The two gentlemen appealed to were unanimous in their opinion that he could not possibly be out. The thing was absurd. The Dulwich team, umpire and all, laughed so much that they were physically incapable of doing or saying anything. When you glance at the snapshot we obtained of this tableau, you will not be surprised at this.
MR. LENO'S SATISFACTORY APPEAL AGAINST THE UMPIRE.
At the precise moment when their captain was engaged in an attempt to prove that the bowling of the middle stump did not necessarily imply being out, some member of his team cried, "Trial ball." It was a happy thought. In a moment the field was in an uproar. "Yes, yes—trial ball!" came from all sides. The plea was allowed, and Dan went in again to the tune of frantic laughter and applause. As the next ball came up he dropped his bat, caught it in his hat, and ran. He scored ten runs, and then quietly handed the ball over to the bowler again. Nobody objected to this novel method of scoring. Everybody enjoyed it too much to dream of protesting.
The Danites had opened the match with a useful ten, but there was more to follow. T. MacNaughton was now at the batting end, and he drove the ball out to boundary over the heads of some of the Danites sitting on the grass.
Before any of the field reached it, one of these gentlemen slipped quietly to the edge of the crowd, picked up the ball, and disappeared.
When he had chatted to a few friends and visited the refreshment booth, he returned and laid it quietly on the field again. Messrs. Leno and MacNaughton were standing at the wickets utterly blown, with another twenty runs to their names, and the field were playing hide and seek among the spectators searching for the lost leather.
The captain's wicket went down a score of times. They were all trial balls. He was stumped over and over again, but he maintained that, as he had never been stumped before, he couldn't be now, and stuck doggedly to the wicket.
He looked like carrying his bat out, and MacNaughton was scoring steadily the whole time, tens and twelves being common incidents of the play, especially when an enthusiastic Danite succeeded in getting hold of the ball and threw it to the opposite side of the field, from whence it had to be fielded all over again.
However, there is an end to all things. A good curling ball sent the valiant W. G. D. L.'s stumps to the four corners of the heavens, and the umpire gave him out.