the loss of this gamethink of it, the score was 14 to 2!tied the kingstonians with the charlestonians, and another game was necessary to decide the contest for the pennant. that game was immediately arranged for commencement week on the kingston grounds. and now the twins, who had resigned themselves to having never a chance on the nine, found themselves suddenly called upon to pitch and catch in _the_ game of the year; for the drubbing the regular pitcher had received had destroyed the confidence of the team in his ability to pitch a second time successfully against the charlestonians. to make matters worse, the game was to come almost in the very midst of the final examinations of the year, and the twins became so mixed up in their efforts to cram into their heads all the knowledge in the world, and to pull out of their fingers all of the curves known to science, that one day reddy said to heady: i half believe that when i get up for oral examination ill be so rattled that, instead of answering the question, ill try to throw the ink-bottle on an upshoot at the professors head. and heady answered, even more glumly: i wouldnt mind that so much; what im afraid of is that when you really need to use that out-curve youll throw only a few dates at the batter. i will signal for an out-curve, and youll stand in the box and tie yourself in a bow-knot, and throw at me something about columbus discovering america in 1776; or youll reel off some problem about plastering the inside of a room, leaving room for four doors and six windows. when the day of the game arrived, however, reddy and heady took their positions with the proud satisfaction of knowing that they had passed all their school-book examinations. now they wondered what percentage they would make in their baseball examination. sleepy, however, went out to left-field not knowing where he stood. he knew so little about his books, indeed, that even after the examination was over he could tell none of the fellows what answers he had made to what questions, and so they could not tell him whether or no he had failed ignominiously or passed accidentally. this worry, however, sat very lightly on sleepys nerves. the largest crowd of the year was gathered to witness the greatest game of the year, and charleston and kingston were tuned up to the highest pitch they could reach without breaking. the day was perfect, and in the preliminary practice the kingstonians showed that they were determined to wipe out the disgrace of the brownsville game, or at least to cover it up with the scalps of the charlestonians. at length the charlestonians were called in by their captain, for they were first at bat. the kingstonians dispread themselves over the field in their various positions. the umpire tossed to the nervous reddy what seemed to be a snowball, whose whiteness he immediately covered with dust from the box. the charlestonian batter came to the plate and tapped it smartly three or four times. the umpire sang out: play-ball! reddy cast a nervous look around the field, then went into a spasm in which he seemed to be trying to skin the cat on an invisible turning-pole. out of the mix-up he suddenly straightened himself. the first baseman saw a dusty white cannon-ball shoot past him, and heard the umpires dulcet voice growl: strike! which pleased the kingston audience so mightily that they broke forth into cheers and applause that upset reddy so completely that the next ball slipped from his hand and came toward the first baseman so gently that he could hardly have missed it had he tried. the kingstonian cheer disappeared in a groan as everybody heard that unmistakable whack that resounds whenever the bat and the ball meet face to face. but the very sureness of the hit was its ruination, for it went soaring like a carrier-pigeon straight home to the hands of sleepy, who, without moving from his place, reached up and took it in. the kingston groan was now changed back again to a cheer, and the first batter of the first half of the first inning had scored the first out. the charleston third baseman now came to the bat. three times in succession reddy failed to get the ball over the plate, and the man evidently had made up his mind that he was to get his base on balls, for at the fourth pitch he dropped his bat and started for first base, only to be called back by the umpires voice declaring a strike. to his immense disgust, two other strikes followed it, and he went to the bench instead of to the base. the third charlestonian caught the first ball pitched by reddy, and sent it bounding toward jumbo, who ripped it off the ground and had it in the hands of his chum sawed-off before the charlestonian was half-way to first base. this retired the side, and the kingstonians came in to bat amid a pleasant april shower of applause. sawed-off was the first kingston man to take a club to the charlestonians. he waved his bat violently up and down, and stared fiercely at the charleston pitcher. his ferocity disappeared, however, when he saw the ball coming at a frightful speed straight at him, and threatening to take a large scoop out of his stomach. he stretched up and back and away from it with a ridiculous wiggle, that was the more ridiculous when he saw the ball curve harmlessly over the plate and heard the umpire cry: strikeone! he upbraided himself for his fear, and when the next ball was pitched, though he felt sure that it was going to strike him on the shoulder, he did not budge. but here he made mistake number two; for the ball did not curve as the pitcher had intended, but gave the batter a sharp nip just where it said it would. the only apology the pitcher made was the rueful look with which he watched sawed-off going down to first base. the kingston center-fielder was the next at the bat, and he sent a little roman candle of a fly that fell cozily into the third basemans hands. jumbo now came to the plate, and swinged at the ball so violently that one might have thought he was trying to lift sawed-off bodily from first base to second. but he managed only to send a slow coach of a liner, that raced him to first base and beat him there. sawed-off, however, had managed to make second before the charleston first baseman could throw him out, and there he pined away, for the kingston third baseman struck out, possibly in compliment to the charleston third baseman, who had done the same thing. this complimentary spirit seemed to fill the short-stop also, for he sent down to his rival jumbo a considerately easy little fly, which stuck to jumbos palms as firmly as if there had been fly-paper on them. the charleston catcher now found reddy for a clean base-hit between left and center field. he tried to stretch it into a two-base hit, and the kingston center fielded the ball in so slowly that he succeeded in his grasping attempt. the charlestonian second baseman made a sacrifice hit that advanced the catcher to third. and now the pitcher came to the bat, eager to bring home the wretch at whom he had hurled his swiftest curves. his anxiety led him into making two foolish jabs at curves that were out of his reach, and finally he caught one just on the tip of his bat, and it went neatly into tugs hand, leaving the catcher to perish on third base. sleepy now came to the bat for kingston, and, without making any undue exertion, deftly placed a fly between the short-stop and the left-fielder, and reached first base on a canter. he made no rash attempts to steal second, but waited to be assisted there. the kingston right-fielder, however, struck out and made way for reddy. reddy, though a pitcher, was, like most pitchers, unable to solve the mystery of a rivals curves for more than a little grounder, that lost him first base, and forced sleepy to a most uncomfortable exertion to keep from being headed off at second. tug now came to the bat; but, unfortunately, while the hit he knocked was a sturdy one, it went toward third base, and sleepy did not dare venture off second, though he made a feint at third which engaged the basemans attention until tug reached first. heady now came to the bat, and some of the charlestonians insisted that he had batted before; but they were soon convinced of their error when the twins were placed side by side