Madden made four attempts to catch the man off at second and then turned his attention to the impatient batsman. The man happened to be the opposing pitcher and a poor hand with the stick. But in spite of that Madden seemed unable to put the ball over the plate to Mr. Chase’s satisfaction and the Providence pitcher ambled to first, advancing the other runners and filling the bases. Cries of “Take him out!” “Put in Younger!” arose, demands which increased the captain’s unsteadiness. Certainly Billy Younger had not had time to get the kinks out of his arm, yet even so it would doubtless have been well to substitute him for Madden just then. For the next batsman, one of the Purple’s heaviest hitters, rapped a sharp one down the third base line that was just out of Tucker’s reach and two more runs came in. Connors took affairs in his own hands then, and talked earnestly to Madden, with the result that the captain, shrugging his shoulders, dropped the ball in the box and went over to third base, displacing Tucker, and Billy Younger, pulling off his faded blue sweater, ran on to the field. The stands applauded loudly and Billy, rescuing the ball, pulled his cap down and faced the situation. CHAPTER VII JERRY TO THE RESCUE Billy was a rather stocky boy of sixteen, with a cheerful countenance and a pair of steady gray eyes. He was a junior in high school and had played on the team for two years. Enthusiastic admirers of Billy declared that he had “everything there was,” meaning by that that he was master of all the deliveries known to the science of pitching. This was more enthusiastic than truthful, but still it was a fact that Billy was a good deal of a pitcher for a boy of his age, and could cause the ball to “break” in a number of puzzling ways. First of all, though, it was Billy’s craft and coolness that made him great. Billy studied the batsman and seemed to divine his thoughts. And after that he set himself craftily to circumventing him. Billy’s delivery was slow, but his curves broke well, and it was a recognized fact among his admirers that the more deliberate Billy became the more likely he was to add further strike-outs to his credit. Billy was extremely deliberate now. He viewed the batsman as though that youth’s features were strangely familiar to him and he was wondering whether they had ever met and whether it would not be well for him to walk up and shake hands. The batsman pawed the earth and waved his bat impatiently. The Providence coachers jeered and the bleacherites laughed appreciatively. Then, apparently deciding that he did not know the batsman after all, Billy Younger lifted his arms languidly above his head, spun half around and sent the ball slowly and exactly over the center of the plate. The batsman watched it go by and then turned inquiringly to the umpire. “Strike!” said Mr. Chase.