"I'm not saying anything," answered the former football guard.
"But I am," put in Owen Lawrence. "These chaps seem to be weak on the stick work."
"You never faced Tony Tippen," sniffed Benny Wilkins.
"Well, if I couldn't do any more than sideswipe the air I'd be sorry. Who's up?"
"Charlie Blake."
"Then we might as well go home."
Charlie, fully determined to do his share toward staving off a disastrous defeat, stilled a nervous flutter at his heart.
"Better to make a try than stand still and hear the umpire yell, 'Three strikes and out!'" he reflected.
He aimed at the second ball, and perhaps no one on the lot was more surprised than he to hear a sharp crack and to see the horse-hide whirling off into space.
Spurred on by a furious din from the purple and white, he sped down the first base line long before the ball was returned to the infield.