CHAPTER XXIX.
THE END OF THE GAME.
Now the New Haven crowd took their turn, and took it in earnest.Rattleton stood upon the shoulders of a friend, and fell off upon theheads of the crowd as he was cheering. He didn't mind that, for he keptright on cheering.
"Merriwell, I believe you have broken the streak!" cried Old Put, withinexpressible satisfaction.
"Well, I sincerely hope so," returned Frank. "I rather think we are allright now, but we've got a hard pull ahead of us. Harvard is still fivein the lead, you know."
"If you can hold them down--"
"I am going to do my best."
"If you save this game the boys won't do a thing when we get back to NewHaven--not a thing!"
The next batter flied out to shortstop, and Griswold remained on second.
Now there was suspense, for Yale had two men out. A sudden hush fell onthe field, broken only by the voices of the two coachers.
Coulter had not recovered his nerve, and the next batter got a safe hitinto right field, while Danny Griswold's short legs fairly twinkled ashe scudded down to third and then tore up the dust in a mighty effort toget home on a single.
Every Yale man was on his feet cheering again, and Danny certainlycovered ground in a remarkable manner. Head first he went for the plate.
The right fielder secured the ball and tried to stop Danny at the plateby a long throw. The throw was all right, but Griswold was making toomuch speed to be caught.
The instant Old Put, who had returned to the coach line, saw that thefielder meant to throw home, he howled for the batter to keep right onfor second.
Griswold scored safely, and the catcher lost little time in throwing tosecond.
"Slide!" howled a hundred voices.
The runner obeyed, and he got in under the baseman, who had been forcedto take a high throw.
It is impossible to describe what followed. The most of the Yalespectators acted as if they had gone crazy, and those in sympathy withHarvard showed positive alarm.
Two or three men got around the captain of the Harvard team and askedhim to take out Coulter.
"Put in Peck!" they urged. "They've got Coulter going, and he will losethe game right here if you do not change."
At this the captain got angry and told them to get out. When he gotready to change he would do it without anybody's advice.
Coulter continued to pitch, and the next batter got first on an error bythe shortstop.
"The whole team is going to pieces!" laughed Paul Pierson. "I wouldn'tbe surprised to see Old Put's boys pull the game out in this inning, forall that two men are out."
"If they do so, Merriwell is the man who will deserve the credit," saidCollingwood. "That is dead right."
"Yes, it is right, for he restored confidence and started the work ofrattling Coulter."
"Paul," said the great man of the 'Varsity crew, "that fellow is fastenough for the regular team."
"You said so before."
"And I say so again."
Now it became evident to everybody that Coulter was in a pitiful state,for he could not find the plate at all, and the next man went down onfour balls, filling the bases.
But that was not the end of it. The next batter got four balls, and ascore was forced in.
Then it was seen that Peck, Harvard's change pitcher, was warming up,and it became evident that the captain had decided to put him into thebox.
If the next Yale man had not been altogether too eager to get a hit,there is no telling when the inning would have stopped. He sent ahigh-fly foul straight into the air, and the catcher succeeded ingathering it in.
The inning closed with quite a change in the score, Harvard having alead of but three, where it had been seven in the lead at the end of thesixth.
"I am afraid they will get on to Merriwell this time," said SportHarris, with a shake of his head.
"Hey!" squealed Rattleton, who was quivering all over. "I'll give you achance to even up with me. I'll bet you twenty that Harvard doesn'tscore."
"Oh, well, I'll have to stand you, just for fun," murmured Harris as heextracted a twenty-dollar bill from the roll it was said he alwayscarried and handed it to Deacon Dunning. "Shove up your dough, Rattle."
Harry covered the money promptly, and then he laughed.
"This cakes the take--I mean takes the cake! I never struck such an easyway of making money! I say, fellows, we'll open something after thegame, and I'll pay for it with what I win off Harris."
"That will be nice," smiled Harris; "but you may not be loaded with mymoney after the game."
The very first batter up, got first on an error by the second basemanwho let an easy one go through him.
"The money is beginning to look my way as soon as this," said Harris.
"It is looking your way to bid you good-by," chuckled Harry, not in theleast disturbed or anxious.
