“Which means it’s up to you!” Johnny smiled. He had read the story of struggle written on the other boy’s face. He wanted his team and his iron man to win the game; yet, down deep in his heart he had a feeling that to set Irons O for a shut-out would be taking an unfair advantage of that smiling pitcher.
“I—I’ve got to give them a break,” he murmured as he took his place behind the man of iron. He set Irons O’s fingers for an easy curve, then pressed the button.
“St-trike! Ball! St-trike! Ball! Ball.” The audience was on its toes. “Ball three! Strike two!” Irons twisted his head about and screamed at the umpire. Once again the audience went into near-hysterics.
Goggles set the fingers for a swift fast one. The man went down swinging.
Second batter up. Two curves went wild. A swift fast one would have cut the plate in halves had not a stout hickory bat sent it shooting away into centerfield for a two bagger.
“The tying run on second and only one out!” Goggles was thinking hard. “They can’t have it, not yet!” he decided. He raised the speed of the iron pitcher’s arm a couple of notches, then set his fingers for a very wide curve. A ball and three strikes. The third batter went down swinging.
“Pitcher’s up next. They’ll put in a pinch-hitter,” Goggles thought. But no, here came that smiling pitcher. He was swinging three bats and smiling broader than ever.
“It’s a sure thing,” the young inventor groaned. “But how can I?”
Mechanically he set the controls, gave the ball into the iron pitcher’s fingers, then whispered, “Now!”
And “now” was right. The ball, a slow straight one, was met squarely by the strongly swung bat. It rose high to go sailing away over the bleachers and out of the park.