第2章 THE REDHEADED OUTFIELD(2)

The Stars trotted in, Scott and Healy and Kane, all veterans, looking like thunderclouds.Red ambled in the last and he seemed very nonchalant.

``By Gosh, I'd 'a' ketched that one I muffed if I'd had time to change hands,'' he said with a grin, and he exposed a handful of peanuts.He had refused to drop the peanuts to make the catch with two hands.That explained the mystery.It was funny, yet nobody laughed.There was that run chalked up against the Stars, and this game had to be won.

``Red, I--I want to take the team home in the lead,'' said Delaney, and it was plain that he suppressed strong feeling.``You didn't play the game, you know.''

Red appeared mightily ashamed.

``Del, I'll git that run back,'' he said.

Then he strode to the plate, swinging his wagon-tongue bat.For all his awkward position in the box he looked what he was--a formidable hitter.

He seemed to tower over the pitcher--Red was six feet one--and he scowled and shook his bat at Wehying and called, ``Put one over--you wienerwurst!'' Wehying was anything but red-headed, and he wasted so many balls on Red that it looked as if he might pass him.He would have passed him, too, if Red had not stepped over on the fourth ball and swung on it.White at second base leaped high for the stinging hit, and failed to reach it.The ball struck and bounded for the fence.When Babcock fielded it in, Red was standing on third base, and the bleachers groaned.

Whereupon Chesty Reddy Clammer proceeded to draw attention to himself, and incidentally delay the game, by assorting the bats as if the audience and the game might gladly wait years to see him make a choice.

``Git in the game!'' yelled Delaney.

``Aw, take my bat, Duke of the Abrubsky!''

sarcastically said Dump Kane.When the grouchy Kane offered to lend his bat matters were critical in the Star camp.

Other retorts followed, which Reddy Clammer deigned not to notice.At last he got a bat that suited him--and then, importantly, dramatically, with his cap jauntily riding his red locks, he marched to the plate.

Some wag in the bleachers yelled into the silence, ``Oh, Maggie, your lover has come!''

Not improbably Clammer was thinking first of his presence before the multitude, secondly of his batting average and thirdly of the run to be scored.In this instance he waited and feinted at balls and fouled strikes at length to work his base.

When he got to first base suddenly he bolted for second, and in the surprise of the unlooked-for play he made it by a spread-eagle slide.It was a circus steal.

Delaney snorted.Then the look of profound disgust vanished in a flash of light.His huge face beamed.

Reddie Ray was striding to the plate.

There was something about Reddie Ray that pleased all the senses.His lithe form seemed instinct with life; any sudden movement was suggestive of stored lightning.His position at the plate was on the left side, and he stood perfectly motionless, with just a hint of tense waiting alertness.Dorr, Blake and Babcock, the outfielders for the Grays, trotted round to the right of their usual position.Delaney smiled derisively, as if he knew how futile it was to tell what field Reddie Ray might hit into.Wehying, the old fox, warily eyed the youngster, and threw him a high curve, close in.It grazed Reddie's shirt, but he never moved a hair.Then Wehying, after the manner of many veteran pitchers when trying out a new and menacing batter, drove a straight fast ball at Reddie's head.Reddie ducked, neither too slow nor too quick, just right to show what an eye he had, how hard it was to pitch to.The next was a strike.And on the next he appeared to step and swing in one action.There was a ringing rap, and the ball shot toward right, curving down, a vicious, headed hit.Mallory, at first base, snatched at it and found only the air.Babcock had only time to take a few sharp steps, and then he plunged down, blocked the hit and fought the twisting ball.Reddie turned first base, flitted on toward second, went headlong in the dust, and shot to the base before White got the throw-in from Babcock.Then, as White wheeled and lined the ball home to catch the scoring Clammer, Reddie Ray leaped up, got his sprinter's start and, like a rocket, was off for third.This time he dove behind the base, sliding in a half circle, and as Hanley caught Strickland's perfect throw and whirled with the ball, Reddie's hand slid to the bag.

Reddie got to his feet amid a rather breathless silence.Even the coachers were quiet.There was a moment of relaxation, then Wehying received the ball from Hanley and faced the batter.

This was Dump Kane.There was a sign of some kind, almost imperceptible, between Kane and Reddie.As Wehying half turned in his swing to pitch, Reddie Ray bounded homeward.It was not so much the boldness of his action as the amazing swiftness of it that held the audience spellbound.Like a thunderbolt Reddie came down the line, almost beating Wehying's pitch to the plate.But Kane's bat intercepted the ball, laying it down, and Reddie scored without sliding.

Dorr, by sharp work, just managed to throw Kane out.

Three runs so quick it was hard to tell how they had come.Not in the major league could there have been faster work.And the ball had been fielded perfectly and thrown perfectly.

``There you are,'' said Delaney, hoarsely.

``Can you beat it? If you've been wonderin' how the cripped Stars won so many games just put what you've seen in your pipe and smoke it.Red Gilbat gets on--Reddy Clammer gets on--and then Reddie Ray drives them home or chases them home.''