Everett Scott

“ They only just made the train. It stood puffing impatiently in the station when Terry swung his bus around with a flourish, and the boys streamed out of the rear door and rushed madly for the steps of the day coach. A train trip with a baseball team is always a merry party as Jeff knew for he had taken more than one as a member of the New City Y. M. C. A. team the year before, and he joined in the general fun and gentlemanly boisterousness they indulged in as they took possession of a day coach that held few occupants besides themselves. ”

“ Jeff and Wade went to bed that night so thoroughly keyed up that it was some time before either of them could get to sleep. And when they did finally drop off it seemed to them as if they had only had their eyes closed about five minutes when the seven o’clock bell sounded, and they awoke to the realization that it was Saturday morning and that the day of the big contest of the year was actually at hand. ”

“ Just because he is hot tempered and ugly; just because I do not think so much of him and most of the fellows of our bunch don’t like him is no reason why he shouldn’t be playing third base. For a while the best I can expect, I guess, is to be a sub on the big team and just hope to get a show once in a while. I’ll bet just hanging around like that is going to get Gould’s goat. Blame it, I want his job and, believe me, I’m going to make myself so good that Coach Rice will have to give me more than a substitute’s show. ”

“ Livingston looked at him in silence for some time after the two boys had gone. Finally he spoke, and to Jeff it seemed as if his tone was a little more fatherly than it had been to Gould or Pell.
“Thatcher,” he said, “this is the most unpleasant task I have had in all my career with boys. I have laid awake most of the night thinking of just what this was going to mean to you but I can see no way out. Rules are rules, and you know it as well as I do. That holds not only in school but in life generally, and the quicker you find it out the better off you’ll be. ”

“ But when in the lull between serving students and clearing off the tables he stopped to realize that even Buck Hart, the captain of the team, and the other players as well had thought that he was guilty of the offense, he understood the rest of the fellows, some present as spectators and hearing the referee’s decision, and others getting the news by hearsay, could be of the same opinion.
This hurt Thatcher more than he believed was possible. Always he had taken great pride in the fact that no one could question his sportsmanship. ”

“ With a man on second and none out, it was the opportunity of the game, and the Pennington players determined to take advantage of it. A single of the right sort could bring in a run, or at best move Thatcher on to third. Buck Hart spat on his hands, and with one strike on him settled down to the business at hand. And he was equal to the task, for presently he found Wells’ delivery for a hit that somehow got between third and short and enough out of reach to allow Thatcher to get to third, while Buck romped safely to first. ”

“ Rice and Mr. Clarkson leading, and Captain Tad directly behind them, started across the campus for the field.
As they came into sight of the bleachers, a wild cheer started that rolled on and on and developed into a thunder-like roar as they finally [257] reached the center of the diamond where they were scattered to their positions by the coach, while the school band took its place in the stands.
Warming up practice started with enthusiasm for the fellows had suppressed themselves so long that only a lot of vigorous physical action could serve to “let them down” and bring them back to normal. ”

“ A dull red glow, ugly and sinister, lighted the long hall, and clouds of smoke, thick and black and disconcerting, rolled past them. The noises in the building had ceased but outside they could hear shouts and calls, the tooting of fire engines’ whistles, the sound of breaking glass and the [185] swishing slosh and steady pounding of streams of water.
“My goodness, the firemen have their hose lines going already!” Jeff exclaimed to Wade. “We must be the last ones in the building. All the rest have cleared out long ago.” ”

“ When he unwound it Rabbit Warren was grinning at him.
“No more publicity this evening, Jeff. That’s a good job for one day. You’ll talk me onto the first team yet.”
“Well, believe me, if Wade Grenville wasn’t rooming with me he wouldn’t have made it to-day. See what I did for him. Why, Rabbit, you wouldn’t believe it, but I make Wade stand on the bed every night and catch glasses filled with water. If he spills any he has to sleep in a wet bed. That’s why he’s such a good fielder. How about it, Wade?” ”

“ Win the game in the first inning if we can but play hard all the way through,” said Captain Tad. “Come on. Let’s go.”
The fellows romped out to their positions and big George Dixon, with his slow deliberate stride, walked out to the pitcher’s box, spat into his glove, took the shining new ball that the umpire offered him, and turned to face the batter: the first man up of the Lawrencetown team, a chap by the name of Southers, who played second base and was a formidable batter. ”

“ Coach Rice approached Jeff just before the game was called and taking him aside spoke to him in a very fatherly fashion.
“Look here, Thatcher, I planned to start you at third to-day, as I told you. But you had a rather trying experience last night which must have taken a hard toll of your physical resources. I am inclined to keep you on the bench to-day and let Gould play. You may need a rest more than you need the physical exertion of playing the game. How do you feel, boy?” ”

“ With the corded netting draped all around the room to enmesh a stray ball, the candidates were permitted to slug as hard as they cared to, and they went at the work of finding their batting eye with a will.
Jeff was particularly keen for this batting cage practice, for he had long ago developed that co-ordination of eye, brain and muscle that makes a three hundred batter, and there was nothing he enjoyed more than proving to a pitcher that there were few curves or jumps that could fool him. ”

“ All this was accomplished in a remarkably short time considering the work involved, and while Jeff worked and sweated with the rest of the men and gulped down innumerable cups of steaming coffee and ate all the sandwiches he could consume as they were brought up by the grinning negro cook of the wrecking train, the first big derrick was moved up into place and like a giant elephant began to slowly nose its way into the wreck.
Then didn’t the men work! With this giant helper the task of clearing one track seemed to simplify. ”

