, she met a defense that was impregnable to her most desperate assaults.  Then it was that the Crimson had waved madly over the heads of Hillton’s shrieking supporters and hope had again returned to their hearts.