ed Prescott.
"He's where he can't do us any harm, anyway."

"But, if the Fordham boys put anything over us, I'll bet Drayne
has things timed so that the military boys will do a big and
noisy lot of boasting."

"They will, anyway, if we allow them a chance," answered Dick.
"Now, spread out, fellows," he called, raising his voice.

In the next moment the ball was in lively play.

The first time that a fumble was made a jeering chorus sounded
among the military school boys.

"I expected it," growled Darrin.

"We don't care, anyway," smiled Dick. "Let 'em hoot! I don't
draw the line until they throw things."

"If they knew Phin Drayne as we do, they'd throw him first," grimaced
Darrin.

A minute later another hoot went up. It was plain that the military
school boys had been primed for this.

But the gray-clad youths, it was very soon evident, were not the
only ones who had come out to make a noise. Half of the Fordham
crowd present joined in the volleys of derision that were showered
down on the practicing boys from Gridley.

"It's nothing but a mob!" declared Darrin, his eyes flashing.

"Careful, old fellow," counseled Prescott coolly. "They're trying
to get our nerve before the game begins. Don't let 'em do it."

This excellent instruction Dick contrived to pass throughout his
team. Thereafter the Gridley boys seemed not to hear the harsh
witticisms that were hurled at them from all sides of the field.

Just in the nick of time the Gridley Band began playing. That
stopped the annoyance for a while, for Fordham had neglected to
provide a band.

Yet when the Gridley High School song was started by the band,
and the Gridley boosters joined in the words, the answer from
Fordham came in the form of a "laughing-song," let loose with
such volume that the Gridley offering to the merriment was drowned
out.

"I hope we can give this rough town a horrible thumping---that's
all," muttered Dave, his eyes flashing.

"Don't let them capture your 'goat,' and we will," Dick promised,
as quietly as ever.

The plain hostility of the home crowd was wearing in on more than
one of the Gridley boys. Dick felt obliged to call his eleven
together, and to give them some quiet, homely but forcible advice.
Coach Morton followed, with more in the same line.

Yet it came as a welcome relief to the Gridley youngsters when
the referee and the other officials came to the field and game
was called.

Dick Prescott won