d soda.

At last!

Scaife takes off Fluff and puts on a fast bowler, changing his own place
in the field to short slip. The ball, a first ball and very fast,
puzzles the batsman, accustomed to slows. He mistimes it; it grazes the
edge of his bat, and whizzes off far to the right of Scaife, but the
Demon has it. Somehow or other, ask of the spirits of the air--not of
the writer--somehow his wonderful right hand has met and held the ball.

"Well caught, sir; well caught!"

"That boy ought to be knighted on the spot," says Charles Desmond. Then
the three generously applaud the retiring batsman. He has played a
brilliant innings, and restored the confidence of all Etonians.

The Eton captain descends the steps; a veteran this, not a dashing
player, but sure, patient, and full of grit. He asks the umpire to give
him middle and leg; then he notes the positions of the field.

"Whew-w-w-w!"

"D----n it!" ejaculates Charles Desmond. Bishop and parson regard him
with gratitude. There are times when an honest oath becomes expedient.
The Eton captain has cut the first ball into Fluff's hands, and Fluff
has dropped it! Alastair Kinloch, from the top of the Trent coach,
screams out, "Jolly well muffed!" The great Minister silently thanks
Heaven that point is the Duke's son and not his.

And, of course, the Eton captain never gives another chance till he is
dismissed with half a century to his credit. Meantime five more wickets
have fallen. Seven down for 191! Eton leaves the field with a score of
226 against Harrow's 289. Harrow goes in without delay, and one wicket
is taken for 13 runs before the stumps are drawn. Charles Desmond looks
at the sky.

"Looks like rain to-night," he says anxiously.

And so ends Friday's play.

* * * * *

The morrow dawned grey, obscured by mist rising from ground soaked by
two hours' heavy rain. You may be sure that all our friends were early
at Lord's, and that the pitch was examined by thousands of anxious eyes.
The Eton fast bowler was seen to smile. Upon a similar wicket had he not
done the famous hat-trick only three weeks before? The rain, however,
was over, and soon the sun would drive away the filmy mists. No man
alive could foretell what condition the pitch would be in after a few
hours of blazing sunshine. The Rev. Septimus told Charles Desmond that
he considered the situation to be critical, and, although he had read
the morning paper, he was not