Ralph Henry Barbour

“ Going into the box with the bases full, even when there are two out, isn’t a thing to rejoice and be merry over, but, as Fudge confided to Perry just then, Tom Haley had been put together without nerves. Tom sped some fast and rather wild ones in the general direction of Lanny while the Springdale shortstop leaned on his bat and watched satirically, and the Blue’s supporters expressed derision. But none of the Clearfield fellows were worried by Tom’s apparent wildness. Tom always did that when he went as a relief pitcher. ”

“ Will you come around again and see me later?”
“Yes, sir, thank you,” replied Perry. “And Fudge isn’t really sorry you’re not the train-robber, Mr. Addicks; are you, Fudge?”
“Of course not!” Fudge grinned. “Anyway, it was a lot of fun while it lasted!”
“That’s all right, then,” said their host heartily. “Glad you don’t hold it against me. I know that a civil engineer isn’t as interesting as a desperado, fellows, but you drop in now and then and maybe we can scare up some excitement, eh? And if you ever want a nice job of surveying done, why, you let me know, and it won’t cost you a cent.” ”

“ Perry’s gaze went back to the man at the piano. There was something about him that awakened recollection. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man of twenty-six or -seven, with clear-cut and very good-looking features, and a luxuriant mustache, as Perry could see when he turned to smile at one of the violinists. He played the piano as though he thoroughly enjoyed it, swaying a little from the hips and sometimes emphasizing with a sudden swift bend of his head.
“He can play all around the other guy,” said Fudge in low and admiring whispers. “Wish I could play a piano like that. ”

“ Lanny paused, hands in pockets, and looked on. Back and forth went the roller, the engineer skillfully edging it toward the center of the road at the end of each trip. Further down the street, where the workmen were tearing up the old dirt surface, a second and much smaller roller stood idle, its boiler simmering and purring. Lanny smiled.
“Me for the little one,” he muttered, as he walked toward the smaller roller. The engineer was a huge, good-natured looking Irishman with a bristling red mustache, so large that he quite dwarfed the machine. ”

“ His sturdy body turned with the swinging weight, his arms outstretched, his feet twinkling marvelously above the trampled ground. Then he stopped quickly, the whirling hammer dipped, rose and, released, arched off like a shot from a mortar, and Fudge, recovering, pulled up with a foot against the wooden rim.
“Bully!” commended Partridge warmly. “That was all right, Fudge! And you see what I mean about not pulling back on the release, don’t you? That was mighty good form! Mighty good! Get your sweater on and keep moving. All right, George. Now see if you handle your feet better.” ”

“ The ball went streaking across the infield, rising as it went, Breen scuttled to the plate, Lanny flew to third, Harry Bryan sped to second, Pete legged it desperately to first. Second-baseman made a wild attempt to reach the ball, but it passed well above his upstretched glove and kept on. Right- and center-fielders started in, hesitated, changed their minds and raced back. The spectators, on their feet to a boy—or girl—yelled madly as fielders and ball came nearer and nearer together far out beyond the running track in deep center. ”

“ Crowell had landed squarely on Haley’s first pitch and driven it whizzing past the surprised Captain Jones for three bases! Tom Haley looked about as astounded as he ever allowed himself to look as he walked to the box after backing up Lanny. With none out and a runner on third, victory looked less certain for the Purple. Springdale’s “rooters” yelled wildly and triumphantly and Springdale’s coachers leaped about like insane acrobats and volleyed all sorts of advice to the lone runner, most of it intended for the pitcher’s ears.
“It’s a cinch, Johnny! You can walk home in a minute! ”

“ This year, if Guy Felker could have his way, the purple of Clearfield was to wave in gorgeous triumph over the blue of Springdale.
The trouble was, however, that after the last defeat by her rival Clearfield High School had rather lost enthusiasm for track and field sports. The pendulum swung far over toward baseball, and this spring it had been more than usually difficult to persuade fellows to come out for the Track Team. ”

“ Try not to foul this time. You start too far forward. That’s better! Did you see—look here, Shaw, if you’re out here to put the shot you watch what’s going on and never mind the jumpers! If you don’t watch how these other fellows do it you never will learn! All right, Falkland!”
“Maybe,” said Fudge when he and Perry were walking home, “maybe I’d rather be a broad-jumper, anyway. This shot-putting’s a silly stunt!” ”

“ I struck this place and found that my inheritance was nothing more than a full-grown, man-size mortgage. So I looked around for something to do until I could get a start at surveying. I couldn’t find anything until I happened on an advertisement in the paper for a pianist at the theater. Well, playing in a theater orchestra didn’t seem to me to be just what you’d expect a civil engineer to do. I thought that perhaps if people knew I did that they wouldn’t consider me much good as a surveyor. So I concluded I’d wear that mustache as a sort of disguise. ”

