Gradually the babel of sound died away. Leary was at bat. Wayne led off, danced back again, keeping an eye on the shortstop, watching the pitcher as well, listening to warnings from the coachers. If only Leary would come through! But Leary failed. A sharp crack, a sudden leaping dive by second baseman as Wayne sped along the path, a left-hand toss to first and the inning was over, and Wayne, turning disappointedly back to his position, heard the cheers and clapping break forth afresh, and wondered! It was all over ten minutes later, all over, that is, but the shouting, and that didn’t last long after the Harrisville players scuttled from field to dressing-room. In the doorway, smiling broadly now, stood Mr. Milburn, and as Wayne pushed through with the rest the manager’s arm shot out and seized on his shoulder and dragged him aside. “I’m going to tear up that contract, Sloan,” he said. “Tear it up!” faltered Wayne. “Yes.” The manager’s eyes twinkled. “It wasn’t any good, anyway! Tomorrow I’ll have a new one ready for you. I’m going to sign you on to play second base, Sloan, at a hundred and ten a month. That suit you?” Wayne only nodded, but the expression on his face was answer enough. Mr. Milburn laughed and pushed him good-naturedly on. “All right! Sign up tomorrow morning, and----” But his remark was never finished, for just then there was an excited barking outside and a little yellow dog burst through the doorway and leaped at the boy. And following Sam appeared the grinning face of June. “Mas’ Wayne, sir, I hear down to the hotel as you-all’s playin,” panted June, “an’ I jus’ nachally had to come, sir! I reckon I done lose my job, but I ain’ carin’!” “Never mind your job,” laughed Wayne, as he picked Sam up in his arms. “You’ve got a new job after today, June.” “Say I is? What I goin’ do, Mas’ Wayne?” “You’re going to look after me, June; and Sam. We’re going to find those rooms tomorrow and go to keeping house. We--we’re going to live like white folks again!” “Lawsy-y-y!” cried June. THE END Transcriber’s Notes: --Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); text in bold by “equal” signs (=bold=). --Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected. --Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved. --Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Second Base Sloan, by Christy Mathewson