The cheering was tremendous, and some of the boys wanted to carry Paul around on their shoulders, but he would not permit this.
"To catch that fly wasn't so much," said he modestly.
"It was the greatest thing that ever happened," answered Joe, enthusiastically. "We should have lost the game if it hadn't been for you."
"Great Cæsar, how Paul did leg it down into the field!" came from Frank. "I never saw anybody run so!"
"Well, I put him there for his running qualities," said Joe. "He's the best runner on our team," and the others agreed with their captain.
As soon as they saw that they were beaten the Excelsiors lost no time in leaving the ball field. Only the boy who had charge of the grand stand remained, and he turned over to the Lakeports the amount of the receipts coming to them, eighteen dollars and forty cents.
"I don't care a rap for the money," said Harry, on the way back to the clubroom. "But I can tell you it was a big thing to defeat Voup's crowd."
To celebrate the victory the club members spent two dollars for cake, fruit, and lemons and sugar for lemonade. This gave them quite a spread, which all enjoyed to the utmost.
"Dat was a bang up game, dat was!" declared Teddy Dugan. He was so hoarse from "rooting" that he could scarcely speak.
"We should have lost if it hadn't been for that catch by Paul," said Augustus De Vere. He was angry because he had not been called upon to play.