“ It’s all right to go after runs, but if you let the other fellow get runs, too, what good are you doing? If they whack a ball into right field it’ll be good for three bases, I tell you. Breen’s as slow as cold molasses and can’t throw half-way to the plate!”
“You’d better slip down there before it’s too late and tell that to Dick,” said Arthur sarcastically. “He’d be mighty glad to know it.”
“That’s all right, old scout. You wait and see if I’m not right. I just hope the first fellow up lams one into right!”
He didn’t though; he popped a foul to Lanny and retired to the bench. ”

“ Even if we found fellows now to come out and work for track positions there is scarcely time to develop them. And, for my part, I doubt that we can get any. Guy made a pretty good canvass of the school last month and I think he’s got hold of about all the talent there is. Seems to me, then, that the only thing to do is for us fellows to see if we can’t come to the rescue and round out the team better. I’ve never run a half-mile in competition and don’t know what I could do, but I’m willing to try. ”

“ Once out of sight of the house, however, his former enthusiasm returned. “We’ll climb over the fence,” he announced. “I know a place where it isn’t hard. Of course, we ought to have a pistol to start with, but I guess it will do if I just say ‘Go!’” He stopped indecisively. “Gordon has a revolver,” he said thoughtfully. “We might borrow it. Only, maybe he isn’t home. I haven’t seen him all day.”
“Never mind, we don’t need it,” said Perry, pulling him along. “He’d probably want to go along with us, Fudge, and I don’t want any audience. I dare say I won’t be able to run fast at all.” ”

“ We’ll just say that he’s a—a tip-top fellow, which he is, and that he’s just come here and needs work like anything; that he has to live in one room and maybe doesn’t have enough to eat, and how he worked his way through college running a livery stable, and lost his money in oil or something, and all that. Dick’s just the fellow to help anyone like that. He—he just loves to help folks!”
“Well, if we could do it that way, without letting out about Mr. Addicks being a train-robber, it would be fine,” replied Perry heartily. “Shall we, Fudge?” ”

“ Don’t try for long steps. Take short ones, at least at first until you learn to lengthen them without throwing yourself off. When you’re running the hundred yards, fellows, about fifty per cent. of it depends on the way you get off your mark. Races are won or lost right there. The idea is to get away quick, but get your stride at once. Now, then, watch me and see how I do it.”
That, thought Perry, as his gaze followed Lanny’s bare legs twinkling down the path, simplified the business. ”

“ He’d hide, wouldn’t he, Fudge?”
“Where? He is hiding. He wears that mustache and he’s trusting to that, you see. Why, if he went sneaking around the police would notice him at once, Perry. So he comes right out in public; makes believe he’s a civil engineer and plays the piano in a theater. You don’t suppose, do you, that the police would ever think of looking in a moving picture house for an escaped train-robber? Say, he must sort of laugh to himself when he sees those train-robbery films, eh?” ”

“ There was possibly no more cheerful boy in Clearfield than Richard Lovering, in spite of his infirmity. But Lanny, with his flaxen hair and dark eyes—a combination as odd as it was attractive—and his sun-browned skin and his slimly muscular figure, looked the athlete he was, every inch of him. Lanny was a “three-letter man” at the High School; had captained the football team, caught on the nine and was a sprinter of ability. And, which was no small attainment, he possessed more friends than any other fellow in school. Lanny couldn’t help [40] making friends ”

“ I mean by that don’t put all your strength into the going; save something for the last thirty yards or so. Then let yourself out! Remember that the hundred-yards is a hustle all the way, but the two-twenty is just a hundred and twenty yards longer and the fellow who tries to win in the first half of the race dies at the finish. Of course, it all comes by trying and learning. Experience brings judgment, and judgment is what a sprinter [256] has to have. ”

“ Not one of you fellows except White ran in decent form to-day; and if someone would tell him not to throw his head back as far as he does he’d do better yet. What the dickens does this Skeet fellow think? That you kids can find out all these things without being told? Why, great, jumping Geewhillikins, there are all sorts of things to be learned if you’re going to be a real sprinter! It isn’t just getting off the mark quick and running as hard as you know how to the tape. There’s science in it, old scout, a heap of science!”
“I suppose there is,” replied Perry a trifle dejectedly. ”

“ Fudge voiced the general complaint when, having without difficulty mounted the fence and dropped to the soggy turf inside, followed more lithely by Perry Hull, he viewed the cinder track with disfavor. The recent rain had flooded it from side to side, and, since it was lower than the ground about it and had been put down with little or no provision for drainage, inch-deep puddles still lingered in the numerous depressions.
“We can’t practice here,” said Perry.
“Wouldn’t that agonize you?” demanded Fudge. “Gee, what’s the good of having an athletic field [14] if you can’t keep it up? ”

