lucky
to touch him again from now on. It's as good as sewed up already."

"Don't crow too soon," Scranton told him, unflinchingly, for boys
are not to be so easily bluffed; and the Scranton fellows still had
great confidence in their team, led by Hugh Morgan, as strong finishers.

It began to look very much like a pitchers' battle from that time
on. Kinsey was fast becoming invulnerable, and batter after batter
failed to connect with his wizard delivery. He would smile at them,
and then proceed to give them something they were not expecting, so
that the heaviest Scranton batters struck out.

On the other hand, Alan Tyree was doing almost as well, and if he
fell a trifle short his teammates made up the difference, for they
performed splendidly. Several hummers that apparently were ticketed
for two-baggers, perhaps more, were hauled down by expert fingers
before they could get out of the diamond, while the fielders caught
several particularly vicious flies that would have counted heavily
against Scranton were they allowed to fall safely.

The ninth inning saw no change, for the tie was still unbroken. This
sort of thing pleased the crowd immensely, as an extra inning game
always means additional excitement, and added thrills for the money.

Even the tenth did not break the monotony, although at one time
it looked as if Belleville might add a tally to their score, and
possibly clinch matters. Leonard, their hard-hitting backstop,
sent one out in short center, failing to give it enough force to
take advantage of that incline back of "K.K." Then Conway, who had
been hitting savagely latterly, tried to knock the cover off the
ball, but only succeeded in popping up a high foul which Thad smothered
in his big mitt after dancing around for several seconds, as though
the twister were difficult to gauge correctly.

Gould bunted unexpectedly when the stage was set for a mighty blow,
with the fielders playing away out. He advanced Leonard, although
caught himself, thanks to the quick work of the pitcher, who closed
in on the ball, and tossed it to first ahead of the sprinting Gould.

So Leonard was on second, with two out, and another slugger at the
plate in the person of Wright, with Waterman to follow.

Some of the Belleville boys started cheering and they appeared to
be almost certain that a run was as good as counted, but for once
they made a mistake, because after Tyree had gotten himself into a
bad hole, with