"Oh!''said the Blight excitedly."Do you think there might be a fight this afternoon?''
"Don't know,''I said,shaking my head.
"It's pretty hard for eighteen people to fight when nine of them are policemen and there are forty more around.Still the crowd might take a hand.''
This,I saw,quite thrilled the Blight and she was in good spirits when we started out.
"Marston doesn't pitch this afternoon,''
I said to the little sister."He plays first base.He's saving himself for the tournament.He's done too much already.''
The Blight merely turned her head while Iwas speaking."And the Hon.Sam will not act as umpire.He wants to save his voice--and his head.''
The seats in the "grandstand''were in the sun now,so I left the girls in a deserted band-stand that stood on stilts under trees on the southern side of the field,and on a line midway between third base and the position of short-stop.Now there is no enthusiasm in any sport that equals the excitement aroused by a rural base-ball game and I never saw the enthusiasm of that game outdone except by the excitement of the tournament that followed that afternoon.
The game was close and Marston and I assuredly were stars--Marston one of the first magnitude."Goose-egg''on one side matched "goose-egg''on the other until the end of the fifth inning,when the engineer knocked a home-run.Spectators threw their hats into the trees,yelled themselves hoarse,and I saw several old mountaineers who understood no more of base-ball than of the lost _digamma_in Greek going wild with the general contagion.
During these innings I had "assisted''in two doubles and had fired in three "daisy cutters''to first myself in spite of the guying I got from the opposing rooters.
"Four-eyes''they called me on account of my spectacles until a new nickname came at the last half of the ninth inning,when we were in the field with the score four to three in our favor.It was then that a small,fat boy with a paper megaphone longer than he was waddled out almost to first base and levelling his trumpet at me,thundered out in a sudden silence:
"Hello,Foxy Grandpa!''That was too much.I got rattled,and when there were three men on bases and two out,a swift grounder came to me,I fell--catching it--and threw wildly to first from my knees.I heard shouts of horror,anger,and distress from everywhere and my own heart stopped beating--I had lost the game--and then Marston leaped in the air--surely it must have been four feet--caught the ball with his left hand and dropped back on the bag.The sound of his foot on it and the runner's was almost simultaneous,but the umpire said Marston's was there first.Then bedlam!One of my brothers was umpire and the captain of the other team walked threateningly out toward him,followed by two of his men with base-ball bats.As I started off myself towards them I saw,with the corner of my eye,another brother of mine start in a run from the left field,and Iwondered why a third,who was scoring,sat perfectly still in his chair,particularly as a well-known,red-headed tough from one of the mines who had been officiously antagonistic ran toward the pitcher's box directly in front of him.Instantly a dozen of the guard sprang toward it,some man pulled his pistol,a billy cracked straightway on his head,and in a few minutes order was restored.And still the brother scoring hadn't moved from his chair,and I spoke to him hotly.
"Keep your shirt on,''he said easily,lifting his score-card with his left hand and showing his right clinched about his pistol under it.
"I was just waiting for that red-head to make a move.I guess I'd have got him first.''
I walked back to the Blight and the little sister and both of them looked very serious and frightened.
"I don't think I want to see a real fight,after all,''said the Blight."Not this afternoon.''
It was a little singular and prophetic,but just as the words left her lips one of the Police Guard handed me a piece of paper.
"Somebody in the crowd must have dropped it in my pocket,''he said.On the paper were scrawled these words:
"_Look out for the Wild Dog!_''
I sent the paper to Marston.