“ Springdale worked hard and took advantage of everything, but luck was against her when Cotner ran back to the shadow of the fence in deep left and pulled down a long fly that might easily have been good for two bases. Springdale had a runner on first at the time and Cotner’s spectacular catch undoubtedly robbed her of a tally. After that Scott threw out the next batsman and Bryan tossed to Jones on the following play. In her half Clearfield got one man to first on balls, but watched the succeeding three retire on easy outs. ”

“ ON THE TRACK By the middle of the month the Track Team comprised twenty members, several less than coach and captain had hoped for. By a good deal of intricate scheming those twenty were apportioned over the seven track and five field events so that in each Clearfield would be represented by not less than three wearers of the purple. In many cases a second was the best that Captain Felker dared hope for, in some cases a third would be all he expected. A number of the fellows were being coached in things they had never dreamed of undertaking. ”

“ We haven’t but one miler on the team, as you know. Smith is doing his best, but unless he travels faster than he did last year he won’t get a point. Springdale, from what I can learn, is especially strong this year at the mile, half and quarter and we’ve got to get some seconds and thirds in those events to have a chance at winning. Presser is willing to do all he possibly can, but he can’t turn out runners if he isn’t given material to work on. So, as I’ve said, it seems to me it would be a good plan to induce some of the fellows who are trying for field events to go in for track work. ”

“ Lanny swung at it but missed and Jones beat out the throw to second by an eyelash. Clearfield howled its glee. That steal upset Newton and he allowed a pass. With men on second and first and Joe Browne up another tally seemed quite within the bounds of reason, but Newton found himself again and, working Browne into the hole with two strikes and one ball, fooled him on an outshoot that looked very wide of the plate. Clearfield shrieked disapproval of the decision, but disapproval didn’t put the runners back on the bases or return Browne to the plate. ”

“ I’ve a good mind to go in for it.”
“Why don’t you?” asked Perry, encouragingly eager. “What would you try? Running or—or what?” His gaze unconsciously strayed over his friend’s rotund figure.
“N-no,” replied Fudge hesitantly. “I don’t think so. I might go in for the mile, maybe. I don’t know yet. I’m just thinking of it. I’d have to study a bit. Perhaps the weights would be my line. Ever put the shot?” Perry shook his head. “Neither have I, but I’ll bet I could. All it takes is practice. Say, wouldn’t it be funny if you and I both made the team?” ”

“ Fellows seem to hold off from those events as if they were poison. I dare say they think they’re harder work. In a way they are, or, at least, they require a more sustained effort than the sprints and hurdles. And speaking of hurdles, we need a bigger field there. Lanny’s got all he can manage with the sprints, although he intends to try the high hurdles too. The only fellow we have in sight now for the low sticks is Arthur here. We ought to have four men for every event on the program, and that’s the truth of it. ”

“ Fudge was one who predicted overwhelming defeat for the Purple. He figured it out for Mr. Addicks and Perry one day and proved conclusively that the best possible score for Clearfield was thirty-two points. “And that,” explained Fudge, “means that we’ll have to get eight points in the hammer-throw.”
“Maybe,” said Perry, “we’ll make a better showing than we expect, Fudge. Mander almost equaled Felker’s record at the pole-vault yesterday.”
“That’s all right,” replied Fudge firmly. “I’ve allowed us six points in the pole-vault. We’re going to get licked good and hard. ”

“ The back door lets out into that little alley next to Cosgrove’s store on Common Street.”
“Cosgrove’s? Ha!” Fudge stopped abruptly and tried to look as much like his favorite hero, “Young Sleuth,” as possible. “That’s it, then!”
“What’s it?” asked Perry impatiently.
“It’s Cosgrove’s he’s after. Don’t you see?” Cosgrove’s was the principal jewelry store in Clearfield. “That’s why he rented a room in that block, Perry. All he’s got to do is to go out the back way to the alley and there he is!”
“You’re crazy,” laughed Perry. “You don’t know that the man’s a—a criminal, do you?” ”

“ We’re going to have a mighty good team this year and we’re going to simply run away from Springdale. You wait and see.”
“What of it if we do?” grumbled Way. “Who cares?”
[126]
“Most everyone except you, you old pudding-head,” responded Gordon. “Want me to take her awhile now, Lanny?”
“No, thank you kindly. Guy’s having a pretty hard time to get fellows interested in the track, and that’s a fact, but he’s going to win out all right. Don’t go around talking like that, Way, because it isn’t fair. Just because you don’t care for track sports, you needn’t discourage other fellows.” ”

“ Newton for the first time showed nerves. Haley, who was only an average batter at the best, was sent to first after five deliveries. The Clearfield cheering, momentarily stilled, broke forth with renewed vehemence. It was Bryan’s turn at bat. Bryan stood disdainfully inert while two bad ones passed him, and then Springdale’s relief pitcher, who had been warming up off and on for the last four innings, took the helm and Newton, who had pitched a remarkable game up to the eighth inning, retired to the bench. ”