"If we could only once get a good lead on them," remarked Jamie Kennedy, "I am sure they would be so badly demoralised that we should get away with them. But they don't seem to scare worth a cent. They hold on like grim death." This conversation was brought to a close by the umpire shouting, "John Handy to the bat!" and John convinced the spectators, as the Dean County Sheriff remarked, that he was "not handy at batting," for he was struck out; and Peabody, who followed, went out on a foul to Captain Porter. Tom Shoff then proved that he was not wholly "The Jonah" that Charlie King had feared him to be by merely going out on a long fly to left field. This ended the third inning, with the contestants neck and neck, each being credited with four runs. As he took his position before the pitcher, Captain Hiram Porter expressed to his comrades his conviction that the Catalpas were to do some good work in that inning. He felt it "in his bones," he said, whereat Ben Burton laughed contemptuously, and said to "The Lily," who sat next him, that if the bones of Captain Hiram were to be the barometer of the game, the Catalpas would be in hard luck. He had no faith in the Porter family bones, he said. But Hiram justified his faith in his own impressions by hitting with all his might the first ball pitched and thereby securing one base. Ben Burton, who followed him, also took one base, but this was through the error of Captain Ayres, who muffed a ball thrown to him by Jamie Kennedy. "The Lily" came next to the bat. He had previously made a small wager with Ben Burton that he would make a safe hit, and, in order to defeat Burton and at the same time benefit the club, he kept perfectly cool, waiting for his opportunity, refusing to strike at any of "Morse's coaxers," as the boys styled the Calumets' pitcher's work. When he got a ball waist-high over the plate, he hit it with sufficient power to fell an ox. The sphere traveled on a right line as though it were shot out of a cannon's mouth, and gave "The Lily" two bases, at the same time sending Porter and Burton over the home plate and giving the Catalpas a lead of two runs. A broad smile adorned the countenance of "The Lily," and, with cap in hand, he stood ready to fly to third base as soon as the ball was hit. But his ardent desires were not to be gratified; the next three men went out in "one-two-three" order, Larry Boyne on a fly to Glenn Otto, Sam Morrison on a grounder to Handy, and Neddie Ellis on strikes. Third base was the nearest Van Orman came to the home plate, much to his grief; and, as he adjusted his gloves for the next turn behind the bat, he muttered, "Well, I made that ball whistle, anyhow!" Buttoning his hand protectors, with a series of wrenches, he jerked out, "The next one--that Bill hits--will never be found."