“Having Keller send for it, I dare say. Keller’s is the place he buys hats, because I saw him in there one day looking at some. The first thing we know, Joey, the sheriff or someone will be descending on us and taking away the stand!”
“They can’t do that. We’re not responsible for his debts, thank goodness! What is pretty certain is that he must be getting near the end of his rope. We’ll have to be looking for a new clerk pretty soon, I guess.”
“If he will hang out until school is over we won’t have to have one. You can take the stand half the day and I can take it the other half.”
“Yes, but that won’t be for nearly a month, and I don’t believe Mr. Chester Young will last that long.”
“He will probably light out some fine day,” said Jack pessimistically, “with the cash-register under one arm and the showcase under the other. I try awfully hard to believe him a fine, honest youth, Joey, but I never can quite do it!”
CHAPTER XVII
IN THE TWELFTH INNING
Joe started the game at first that afternoon and had a busy five innings, for Morristown was a hard-hitting aggregation and slammed Carl Moran all over the lot during two innings and then tried its best to do the same with Toby Williams. Sharp fielding alone allowed Carl to last as long as he did, and it was not until the fourth inning that the visitors got their first run across. In the meanwhile Amesville had scored twice, once in the first and once in the third. Sam Craig’s three-bagger, with George Peddie on first, did the trick in the first inning, and two hits and a stolen base accounted for the second run.
It was a snappy game from start to finish, and a good-sized audience was on hand to enjoy it. Morristown played in hard luck during the first part of the contest, for, although she hit hard and often, her hits didn’t earn runs. In fact, it was a dropped ball at the plate that gave her her single tally in the fourth. Smith’s throw may have been a bit low, but Sam Craig ought to have held it and had the runner out by a yard. He didn’t, however, and so when the home team came to bat in the last of that inning the score was 2 to 1.