It was not. On the corner one pin remained tottering and swaying a little until it settled and stood still.
Not a word of complaint came from Dick. Instead, he rolled his next ball with great precision, and removed the standing pin, thus getting a spare.
“That’s all right,” exclaimed Black. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see him get as many pins on his spare as Arlington does on his strike.”
CHAPTER XI.
THE WINNER.
“Oh! it wouldn’t surprise you, eh?” sneered Chet. “Well, if he gets as many pins on his spare as I do on my strike, I’ll eat my hat!”
This confidence on Arlington’s part caused more than one to smile. Chester sent his first ball smashing into the pins, and five fell.
“Here’s where I get another spare!” he laughed, picking another ball from the return.
In truth, the standing pins were in such a position that a spare could be made without difficulty in case they were hit correctly. Arlington took pains to be very graceful in his movements as he sent the ball down the alley, and the mere fact that he thought of himself, without fixing his mind on the object he wished to accomplish, may have kept him from success. At any rate, he missed the pin he wished to hit and secured only two of the remaining five.
“Seventeen on his strike! Fifty-seven in all!” announced Gardner, as he jotted down Chet’s score in the fifth box.
With his last ball Chester obtained two more pins, making nine in the sixth frame, with a total of sixty-six.