Merriwell had a way of snapping his left foot out of the box for a throwto first, and it kept the runner hugging the bag all the time.
Frank also had another trick of holding the ball in his hand andappearing to give his trousers a hitch, upon which he would deliver theball when neither runner nor batter was expecting him to do so, and yethis delivery was perfectly proper.
He struck the next man out, and the batter to follow hit a weak one tothird, who stopped the runner at second.
Two men were out, and still there was a man on first. Now it looked darkfor Harvard that inning, and not a safe hit had been made off Merriwellthus far.
The Harvard crowd was getting anxious. Was it possible that Merriwellwould hold them down so they could not score, and Yale would yet pullout by good work at the bat?
The captain said a few words to the next batter before the man went upto the plate, and Frank felt sure the fellow had been advised to takehis time.
Having made up his mind to this, Frank sent a swift straight onedirectly over, and, as he had expected, the batter let it pass, whichcaused the umpire to call a strike.
Still keeping the runner hugging first, Frank seemed to start anotherball in exactly the same manner. It was not a straight one, but it was avery slow drop, as the batter discovered after he had commenced toswing. Finding he could not recover, the fellow went after the ball witha scooping movement, and then did not come within several inches of it,greatly to the delight of the Yale crowd.
"Oh, Merry has every blooming one of them on a string!" cried Rattleton."He thon't do a wing to 'em--I mean he won't do a thing to 'em."
The Yale men were singing songs of victory already, and the Harvardcrowd was doing its best to keep up the courage of its team by rootinghard.
It was a most exciting game.
"The hottest game I ever saw played by freshmen," commented Collingwood.
"It is a corker," confessed Pierson. "We weren't looking for anything ofthe sort a short time ago."
"I should say not. Up to the time Merriwell went in it looked as ifHarvard had a walkover."
"Gordon feels bad enough about it, that is plain. He is trying toappear cheerful on the bench, but--"
"He can't stand it any longer; he's leaving."
That was right. Gordon had left the players' bench and was walking away.He tried to look pleased at the way things were going, but the attemptwas a failure.
"Merriwell is the luckiest fellow alive," he thought. "If I had stayedin another inning the game might have changed. He is pitching good ball,but I'm hanged if I can understand why they do not hit him. It lookseasy."
Neither could the Harvard lads thoroughly understand it, although therewere some who realized that Merriwell was using his head, as well asspeed and curves. And he did not use speed all the time. He had a finechange of pace, sandwiching in his slow balls at irregular intervals,but delivering them with what seemed to be exactly the same motion thathe used on the speedy ones.
The fourth batter up struck out, and again Harvard was retired without ascore, which caused the Yale crowd to cheer so that some of t
he lads gotalmost black in the face.
"Well! well! well!" laughed Rattleton, as Deacon Dunning passed over themoney he had been holding. "This is like chicking perries--I meanpicking cherries. All I have to do is to reach out and take what Iwant."
"If the boys will capture the game I'll be perfectly satisfied to lose,"declared Harris, who did not tell the truth, however, for he waschagrined, although he showed not a sign of it.
"How can we lose? how can we lose?" chuckled Harry. "Things are comingour way, as the country editor said when he was rotten-egged by themob."
It really seemed that Yale was out for the game at last, for they keptup their work at the bat, although Peck replaced Coulter in the box forHarvard.
Merriwell had his turn with the first batter up. One man was out, andthere was a man on second. Coulter had warned Peck against givingMerriwell an outcurve. At the same time, knowing Frank had batted toright field before, the fielders played over toward right.
"So you are on to that, are you?" thought Frank. "Well, it comes fulleasier for me to crack 'em into left field if I am given an inshoot."
Two strikes were called on him before he found anything that suited him.Harris was on the point of betting Rattleton odds that Merriwell did notget a hit, when Frank found what he was looking for and sent it sailinginto left. It was not a rainbow, so it did not give the fielder time toget under it, although he made a sharp run for it.
Then it was that Merriwell seemed to fly around the bases, while the manahead of him came in and scored. At first the hit had looked like atwo-bagger, but there seemed to be a chance of making three out of it asFrank reached second, and the coachers sent him along. He reached thirdahead of the ball, and then the Yale crowd on the bleachers did theirduty.
