Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis: Headed for Graduation and the Big CruiseHancock, H. Irving (Harrie Irving)
General
Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis: Headed for Graduation and the Big Cruise
Hancock, H. Irving (Harrie Irving)
United States Naval Academy -- Juvenile fiction
Play began in the fourth period. At first it was nip and tuck,
neck and neck. But the Army braced and put the pigskin within
sixteen yards of the Navy's goal line. Then the men from Annapolis
seemed suddenly to wake up. Darrin, who had had little to do
in the last few plays, was now sent to the front again. Steadily,
even brilliantly, he, Dalzell and Jetson figured in the limelight
plays. Yard after yard was gained, while the Army eleven shivered.
At last it came to the inevitable. The Army was forced to use
another safety. Stinging under the sense of defeat, the cadet
players put that temporary chance to such good advantage that
they gradually got the pigskin over into Naval territory. But
there the midshipmen held it until the timekeeper interposed.
The fourth period and the game were over. West Point had gone
down in a memorable, stinging defeat. The Navy had triumphed,
ten to two.
What a crash came from the Naval Academy Band! Yet the Military
Academy Band, catching the spirit and the tune, joined in, and
both bands blared forth, the musicians making themselves heard
faintly through all the tempest of huzzas.
Dave Darrin smiled faintly as he hurried away from the field.
All his personal interest in football had vanished. He had played
his last game of football and was glad that the Navy had won;
that was about all.
Yet he was not listless---far from it. On the contrary Dave fairly
ran to dressing quarters, hustled under a shower and then began
to towel and dress.
For out in the audience, well he knew, had sat Belle Meade and
her mother.
"Darry, you're a wonder!" cried Wolgast. "Every time to-day we
called upon you you were ready with the push."
But Dave, rushing through his dressing, barely heard this and
other praise that was showered on him.
"I'll get along before assembly time, Davy," whispered Dan Dalzell.
"Come along now," Dave called back.
"Oh, no! I know that you and Belle want some time to yourselves,"
murmured Dalzell wisely. "I'll get along at the proper time."
Dave didn't delay to argue. He stepped briskly outside, then
into the field, his eyes roving over the thousands of spectators
who still lingered. At last a waving little white morsel of a
handkerchief rewarded Darrin's search.
"Oh, you did just splendidly to-day," was Belle's enthusiastic
greeting, as Dave stepped up to the young lady and her mother.
"I've heard lots of men say that it was all Darrin's victory."
"Yes; you're the hero of Franklin Field, this year," smiled Mrs.
Meade.
"Laura Bentley and her mother didn't come over?" Dave inquired
presently.
"No; of course not----after the way that the cadets used Dick
Prescott," returned Belle. "Wasn't it shameful of the cadets
to treat a man like Dick in that fashion?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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