It did not seem that Jeffers put any force into that hit, but the ball went skimming down between short and second so fast that no one could touch it, and it placed Jeffers on second, while Merriwell scored with ease. Two for Yale! The rooters broke loose in earnest. This was better than they had expected. And big Bruce Browning was at the bat! Now Bruce seemed very much awake. He had barely been able to pull on Faunce’s suit, and it looked as if he might split open the shirt or the trousers at any moment. Finch was nervous; he showed it. His confidence had dropped in an astonishing manner. “It’s too bad,” said Pink Pooler, who showed some symptoms of uneasiness. “Why didn’t the fellows do this before? Now it is too late.” “It’s never too late to mend,” said Dismal Jones, solemnly. “There is a chance for you.” Finch resolved to worry Browning, but he made a mistake with the first ball he pitched. Without intending to do so, he sent that ball over close to the ground. Browning hit it, and rapped out a daisy-cutter that enabled him to get first, while Jeffers, by the most brilliant running, crossed third and came home on a slide, getting in the score. “There’s half of it!” screamed Jack Diamond, from the bleachers. His voice was drowned by the Yale cheers. Right there Finch went entirely to pieces. He became so wild that the next two men got a base on balls, and the bags were all taken. Then Walling rapped one to Princeton’s third baseman. It should have been an easy out, but the man was so anxious to pick it up cleanly that he juggled it, tossed it into the air, caught it, threw it to first, and put it away over the head of the baseman. Browning had scored, Costigan followed him, and Bink Stubbs made a slide for third. The right fielder was the man who got the ball. He shot it to first, and first sent it across to third. It was another wild throw. The whole Princeton nine seemed “up in the air.” Stubbs scrambled up, hearing the coacher yelling for him to make for home. He did so. His short legs fairly twinkled as he tore down the line, and he crossed the plate ahead of the ball. Then the Yale rooters yelled, and shrieked, and cheered till it seemed they were crazy, for the score was tied! CHAPTER XXV. VICTORY! Another pitcher was set to warming up right away, although it was as much the fault of the infield players as of Finch that Yale had tied the score. Finch saw the man getting ready to go in, and that helped take the sand out of the fellow. He gave the next batter a base on balls, and then Parker got a hit that brought Walling home and gave Yale the lead. It was a happy crowd of rooters who wore the blue just then. A few minutes before it had seemed that Yale did not have a show in the game. At the beginning of the inning Yale had not scored, and Princeton apparently had a snap. Now Yale was one score in the lead.