“Keep cool, old man,” said Merry. “We’ll win this game. The boys have not struck their gait yet.”
“They never would if you had remained on the bench,” growled Bart. “In some things, Merriwell, you do have bad judgment. You knew just what this game meant to us, and yet, after keeping one man on the team against protests, you let Starbright go in to pitch. Why in thunder you did it no man knows!”
“I know,” said Frank quietly.
He had not told Hodge of the news from Inza. Merry went back to the box and began to use the double-shoot without delay; but Hodge was so irritated that he could not hold it. Twice he let the ball drop to the ground, and once it twisted off to one side, nearly giving the man on third an opening to come home.
Frank frowned, for he was getting worried. Plainly the whole team was in a bad way, but Hodge was worse than any of the rest.
A rise caused the batter to lift a high fly foul, and the third-baseman captured it.
Two men were out.
Frank tried speed, giving Hodge something to do to hold the terrific pitching. This made Bart angrier than ever, and he closed his teeth and froze onto them.
With the aid of good head-work, Merriwell was able to strike out the last man, which kept Princeton from getting any more scores.
Merry tried to arouse his men, but still Vinton worked them cleverly and kept them from scoring.