That last week but one seemed to rush by. There was Tuesday, when the Second scored on the First by a blocked kick, and Wednesday when the First came back and literally tore the Second to shreds, and Thursday, when Kendall got into the scrimmage for a brief five minutes and emerged from what seemed afterwards to have been a wild chaos with a black eye and bleeding knuckles and a positive hatred of Cowles, whose whistle had ended the fray. That was Kendall’s baptism by fire, and it left him trembling with excitement and eager for the morrow. By Friday the First Team had learned its new signals; hard nightly periods in the gymnasium had accomplished that; and had mastered the new plays so that the Second Team went into the scrimmage with no hope of scoring, but only wondering how long they could stand off their opponents. The First was a fighting machine at last, eleven eager, powerful parts working together with a minimum of friction. The Second dug their toes and strained and panted and sweated, but always the First came through, overwhelming them, thrusting them aside, trampling over them to victory. Time and again the Second was given the ball on the First’s ten yards or five yards and told to take it over. But the First was a human stone wall, and Staniford almost cried as his attack curled up like spent bullets against steel. The First was coming fast now and discouragement was forgotten. The school was in the throes of the excitement that always presages the Big Game. The first mass meeting had been held on Wednesday; there was another called for Saturday night. Football songs were heard everywhere. Lessons suffered those days, and the instructors mentally shrugged their shoulders and patiently waited for the madness to end. And then, on Saturday forenoon, the First Team and almost the whole student body went off, cheered and cheering, to Nordham for the last contest before the final game. Kendall went, and Ned, and Gerald, and about everyone we know except Arthur Thompson, and all the way to Nordham the Yardley songs and cheers floated out the car windows: “Yardley! Yardley!! Yardley!!!” CHAPTER XVIII YARDLEY VISITS NORDHAM