ink. Coach
Morton was breathing hard.

Unless Gridley could hold the enemy's rush back effectively enough
to get the ball once more on downs, the college boys seemed likely
to rush it right over the High School goal line.

Had Cobber tried any kicks, Gridley would have had the ball, and
would have known what to do with it. But Captain Halsey knew that.
He depended, now, wholly on heavy mass rushes and plays.

Yet the Gridley boys were by no means asleep---or lazy.

"I won't tire our men all out in the first half," muttered Badger
to himself. "But I won't let them stroll through our line."

Even the heavy Cobber men, though they advanced doggedly, did
not make any too great progress.

Down at the Gridley fifteen-yard line the High School boys developed
their greatest stubbornness and strength. So well did they oppose
the college boys that, by preventing progress in three successive
plays, the home boys again got the ball. They could not move
it sufficiently far forward, however. Cobber took the ball again.

"Better let up on the cheers, don't you think, sir?" Dick inquired.

"Yes," nodded Coach Morton. "It would only worry our boys now,
and they've got enough on their minds as it is."

Again Cobber took the offensive. At the next down a man had to
be sent from the field, and a substitute sent out. But the casualty
went to Cobber, not to the High School team. That fact gave the
major part of the audience grim satisfaction.

"There they go, now!" muttered Dave Darrin, in disgust. "Nothing
is going to stop the big fellows!"

"They're getting nearer our goal line," Dick admitted. "But a
game is never won until it's finished. Cobber, as yet, hasn't
even gotten the touchdown!"

A minute later Cobber _had_. To the Gridley onlookers it sent
a shock of dismay. The college men certainly had scored.

"It's Cobber's beef, not science," Dick stoutly asserted. "Our
fellows play with more speed and real skill. _Say_---look at
that!"

For Bentley, of the college eleven, had just missed the kick from
field.

Five points for the visitors! The teams swiftly changed ends
and lined up. The whistle's call sent them off to the fray, for
there were but three minutes left of the first half.

Cobber won the kick but didn't carry it far. Gridley got down
as far as the enemy's twenty-yard line. Then the smaller High
School boys were fairly pushed back into their own territory,
losing twelve yards of their