wept onward. Another clever attack, backed by a ruse, and one of the
college boys started on a dead run with the ball. In vain the Navy's
backs tried to stop him. The Hanniston boys successfully interfered for
their runner, and the ball was touched down behind the goal line.

Gone were the cheers that had been ascending from the brigade. All the
Navy crowd gasped in dismay. The ball was carried back, kicked, and
Hanniston had scored six points.

"Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha--Hanniston! Wow!" went up derisively from
the visiting howlers.

"Hepson! Hepson! Pull us out!" came the appeal.

"Darry! Darry! Rush it!"

As the two elevens were lining up for another start the time-keeper's
whistle sounded the end of the first half of the game.

Gloomy, indeed, were those who had hoped to see the Navy win. There were
no cheers, save from the visitor-howlers. The best that the leader of the
band could do, was to swing his baton and start in the strains of "'Twas
Never Thus in Olden Times."

"What do you make of the enemy, Hepson?" inquired Joyce, as the middies
rested at the side lines.

"We haven't made anything of them yet, but we've got to make wrecks of
'em before the last half is over," grunted the captain of the Navy.

"How are we going to do it?" asked another player.

"By just hanging at them with sheer grit," replied the captain gravely.
"Fellows, they've beaten us so far, but they haven't worn us out any. Big
fellows as the Hannistons are, they may not have the endurance to hang to
us through all of the coming half."

"That makes me remember a song I heard when on leave this year," grinned
Page. "A part of it runs:

'Said the ant to the elephant,
"Who are ye shoving?
There's one wide river to cross!"'

"And we're the elephants?" inquired Farley in mock innocence.

"Do we look it?" demanded Page in disgust.

"Remember, fellows," warned Hepson, as the signal summoned both teams
back to the field, "many a hopeless game has been won in the last five
minutes. But don't wait. Hammer the college boys from the start!"

"Dalzell and I can stand hard work and pounding whenever you get ready to
put it on us," Dave announced to Hepson. "Don't try to spare us any. Both
of us would sooner be carried away on stretchers than see the Navy lose
its first game to a minor college."

The game was resumed. For ten minutes the Navy played mainly on the
defensive. Indeed, to the spectators it seemed all that the middies could