Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/224

210 "If you don't bring in that run I'll never speak to you again!" shouted Ward.

The crowd was in a frenzy. Men and women were standing up on the seats, some jumping up and down, others yelling at the tops of their voices, and some pounding each other on the back in their excitement.

On and on ran Tom, but he was getting weary now. The second baseman had the ball and was swinging his arm back to hurl it home. But Tom was almost there now, and he slid over the plate a full two seconds ere the ball landed in the catcher's big mitt.

"Safe!" howled the umpire.

"And we win the game!" yelled Joe, as he raced over to Tom and slapped him on the back, an example followed by so many others that poor Tom nearly lost his breath. "You won the game for us, Tom!"

"Nonsense! If you hadn't held 'em down by your pitching, Joe, my run wouldn't have done any good."

"That's right!" cried the others, and it was so. Excelsior Hall had won the second of the big games with her ancient rival, though it was by the narrow margin of one run.