THE NORTH GRAMMAR CAPTAIN GRILLED
Nor was Teall long in finding his opportunity to be revenged.
On the following Tuesday, immediately after school, the North
and South Grammar nines met on the field. It was an important
meeting, for, under the rules governing the Gridley Grammar League,
whichever of these two teams lost, having been twice defeated,
was to retire vanquished; the victor in this game was to meet
the Central Grammar to contest for the championship.
On the toss Captain Ted Teall won, and elected that his side go
to bat forthwith.
The instant that Ted stepped to the plate a score of North Grammar
fans yelled:
"Bang!"
From another group of Norths came:
"Ow-ow-ow!" This was followed by some fantastic jumping.
"Huh! Those fellows don't show much brains!" uttered Teall wearily.
"They have to steal a josh from the Centrals."
It did not annoy Ted to-day. He had expected this greeting, and
had steeled himself against it.
Dick & Co., with a lot of other fellows from Central Grammar,
looked on in amusement.
"It's a pity one of Hi's fellows hasn't ingenuity enough to work
up a new 'gag,'" Tom remarked dryly.
"They'll never rattle Teall again with a 'bang,'" smiled Prescott.
When the Souths went to grass, however, and the Norths took to
the benches, all was in readiness for Hi, who came forth third
on the batting list. The first two men had been struck out.
"Come on in!" yelled a dozen tormentors from South Grammar onlookers.
"The water's fine!"
In spite of himself Hi frowned. He had been expecting something,
but had hoped that the events of the preceding Saturday afternoon
would be left out.
Hi made a swing for the ball, and missed.
"Who's seen my duds?" went up a mighty shout.
"Confound the hoodlums!" hissed Martin between his teeth.
As mascot, the Souths had brought along a small colored boy, who
attended to a pail of lemonade for the refreshment of Ted's players.
Ere the ball came over the plate a second time this mascot was
seen running close to the foul lines. Over one arm he carried
jacket and trousers; in the other hand he bore a pair of shoes
and of socks. That the clothing was patched and the shoes looked
fit only for a tramp's use did not disguise the meaning of the scene
from any beholder, for the news of that Saturday afternoon had
traveled through the school world of Gridley.
"Cheer up, suh!" shrieked the colored boy shrilly. "I'se bringing
yo' duds!"
Then the ball came from the box, but Hi was demoralized by the
roar of laughter that swept over the field.
A moment later the rather haughty captain of the North Grammar
nine had been struck out and retired. His face was red, his eyes
flashing.
"Teall, we might expect something rowdyish from your crowd of
muckers," declared Martin scornfully, as the sides changed.
"If I were you, Martin, I wouldn't do much talking to-day," grinned
Ted. "It's bad for the nerves."
A half a dozen times thereafter the colored boy was seen scurrying
with "the duds." He took good care, however, to keep away from
the foul lines, and so did not come under the orders of the umpire.
Whenever the mascot appeared with his burden he raised a laugh.
Hi could not steel himself against a combination of anger and
hurt pride. Some of the North Grammar girls in whose eyes he
was anxious to stand well were among those who could not help
laughing at the ridiculous antics of the colored lad.
Toward the close of the first half of the third inning Teall again
came to bat. There were no men out in this inning, and two men
were on bases.
"Now we'll see how you will stand a little jogging," muttered
Hi under his breath as he crossed his hands in signal to some
of the North Grammar fans.
Just as Ted picked up his bat a dozen boys squeaked:
"What time is it?"
This was followed by:
"Who stole my watch?"
Another lot of North tormentors---those who had them---displayed
time pieces.
"That's almost as bad as a stale one," Ted told himself scornfully.
Just then the ball came just where Teall wanted it.
Crack! Ted hit it a resounding blow, dropped his bat and started
to run. Amid a din of yells one of the Souths came in, another
reached third and Ted himself rested safely at second base.
In that inning the Souths piled up five runs. Thereafter the
game went badly for the North Grammars, for most of the players
lost their nerve. Hi, himself, proved unworthy to be captain,
he had so little head left for the game. The contest ended with
a score of nine to two in favor of the South Grammars.
"That will be about all for the Norths," remarked Ted, with a
cheerful grin, as be met Hi Martin at the close of the game.
"Your nine doesn't play any more, I believe."
"I'm glad we don't," choked Hi. "There's no satisfaction being
in a league in which the other teams are made up of rowdies."
"It is tough," mocked Ted. "Especially when the rowdies are the
only fellows who know how to play ball."
Hi stalked away in moody, but dignified silence. Yet, though
he could ignore the players and sympathizers of other nines, it
was not so easy to get away from the grilling of his own schoolmates.
"Huh!" remarked one North boy. "You told us, Martin, that you'd
prove to us the benefit of having a real captain for a nine.
