But there might be a chance to put
Dan on the mourner's bench. If Dalzell succeeded in picking up
even a single from Dick's starting delivery, then Dave could be
all but depended upon to push his Navy chum a bag or two further
around the course.
"If I can twist Dan all up, it may serve to rattle Dave, too,"
thought the Army pitcher like a flash.
Dalzell poised the bat, and stood swinging it gently, with an
expectant grin that, had it been a school audience, would have made
the youngsters on the bleachers yell:
"Get your face closed tight, Danny! That grin hides the stick!"
Dalzell had often had that hurled at him in the old days, but he
did not have to dread it now. But Prescott knew that old broad
grin. It was Dalzell's favorite "rattler" for the balltosser.
"I think I know the scheme for getting the hair off your goat,"
mused Prescott, as he sent in his first.
"Ball one!" called the umpire.
Dan's grin broadened.
"Ball two!"
Dalzell knew he had the Army pitcher going now, and didn't take
the trouble to reach for the ball.
"Strike one!"
That took some of the starch out of the Navy batsman, who suddenly
realized that this twirler for the Army was up to old tricks.
"Strike two!"
Dan was sure he had that one, and he missed it only by an inch.
Gone, now, was the grin on Dalzell's face. A frown gathered between
his eyes as he took harder hold of the stick and waited.
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