"One more touch-down!" cried Holly Cross, but there was no time for it. Two minutes more of play and the whistle blew. Randall had won one of the fiercest games she had ever played.
"A cheer for Boxer Hall!" cried Holly Cross, and the despondent players, grieving over their defeat, sent back an answer. Then came cheer upon cheer from the grandstand, where waved the yellow and maroon of Randall, and Bean Perkins led in the song: "We Have Come and We Have Conquered!"
"Great, old man!" cried Tom to Phil, who was limping slightly. "Are you hurt?"
"I shouldn't care if I was in pieces after the way we walloped them! Come on over here. I see my sister and Madge!"
Tom followed, his head singing from a severe knock he had received.
Phil's sister hurried down from the grandstand to greet him.
"Oh, Phil!" she cried. "Did you get hurt?" for she saw him limping, and she held out her hands to him.
"Just a little twist," he explained. "Not worth mentioning. How are you, Madge?" he went on, after patting his sister on the shoulder, and he held his hands eagerly out to Miss Tyler.
"Fine!" she exclaimed. "Oh, wasn't it a great game?"
"For us," put in Tom, who had greeted Ruth, and now turned to the other girl.
"Good afternoon, Tom," spoke Madge, and Tom fancied there was just a tinge of coldness in her voice. She continued talking to Phil.
"Did you think you would win?" asked Phil's sister of Tom as she looked eagerly up into his face.
"Well, not all the while," replied the left-end. "Once or twice I began to think we'd lose. But you can't down Randall."
"No; it takes Fairview to do that, not Boxer Hall," put in Madge quickly.
"Now, be nice--be nice!" pleaded Phil with a laugh. "I thought you were a friend of mine, Madge."
"So I am," she replied gaily; "but I can't help saying that."
"We'll beat you next time," went on Phil, and he dodged back to escape a little blow which Madge aimed at him with her small flag. Then the two laughed. Tom, who was chatting with Ruth, heard them, and he half turned to see what was going on. He was just in time to see Phil grasp both Madge's hands, and his face turned red. Ruth noticed it, and she said:
"Phil and Madge seem to get on well together."
"Almost too well," was Tom's thought, but he said nothing and changed the subject.