"But I'm going to pull through." "You're sure about it ?" Purcell asked.
"Sure enough!" The first Gardiner man to bat went out on the third ball sent past him.

Then a second.

Now came Prendergast to the bat, blood in his eye.

He glared grimly at young Prescott, as though to say: "Now, I'll take it out of you for making a comedian of me the first time I held the stick!" Dick felt, somehow, that Prendergast would make good.
The first ball that Prescott put over the plate was a called strike.
At the second serve--- Crack! and Prendergast was running.
Dan Dalzell gauged the flight of that ball better than anyone else on the diamond.

He side-stepped like a flash, falling back a couple of paces.