“Here we go!” laughed Nort Madison, dancing round on the coaching line. “Get a lead, Dustan! We’ll jump into this game and win it at the start!” Gibbs, a stocky-looking chap, was the next hitter. Dick settled his right foot on the ground with a jerking movement and delivered a sharp inshoot. Almost before the ball left Merriwell’s hands Gibbs fell back a little from the plate, and he, like Dustan, met it fairly and squarely. It was a single to right field, and Dustan, having a good lead off second, literally flew over third on his way toward the home plate. Dave Flint secured the ball and did his best to stop a score. On that throw to the plate Gibbs took second. Dustan made a beautiful slide and was safe. How the Franklin crowd did cheer! This was the sort of work to delight them. Only two men had faced Merriwell. Only two balls had been pitched, yet two clean hits and a score was the result. “Got ’em on the run! Got ’em on the run!” cried Madison. “Keep it going, Gannon! We might as well make a hundred in the first inning!” To confess the truth, Dick had been surprised by the manner in which the visitors started off. He knew Gannon was a clever hitter, and there seemed every prospect that another score, at least, would be made by the enemy before Fardale could check them. “It’s all right, Merriwell!” declared big Bob Singleton. “Accidents will happen!” “Bet they don’t know ’ow they did hit!” said Billy Bradley. There was on Dick’s face a grim look of determination. He was determined to prevent Gannon from following up the hitting. Giving a sudden hitch at his waistband with both hands, he whistled the combination ball over the plate. Gannon fouled it. “You touched him, Gan, old boy!” cried Madison. “Let him try that again!” Young Merriwell lifted both hands above his head and then seemed to throw one that was bound to pass over the very centre of the plate. Gannon stood without moving his bat, and the ball took a sudden outcurve. “One ball!” was the umpire’s decision. “Make him put ’em over, Gan!” urged Madison. The batter nodded. An inshoot followed, but it was too close to be a strike, and Gannon simply let it pass, falling back slightly from the plate. “Two balls!” “He can’t fool you that way!” declared the Franklin captain laughingly. “Your eye is peeled to-day, old man.” A high ball followed, and once more Gannon refused to go after it. “Got him in a hole!” was the cry. Naturally Gannon would not strike at the next one, and Dick knew it, therefore he used a speedy one, sending it straight over the plate. The batter hit it, and the ball went zipping along the ground, Darrell failing to touch it by scarcely more than an inch. Gibbs landed on third. Nort Madison himself was the next batter. “Well! well! well!” shouted Dickson, who was near third. “We win this game right here!” Little Abe sat with his hands clasped, his face showing his intense anxiety and excitement.