“ Jeff had one hit to his credit so far. He decided that he wanted another to bring Daily in and tie the score. And he got it. He leaned on the very first ball pitched and smashed it over the second baseman’s head for a fine clean single, and meanwhile Daily, who was working on a long lead off the base, scored standing up, while Buck Hart went to third. The score was evened up, with a man on first and a man on third and only one out. It looked as if Pennington could sew up the game right there,—it looked that way but it did not work out that way. ”

“ The railroad’s yards covered several acres of ground and included a big station, a dispatcher’s office, roundhouse, freight yard, and machine shop, and myriads of switch towers, semaphores and block signals, the red and green lights of which blinked and winked at him in the cold winter night as Jeff picked his way across the network of tracks to the building in which the dispatcher’s office was located. It was mighty cold and growing colder. ”

“ Oleson made it standing up but little Tad was crouched over the rubber waiting for the ball as Miller came thundering down from third, and Wade Grenville with a fine throw shot it down into Tad’s mitt just as the runner slid feet first for the plate. Tad and Miller were all tangled up when the dust cleared away. The umpire signaled that Miller was out, and the little Pennington captain got to his feet with a look of pain on his face. His stocking was ripped down the shin and blood was oozing from a nasty spike wound that he had received in the mêlée. ”

“ He put a perfect strike over for the first ball. Then Honey drew two balls in succession and another strike. With two and two, Wells tried to put over the third and final ball, but Honey saw how good it was and slammed at it. It was a beautiful line drive toward second and it certainly looked as if Honey had succeeded in poking out the necessary hit to score Thatcher. Jeff and Buck, running on anything, tore around the bases madly, but as Jeff rounded third he heard the plunk of ball against leather and he turned his head in time to see Southers coming down from a remarkable jump. ”

“ Then he turned and shouted:
“Come on, fellows. Two down. Play the batter,” and he got a round of hearty applause from the bleachers and a rousing cheer besides, both for the fine play he had made and the gameness he showed after being spiked.
Play the batter they did. He was Dick Leslie, not a particularly strong hitter, and his best efforts netted Thatcher an assist for he scooped up a humming grounder and shot it over to Lafe Gammage with a will. Then the side came in and Captain Tad went over to the bench where Dr. Stout was waiting with some bandage and iodine to patch up his wounds. ”

“ That is too much money to give to an eighteen-year-old boy and the fact that you refuse to take it leaves the way open for me to help you the way I would prefer to help you,—the way I had planned to help you ever since Dr. Livingston called me up this morning. Thatcher, I want to send you back to Pennington at my expense,—or rather at the expense of the bank. I will see that your tuition is paid and your room and board cared for. Whatever money you need outside of that you will have to earn yourself as soon as you are permitted the privilege. ”

“ Led by the band the rooters gathered in a column four abreast and started to parade around the campus, later turning in the direction of the baseball diamond where they took up their section of the bleachers and forthwith began to hurl challenges at the now crowded buff and blue stands along third base line. ”

“ The coach gave Jeff his way, but the new third baseman soon realized that Mr. Rice knew a lot more about the physical capabilities of boys than he did. He was far from being at the top of his game and his playing was decidedly ragged. But at that he seemed to have himself better in hand than most of the other players, for they were all just as ragged as he was and some of them a great deal more so. About the only one who seemed to have his feet on the ground at all was sturdy little Tad Sloan, the catcher and captain. ”

“ Jeff was stunned. Of all offenses at Pennington this was certainly the most serious. To enter Room 44 at any time and under any circumstances was the most dishonorable thing that a student could do. This was the room in which the examination papers were prepared and kept. All of the students were aware of this fact and honor bound to respect the restrictions that none was to enter that room under any conditions. Some one in school had violated this trust and suspicion pointed to him!
“How—why—this is terrible, Dr. Livingston. But—but why do you suspect me, sir?” asked Jeff. ”

“ Life became a constant succession of visits to certain undertaking establishments for obituaries of the people who had died that day, a nightly trip to police headquarters to copy the unimportant police slips of accidents, a visit to the Memorial Hospital, after which he would return to the Freeman office, there to sit down in front of a typewriter and laboriously grind out paragraph after paragraph of names, dates and ages of people who had been injured and who had died during the past twenty-four hours. Jeff began to feel like a dead one himself. ”

“ The next player up was one of the best batters on the Custer team and Jeff had been watching him the entire game. As he picked up his stick, Jeff noticed that the Custer coach passed him a signal. He could not interpret it but he made a wild guess at it. The man at the bat was a slugger. A wise coach, under the present circumstances, with all of the players looking for a slashing hit, would doubtless signal the batter to bunt and try and beat it out while the man on first went down to second. Jeff realized that there were a dozen chances to one that he had guessed wrong ”

“ Rules are rules, laws are laws, and when you break either of them you must be punished. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot make an exception even of you, and I realize in making this decision just how disastrous it is going to be for you. ”

“ But Southers refused to let it be called a strike and landed on it for a clean single into right field.
The Lawrencetown stand went wild and so did the team. With a man on and none out and the opposing pitcher visibly nervous, things certainly began to look brighter. The heavy artillery was [279] up, too, and as Wild, one of their big guns, stepped up to the rubber, the crowd began to storm for a hit. ”