So he tried to stick the offending hand in his pocket, found there was no pocket there, and put the finger in his mouth instead.

Then he forgot all about it, for Harwell was hammering the blue's line desperately and Joel had all he could do to remember the signals and play his position.
For the next quarter of an hour the ball hovered about Yates's danger territory.

Twice, by the hardest kind of line bucking, it was placed within the ten-yard line, and twice, by the grimmest, most desperate resistance, it was lost on downs and sent hurtling back to near mid-field.

But Yates was on the defensive, even when the oval was in her possession, and Harwell experienced the pleasurable--and, in truth, unaccustomed--exultation that comes with the assurance of superiority.
Harwell's greatest ground-gaining plays now were the two sequences from ordinary formation and full-back forward.

These were used over and over, ever securing territory, and ever puzzling the opponents.
Joel was hard worked.