“Oh—everything,” he evaded, “everything’s strange today.” How could he tell Meggy of this fantastic daydream?
Again the opposing team took their places in the field. Once more Hillcrest came to bat. And how they did bat! Inspired by rosy dreams of victory, they sent the ball spinning, right, left and center. By the time Centralia had them stopped, the score stood 5 to 0 in favor of Hillcrest, and the crowd had gone mad.
“We’ll win!” Meggy screamed.
“We’ll win!” Goggles roared.
As for Johnny, he merely murmured, “Wait!”
The wait was destined to be longer than he dreamed it might be. Four wild balls put the lead-off man of Centralia on first with no one out.
It was then that Johnny once more began noticing that haunting airplane. It had returned. Once again it was circling downward.
The mysterious pitcher was slipping, there could be no doubting this. A hard-hit liner put the second batter on base.
Then the pitcher seemed to tighten up. He fanned the third man.
“But that plane!” Johnny was truly startled now. The plane did actually seem to be in a nose-dive. Down, down, down it came, straight at that lone figure, the pitcher, on the mound.