The fourth inning opened for Lynton with the second clean hit of the game and the batsman reached first with time to spare. Then a hit-and-run resulted in an out at first and put a man on second. But, although there were moments when things looked desperate for the home team, the inning finally ended without a tally, Smith being coaxed by Tom into hitting a fly to the left fielder, which that youth pulled down. But the Blues fared no better; in fact, not so well, for, although Sam, discarding his new method of short-swinging in favor of slugging, lined out a two-bagger, he never got beyond that station. The game had resolved itself into a pitchers’ battle, with Tom barely holding his own against his more experienced opponent. Only the sharpest sort of fielding behind him and a really wonderful catch of a foul by Sam kept Lynton’s score down to that one lone tally. The onlookers were getting full value for their money--the Blues, in view of the more than usual amount of interest in the deciding contest, had audaciously charged fifteen cents for admission--and were sitting well forward in their seats most of the time. Even on the bench the suspense was beginning to tell. Mr. Hall had dragged his discolored Panama well over his eyes, folded his arms, and was watching events with keen interest. Mr. Talbot, smiling as he always did smile when he was anxious, made infrequent remarks in low tones to which his neighbor merely nodded. The fifth passed uneventfully into history, only three men going to bat for the Blues and four for Lynton. Smith mowed down his adversaries mercilessly, seldom pitching more than four balls to each. Tom had to work harder, and in that first of the fifth had a narrow escape from punishment when the Lynton right fielder cracked out what looked to be good for two bases, but resolved itself into a remarkable put-out by the Blues’ centre fielder, who ran almost into left garden for the ball and then got it an inch from the turf, receiving from an overwrought audience a burst of applause that quite embarrassed him. In the sixth the Lynton catcher started things off with a slow bunt that third baseman overran and so reached first base. Steve Arbuckle charitably scored a hit for the batter. Then the head of the visiting team’s list came up and things again looked bad for Amesville. But Fortune favored the Blues. Tom deceived the next man and added another strike-out to his credit, and then, when the third batsman hit across to shortstop, that youth tossed to second baseman and second baseman sped the ball to first, and the Amesville partisans warmly applauded a very pretty double-play.