BEN MADE A GALLANT SLIDE FOR HOME.
Columbia High on the Diamond Page [215].
As the bat and ball came together with a vicious smash, there burst from the frantic crowd a howl such as had never before been heard on those Bellport grounds.
“Run, Jack, run! Go it, Ben, you slow-coach. Hurry! the ball’s after you!”
Ben made a gallant slide for home, though there was hardly any necessity for it. Still, he believed in making sure; and the ball did plunk in the catcher’s mitt even as his hand fell on the plate.
“One run!”
“A man on second, and only one out!”
“Keep it going, you tigers. You’ve got Coddling’s measure all right. Put the Indian sign on him! Give us another cheer, Herman!”
“All together, then, and with a whirl! Here you go, now! Ho! ho! ho! hi! hi! hi! veni! vidi! vici! Columbia! Siss! boom! ay!”
Herman and his cohort could not sit through such excitement as this. They had left the bleachers and were jumping up and down like a group of wild Indians, waving their arms, dancing in a circle, and shrieking until every mother’s son gave promise of being as hoarse as a crow on the morrow.
If noise could coax Columbia to win this up-hill game, there was certainly every inducement in the world for them to accomplish that task.