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The last thing I made out was Nan pressing close to the Rube's side. That moment saw their reconciliation and my joy that it was the end of the Rube's Honeymoon. It was about the sixth inning that I suspected the Rube of weakening. For that matter he had not pitched anything resembling his usual brand of baseball.
At the close of the first inning I was 10 worse than nothing and Smith had scored 7. The luck continued against me. When I was 57, Smith was 97 within 3 of out. The luck changed then. He picked up a 10-off or so, and couldn't recover. I beat him. The next game would end tournament No. 1. Mr. Thomas and I were the contestants. He won the lead and went to the bat so to speak.
"Pad his legs!" Then the inning began, and things happened. Rube had marvelous speed, but he could not find the plate. He threw the ball the second he got it; he hit men, walked men, and fell all over himself trying to field bunts. The crowd stormed and railed and hissed. The Bisons pranced round the bases and yelled like Indians. Finally they retired with eight runs. Eight runs!
The storm, however, perversely held off, and the locals found Grant too much for them in the last of the fourth. "We're five runs to the good, fellows," said Eliot, as the Oakdale players gathered at the bench. "It's going to rain soon, and this inning must be played through complete. Let every man who goes to bat now strike out." They followed instructions, Roger setting the example.
He sent a high-fly foul straight into the air, and the catcher succeeded in gathering it in. The inning closed with quite a change in the score, Harvard having a lead of but three, where it had been seven in the lead at the end of the sixth. "I am afraid they will get on to Merriwell this time," said Sport Harris, with a shake of his head. "Hey!" squealed Rattleton, who was quivering all over.
But no man got a hit, and the third inning ended as had the others, neither side having made a run. The fourth opened in breathless suspense, but it was quickly over, neither side getting a man beyond second. It did not seem possible that this thing could continue much longer, but the fifth inning brought the same result, although Yale succeeded in getting a man to third with only one out.
Likewise the seventh inning passed without a run for either side; only the infield work of the Stars was something superb. When the eighth inning ended, without a tally for either team, the excitement grew tense. There was Reddy Ray playing outfield alone, and the Grays with all their desperate endeavors had not lifted the ball out of the infield.
They were having such a good time playing the baseball game that neither one of them heard Grandpa Horton come into the room. He said it was time for him and Sunny Boy to go home, but Bob was so eager to finish an inning that Grandpa Horton said he would wait a few minutes. Bob won, and this seemed to please him very much.
The men bawled, the women screamed, the boys shrieked, and all waved their hats and flags, and jumped up and down, and manifested symptoms of baseball insanity. In the first of the eighth inning, Mackay sailed up the balls like balloons, and disposed of three batters on the same old weak hits to his clever fielders. In the last of the eighth, Wayne struck out three more Bellville players.
Although Phil showed some improvement in the fourth inning, and the scrub team did not succeed in securing another tally, he felt all the while that his teammates were watching him closely and comparing or contrasting his work with that of Hooker; nor did he forget that in the first two innings Grant had performed more successfully.
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