od waiter, but could
hit well if necessary, and was, perhaps, the best bunter and sacrifice
batter Oakdale had. With two down, he surprised the Clearporters by
dropping a soggy one in front of the pan and beating it to first.

The corners were filled, and, "Here's Grant!" was the cry. Phil
Springer's teeth chattered and his eyes almost glared as the Texan,
with whom he had been on such friendly terms only a short time before,
stepped out to face Oakes.

"If he'll only strike out!" thought Phil.

When Rod had swung at two balls, and missed both, it began to seem that
he was destined to strike out. A few seconds later, however, he caught
the ball fairly on the trade mark and drove it over the head of Carney,
who made an amusingly ineffective leap for it.

Three runners chased one another over the pan, and Grant arrived at
third base before the ball was returned to the diamond.

Springer was ill; at that moment, he thought, he would have given
almost anything to be far from that field. It was all Grant, Grant,
and never had he heard a more hateful sound than the shrill and frantic
cheering of the small Oakdale crowd.

"Keep it up! keep it going!" entreated Eliot, as Stone went to bat.

Ben did his best, and he did pound out a long fly, but Boothby, in
left, pulled it down after a hard run.

"The game is as gug-good as settled," muttered Springer, when his
elated teammates had galloped off to the field and left him alone.
"Unless rain stops it, Oakdale is the winner."

The Clearporters seemed to realize this, for they resorted to many
obvious expedients to delay the game, casting imploring eyes toward the
threatening heavens. The storm, however, perversely held off, and the
locals found Grant too much for them in the last of the fourth.

"We're five runs to the good, fellows," said Eliot, as the Oakdale
players gathered at the bench. "It's going to rain soon, and this
inning must be played through complete. Let every man who goes to bat
now strike out."

They followed instructions, Roger setting the example. Crane and
Cooper made a pretense of trying to hit, but they did not even foul the
ball.

A few straggling drops of rain, falling in the last of the inning,
encouraged Clearport to dally until Eliot demanded of the umpire that
he compel them to play or give the game to Oakdale by forfeit, and at
last Grant struck out the third man.

While the boys were rejoicing in a victory they considered as
po