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At intervals cheers marked the good plays of both teams, and time and again the work of the pitchers earned applause. The crowd seemed to be holding back, and while they waited for the unexpected the short, sharp innings slipped by. Trace for Wayne led off in the seventh with a safe fly over short. Ken, attempting to sacrifice, rolled a little bunt down the third-base line and beat the throw.
About an hour afterwards, Mr W reappeared, with his face bound up, and summoned all the young gentlemen on deck, insisting upon being informed who it was who had stowed away the bottle in the bunt of the sail; but midshipmen have most treacherous memories, and not one of them knew anything about it. As a last resource, young Aveleyn was called down from the mast-head.
An English lad and myself went up to furl it; and we had just got the bunt up, when the mate called out to us, something, we did not hear what, but supposing it to be an order to bear-a-hand, we hurried, and made all fast, and came down, feeling our way among the rigging.
The mate then took his place between the knight-heads to ``twig'' the fore, on the windlass to twig the main, and at the foot of the mainmast for the mizzen; and if anything was wrong, too much bunt on one side, clews too taut or too slack, or any sail abaft the yard, the whole must be dropped again.
The word was passed again, the indomitable word by the indomitable bo'sun at the bunt, this time to "skin" it up, and each man clawed out again at the flat booming canvas, clawed at it with his crooked fingers as wrestlers claw for hold behind each others' backs.
Here's a man praying one minute, and before the Lord has time to answer him he's ready to commit murder. Sink me, if ever I did see any use of praying one minute and doing things the next. It's wrorse than my pore old father used to be. 'My son, he'd say, 'shake out the bunt of yer breeches, which I'd do. Yessir, sink me if I didn't do it.
Up the ratlines of the rigging clambered the men, racing against each other to see who would be up first, while others below cast off the ropes holding up the bunt and leech of the sail, as soon as the smart fellows had unloosed the gaskets; and then, the folds of the sails being dropped, were sheeted home with a "one, two, three, and a yo heave ho!" by those on deck, before the top men were half-way down the shrouds.
Bunt was back at his old occupation of miner, and I the one loafer of all that little world of workers had brought him a bottle of beer to go with the "chaw"; for Bunt and I were ancient friends.
The third man went to the first station on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek.
Vane came rushing in for the bunt, got it and threw. But as the speeding ball neared the baseman, Mac stretched out into the air and shot for the bag. By a fraction of a second he beat the ball. It was one of his demon-slides. He knew that the chances favored his being crippled; we all knew that some day Mac would slide recklessly once too often.
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