Part 44 (2/2)
The next ball was a full pitch to leg. Collins had to run about a hundred yards to rescue it from the road. Bradford looked fierce. He took a longer run than usual, rushed up to the wicket, and plunged the ball in with all his force. A howl of untuneful applause rose from under the trees. The ball not only happened to be straight, but was also a yorker. Whitaker's middle stump fell flat.
There are times when a panic seizes the very best side, and for the next hour and a half the House had the pleasant experience of watching an unusually strong Buller side rabbit out before a very moderate attack.
Buller's side contained four First and two Second Eleven colours, to say nothing of three Colts caps. And yet by six o'clock the whole team was dismissed for eighty-three. There was nothing to account for the rot.
Foster and Bradford bowled unchanged. Bradford took six of the wickets, four clean bowled. It was incomprehensible.
”I can't understand it,” said Gordon at tea. ”Bradford was bowling the most utter drivel half the time, I would have given anything to have been batting. And you were not bowling at your best, you know, Foster.”
”I am well aware of that; but, heavens! it was sheer joy. Look at old Collins, down there, beaming at the thought of not having to field to-morrow.”
”It's all right,” mumbled Collins from a huge cup of tea.
”By Jove! wouldn't it be gorgeous if we could win this match, and finish up by beating the Buller crowd at their own game?” said Gordon. ”d.a.m.n it all, I don't see why we shouldn't. What we have done once we can do again. They are a better side, I know, but we'll have a d.a.m.ned good shot at winning.”
Of course Buller's laughed at the whole thing.
”It's really rather funny,” they said. ”But, of course, we are in absolutely no danger of losing. We couldn't wreck like that again; and, what's more, we shouldn't let an a.s.s like Bray make so many runs again.
We are quite safe!”
The School House kept quiet. They were not going to shout their hopes all over the school. It would look so bad if they got thoroughly beaten in the end. But in the studies and dormitories that night there was only one thought in all those minds--that victory was possible.
The next day it rained the whole time. The courts were flooded with water, the branches dripped with a tired languor. Gordon polished off two exams with masterly speed, and returned to his study.
Sat.u.r.day morning broke grey and wet. It rained spasmodically till mid-day, and then cleared up. With a sigh of relief Gordon walked up the big schoolroom to show up the last piece of work that he would do at Fernhurst. For a last composition it was hardly creditable. A long paper on the _OEdipus Tyrannus_ was finished in under an hour. But Gordon had ceased to care for academic distinctions. As he closed the door of the big school, and went out into the cloisters, he realised that a certain stage of his journey was over and done with for ever.
By lunch-time all signs of rain had cleared off, and the sun shone down on an absolutely sodden ground. Runs would be very hard to get. A lead of thirty-seven meant a lot on such a wicket. An atmosphere of nervous expectation overhung the House. Everyone was glad when the meal was over.
The match began directly after lunch. There would be very likely some difficulty in finis.h.i.+ng the game that day. Collins and Foster went in first. Gordon had asked to be kept back till later. The start was dull.
Foster was taking no risks, and Collins seemed unable to time the ball at all, which was luckily always off the wicket. Ten went up after quarter of an hour's play.
And then Foster, reaching out to play forward, slipped on the wet gra.s.s and was stumped. Three b.a.l.l.s later Bradford was caught and bowled. It was Gordon's turn to go in. Nearly everything depended on him. If he failed, the whole side would probably collapse. The tail had done miracles in the first innings; but it could not be expected to do the same again.
Gordon took guard nervously. He resolved to play himself in carefully, but he never could resist the temptation to have a ”go.” The first ball was well up, just outside the off stump. Gordon stepped across and let fly. He had forgotten how slow the pitch was. The ball hung; he was much too soon; the ball sailed straight up into the air! Point and cover-point both ran for it. ”Crampin!” yelled out Whitaker. Neither heard; they crashed into one another; the ball fell with a dull thud.
The House gave a gasp of relief.
It was a costly mistake. For when once he got his eye in, Gordon was very hard to get out. And, moreover, he was one of the few people who could get runs quickly on a really wet wicket, for the simple reason that nearly all his shots went into the air; and so he did not find the sodden ground making off drives which should have resulted in fours only realise singles.
That afternoon Gordon found the bowling perfectly simple. At the other end wickets fell slowly, but he himself was scoring fast. A hard shot over cover-point sent up his individual fifty, and two overs later he drove a length ball on the off stump past mid on to the boundary, and the hundred went up amid cheers.
”It is a mystery to me,” said Foster, ”how that man Caruthers ever gets a run at all; he has no defence, and hits straight across everything.”
”Don't let's worry about that,” said Collins; ”sufficient be it that he is. .h.i.tting these Buller's swine all over the place. Oh, good shot!”
A half-volley had landed first bounce among the masters sitting under the wall. The umpire signalled six.
One hundred and fifty went up.
And then Gordon mistimed a slow yorker, and was clean bowled for eighty-five.
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