CHAPTER IV.
THE PRACTICE GAME WITH THE SCRUB TEAM.
"I RECEIVED this by special messenger not more than half an hour ago,"remarked the scout master of the Hickory Ridge Troop.
"Was it Felix Wagner, the second baseman of Fairfield, who brought it?"asked Lil Artha; "because I saw him on his wheel pass our house justbefore I came out."
"I believe he did say that was his name," replied Mr. Garrabrant,"though I didn't bother asking him, and might not even have rememberedit only for your mentioning the same. Hurry along, Landy, if you want tohear the challenge read."
"Well, I do now, the worst kind, even if I ain't on the regular team,"replied the fat boy. "Something might happen to one of our fellows, andthen perhaps they'd give me a show. I know I'm a little clumsy, but I'mimproving all the time and can run half a mile now without breathing_very_ hard."
"Hold your horses, Landy, and give Mr. Garrabrant a show!" called one.
"Yes, we want to hear about the challenge; we can listen to your talkany old time, Landy. You'll be with us some time yet," added another.
The scout master held up his finger, and instantly every sound ceased.Even the boys present who did not belong to the regular scoutsunderstood that Mr. Garrabrant enforced obedience, and were ready toyield it with the rest. Besides, even if they did not play on the team,they belonged in good old Hickory Ridge, and the interests of the townwere dear to their boyish hearts.
"MR. RODERIC GARRABRANT, SCOUT MASTER, "Boy Scouts Troop of Hickory Ridge.
"We, the newly organized Boy Scouts of Fairfield and Cramertown, having made up a team composed wholly of the members of our organization, do hereby challenge you to a game of ball on the afternoon of Monday the twentieth of August, to settle the question of championship on the diamond between our different organizations. No one not a scout in good standing to participate in this match game. Please settle this matter at your earliest convenience, and send us a reply, so that the game may be advertised. It will be played at three o'clock upon the neutral field of Basking Ridge, the home nine there having disbanded.
"Signed by the Committee, "FELIX WAGNER, "ADRIAN COOK, "JOHN BASTIAN, "MATTHEW TUBBS, _Chairman_."
No sooner had Mr. Garrabrant finished reading this communication than agreat uproar broke out. Two dozen tongues wagged at the same time.Everybody seemed to have something to say on the subject, and while mostof them applauded the tone of the challenge, there were numeroussuggestions in the air.
Again did the scout master hold up his hand.
"Silence!" hissed Lil Artha, with both hands motioning at the same time.
"Mr. Garrabrant says be still, fellows!" called another.
When it was so quiet they could almost have heard a pin drop, the scoutmaster once more addressed the fifty-odd boys around him.
"Please remember," he said, pointedly, "this is a matter that concernsonly the Boy Scouts. I expect every other fellow to keep the utmostsilence while we talk it over. You are being handsomely treated in beingallowed the privilege of staying here and listening to what we have tosay. Now, scouts, what is your pleasure about this courteous challenge?"
"I move that it be immediately accepted, and the time be set as Mondaynext at three in the afternoon, and the game to come off on the BaskingRidge diamond," suggested Mark.
"Second the motion!" followed Lil Artha, quickly.
"Any remarks before the motion is put?" asked Mr. Garrabrant, smiling ashe looked at the eager faces by which he was surrounded.
"Are we to take it for granted that the Basking Ridge people would allowus to come over and use their diamond, sir?" asked Elmer.
"That is a point well taken," replied Mr. Garrabrant, "and I will sayfor the general information that I asked the messenger about that verything. He assured me that the Fairfield people have the written consentof the owner of the ground at Basking Ridge. And the people of the townare just wild for the game to come off there. They are starved for goodbaseball, since their club broke up early in the season. So that pointis disposed of. Any other question, boys?"
"There is only to be this one game, I understand it, suh?" queriedChatz.
"Only this one game," replied the gentleman.
"And the club that wins will be known as the champion team of the BoyScouts league in this part of the state--is that it, suh?" the Southernboy went on.
"I so understand it," Mr. Garrabrant answered.
"There isn't anything said about umpires, suh; and we've found in thepast that if we want to have a square deal the umpire should never comefrom either of the towns playing in the game," Chatz declared,positively.
"I took the pains to ask the messenger about that," said Mr. Garrabrant,smiling, "for I realized that half of our trouble in the past has comefrom having a partisan umpire. But the messenger who carried thechallenge said that Home-run Joe Mallon, who belongs to the Tri-StateLeague, is home in Basking Ridge, waiting for a broken arm to heal, andthat he'd gladly do the umpiring. You know he used to be an umpire longbefore he got to playing ball. So that question is fixed, too. Anymore?"
"Question! Question!" shouted a number of the scouts, eagerly.
When the motion, to the effect that the challenge of the Fairfield ninebe unanimously accepted, was put, it met with not a single dissentingvote, and Mr. Garrabrant called it settled.
"The committee will go with me immediately following the game to-day,and after we have drafted our answer we'll get it over to Fairfieldto-night, if I have to borrow somebody's car to do it," declared thescout master.
Then the cheers broke out in earnest. Every boy in all Hickory Ridgewould be circulating the great news before night. Little need therewould be to go to any expense in getting out posters when there was sucha splendid circulating medium close at hand.
