“Yes,” answered Anthony. “And I guess you are too. Sort of late, aren’t we?”
He produced his big gold watch, removed it tenderly from its pouch, and saw that it announced eight minutes after the hour. The professor nodded, and they mended their pace.
“You didn’t go down, did you?” asked the latter.
“No, I wanted to, but couldn’t afford it. But we got the news at Butler’s by innings. We had quite a celebration all to ourselves before the rest of you got home.”
“Didn’t keep you from taking a hand in the bonfire last night, though, did it?” laughed the professor.
“No, I guess every one went out to the field. It must have been an interesting game, professor.”
“It was. But it was rather conducive to heart-disease toward the end. We came pretty near to being outplayed, and a good deal nearer to being beaten. When Robinson had the bases full in the ninth and their left-fielder rapped out that liner—well, I shut my eyes and held my breath! I didn’t see Weatherby make his catch; when I looked he was throwing to third. Well, it was great, simply great!”
“Yes, but I didn’t quite understand what it was Jack did. If he hadn’t caught the ball the other chaps would have made three runs, isn’t that it?”
“Well, two runs anyway, three probably; you see, the bases were full, and that hit was good for a two-bagger, I think, if Weatherby hadn’t got his hands on it. It was a hot one, too, and ’way over his head. As it was, he put out the batsman by catching the ball, tagged second before the runner from that base could get back, and then threw to third and put out the man there. You see, a runner is required to hold his base until a fly has either been caught or has touched the ground. Well, Robinson thought Devlin’s hit was a safe one; it surely looked like it; and every one ran. Then when Weatherby caught it they had to get back to their bases; but they couldn’t. Condit was almost home. It was very pretty. Triple plays like that have been made before, but they don’t happen very often. And then the difficulty of Weatherby’s catch added to the brilliancy of the thing. Well, he’ll be a hero now as long as yesterday’s game is remembered.”