"Six, n-int-e-e-n-f-o-r-t-y-f-i-v-e!" the quarter was droning. "No!"
cried Neale, "Change that! Four-seven-two-eight!" It was his own
straight buck, and he went into the line with a headlong hurdle. "I'll
give the signals for a play or two, Bunny," he called to the quarter as
they lined up again, "Seven-fourteen-thirty-three," he barked and took
the ball on a cross buck, rolling and plunging for four yards,
"Three-seven-nine-four." Again he started on the cross buck, bluffed at
receiving the ball, hit the defense head down, yelling, "Help me!" and
just as he fell saw Wallace skirting outside of tackle with the delayed
pass, stiff-arming the end, shaking off the defensive quarter and on for
a good ten yards. As he got up, Neale grabbed Edwards round the neck and
whispered, with lips close to his ear, "We've got 'em started, Bunny!
You run the plays now. Get the idea? Shoot 'em outside, till they open
up, then plug Billy and Mike through the guards. Keep mixing 'em up, and
speed, _speed_!"
Bunny got the idea. He snapped out his signals, and shot his offense
like a boxer hammering a groggy opponent. With Mike back, he ran Neale
and Wallace outside, inside, across, on the weak side: then suddenly
dropped back to straight battering-ram football, and sent Mike at the
apex of a straining, stamping tandem, straight through and over the
defense to the fifteen yard line. The team was crazy with
success--prancing like stallions. "Come on, boys!" Neale went a yard on
a straight buck, dug his toe-cleats in as he fell, plunged and squirmed
for another yard and a half. Wallace shot through a quick opening for
three. With Larsen back and first down, Billy sheered off inside for a
couple of yards, the Swede got another two straight ahead, Mike running
from position made only a bare yard, but enough!
"First down, to the line to go!" said the referee. Neale heard his
signal. "Damn the torpedoes, go ahead!" he thought. He flew at the line,
bone and muscle transfigured by flaming will--a hard body dove against
his knees--he staggered, leaned forward, churned his knees up and down a
tenth of a second that seemed to drag for an hour, forward he staggered,
strained forward, then fell. When the mass got off him he found he had
got to the two-yard line. "Give it to me again!" he whispered, passing
Bunny.
Larsen stuck his blonde head close up to theirs, "For Christ's sake, let
_me_ take it! It's my last game. I won't play no more after to-day!"
"Neither will I," thought Neale, but he nodded and they lined up with
Larsen back.
"Look out for a funny one," cried the Cornell quarter, as the signals
began. "Cap and quarter had a consultation--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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