When that last of the enemy waved through empty air and then cast his bat from him venomously, Hillman’s loved Kewpie Proudtree with a deep and fervid passion. Hillman’s said so. Hillman’s rose from stand and greensward and cheered his name to the blue afternoon sky and howled and yelled and went crazy generally. And Kewpie moved smilingly back to the bench to submit to the hugs of his companions.
There was no scoring for the Blue in the last of the eighth, for Clay was master of the situation.
Then Farview started her half of the ninth with desperation written large on every countenance. Kewpie, the unhurried, returned to his job. He disposed of the Farview pitcher with four deliveries and then faced the head of the list. That he would survive that inning without misadventure was too much to hope for. The misadventure came when the Farview center fielder slammed a ball into left field and got two bases. Kewpie looked, or so Laurie though, a little surprised and a little grieved, but he didn’t allow his emotions to affect his pitching. He fooled the next man twice with his out-drop and finally finished him with a slow ball that the batter struck at too soon. Hillman’s shouted, waved, and prepared to go home.
But the end was not yet. Up came the Farview captain, and he made it plain to Laurie at once that he wasn’t to be caught with trifles. He demanded good ones. If he didn’t get them he wouldn’t swing. He didn’t say all this in words, of course, but he looked it and showed it by calmly watching Kewpie’s first offering drop by him, a scant inch beyond the outer corner of the plate. In the end, he had his way. There was something that suited him, and he accepted it and drove it down third base line, scoring the man on second and placing himself on third when the throw went to the plate. Those who had wandered toward the exits reconsidered and stayed their steps. With a runner on third the score might yet be tied.
The Farview right fielder had not yet made a hit, but that to Laurie’s thinking made him the more dangerous, and Laurie worked very carefully. Kewpie answered the first signal with a straight one over the center of the plate, and it went for a strike. The next was also over the center, but too high. Then again Kewpie failed. One and two now. The runner on third was dashing up and down the path, and the coachers were yipping like mad. Kewpie, however remained surprisingly calm. To show how calm he was he sent in a drop that scored a second strike for him, and the blue pennants waved triumphantly. Laurie called for the same thing again, but this time the batter did not offer at it; the score was two and three, and Laurie’s heart sank. The next must be good. He placed his hands out and called imploringly:
“Right into the old mitt, Kewpie! Make it good!”
And Kewpie made it good, and, since it was good, unmistakably good, the Farview youth swung against it with all his might.
But he hit under it, and the ball went up and up in the sunlight almost straight above the plate. Cries arose from all sides, a confusing bedlam of warning, entreaty, command. Laurie dashed his mask behind him, stared upward into the blue, saw the gray sphere poised overhead, turned and stepped back, looked again, again retreated. He was under it now—almost. One step further toward the back-stop—
Then Nemesis took a hand, or sought to. Laurie’s backward placed foot found the discarded mask. He strove to retain his balance but could not and fell backward to the ground. The mask described a curve and landed yards away. Laurie’s feet flew heavenward. His hands were stretched wide. Then his startled gaze saw a new danger. Right above him was the ball, falling straight for his face. Nothing save pure instinct, the instinct that causes one to fend off a blow, brought his hands up before him. It was, however, not so much instinct as baseball training that brought them there palms upward. And, beyond any doubt, it was training that caused his fingers to close convulsively about the round object that landed with a loud smack in the hollow of his old brown mitten!