“Four balls; take your base!” directed the umpire, and Gannon was forced home.
“What do you think about that, Madison?” asked Dick.
“It was high,” instantly asserted the captain of the visiting team, as he trotted up to third base.
“We’re up against ten men, pard!” shouted Buckhart.
The cadets on the bleachers expressed their feelings by groans and hisses for the umpire.
“Dern his picter! he better be keerful!” squeaked Obediah Tubbs. “This is a putty bad place for him to try them tricks!”
“That’s right!” sneered Madison, nodding toward the Fardale crowd. “Do your best to intimidate the umpire! That’s the way to play baseball! That’s a fine sort of a game!”
Dick now decided to take all chances of being hit and use a straight ball. This he did with splendid control, sending it over the very heart of the plate.
The disapprobation of the cadets had caused the umpire to look a trifle nervous, and he declared the first two balls pitched to be strikes, although Tipton let both pass.
“Now, are you satisfied?” demanded Madison. “You have bulldozed the umpire so he is giving you everything.”