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 First steadied and stopped the onslaught. After Johnny had punted over the line the whistle blew and ended the scoreless battle.

Loring had a tale to tell that evening. Mr. Babcock had been in to see him just after dinner and they had had a wonderful talk about football and the Scrub Team and those plays of his, for "Cocky" had made him show them, saying that Tom had told about them. "And he went away with four of them," said Loring, trying to conceal his delight. "Said he wanted to study them and that if they looked all right he'd have you fellows try them out some day soon."

"Did he take that forward-pass from end?" asked Tom.

"Yes, and he was looking at that a long time. Say, wouldn't it be corking if that worked all right?"

"Work? Of course it will work. It'll go big. Mark my words, old son."

"Well, I don't know. Maybe there's a weak spot somewhere. Mr. Babcock says you can't really tell a whole lot about plays until you've actually tried them out against another team."

"That one's all right," replied Tom confidently. "I'd like to use it against Minster next Saturday and get it working nicely for the Wolcott Scrub. I like that play. I'll bet it turns out to be the cheese, old son!"

That settled, he and Loring arranged the chess-men and Clif settled himself with a book. At five minutes to eight, the game being still undecided, the board was set aside until after study hour and Tom hurried up