Fairhaven had fought desperately for the game at Seaslope, and three extra innings had been necessary to decide the contest; but the home club had won in the twelfth, the final score being four to three. “I told you before the game began that we were going into second place to-day!” cried Sam Hyde, addressing Dick Merriwell, captain of the Fairhavens. “Hard luck for you, but we’re out for the pennant.”
“You’re not out of reach yet, are you?” retorted Dick, as he prepared to pull on his sweater. “We still have a small show, haven’t we?”
“Perhaps you may finish in third position if you can hold Maplewood down,” said the Seaslope captain. “We’re going to finish at the top, and I fancy Rockford will be in second place. It’s now a fight between you and Maplewood to see which of you escape being tail-ender.”
“Evidently you have it all settled—in your mind,” smiled Dick. “These things don’t always pan out the way they are planned.”
“Just look over our record when you get a chance,” invited Hyde. “When you’ve considered what we’ve done, it ought to satisfy you that we’re going to swipe the pennant.”
Having drawn on his sweater, Dick observed that Ray Garrett, the manager of the Fairhaven team, was looking blue and downcast. Merriwell clapped him on the shoulder and advised him to cheer up.
“It’s tough!” muttered Garrett. “This game pushed us down from second position and let Seaslope head us. If Seaslope keeps up the pace it has set, Hyde is right in thinking it will win the pennant.”
“You talk like a funeral!” exclaimed Dick. “Wait till we reach Rockford. We’ll figure over the standing of the teams after we get there. I think you will see they are well bunched.”
The recent victories of the Seaslope team had enthused its spectators, and the game this day had been witnessed by a wonderfully large crowd. Early in the season, when Seaslope was losing steadily, it had been difficult to get out a respectable gathering of spectators. Merriwell could not help thinking of the change as he watched the well-satisfied throng pouring out at the open gate of the inclosure. At last Seaslope was making money, and Jared Whitcomb, the manager of the team, was smiling and well satisfied.
“We’ve just about time enough to catch the next car for Rockford,” said Garrett, looking at his watch. “Have you picked up all the stuff, fellows? Got all the bats? Where’s the body protector? Don’t leave anything.”
Carrying their bat bags and other necessary luggage, the Fairhaven team hurried from the ground and cut across a field to reach the trolley line and intercept a car. In this manner they reached the car ahead of many who waited for it at a regular stopping place, and all the boys secured seats. It had been a hot day, and twelve hard innings had tired them to such an extent that they were glad to sit down.
“We must have that game to-morrow,” said Garrett, who had taken pains to secure a seat beside Dick. “For that reason I’m not going to send you back to the island to-night. I don’t want you to take that trip. If it should be rough to-morrow you might get shaken up coming over.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Dick; “but I thought you intended to run an excursion to-morrow.”
“I do. I’ll run it just the same. More than that, I’m going to see if I can’t stir up things on the island to-night. We must have a good big crowd of rooters with us in Rockford to-morrow. I will telephone the boys on the island and set them at work getting up a crowd. Dick, do you realize that the game to-morrow is going to be one of the hardest of the season?”
“Haven’t a doubt of it,” nodded Merriwell. “If Rockford won to-day from Maplewood, she’ll be able to hold first place to-morrow whether she loses or not; but if Maplewood won——”
“It seems likely to me,” interrupted Garrett. “Maplewood has been walloping almost everybody but us since getting her new team. A week ago I fancied Rockford might have the strongest team in the league. To-day I’m inclined to think she has the weakest.”
“Time will tell. We’ll find out how the teams stand as soon as we learn what happened in Maplewood.”
Finding the boys were inclined to accept Garrett’s rather gloomy view of the matter, Dick laughed at them and did his best to cheer them up.
“Don’t you worry about us!” cried Obediah Tubbs. “We’ll git into the game to-morrow, dern our picters! If Rockford takes a fall out of us she’ll have to get up and hump herself.”
On arriving in Rockford the boys eagerly looked over the bulletin of the Trolley League games displayed in front of the Star office.
“Great horn spoon!” cried Buckhart. “Just look at that! Maplewood lifted Rockford’s scalp to-day! Nine to two! That was doing it some!”