"Now let's start play!" called Chatz, impatient to see whether Elmerwould put in that tantalizing slow ball such as always proved such atempting bait to the ordinary batter, causing him to swipe the airfiercely, besides losing confidence in himself meanwhile.
In a short time the scrub game began. Johnny Kline was on the firingline for the scrub, and he certainly had some speed along with him thatday, for he sent them in "scorching hot," as Lil Artha declared.
However, it seemed as though Elmer and his chums just lived on speed,for they nearly every one fattened their average of batted balls thateluded the vigilant fielders.
Of course, with everything favoring the regular team, they soon began topile up runs, while sensational fielding on their part cut thehard-working scrub team out of several tallies.
After the game had run through seven innings it was called because thehour was getting on toward six.
"And we have a meeting to-night at which the committee will report,"said Mr. Garrabrant.
"How does the score stand now?" asked an outsider who had been away mostof the time after the fourth inning, and only just returned when theycame in off the field.
"Seven to one, in favor of the scouts," some one replied.
"It would have been a shut out only for Ty Collins out in center lettingthat swift fly pass him, that Johnny Kline made his home run on,"replied another.
"All the same it was a hard-fought game, fellows," remarked the genialscout master, who knew the outsiders felt very sore over their inabilityto hit Elmer, and whose nature it was to soften hard blows for the underdog.
"If it had been any other pitcher we'd have knocked the stuffing out ofhim, and that's no lie," asserted the captain of the scrub nine,defiantly. "My team had their batting eyes along, but that balloon ballfooled us every time. It's sure the finest ever, and I see poor oldFairfield's finish if ever she gets up against Elmer this year."
"I see you found your old mouse-colored cap again, Mark," remarked LilArtha. "Glad you went back after it this morning. Was beginning to beafraid you might put in a claim against me for a new lid, becaus
e I wasthe cause of your losing that one."
Several others heard what was said, and, of course, boy-like demanded toknow what Lil Artha meant; so he simply said Mark lost his cap whilescuffling near the bank of the Sunflower River, while they were on theirway home from fishing on the preceding evening at dusk.
Both Mark and Elmer had arranged it between them to keep on the watchand see if anyone appeared to be any ways surprised at Mark wearing thefamiliar gray cap. But so far as they were able to notice the mattercaused only a slight passing ripple, and was then apparently forgotten.
If the party who had found the cap, and later on deliberately left itunder the prize peach trees of Colonel Hitchins, in order to get Mark inbad odor with that gentleman, were present, he had the shrewdness toavoid showing any feeling of astonishment that would naturally come tohim on seeing the owner of the cap wearing it again, with the utmostindifference.
"Nothing doing, Elmer," whispered Mark to his chum, in rather adisgusted tone, when they found themselves apart from the rest of thehomeward-bound players and spectators.
"If you mean with regard to finding out who had your cap, I guess youhit the nail on the head," chuckled the other. "Either the fellow wasn'tthere, or else he was smart enough to keep a straight face, and take nointerest in your old cap."
"Then I don't wear it again, I tell you," remarked the other. "It'spretty punk anyhow, and whoever had it, started to tear the lining out.Just see how it's torn, would you?"
Elmer took the cap and glanced at the badly used interior.
"It is, for a fact," he remarked, as a look of intelligence flashedacross his face, only to vanish again. "Looks like it had been throughthe war. Are you sure the lining wasn't torn that way when you lost it,Mark?"
"Not one bit, I give you my word. But enough of that. The thing hauntsme if I happen to wake up in the night. D'ye know I just see before methat one question: 'Who found Mark Cummings's cap?' But never an answercomes, and I keep groping in the dark. Perhaps some day I may happen onthe answer, Elmer, or you may, for you're always so smart at solvingriddles."
"Perhaps I may, Mark, and if I do you can just bank on it I'll betelling you the first thing," laughed the other.
"Well, I should guess you would," declared Mark.
Then others joined them, and the conversation became general; of course,pretty much all of the talk being in connection with the coming battlewith the strong Fairfield team that had given them so hard a tussle twoyears ago.
"But we're twice as strong now as then, boys," said Mark. "We didn'thave our prize pitcher then, and some of us have improved a heap in thattime."
"So has Matt Tubbs and several of his nine," declared Ty Collins, whoplayed center. "They beat the Rochesters early in the season, when theregulars were practicing. Don't you believe for one minute we're goingto have a walkover. The Fairfield team's a hustling lot, they tell me,and always working for runs. They're bigger than our men every way."
"They can be as tall as the housetops," chuckled Lil Artha, "and thatwon't help one bit to meet up against Elmer's benders, or engage thatballoon ball he has learned to throw just as good as Christy Matthewsonever did."
"Oh, what rotten stuff!" mocked Elmer, though of course he could nothelp feeling satisfied with the confidence which his teammates seemed torepose in him.
A short time later they reached the borders of the town, where theydivided up in smaller groups, according to where their homes chanced tolie.
"Remember the meeting to-night, boys!" had been the last words of Mr.Garrabrant, and a number who did not belong to the scouts wished theyhad the nerve to put in an application right away, for they did seem tohave such glorious times.
When Elmer parted from his chum, and walked on to his own home, he wasnodding and muttering to himself somewhat in this style:
"Yes, perhaps I _may_ have some news for Mark about that blessed old capbefore a great while goes by, because I've got my suspicions. But nowit's mum as an oyster for me."