un. It was a longer
hit than any Madden's Hill boy had ever made. The crowd shrieked its
delight. Sam crossed the plate and then fell on the bench beside Daddy.

"Say! that ball nearly knocked the bat out of my hands," panted Sam.
"It made the bat spring!"

"Fellers, don't wait," ordered Daddy. "Don't give the umpire a chanst
to roast us now. Slam the first ball!"

The aggressive captain lined the ball at Bo Stranathan. The Natchez
shortstop had a fine opportunity to make the catch, but he made an
inglorious muff. Tay Tay hurried to bat. Umpire Gale called the first
pitch a strike. Tay slammed down his club. "T-t-t-t-to-to-twasn't
over," he cried. "T-t-t-tay----"

"Shut up," yelled Daddy. "We want to git this game over today."

Tay Tay was fat and he was also strong, so that when beef and muscle
both went hard against the ball it traveled. It looked as if it were
going a mile straight up. All the infielders ran to get under it.
They got into a tangle, into which the ball descended. No one caught
it, and thereupon the Natchez players began to rail at one another. Bo
stormed at them, and they talked back to him. Then when Tom Lindsay hit
a little slow grounder into the infield it seemed that a just
retribution had overtaken the great Natchez team.

Ordinarily this grounder of Tom's would have been easy for a novice to
field. But this peculiar grounder, after it has hit the ground once,
seemed to wake up and feel lively. It lost its leisurely action and
began to have celerity. When it reached Dundon it had the strange,
jerky speed so characteristic of the grounders that had confused the
Madden's Hill team. Dundon got his hands on the ball and it would not
stay in them. When finally he trapped it Tom had crossed first base
and another runner had scored. Eddie Curtis cracked another at Bo.
The Natchez captain dove for it, made a good stop, bounced after the
rolling ball, and then threw to Kelly at first. The ball knocked
Kelly's hands apart as if they had been paper. Jake Thomas batted left
handed and he swung hard on a slow pitch and sent the ball far into
right field. Runners scored. Jake's hit was a three-bagger. Then
Frank Price hit up an infield fly. Bo yelled for Dundon to take it and
Dundon yelled for Harris. They were all afraid to try for it. It
dropped safely while Jake ran home.

With the heavy batters up the excitement increased. A continuous
scream and incessant rattle of tin