Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/323

Rh their lives. Dave reached first with ease and fairly leaped to second. Then he looked out in the field, and started for third.

"Come on! come on!" screamed Ben, dancing around like a madman. "Come on! You've got plenty of time!" And he beckoned with might and main, as if to help the running thereby.

The third baseman pretended to reach for the ball just as Dave came up to him. Seeing this Dave dropped down on the ground and dove for the bag with his right hand. But the ball was not yet coming up, and in a twinkling the country boy was up again and starting for the home plate.

"Run! run!" yelled half a hundred voices in unison. "Run!" And Dave did run as he had never run before, coming over the plate with such an impetus that he was carried fairly to the players' bench beyond. Then the ball was sent in—but it was much too late.

How the Oak Hall boys did shout and cheer, and swing their rattles and blow their horns! It was as if pandemonium had broken loose, and it lasted for several minutes.

"It was the greatest home run ever made on these grounds," declared Roger, later on. "The very greatest."

"And the best of it is, it brought in three runs," came from Phil, as he clapped Dave on the back. "That helps the score wonderfully."