struck."

"Bravo!" whispered Acton; "old Fox is a good sort."

"Oh, they're most of them all right," answered Morris; "it's only two or
three that are such beasts."

The game was continued. The loss of one man on each side made the teams
equal in numbers, but the sudden calamity which had overtaken their
centre forward seemed to have exerted a very demoralizing effect on the
Philistines.

Their attacks were not nearly so spirited, and several times the
Birchite forwards appeared in front of their goal.

Neither side had scored, and it seemed as though the game would end in a
draw--a result which the home team would have considered highly
satisfactory.

The umpire looked at his watch, and in answer to a query from Mr. Fox
said, "Five minutes more."

"Look here, Acton," said Mr. Blake: "let me take your place, and you go
back. Do all you can to stop them if they come."

The ball was thrown out of touch; Mr. Blake got it, and in a few seconds
the fight was raging in the very mouth of the enemy's goal. Morris put
in a capital shot; but the ball glanced off one of the players, and went
behind.

"Corner!" cried Mr. Blake. "I'll take it. Now you fellows get it
through somehow or other!"

"Mark your men, Horace House!" cried Mr. Fox. The next moment every one
was shoving and elbowing with their eyes fixed on the ball as it flew
through the air. It dropped in exactly the right place, and Jack Vance,
by some happy fluke, kicked it just as it touched the ground. Like a
big round shot it whizzed through the posts, and there was a rapturous
yell of "_Goal!_"

The delight of the Birchites at having beaten their opponents was
unbounded, and when, a short time later, the latter retired with a score
against them of one to nil. Jack Vance was seized by a band of
applauding comrades, who, with his head about a couple of feet lower
than his heels, carried him in triumph across the playground, and
staggered half-way up the steep garden path, when Acton happening to
tread on a loose pebble brought the whole procession to grief, and
caused the noble band of conquering heroes to be seen all grovelling in
a mixed heap upon the gravel.

But it is not for the simple purpose of recording the victory over
Horace House that a description of the match has been introduced into
our story; and although the important part played by Diggory in
goal and Jack Vance in the "fighting line" caused it to be an occasion
when the Triple