"How do you Harvard chaps like Merriwell's style?" yelled a Yaleenthusiast as the cheering subsided.
Then there was more cheering, and the freshmen of 'Umpty-eight wereentirely happy.
The man who followed Frank promptly flied out to first, which quenchedthe enthusiasm of the Yale gang somewhat and gave Harvard's admirers anopportunity to make a noise.
Frank longed to get in his score, which would leave Harvard with a leadof but one. He felt that he must get home some way.
Danny Griswold came to the bat.
"Get me home some way, Danny," urged Frank.
The little shortstop said not a word, but there was determination in hiseyes. He grasped his stick firmly and prayed for one of his favoritehigh balls.
But Peck kept them low on Danny, who took a strike, and then was pulledon a bad one.
With two strikes on him and only one ball, the case looked desperatefor Danny. Still he did not lose his nerve. He did not think he couldnot hit the ball, but he made himself believe that he was bound to hitit. To himself he kept saying:
"I'll meet it next time--I'll meet it sure."
He knew the folly of trying to kill the ball in such a case, and so whenhe did swing, his only attempt was to meet it squarely. In this hesucceeded, and he sent it over the second baseman's head, but it fellshort of the fielder.
Merriwell came home while Griswold was going down to first.
And now it needed but one score for Yale to tie Harvard.
The man who followed Griswold dashed all their hopes by hitting a weakone to short and forcing Danny out at second.
Harvard cheered their men as they came in from the field.
"We must make some scores this time, boys," said the Harvard captain. "Amargin of one will never do, with those fellows hitting anything andeverything."
"That's exactly what they are doing," said Peck. "They are getting hitsoff balls they have no business to strike at."
"Oh, you are having your troubles," grinned a friend.
"Any one is bound to have when batters are picking them off the cloudsor out of the dirt. It doesn't make much difference where they are."
"This man Merriwell can't hold us down as he has done," assertedDickson, Harvard's first baseman.
"I don't know; he is pretty cagey," admitted Nort Gibson.
"I believe he is the best pitcher we'll strike this season," saidanother.
"Here, here, you fellows!" broke in the captain. "You are gettingdown-hearted, and that won't do. We've got this game and we are going tohold it; but we want to go in to clinch it right here."
They didn't do much clinching, for although the first man up hit theball, he got to first on an error by the third baseman, who fumbled intrying to pick it up.
Blossom was the third baseman, and he was confused by his awkwardness,expecting to get a call down.
"Steady, Blos, old boy!" said Frank, gently. "You are all right. Thebest of us do those things occasionally. It is nothing at all."
These words relieved Blossom's feelings and made him vow that he wouldnot let another ball play chase around his feet.
Frank struck the next man out, and held the runner on first while he wasdoing it. The third man sent an easy pop-fly to Blossom, who got hold ofit and clung to it for dear life.
Then the runner got second on a passed ball, but he advanced no farther,for the following batter rolled a weak one down to Frank, who gatheredit in and threw the man out at first.
In three innings not a safe hit had been made off Merriwell, and he hadstruck out five men. No wonder his admirers cheered him wildly as hewent to the bench.
Yale started in to make some scores. The very first man up got a hit andstole second. The next man went to the bat with the determination toslug the ball, but Old Put signaled for a sacrifice, as the man was agood bunt hitter.
The sacrifice was tried, and it worked, for the man on second got third,although the batter was thrown out at first.
"Now we need a hit!" cried Put. "It takes one to tie and two to win. Ahit ties the game."
Rattleton offered to bet Harris two to one that Yale would win, butSport declined the offer.
"It's our game fast enough," he said. "You are welcome to what you havewon off me. I am satisfied."
But the game was not won. Amid the most intense excitement the next manfouled out.
Then Peck seemed to gather himself to save the game for Harvard. He gotsome queer quirks into his delivery, and, almost before the Yale crowdcould realize it, two strikes were called on the batter.
The Yale rooters tried to rattle Peck, but they succeeded in rattlingthe batter instead, and, to their unutterable dismay and horror, hefanned at a third one, missed it, and--
"Batter is out!" cried the umpire.
Then a great roar for Harvard went up, and the dazed freshmen from NewHaven realized they were defeated after all.