“The standing is what interests me now,” laughed Dick. “There it is, boys. Talk about teams being bunched! What do you think of that? Seaslope and Rockford are tied, having won twenty each and lost nineteen. Fairhaven and Maplewood are tied, having won nineteen each and lost twenty. That’s the sort of baseball to make your hair curl. It keeps everybody guessing.”
“Well, I’m bub-bub-bub-blamed glad Maplewood did beat Rockford to-day,” chuckled Chip Jolliby. “I ain’t gug-gug-gug-got no love for Maplewood, but it kinder makes things a little more even.”
The boys left the car at the Corndike Hotel, where Garrett registered for them and secured rooms for the night.
By this time the various members of the Fairhaven team were well known in Rockford, and a number of persons lingering about the hotel office hailed them one after another by name.
Whitney, the clerk, shook hands with Dick.
“Too bad you dropped that game to-day, Merriwell,” he said. “If you had won you would have been tied with us for first place. I keep a bulletin up, following the progress of the games. It was plain enough before the game at Maplewood was half finished that Rockford was going to lose, but you kept us guessing what the result would be at Seaslope. Seaslope’s recent success led some of the boys to offer odds that she would take the game to-day. I dropped a five on it myself. I took the short end, and you fellows had me dancing after the ninth inning was finished and the report came in that the score was tied. Then came the whitewash in the tenth, and another in the eleventh. We heard that you finished your half of the twelfth without scoring, and I offered up a humble supplication for you to shut Seaslope out in her half. How did they get their run?”
“Nobody to blame,” said Dick. “They earned it. Happened to have their best batters up and made a clean-earned run.”
“No fault of the umpiring?”
“If anything,” confessed Dick, “we got the best end of that.”
“Well, that’s good sporting talk!” exclaimed Whitney. “I am sick of hearing all the blame put on the umpiring. When a team loses, it generally blames the umpire. There’ll be a hot time in Rockford to-morrow. We can’t afford to let you have that game. We’re obliged to hold first position, you know.”
“Of course, you feel that way,” retorted Dick. “We have ambitions, Mr. Whitney.”
A Rockford man who had been standing near now stepped forward.
“You can find all the even money you want offered on Rockford,” he said. “I’d like to bet ten dollars myself. Where are the sports that back your team? You’re captain of it, and I suppose you’ll bet something yourself, eh?”
“I don’t make a practice of betting,” said Dick.
The man laughed in an annoying manner.
“That’s a good excuse for a weak heart,” he said. “Here’s your manager. I understand he made a heavy bet early in the season—something like five hundred dollars. He won, too. Perhaps he wants to peddle a little of that coin.”
Garrett shook his head.
“There are reasons why I can’t bet,” he said, thinking of his promise to his mother.
Again the Rockford man laughed.
“Your judgment is better than your nerve,” he declared. “Evidently you’re going to hang onto that five hundred.”
Ray flushed.
“I think you’ll find plenty of men ready to accommodate you to-morrow,” he said. “There will be an excursion from Fairhaven, and we expect a crowd.”
“Tell your people to bring all the money they are anxious to lose.”
A few moments later Garrett and Dick were alone in the room assigned to them. Ray made some figures on a piece of paper and sat frowning over them. Finally his face cleared a little, and he began to laugh.
“What is it?” questioned Dick.
“I was just thinking of what might happen to-morrow. Fairhaven plays Rockford, while Maplewood goes against Seaslope. What if both Fairhaven and Maplewood win? Have you thought about that?”
“Haven’t given it much thought yet,” said Dick. “Let me see, both Fairhaven and Maplewood are one game behind at present. If they win to-morrow—why, every team in this league will be tied!”
“That’s exactly what will happen,” nodded Ray. “Wouldn’t that be remarkable? If the two tail-end teams win to-morrow every team in this league will have won twenty games and lost twenty games. With the season so far advanced, I don’t believe such a thing ever happened before in any league. Jingoes, wouldn’t it kick up some excitement!”
“It would be the best thing that could happen for the league,” said Dick. “But let’s do a little more figuring. If we defeat Rockford and Seaslope wins from Maplewood, Seaslope will take first position, while we will be tied with Rockford for second.”
“That’s correct,” said Garrett. “But if we lose and Maplewood wins, we go clean to the bottom. To-day we had a chance to be tied for first place and lost it. Another defeat may put us into last place. Dick, I confess I’m worried about that game to-morrow. Win it if you can.”
“I promise you that every man on the team will do his level best,” said Dick.