nd didn't. The time keeper brought the game
to a close.

"Gridley has handed us six to nothing," muttered Forsythe, as
he led his disheartened fellows from the field. "That puts us
with the other second-rate teams in the state."

"A great lot of orders you needed, didn't you?" was Captain Dick
Prescott's happy greeting as Dave met him beyond the side lines.

"You won that game for us, just the same," retorted Dave.

"I?" demanded Dick, in genuine amazement.

"Yes; you, and no one else."

"How?"

"You refused to give me a hint. You threw me down hard, on my
own resources. I saw all those hundreds of people demanding that
Gridley win," retorted Dave. "What could I do? I had to make
the fellows do something like what they've been doing under Dick
Prescott, or confess myself a dub. I couldn't lean on a word
from you, Dick. So you fairly drove me into planning something
that would either carry off the game or make us look like chromos
of football players. You wouldn't say a word, Prescott, that
would take any of the blame on yourself! So didn't you force
me to win!"

"That's ingenious, but not convincing," retorted Dick, as the
two chums stepped into dressing quarters. "To tell you the truth,
Dave, I think a good many people now believe that you ought to
be the regular captain."

But Darrin only grinned. He knew better.

Some of the fellows tried to praise Fenton to his face.

"Quit! You can't get away with that," chuckled the fast little
left end. "Some one had to take that ball and drop it behind
Hallam's goal line. I was the one who was ordered to do it.
If I hadn't, what would you fellows have said about me?"

By the time that the Hallam Heights young men were dressed several
of them came to the Gridley quarters, Forsythe at their head.

"We want to shake hands," laughed Forsythe, "and to make sure
that you have no hard feelings for what we tried to do to you."

Dick and Darrin took this in laughing goodfellowship.

"If you call this your dub team to-day," continued Forsythe, a
bit more gloomily, "we shudder to think what would have happened
to us had you put in your regular line-up."

"There isn't any dub team in Gridley," spoke Dick quickly. "All
of our fellows are trained in the same way, by the same coach,
and we stake all our chances on any line-up that's picked for
the day. It was hard on you, gentlemen, that my knee put me out
for the day. Darrin is twice as crafty as I am.