caught the ball started for a run toward the middle of the field. The opponent, however, was on guard and he was dropped by Sayer for a loss of three yards. But the ball was fairly opposite the posts and again Buckman stepped back and again the half knelt on the turf. “Block it!” shrieked Ridge, who was field captain. “Get through and block this kick!” It was Ridge himself who barely tipped the ball as it sailed away from Buckman’s toe and went straight over the center of the bar. Pandemonium broke loose in the Nordham camp and the Nordham players jumped and cavorted gleefully. There was less than four minutes of time left. In that four minutes Yardley worked the ball for fifty yards without losing it once, her backs slamming at the Nordham line with the desperation born of despair. And almost under the shadow of the goal posts, when another four or five downs might have saved the day, the whistle blew! “Nordham 12, Opponents 10,” said the score board. Yardley had met her second defeat. CHAPTER XIX CHEERS AND SONGS “But this paper,” said Gerald, kicking the offending sheet from the window seat to the floor, “says Nordham outplayed us. I don’t think that’s fair. Do you, sir?” “Well, didn’t they outplay us, Pennimore?” asked Mr. Payson who had dropped into Number 28 for a visit after church. “They won, and there were no flukes that I saw.” “But if we’d kicked the goals after our touchdowns――” “But we didn’t, and they outplayed us right there. There’s no use being disgruntled and trying to deceive yourselves into thinking that it was a case of hard luck, for it wasn’t. What do you say, Vinton?” “Oh, I suppose they outplayed us,” answered Dan wearily. “We were away ahead of them at straight football, but――” “‘Straight football,’” repeated the coach with a smile. “By that you mean bucking the line, I suppose. But that isn’t any ‘straighter’ than any other sort of football nowadays, Vinton. No, sir, Nordham has a remarkable team, a team built around two fast backs and weak in the line, to be sure, but I take my hat off to that coach over there. And to that quarter of theirs, too. He’s a little marvel, Vinton.” “Wish we had him,” muttered Dan. “Um; if we had we’d have to make our team over. Of course Nordham had this advantage over us yesterday; they could play to their limit, since their big game is two weeks off, while we were obliged to hold back our best plays on account of Broadwood. She had at least four assistant coaches and players there yesterday, but I don’t think they learned much.” “They’ll eat us up next Saturday,” sighed Dan moodily.