wing; then wheeled like a flash, and went plowing, onward, to the
left.

Quarter, after the start, and ere Filmore could break through,
had passed the ball to half, who, on a wild sprint, had passed
it to Dick Prescott.

And now Dick was racing out around Filmore's right end, backed by
a crushing interference of which Wadleigh was the center.  Darrin,
with head high, was watching for every chance at legitimate
interference.  Behind them all, quarter and left half pounded and
pushed.

An instant and Dick was free and around Filmore's end.  Now, he
dashed into the race of his life!

Wadleigh sent a man sprawling.  Dave's elbow did something to
Filmore's right tackle.  Just what it was none of the spectators
could see.  But none of the field officials interfered so it must
have been legitimate.

After a fight and a short, brilliant run, Dick was tackled by
Filmore's fullback.

One quivering instant---then Wadleigh and Hudson bumped that fullback
so hard that he went down, Dick wriggling safely away and bounding
toward Filmore's goal.

With fire in their eyes, Gridley's center and left wing swept on.

Dick Prescott was over the goal line, bending and holding the
ball down!  Then, indeed, the crowd broke loose all except the
few hundreds from Filmore.

Was it a touchdown?  That was the question that all asked themselves.
It was so close to the line that many onlookers were in doubt,
and stood staring with all their eyes.

But the ball went back for the kick, and that settled all doubts.

Dave made the kick, and lost it---but who cared?

A moment later and the whistle blew---the second half was over---the
game finished.

Filmore had bitten the dust to the song of eleven to eight.

Dick's tiny head shake had been a piece of strategy prearranged
with Wadleigh.  It was a legitimate ruse, as honest as any other
piece of football strategy intended to throw the enemy "off".

Now the band was indeed thundering out, playing in its best strain.

All restraint thrown aside, the spectators surged over the lines
and out on the gridiron, making a rush for the heated but happy
home players.

The record had been kept---a season without a game lost.  Filmore
swallowed its chagrin and went home.

Dick?  He had helped nobly to save the game and the record, but
now he was exhausted.

Over in dressing quarters two of the subs were rubbing him down,
while Dr. Bentley and Coach Morton stood anxiously by.

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION

After a few days Prescott was back at school.  It was noted, however,
that he did not take any part in gym. work, and that he spoke
even more quietly than usual, but he kept up in his recitations.

Youth is the period of quick recovery.  That the Thanksgiving
Day game had strained the young left end there was no doubt.
Within a fortnight, however, Prescott was himself again, taking
his gym. work, and a cross-country run three times a week.

"We ought to give Drayne the school cut," hinted Grayson.  "He
behaved in an abominable way right at the beginning of the critical
game.  He's a traitor."

"Give Drayne the cut?" repeated Wadleigh, slowly, before a group
of the fellows.  "Perhaps, in one way, he deserved it, but-----"

"Well, what can you find to say for a fellow who acted like that?"
demanded Hudson, impatiently.

"Drayne helped to win the game for us," replied Wadleigh moderately.
"Had he played Filmore would have downed us---of that I'm sure,
as I look back.  Drayne's conduct put Prescott on the gridiron,
didn't it?  That was what saved the score for us."

At the time of Grace Dodge's great peril, her banker father had
been away on a business trip.  It was two days later when word
was finally  gotten to the startled parent.  Then, by wire, Theodore
Dodge learned that Grace's condition was all right, needing only
care and time.  So he did not hasten back on that account.

When he did return to Gridley, Mr. Dodge hunted up Lawyer Ripley.

"I must reward those boys, and handsomely," he explained to the
lawyer.  "Their splendid conduct demands it."

"I am sorry, Dodge, that you have been so long in coming to such
a conclusion," replied the lawyer, almost coldly.

"What do you mean?"

"Why, you still owe Prescott and Darrin that thousand dollars
offered by your family as a reward for finding you when your
misfortune happened."

"But my son, Bert------"

"Is the bitter enemy of young Prescott, who is one of the manliest
young fellows ever reared in Gridley."

"But my wife has also opposed my paying the reward," argued Mr.
Dodge.  "She declares that the two boys were out on a jaunt and
just stumbled upon me."

