What a roar went up then! Flags waved and cheers resounded among the Eagle sympathizers.
As the cheering died away the catcher, Hollis Powers, walked into the diamond to confer with Jared, who showed by his passionate gestures that he was mad clear through.
“Look out or they’ll knock you out of the box,” yelled some one.
This did not tend to improve Jared’s temper. But, nevertheless, he struck out the next batter, Simon Jeffords, which helped in part to restore his balance. The Eagles then retired to the field.
“How do you feel, Merritt?” was eagerly asked by his comrades before he took the pitcher’s box.
“All right, so far. You’ll know soon enough when my wing gets sore,” was the reply.
Apparently Rob was not destined to pitch that day. Merritt struck out the first two batters, fielded a hot liner and threw out Jared before he got to first base. Jared was certainly piling up his list of grievances against the Boy Scouts. To add to his ill-feeling he had recognized Fred Mainwaring, nodded to the latter and received the cut direct. The fact that Lucy Mainwaring was a witness to this snub did not improve matters.
“Good boy, Merritt!” yelled the Eagle supporters in a frenzy of delight.
The third inning commenced with the Eagles at the bat. But now Jared appeared to have on his throwing clothes. The Scout batters couldn’t hammer his pitching at all.
In fact, all that occurred while they succeeded each other at the bat was a monotonous succession of calls from the umpire: