"Now, Pete, don't forget what I told you!" shouted Tom, as the lad who was taking Sid's place stepped up, but poor Pete must have had a poor memory, for he struck out, and when Tom himself took up his stick, Bricktop, who had been vainly trying to steal second and who was somewhat tired out, by the pitcher's efforts to catch him napping on first, finally did what the Fairview players hoped he would do--he played off too far, and he couldn't get back, when Allen suddenly slammed the ball over to the first baseman. Bricktop was out, and the Randall side was retired, but with three runs to its credit. "That'll do for a starter," observed Tom, as he put on his pitching glove. "We'll duplicate that next inning." But the sixth saw goose eggs in the frames of both nines, though Tom sent a pretty, low fly out to center, where it was neatly caught by Ted Puder, who had to jump for it. The Jersey twins struck out in monotonous succession, thus ending the sixth. "Now for the lucky seventh!" yelled a crowd of Fairview supporters. "Everybody stand up!" and the big crowd arose to get some relief from sitting still so long. The seventh was destined to be lucky in spite of the efforts of Tom and his men to hold back Fairview. CHAPTER XXI RANDALL IN THE TENTH Lem Sellig, who was up first for Fairview, had what Tom thought was a wicked look in his eye. Whether Tom lost control or whether Lem surprised himself and his friends by finding the ball, in spite of its puzzling curve was not known, but at any rate he knocked a two bagger, and it was almost a three sacker, for the center fielder dropped the ball, and had some time in finding it in the grass before he threw it in just in time to shut off Lem from going to third. This stroke of luck seemed to give Fairview confidence, and Frank Sullivan almost duplicated Lem's trick, bringing in the third baseman, and getting to second himself. "Now we're going to walk away from 'em," declared Lem, as he tallied the first run for his side, and it did look so, for Ned Williams found Tom Parsons for a couple of fouls. But the fatal blow was wanting, and Ned went back to the bench, amid groans. Sullivan stole to third on a ball that managed to get past Dutch at home, and then followed a wild scene when John Allen knocked a pretty fly, bringing in Frank, but getting out himself. This made the score two to three in favor of Randall, and there was a nervous tension when Tom got ready to attend to Herbert Bower, the next man up. "I've got to dispose of him with some style," thought the Randall twirler, "or our fellows will get rattled. Let's see if I can't do it." It looked a bit discouraging when his first two deliveries were called balls, but the next three could not have been better, and Bower was struck out. "All we've got to do is hold 'em down now, and we've got the game," declared Dutch, as he walked with Tom in from the field. "We've got to get some more runs," insisted the captain.