owest of
them would be off like a flash the instant the ball was snapped back.
After that it wouldn't be necessary. They'd got the habit of a quick
start. And you fellows know that that is the secret of good football, as
it is of almost everything else--to get the jump on the other fellows.

"Nowadays, the methods are more often mental than physical. One coach I
know works it something like this:

"'I want you to imagine that I have a loaded shotgun in my hand and that
I am going to pull the trigger when the ball is snapped, and that you
must get out of range before I fill you full of shot.'

"No doubt both methods help in the development of speed, but as between
the two, my money goes on the paddle.

"But now," he said, as he made a motion to rise, "I'll have to go. I've
had a bully good time with you fellows, but I'm keeping you from your
studies and then, too, there are one or two of the old Profs I want to
see before I turn in. I'll see you again before I go and I'll be there
with bells on where the big games are pulled off. Good luck," and
although they urged him to stay longer, he and Ralph took their leave.

"Great old sport, isn't he?" said Tom, when they were left alone.

"All to the good," replied Bert heartily.

"Let's hope that last 'good luck' of his was prophetic," remarked Dick.

"It's up to us to make it so," said Bert thoughtfully. "Of course there
is such a thing as luck, but I've usually noticed that luck and pluck go
together."

"O, I don't know," said skeptical Tom. "Sometimes a 'jinx' follows a man
or a team, and everything goes against them. You've heard of the man

Whose horse went dead and his mule went lame,
And he lost his cow in a poker game,
And a cyclone came on a summer day
And blew the house where he lived away.
Then an earthquake came when that was done,
And swallowed the ground that the house stood on.
Then a tax collector, he came round
And charged him up with the hole in the ground."

"Some hard luck story, sure enough," grinned Bert. "Heaven forbid that
any such hoodoo get after us. But, somehow, the result of the game
to-day and Mr. Quinby's talk have braced me up, and I feel a mighty
sight more hopeful than I did yesterday."

"Same here," acquiesced Dick. "I've a hunch that we're due to give the
'Greys' and 'Maroons' a great big licking. At any rate, if we lose,
they'll know they've been