[CHAPTER XVI]
YARDLEY IS PUZZLED
Of course the school turned out to a boy that afternoon to witness the contest. There was a good deal of curiosity regarding the now celebrated Mr. Holmes, but aside from that Yardley believed in supporting her teams and would have presented quite as big an audience had that extra attraction been missing. It is no very great task to sit in a grand stand or on the warm turf on a fine afternoon in spring and watch two well-trained teams contest a baseball game. On the contrary it is much more of a task to remain away when the crack of the bat is heard and the rival cheers float away up the hill. And that is what Gerald had to do; for at Yardley probation entailed remaining away from all athletic contests. To be sure, Gerald might have obtained a long-distance view of the game from the hill or from some window in Merle, but that would have been unsatisfactory at the best, and so he got a book from the school library and curled himself up on the window-seat by the open casement; and after awhile, since the book happened to be Stevenson’s “The Black Arrow,” forgot all about the ball game.
Porter went first to bat, and Reid quickly disposed of the first three men. Yardley applauded approvingly as the teams changed places. The far-famed Mr. Holmes proved to be a lank, carroty-haired youth with a freckled face and an extremely self-possessed appearance in the box. Some of the remarks that were passed about in the Yardley ranks were a bit unflattering.
“He is indeed lovely, is he not?” asked Alf on the bench. “He is not.”
“Bet he will never see eighteen again,” said Wheelock, who played in right field. “And look at the length of his arms, will you, fellows? He ought to be able to pitch, surely.”
“Hit it out, Cap!” advised Alf, as Durfee stepped to the plate and tapped his bat confidently on the ground. “He hasn’t got anything!”
Holmes viewed the batsman speculatively, glanced around him, wound himself into a tight knot, unwound and suddenly shot out his right arm.
“Strike one!” said the umpire.