Ken eyed the curly-haired Prince as if he was saying to himself: “I'm putting them over to-day. Hit if you can!”
Prince appeared to jump up and chop Ken's first pitch. The ball struck on fair ground and bounded very high, and was a safe hit. Prince took a long lead off first base, and three times slid back to the bag when Ken tried to catch him. The fast football man intended to steal; Ken saw it, Dean saw it; everybody saw it. Whereupon Ken delivered a swift ball outside of the plate. As Prince went down little Dean caught the pitch and got the ball away quick as lightning. Raymond caught it directly in the base-line, and then, from the impact of the sliding Prince, he went hurtling down. Runner, baseman, and ball disappeared in a cloud of dust. Kern ran nimbly down the field and waved Prince off.
But Raymond did not get up. The umpire called time. Worry Arthurs ran out, and he and Weir carried Raymond to the bench, where they bathed his head and wiped the blood from his face.
Presently Raymond opened his eyes.
“Wull, what struck me?” he asked.
“Oh, nothin'. There was a trolley loose in the field,” replied Worry. “Can you get up? Why did you try to block that football rusher?”
Raymond shook his head.
“Did I tag the big fat devil?” he queried, earnestly. “Is he out?”
“You got him a mile,” replied Worry.
After a few moments Raymond was able to stand upon his feet, but he was so shaky that Worry sent Schoonover to second.