CHAPTER XXIX.

The end of the game.

Now the New Haven crowd took their turn, and took it in earnest.  Rattleton stood upon the shoulders of a friend, and fell off upon the heads of the crowd as he was cheering.  He didn’t mind that, for he kept right on cheering.

“Merriwell, I believe you have broken the streak!” cried Old Put, with inexpressible satisfaction.

“Well, I sincerely hope so,” returned Frank.  “I rather think we are all right now, but we’ve got a hard pull ahead of us.  Harvard is still five in the lead, you know.”

“If you can hold them down—­”

“I am going to do my best.”

“If you save this game the boys won’t do a thing when we get back to New Haven—­not a thing!”

The next batter flied out to shortstop, and Griswold remained on second.

Now there was suspense, for Yale had two men out.  A sudden hush fell on the field, broken only by the voices of the two coachers.

Coulter had not recovered his nerve, and the next batter got a safe hit into right field, while Danny Griswold’s short legs fairly twinkled as he scudded down to third and then tore up the dust in a mighty effort to get home on a single.

Every Yale man was on his feet cheering again, and Danny certainly covered ground in a remarkable manner.  Head first he went for the plate.

The right fielder secured the ball and tried to stop Danny at the plate by a long throw.  The throw was all right, but Griswold was making too much speed to be caught.

The instant Old Put, who had returned to the coach line, saw that the fielder meant to throw home, he howled for the batter to keep right on for second.

Griswold scored safely, and the catcher lost little time in throwing to second.

“Slide!” howled a hundred voices.

The runner obeyed, and he got in under the baseman, who had been forced to take a high throw.

It is impossible to describe what followed.  The most of the Yale spectators acted as if they had gone crazy, and those in sympathy with Harvard showed positive alarm.

Two or three men got around the captain of the Harvard team and asked him to take out Coulter.

“Put in Peck!” they urged.  “They’ve got Coulter going, and he will lose the game right here if you do not change.”

At this the captain got angry and told them to get out.  When he got ready to change he would do it without anybody’s advice.

Coulter continued to pitch, and the next batter got first on an error by the shortstop.

“The whole team is going to pieces!” laughed Paul Pierson.  “I wouldn’t be surprised to see Old Put’s boys pull the game out in this inning, for all that two men are out.”

“If they do so, Merriwell is the man who will deserve the credit,” said Collingwood.  “That is dead right.”