“Don’d you see dot sbeed!” muttered Villum. “Dot pall a pullet vos, so hellup me!”
“We’re up against something pretty hard, fellows,” said Chip, as they went out. “Everybody pull together, now, and we’ll win.”
His confidence had been sorely shaken, however. Smith strode out and landed on Frank’s first ball for a foul that went up over the grand stand. Twice more he fouled, but the double shoot retired him finally.
“They’re all bad actors,” cried Lowe from third. “Let ’em hit it, Chip!”
Olcott, the new Clipper catcher, was a short man, with tremendously wide shoulders. Chip tried him with a low fadeaway, but Olcott chortled with glee and fell on it. The ball rose and began to travel for the right-field fence.
O’Day raced back, then stopped short. The crowd hooted, for the ball seemed certain to go far beyond him. The fans had forgotten the wind, however, and, when the sphere came down it nestled into O’Day’s glove, and stuck there. Johnson fanned, and the Fardales went to bat.
That is, they went to bat technically. Clancy was the first up, and although usually a slugger, he was retired on three pitched balls. Merry took his place, with the bleachers screaming for a hit.
Green studied him a moment, then changed his position abruptly. He used something that he had hitherto held in reserve--a remarkable spit ball. Frank guessed it, but could not hit.
Again Green used the same thing, and again Merry missed it. He touched the third one for a high foul, however, that cleared the grand stand. With a new ball thrown out to him, Green deliberately put over three balls that were wide of the plate.
“Put it over!” snapped Chip. “You’re scared to put it over, Green!”
Green looked at him, and grinned tantalizingly. Then he calmly sent over the ball, ten feet wide of the plate. Frank angrily flung his bat away, and walked.
The Fardale rooters went wild, but Chip was not fooled. He knew that this was a deliberate effort to rattle him, and that Green had meant to show his contempt. This was proved when Harker was sent down on three pitched balls, though Green again held his spit ball under cover.
His curves were wonderful, and would have fooled better men than Fardale owned. Seeing that he was marooned on first, Chip made a desperate attempt, and stole second, but only got there safely because Murray dropped a terrific ball, that Olcott placed perfectly. Billy Mac immediately struck out, and the inning was over.