Why didn't you?"
"Martin, you're all wind," growled another keenly disappointed
North. "You talked a lot about what you'd do with the nine---and
what have you done? Left us the boobies of the league. We're
the winners of the leather medal."
"Why didn't you play yourself, then?" snarled Hi.
"I wish I had. But we Norths were fooled by the talk you gave
us about how baseball really ought to be played and managed.
You're the school's mascot, you are, Hi Martin. Not!"
In the meantime Dick Prescott was being surrounded by anxious
Central Grammar boys.
"Dick," said one of them, while others listened eagerly, "you
beat the Norths. But you didn't give them any such drubbing as
the Souths did to-day. Are they a better nine than ours?"
"No," Prescott answered promptly.
"Yet they whipped the Norths worse than we did. Can we down
the Souths?"
"Yes," nodded Prescott.
"Why can we?"
"For the simplest reason in the world, Tolman. We've got to.
Isn't that a fine reason?"
"It sounds fine," remarked another boy doubtfully. "But can you
whip another crowd just because you want to?"
"If you want to badly enough," Dick smiled.
"Hm! I'll be surer about that when I see it done."
"It'll happen next Friday afternoon, if rain doesn't call the
game," Prescott promised.
"What do you say to that, Darrin?" demanded another Central boy.
"Just what Dick said."
"What's your word, Tom!"
"You heard what our captain said," Reade laughed. "I always follow
orders. If Dick Prescott tells me to pile up seven runs against
the Souths I'm going to do it."
"I hope you do," murmured another boy. "Yet it seems against
us---after the way we saw the Souths play to-day."
"Or rather," added Dick quietly, "the way the North Grammars didn't
play. They'd have put up a lot better game if their captain hadn't
lost his nerve and his head."
As the Central Grammar boys left, most of them in one crowd, there
was a rather general feeling that Dick was just a bit too confident.
Or, was he simply "putting it on," in order to bolster up the
courage of his players?
Dick Prescott, at least, was qualified to know what he really
expected. He really was confident of victory in the game that
should decide the league championship.
"If you feel that you can't be beaten, and won't be beaten, but
that you've got to win and are going to win, then that's more
than half the points of a game won in advance," he told his chums.
"Fellows, in baseball or anything else, we won't say die, either
now or at any later time in life. We'll make it our rule to ride
right over anything that gets in our way. That way we can't know
defeat."
"Unless, finally, we ride to our deaths," laughed Tom.
"What of it?" challenged Dick. "That wouldn't be defeat. The
man who rides to death in the search for victory has won. He has
carried the winning spirit with him to the very finish. Or else
the history we've been studying at school is all a mess of lies."
"There's a lot in that idea," nodded Dave thoughtfully.
"There's more in it every time that you think of it," Dick contended.
Thus Dick was starting, in Dick & Co., the never-give-up spirit
which made them almost invincible later as High School boys.
Wednesday and Thursday were days filled with eagerness for the
Central Grammar boys. The members of the baseball squad were
not by any means the only ones on tenterhooks. Every boy in the
upper grades of the school was waiting impatiently to learn who
would be the winners of the championship.
Somewhat to the astonishment of the Central Grammar boys Captain
Dick, on Wednesday afternoon, gave his team only a brief half
hour of diamond practice. Thursday afternoon they didn't play
at all. Instead, the nine and its subs. went off on a tramp
through the woods.
"What we want to-morrow above all," Dick explained, as he marshaled
his forces, "is steady nerves. There's nothing like a good walk
in the cool and shady spots for tuning up a schoolboy's nerves
for an ordeal. A walk is good whether you're facing an exam.
or a championship game."
"May the rest of us go with you!" called one of the Central boys
outside the squad.
"We can't stop you," Dick replied, "but we'd rather you let the
ball squad go by itself."
"All right, then," cried three or four. The fourteen of the squad
marched away, unhampered by any followers.
Once outside the town and halted under a grove of trees, Dick
turned to his teammates.
"Fellows," he said quietly, "I believe some of you have been anxious
to know what the man on the clubhouse steps said."
"It's coming, at last!" gasped Tom Reade. "Well, let us hear
what the man on the clubhouse steps said. It must be one of the
choice pieces of wisdom of all the ages."
"It is," Dick replied quietly.
"Then let us hear shouted Dave.
"Not now," Prescott answered, shaking his head solemnly. "But,
fellows, you win to-morrow's game and you shall all hear just
what the man on the clubhouse steps said."
"Win?" retorted Tom Reade. "Dick Prescott, with a bribe like
that before us, we're bound to win! We couldn't do anything else."
Then they went further into the woods. Dick had brought his players
here in search of peace, quiet and nerve rest. Had he had even
one prophetic glimpse of what was ahead of some of them that afternoon
it would have been far better to have remained in town.