gers.

[Illustration: AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FINAL QUARTER COACH MURRAY SENT
IN TEENY-BITS TO TAKE THE PLACE OF WHITE.]

When Ridgley finally did get its chance the time was slipping swiftly
away, and hope was glimmering but faintly in the home stands. There was
to be one more sensation, however. The ball was Ridgley's on its own
twenty-five-yard line. Durant carried it forward ten yards, then Tom
Curwood plunged through for five more. Then Dean called on Teeny-bits.

"Twenty-seven, sixteen, eleven," he called out, and the ball came back
swiftly into his hands. Teeny-bits took it from Dean on the run and
began to circle the right end of the line; a gap opened for an instant;
he was through it like a rabbit diving through a hedge and with a thrill
dashed on. He did not mean to stop until the last whitewashed line was
behind him.

In front, the Wilton quarter-back was crouching tensely to intercept
him. Teeny-bits shifted direction to pass him, but the quarter-back was
not only wily, but swift; he was after Teeny-bits like a cat and began
to force him to run diagonally across the field. Two Wilton players
converged on Teeny-bits from the other side and one of them made a
desperate tackle. Teeny-bits used his straight arm to ward off the
attack and succeeded in slipping from the tackler's clutches, but the
fraction of a second that he lost opened an opportunity to the Wilton
quarter-back. Teeny-bits felt himself tackled heavily; he fell against
the player who had first tackled him and to his utter dismay felt the
ball knocked from his grasp and saw it go bounding over the ground. He
lay sprawling, so tangled with the Wilton players that for the moment he
could not rise. With horrified gaze he saw the leather oval roll free
and he felt the overwhelming shame of one who has failed to be equal to
the demands of a crisis. But his feeling of self-condemnation
immediately gave way to an entirely different emotion, for a swiftly
moving pair of legs incased in the Ridgley red and white came within the
range of his vision. He glanced up and saw that it was Neil Durant. Two
Wilton players were after the ball also, but the Ridgley captain was
before them; he scooped it up and ran swiftly down the field. While the
stands roared in a frenzy of delight, Neil crossed the goal line and
circled round till he placed the ball squarely behind the posts. Tom
Curwood kicked the goal, and two minutes later the game ended with the
ball in mi