How those Bellport rooters did shriek and jump! It seemed as though they would go crazy as they begged and implored Coddling to win his own game by advancing the runner by a little bunt.
“He just can’t do it, boys!” called one fellow, after Coddling had twice thrust out his bat and failed to even touch the speeding ball.
“Give him a pair of smoke glasses; the sun’s in his eyes!”
“Three times and out, Coddling—take care, old hoss!”
This time Coddling, in despair, struck savagely, and perhaps to his own surprise, tapped the ball smartly toward second.
“Double ’em up!” arose the howl like a flash, for the average baseball rooter can see the possibilities of a play as soon as a player.
And that was just what happened. Seymour snatched the ball from the ground with one hand, leaped over to his sack, and as his foot touched the same he threw for Lanky on first. Coddling was caught ten feet away, and a mighty groan attested to the strain under which the Bellport crowd was resting.
Snodgrass again found that he just had to strike, for Frank was putting them over on purpose now, having full confidence in the men back of him. Smash! went the ball. Lanky fell over very much like a ten pin that has been caught by a rapidly moving ball, but as he sat there he held up his hand to prove that he had forked the sphere out of the air and gripped it tight!
The game was over, and it had been a heartbreaking one all around. Immediately the great crowd flooded the ground, and the players were swallowed up in groups of admiring rooters. Herman Hooker led his gallant band in another cheer, in which the defeated Bellport team came in for a share of the shouting; after which there was a wild rush for all means of transportation whereby the thousands could hope to reach their homes in the neighboring towns.
When the Columbia players reached the river they found that during their absence Abner Gould had succeeded in repairing the motor, so that it was now in condition to take them back home. Frank could not be sure that his suspicions were well founded, and hence he decided to say nothing about the matter. If the man had been hired by his sporting brother to delay the Columbia team, and annoy them so that they would go upon the field nervous and unstrung, he had been caught in his own trap.