As it once more reached Dick’s hand Umpire Tozier shouted: 

“Ready!  Play ball!”

Greg Holmes signaled what he wanted.  Dick gave the ball a twist, and the game was on.

Chapter V

NORTH GRAMMARS PLAY REAL BALL

“Say, dress a kid up swell, and send him on the street—–­did you ever know him to be any good?” demanded Ted Teall scornfully of those who stood near him.  “Well, that’s what ails the Centrals.  They’re wearing a bale of glad dry goods and they can’t keep their eyes off their togs long enough to find the ball.”

Dick and Dave heard this as they went to grass at the end of the third inning.

So far, though the Centrals had made some bases, none of their players had succeeded in scoring at the plate.  One of Hi Martin’s players had scored a run in the first inning and another in the third.

“Teall is a torment, isn’t he?” whispered Dick.

“He is now,” muttered Dave.  “He won’t be after this game is finished.”

“Why not?”

“I’m going to trim some of the funny talk out of him after the game.”

“Don’t do anything foolish, Dave,” urged Dick.

“That won’t be foolish.  It’s necessary.”

“Don’t do it, Dave, or even think of it.  You’ll give the Centrals the name of not being able to stand defeat.”

Then Dick ran over to the box to begin pitching for the fourth inning.  His arm had not given out.  Prescott had been doing some pretty good pitching, and Greg had backed him up well.  But the North Grammars had a few batsmen who seemed to guess the ball in advance.

“Hey, Mr. Umpire,” shouted a boyish onlooker, as Dick faced the plate, ball in hand, “better call the game and let the Centrals play some weak primary school team.”

Even at this cheap witticism there was considerable laughter.  It made Dick’s face flush.

“I’ll show ’em whether we can play or not,” he muttered to himself, as he caught the signal from Greg.  “We’ve got to start, too, for we’ve got to match those two runs and then pick up this game for our own.”

Hi Martin was again at the plate.  He swung his bat idly, grinning mockingly at Prescott.

“I’ll let you off without trying, if you’ll give me second base,” offered Hi tantalizingly.

“If the batsman talks again he will be ordered off the grounds,” declared Umpire Tozier sternly.

But Dick felt the sting of his opponent’s taunt and longed to be even.  Greg signaled for a drop ball—–­a difficult one for a schoolboy to throw.  It was the first time in the game that Greg had asked for this.

Dick “made up” the ball with extra care, then let it go.  It looked like a chest-high ball as it came, and was so slow that Hi threw back his bat to slam it.

“A home run on this!” thought Hi exultantly.

From the sides of the field came a mocking laugh, for the ball had dropped, leaving Hi pounding wildly at the air.