After that Yardley was on the defensive for the rest of the first two periods and managed to hold Porter from scoring, although the Blue’s goal was twice threatened. Porter, however, came back strong after the rest and hammered out a touchdown in the third period and kicked a goal. Yardley brought everything to bear that she knew after that and succeeded in reaching Porter’s twenty-six yards. From there, had she possessed a drop-kicker of fair ability, she might have made a field-goal. But Dan and Simms consulted and decided that they had better not risk it, although Norton had been showing fair work in practice. Instead, they went at Porter’s line again and after two downs, which netted them a scant four yards, tried a forward pass that went to a Porter back and lost them the ball. That was Yardley’s only chance to score. In the last period Porter found her adversary’s line less easy and tried end runs and forward passes and on-side kicks. When the game was almost over Porter had the ball on Yardley’s thirty-three yards, made two on a wide run around Norton, and worked the ball back into the center of the gridiron by a whirlwind shift followed by an attack at the guard-tackle hole. With two yards to go the Porter right half stepped back and put the pigskin straight over the bar by a drop-kick, adding another three points to her six. That was the last scoring, and the final account stood 9 to 5. Dan redeemed himself that day, playing his position brilliantly. The principal fault with the team as a whole was slowness and lack of aggressiveness. The center of the line was especially lacking in the latter. Some two hundred rain-coated youths splashed up the hill after the final whistle had sounded looking rather glum. There were many criticisms. Most of the fellows held that Dan had erred in not trying a goal from the field in the third period. Others pointed out that even had Yardley kicked that goal she would still have been beaten by a point, and maintained that Dan had done the proper thing in trying for a touchdown, which, had it been secured, would have given the contest to the home team. But by the time supper was over the critical attitude passed. After all, Porter Institute was only Porter Institute, and no one really cared very much about her. It was bad to be beaten, but the defeat might act as a tonic and nerve the home team to a grand and impressive victory over Broadwood. And the defeat of Broadwood was the chief aim and consideration. But Dan was once more in the depths. He had hoped for a clean slate that fall and now here was a beating to be chalked up against him. Payson shrugged his shoulders and smiled, but Dan took the defeat very tragically and refused to be comforted. “There’s something wrong with our fellows,” he declared in Payson’s room in the village that evening. “They don’t _play_! They don’t seem to have any _punch_! They――”