“Hey! Big Bob, what’s the matter with starting this game right away?” called Ernest, as the stalwart right-fielder of the local team chanced to be passing in the direction of the players’ bench after chatting with friends.
“Umpire hasn’t shown up yet!” called the accommodating Bob, raising his voice, as he knew hundreds were just as curious as Ernest concerning the mysterious reason for play not having commenced. “He had a break-down with his car on the way. Telephoned in that he would be half an hour late, and for them to get another umpire if they couldn’t wait that long.”
“Well, apparently, they’ve decided to wait,” said Specs, resignedly, settling back in his seat for another fifteen minutes of listening to the chatter of a Babel of tongues and merry laughter. “Good umpires are almost as scarce as hens’ teeth; and that Mr. Merrywether is reckoned as fair and impartial as they make them. So the game will start half an hour late after all!”
“Too bad!” Oliver was heard to say, with another apprehensive look in the direction of the southwest, as though to measure the location of that cloud bank with his weather-wise eye, and decide whether it gave promise of stopping play, perhaps at a most interesting stage of the game.
Most of those present did not begrudge the half hour thus spent. Just then none of them could even suspect how great an influence the lost time might have in respect to the eventual close of a fiercely contested game. But, as we shall see later on, it was fated that the dismal prophecies of Oliver were to have some foundation; and time cut a figure in the eventual outcome of that great day’s rivalry on the diamond.
CHAPTER V
TIED IN THE NINTH INNING
The crowd stood up again, and there arose a jargon of cries followed by the appearance of a small wiry man dressed in blue, and wearing a cap after the usual type umpires prefer, so it seemed as though the delayed game would be quickly started.
When Hendrix, the expert hurler from Harmony, mowed down the first three men who faced him, two by way of vain strikes at his deceptive curves, and the other through a high foul, the shouts of the visitors told what an immense number of Harmony people had come across to see their favorites effectually stifle the rising ambition of Chester’s athletes on the diamond.
Then came the turn of the locals in the field. Everything depended now on what Jack’s new find could show in the way of pitching. Not an eye in that vast throng but was leveled at the youngster. It was certainly enough to try the nerve of any veteran, let alone a newcomer in the arena.