"Your wife, like all good mothers, is much inclined to take the
part of her own son," rejoined Lawyer Ripley.  "However, at the
time Prescott and Darrin found you, they were not out on a jaunt.
They were serving 'The Blade,' and I happen to know that the
young men did  some remarkably good detective work in trailing
and rescuing you.  They started fair and even with the police,
but they beat the police at the latter's own game.  Dodge, by
every consideration of right and justice, you owe that reward
to Prescott and Darrin!  If they had not found and rescued you,
you might not be here today.  There is no telling what might have
happened to you had you been left helpless less in the custody
of the pair of scoundrels who had you in that shack.  I repeat
that you owe that thousand dollars as fairly as you ever owed
a penny in your life"

"Well, then, I'll pay it," assented Theodore
Dodge reluctantly, after some hesitation.  "I am afraid my wife
will oppose it, however."

"You can tell Mrs. Dodge just what I've said, or I'll tell her,
if you prefer."

"Will you attend, Ripley, to rewarding all the boys for their
gallant conduct in rescuing my daughter."

"Yes; if you'll leave the matter wholly in my hands, and agree
not to interfere"

Theodore Dodge agreed to this, and Lawyer Ripley went ahead.
The legal gentleman, however had a more difficult time than he
had expected.  It took a lot of argument, and more than one meeting,
to make Dick & Co. agree to accept anything whatever.

It was at last settled, however, Mr. Ripley urging upon the young
men that they had no right to slight their own future prospects
or education by refusing to "lay by" money to which they were
honestly entitled, when it cane in the form of an earned reward
from a citizen amply able to pay the reward.

So Dick and Dave received that thousand dollars, which, of course,
they divided evenly.

In addition, each member of Dick & Co. received one hundred dollars
for his prompt and gallant work in rescuing Grace Dodge from death.

Of course Bert, away at private school with Bayliss, heard all
about the rescue.  It is not a matter of record, however, that
Bert ever wrote a letter thanking any member of Dick & Co. for
saving his sister.

CHAPTER XXV

POSTSCRIPT

When the next commencement swung around Fred Ripley, who had managed
to "go straight" all through his senior year, was among those
graduated.  What became of him will yet be learned by our readers
in another volume.

There are a host of other Gridley fellows also to be accounted
for.

Their part in the subsequent history of Gridley, and of the world
in general, will also yet be told, all in the proper place.

"Prin.," too, may yet come in for some attention.

Dick & Co. did not take part in basket ball nor any of the organized
winter athletics though they kept constantly in training.  But
these young men realized that the High School is, first of all,
a place for academic training; so, after the football season had
ended so gloriously, they went back to their books with renewed
vigor.

Laura and Belle, as they neared the end of their junior year,
went almost from girlhood into womanhood, as is the way with girls.

Yet neither Miss Meade nor Miss Bentley found Dick or Dave "too
young" for their frank, girlish admiration.

"You see, Dick, that we were quite right about you and Dave having
all the grit that goes with the highest needs of the military
profession," Laura remarked.  "Your conduct at  the fire shows
the stuff that would be displayed by Dick & Co. in leading a charge
in battle, if need be."

"I guess a reasonable amount of courage, under stress, is the
possession of nearly all members of the human race," laughed young
Prescott.

Here we shall leave our Gridley friends for a short time.  We
shall meet them all again, however, in the forthcoming and final
volume of this series, which will be published under the title:

"_The High School Captain of the Team; Or, Dick & Co. Leading
the Athletic Vanguard_."

In this new volume we shall see more of the boys' qualities in
leadership.

Before we meet our popular boys in high school again the reader
will find the long succession of wonderful events of their summer
vacation following their junior year in the last two volumes of
the "_High School Boys' Vacation Series_", which are published
under the titles, "_The High School Boys' Fishing Trip; Or, Dick
& Co. in the Wilderness_," and "_The High School Boys Training
Hike; Or, Making Themselves 'Hard as Nails.'_"

These two narratives of a real vacation of real American boys
are bound to please the many friends of Dick & Co.  Be sure to
read them.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The High School Left End, by H. Irving Hancock