“Look out for that fellow, Dick!” Frank warned. “He has been acting ugly toward you ever since the game began. Once, when he struck at the ball in the air, as if his stick were a baseball bat, and missed it, I thought he really struck at you. I believe now he did!”
“Oh, I saw the rascal!” Dick smiled. “I’ve been watching him ever since. But I don’t fancy he will care to run into me again, as he did just then.”
The fierceness of the New London men seemed to increase when the play began again, and within two minutes they had caged the ball, catching Browning off his guard and shooting the sphere between his legs.
Then how the friends of Dade Morgan cheered, in spite of the fact that the goal had been won from Yale!
“They’re fools!” Morgan snarled to himself. “I warned them against making such a show of themselves; but lots of fellows haven’t any more tact than to exhibit themselves in that way.”
Yet he was so pleased that the smile came to his face without any effort on his part.
Dashleigh’s band was again twanging away, but its strains could not soothe the heart of Morgan, who, in that moment of temporary victory, felt that he hated Merriwell and Starbright more than he had ever hated them.
When the playing recommenced it was fast and furious, and within less than a minute Starbright made a goal. Then Crowder drove a goal for New London, the score was again tied, and the referee’s whistle blew, announcing the end of the first period of the match.
When the referee’s whistle blew again and the game recommenced, Merriwell reached the ball first and sent it flying for goal. Bascom stopped it with his padded shins, kicked it away, and a fight for its possession took place near the middle of the floor.
Then Starbright secured it and drove it again toward the New London goal; but Weathers, the half-back, blocked it with his feet, and it shot to one side of the hall, with four or five men diving after it. Ready was there, and drove it into the New London goal, but it bounded out; and another struggle for its possession ensued, right in front of the cage, yet far enough away to prevent the calling of a foul. Hodge now got the ball and shot it into the cage, and it stayed there.
There was a transference of goals, and the game was renewed. Again Merriwell drove the ball for the cage; but Bascom, the goal-tend, stopped it with his foot. Weathers skipped it back to the middle of the floor, where there was a struggle for it, and such hot work that the spectators were brought up standing with a yell.