There was a brief moment of silence, and then the fellows in the stand behaved most remarkably. They rocked to and fro in their seats, clung to each other desperately and even rolled into the aisles, all the while emitting choking, gurgling sounds that might later evolve into laughter, but which at present more closely resembled the painful gasps of a person lately rescued from drowning! And the same or similar effects might be noted on the field and on the School Team’s bench. In fact, everyone appeared to be on the verge of apoplexy save only Mr. Gordon. Gordon, with clenched fists and crimson cheeks, faced the world desperately. Then, while the stand still choked and sputtered, his eyes fell on Pinky Trainor beside him, Pinky swaying dizzily as one about to pass into unconsciousness, Pinky with his nose tightly bound with a none too clean handkerchief. With a roar of rage Gordon sprang and Pinky went down. But Billy Carpenter, red of face and making odd gurgling noises in his throat, leaped weakly to the rescue and the writhing forms were torn apart. And then—and only a few witnessed it—Tubby, who had apparently run to the aid of his fallen teammate, suddenly dug a hand holding a baseball into Gordon’s ribs and Gus Peasley, with a feeble wave of his hand, gasped:
“Out—at—first! Oh, help!”
The latter part of the remark seemed addressed to no one in particular, and Gus sat down on the turf and held his sides very tightly, rocking to and fro, which, you must acknowledge, was a most undignified proceeding for an umpire.
V
The All-Stars met in Jonesie’s room that evening and disbanded. But first Jonesie addressed them from the study table most eloquently.
“As long,” declared Jonesie magnificently, “as the annals of Randall’s School survive the fame and glory of the All-Stars will—er—illuminate the pages of history! We have to-day performed a deathless, imperishable deed. Summoned from—er—the humble walks of life, like the Minute Men of old or What’s-his-name from the plow, we sprang into the breach and—er—battled nobly and valiantly. Victory was ours! For two hard-fought innings we held the School Team at bay and finally triumphed by valor and science!”
Young Nash snickered. Jonesie shot a reproving glance at him and went on.
“Handicapped by ignorance, by lack of practice, by youthfulness and want of experience, we stood shoulder to shoulder upon the trampled field and——”
“Joe Tyson says we didn’t win,” interrupted Tubby. “Says the game didn’t go four and a half innings.”