"Did you catch it?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," said Prissler, "I did. I caught it fair and square."
"Batter is out!" declared the umpire, with just a hint of defiance in his voice. He expected a volley of protest.
The Belden third baseman looked at the Belden catcher, and they both looked at their blue-eyed, freckle-faced captain. Each one remembered the other play in which Prissler had figured. To their credit, be it said all three smiled bravely in the face of their bitter disappointment.
"If he says he caught it," the Belden captain nodded soberly, "we know he did." The catcher and the third baseman agreed. Not a single Belden player questioned the evidence.
This decision, when you come to think it over, was about as splendid a tribute to the honesty of a player as baseball history records. But Prissler saw nothing remarkable about it. He had caught the ball, and it was no more than fair that the batter should be called out. What pleased him most was the fact that the runs which had crowded over the plate did not count.
The score:
| Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Belden | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Lakeville | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Substitute No. 4
Long before the spectacular ninth inning, you might have thought Bonfire Cree had done his share. To him Bunny was indebted for many pitching hints: this Belden batter could not hit a ball around his knees; this one was dazed by speed; this one crowded the plate and must be driven back by in-curves; this one swung awkwardly at shoulder-high pitches. Moreover, he had solved a certain sequence of deliveries by the Belden twirler. Perhaps Bonner himself was unconscious of any order in his pitches, but he began always with a coaxer, a little wide of the plate, following it with a straight, fast ball, squarely in the groove, and then with either an out or an in curve. Quite naturally, this knowledge gave the batter an advantage.