Three balls, no strikes, and the bases full! Turkey at the plate stepped back scornfully to wait for the fourth ball.
"Strike one!"
Turkey advanced to the utmost limit of the batter's box, turned his back deliberately on Snorky, and called out:
"You hit me, and I'll break your neck!"
"Strike two!"
Turkey turned in surprise, looked at him, and deliberated.
"He can't put it over," yelled the gallery. "Yi, yi, yi!"
Then Turkey seated himself Indian fashion, his back still to Snorky, and gazed up into the face of "Tug" Moffat, the catcher. A furious wrangle ensued, the Woodhull claiming that his position was illegal, the Dickinson insisting that nothing in the rules prohibited it. "Stonewall" Jackson, the umpire, a weak-minded fellow from the Rouse House, allowed the play.
"Strike three!"