Then Slavvy calmed down, let two coaxers go by, and hit the next ball a smash which sent it across the infield. Stan Garrick forked at it, but the sphere was too hot to hold, and he dropped it. While he was seeking to recover it, Unger made third, Foy landed on second, and Slavvy was too well down to first to be caught.
As Rooney advanced to the bat the Forest Hills infielders crept up into the diamond. If the miner played the game he would certainly try for a bunt, and they balanced themselves on their toes, ready to go after it if the fellow succeeded in laying one down.
For some unknown reason he did not try. Instead, he duplicated his high fly of the inning before, except that this time there was more muscle behind it and the ball went sailing into the outfield.
Buck Garland got under it easily and waited confidently for it to drop. To his intense dismay and everlasting shame, he repeated Reddy Maxwell’s error, but with far graver results.
The men on bases were off like streaks of greased lightning, and, by the time Garland had secured the ball and lined it to third, Unger had crossed the plate and Foy was halfway down from third.
To cap the climax he made a high throw which Dean had to jump for. He succeeded in stopping the ball, but ere it reached Buckhart’s eager, outstretched hands, the Irish boy had made a beautiful slide and his finger tips touched the plate.
A deafening roar went up from the bleachers, augmented by the enthusiasm of the men in the grand stand, and for five minutes the field echoed with the frantic cheering.
Glen Gardiner was sick at heart at this display of errors and the thought that their opponents had secured a lead of two runs. He looked desperately at Merriwell, who stood calmly waiting for the next batter to face him. With two men on bases, there was no telling where the mine boys would stop unless the Yale man checked them at once.
Dick seemed to be of the same mind, for he proceeded to fan Glathe in very short order.
“By Jove, this is fierce!” Gardiner exclaimed, as his men gathered around the bench. “We’ve got to brace up. What in the world got into you, Buck, to do a thing like that?”