“Or in jail perhaps,” guessed Sparrow. “If he isn’t, he ought to be.”
“He’ll get there sooner or later,” said Fred, “and so will the rest of the bunch.”
The boys hurried back to town and put the matter in the hands of the constable, who promised that he would do all in his power to catch the thieves. But the days passed into weeks with the tramps still at liberty, and the chances of the boys ever getting back the stolen articles became more and more unlikely.
But this did not hold such a place in their thoughts as the race for the championship of the Monatook Lake League, which kept getting hotter and hotter as the various teams tried their strength against each other.
It was a case of nip and tuck. First one team and then the other would forge to the front. By the time the first five games had been played not a single team could be said to be out of it.
But what grieved the Rockledge boys was that their bitter rival, Belden, although it started the season with a defeat at the hands of Ridgefield, had made a strong rally and was now in front with a total of four victories and one lost game. Somerset and Ridgefield were tied for second place, while Rockledge—Rockledge, which had so proudly counted on the pennant—was last!
CHAPTER XXVII
A GLEAM OF LIGHT
There was no trouble at all in finding out the reason why Rockledge was the tail-ender. The batting and fielding of the team was all that could be asked for. Both in offense and defense they had the edge on their rivals. The weakness lay in the pitcher’s box.
It was not that Hicksley did not work hard. He had a double reason now for pitching at the top of his speed, for he not only wanted to win the glory to himself, but he wanted to show that the absence of Bobby did not weaken the team.
But the trouble with him was that, as a rule, he could not last for the full nine innings. He would go along like a house afire for the first half of the game. Then about the fifth or sixth inning, he would begin to falter, and in some one of the remaining innings would “go up with a bang.”