ou've _got_ to win. The school believes
you can do it, and the town is beginning to believe it. If you
lose to Cobber Second you'll forfeit the respect of all the thousands
of Gridley folks who are now saying nice things about you."

"Write it down," begged Thompson. "We're going to beat Cobber
Second off the gridiron."

"Good!" cheered Mr. Morton. "That's the talk. And be sure you
live up to it!"

"We've got to live up to it," asserted Thomp, solemnly.

"Right-o!" came the enthusiastic approval from as many members
of the student body as could crowd within easy hearing. The girls
were all there, too, for in these days the girls were as much
excited as others over the prospects of winning.

"Shall I tell coach and students, Cap?" called Thomp to Edgeworth.

"It won't do any harm," nodded Sam. "Confession will make our
deed more binding."

"What deed?" demanded Coach Morton, scenting some mystery that
he was not yet in on.

"Why, you see, sir," proclaimed Thomp, "every member of the team,
and every sub who stands any show to get into the game, has taken
the oath of the dub."

"'The oath of the dub'?" repeated Sub-master Morton. "That's
a new one on me.

"It's a new one on us all," admitted Thompson, gravely. "We've
taken the oath, but it's so dreadful that most of us shivered
when it came our turn to recite the patter---the ritual, I mean."

"What is this 'oath of the dub'?" asked the coach.

"It's fearful," shivered Thomp. "Any of you fellows feel better
able to explain?"

He glanced around him at the other visible members and subs of
the school eleven, but they shook their heads and shrank back.

"Well, then, I'll have to tell you myself," conceded Thomp, with
an air of gloom. "It's a fearful thing. Yet, as I've been through
with it once, one more time can't hurt me---much."

Thomp made an eloquent pause. Then, reaching his right hand aloft,
his eyes turned toward the sky, he recited, in a deep bass voice:

"I have pledged my honor, as a gridiron specialist, that
Gridley H.S. shall lug away all the points of the game from Cobber
Second. If we fail, then may everyone who espies me mutter: 'There
goes a dub!' May the word 'dub' haunt me in my waking hours, and
pursue me, mounted on the nightmares of slumber! May my best
friends ever afterward refer to me only as a 'dub.' For if I fail
the school, then am I truly a 'dub,' and there is no help for
me. If I fail, then may I never, so lo