That was
classy stuff. You went down the line like a shot from a gun."

"It saved the goal line all right," panted Dick. "Jove! They were close.
It looked for a minute as though they had us going."

The ball was put into play again but just as the teams lined up time was
called. The game was three-quarters over and the remaining fifteen
minutes would tell the tale of victory or defeat. The boys stood around
in groups scraping the mud from their uniforms and rubbing rosin on
their hands to get a better grip in tackling.

Just as the breathing spell was over the sun suddenly burst forth in a
blaze of glory. Umbrellas went down like magic and even the "Maroon"
supporters, chagrined as they were, joined in the cheer that rose from
the drenched spectators. It put new life into the players also.

"Look!" cried Bert as the teams took their places. "The rainbow!"

All eyes were turned in the direction he pointed, where in a magnificent
arch of shifting colors the bow of promise curved over the field.

"It's our rainbow," shouted Tom. "We saw it first."

"Come off, you dubs," sang out Halliday. "Don't you see that it's over
our goal?"

"Sure," retorted Tom. "That's to show us where we've got to go."

"It is, eh?" said Halliday grimly. "You'll only get there over our dead
bodies."

"You're dead ones already," taunted Drake good-naturedly. "You're only
walking round to save funeral expenses."

But in the furious battle that developed from the kick-off, it was
evident that the "Maroons" were very lively corpses. It was no use to
play on the defensive. If they did that, they were beaten already by the
three points that now loomed up in such tremendous proportions. Nor was
there any reason to keep any of their plays up their sleeves. For them
it was the last game of the season and now was the time to uncover their
whole "bag of tricks."

So they threw caution to the winds and played with utter recklessness
and abandon. Their "Wheel shift" was a new one on the Blues, and the
"Maroons" had used it twice for a gain of thirty yards before the Blues
solved and checkmated it. Then the forward pass was tried, usually
without advancing the ball, though one clever skirting of the end gained
fifteen yards. The ball was getting pretty well down into Blue territory
when a magnificent drop kick by Bert sent it sailing to the middle of
the field. In the momentary silence that succeeded the cheering, some
wag from the Blue stands pipe