However, he felt better after dinner and sitting in the sun on the stand with Fudge and watching baseball practice was not a very wearing occupation. Dick Lovering put the fellows through a good hour of batting and fielding and then picked two teams from the more promising material and let them play five innings. Tom Haley was in the box for the First Team and Tom Nostrand pitched for the Second. The First was made up about as everyone expected it would be, with Captain Jones at shortstop, Lanny catching, Gordon Merrick on first, Harry Bryan on second, Will Scott on third, George Cotner in left field, Pete Farrar in center and Joe Browne in right. Bert Cable umpired. A hundred or more fellows had come out to the field to look on, attracted by the rumor of a line-up, and they were rewarded by a very scrappy, hard-fought contest. There were many errors, but, as they were fairly apportioned to each team, they added to rather than detracted from the interest.
The Scrubs tied the score up in the third when Lanny, seeking to kill off a runner at second, threw the ball two yards to the left of base and two tallies came in. At four runs each the game went into the last of the fourth inning. Then an error by the Second Team’s first-baseman, followed by a wild throw to third by catcher, brought Gordon Merrick in and placed the First Team in the lead. And there it stayed, for, although the Second started a rally in their half of the fifth and managed to get men on first and second bases with but one out, Tom Haley settled down and fanned the next batsman and brought the game to an end by causing his rival in the points, Tom Nostrand, to pop up an easy fly to Warner Jones.
Before Fudge and Perry were out of sight of the field Dick’s runabout sped past with Gordon Merrick beside the driver and Curtis Wayland perched on the floor with his knees doubled up under his chin. The occupants of the car waved and Way shouted something that Perry didn’t catch.
“What did he say?” Perry asked as the car sped around the corner.
“I don’t know,” muttered Fudge. “He’s a fresh kid, anyway.”
Fudge, however, was not quite truthful, for Way’s remark had reached him very clearly.
“I thought,” said Perry innocently, “he said something about the springs.”
Fudge viewed him suspiciously, but, discovering his countenance apparently free of guile, only grunted.
In the runabout the three boys were discussing the afternoon’s performance. “It didn’t go badly for a first game,” hazarded Way. “But wasn’t that a weird peg of Lanny’s?”