CHAPTER XIX
SOME MEAN TRICKS LEFT OVER
Mr. Schimmelpodt had offered that fifty dollars in a moment of undue excitement.
For two or three days afterward he wondered if he couldn"t find some way out of "spending" the money that would yet let him keep his self-respect.
Finding, at last, that he could not, he wrote out the check and mailed it. He pinned the check to a half-sheet of paper on which he wrote, "Rah mit Prescott!"
A few days later Mr. Schimmelpodt turned from Main Street into the side street on which d.i.c.k"s parents kept their store and their home.
"Ach! Und dere is de door vot that boy lives by," thought Mr.
Schimmelpodt, just before he pa.s.sed d.i.c.k"s door. "Yen der game over was, und I saw dot boy go down---ach!"
For Mr. Schimmelpodt had suited the action to the word. Out from under him his feet shot. But Mr. Schimmelpodt, being short and flabby of leg, with a bulky body above, came down as slowly as big bodies are supposed to move. It was rather a gradual tumble.
Having so much fat on all portions of his body Mr. Schimmelpodt came down with more astonishment than jar.
"Ach! Such a slipperyishness!" he grunted. "Hey, Bresgott---!
look out!"
The door had opened suddenly at this early hour in the morning.
d.i.c.k, charged with doing a breakfast errand for his mother at the last moment, sprang down the steps and started to sprint away.
At the first step on the sidewalk, however, d.i.c.k"s landing foot shot out from under him.
He tried to bring the other down in time to save himself. That, too, slipped. d.i.c.k waved his arms, wind-mill fashion in the quick effort to save himself.
"Bresgott," observed the seated contractor, solemnly, "I bet you five tollars to den cents dot you-----"
Here Schimmelpodt waited until d.i.c.k settled the question of the center of gravity by sprawling on the sidewalk.
"---Dot you fall," finished the German, gravely. "I---Und I yin!"
"Why, good morning, Mr. Schimmelpodt," d.i.c.k responded, as he started to get up. "What are you doing here."
"Oh, choost vaiting to see bis you do the same thing," grunted the contractor. "It was great sport---not?"
"Decidedly "not,"" laughed d.i.c.k, stepping gingerly over a sidewalk that had been spread thinly with some sticky substance. "Can I help you up, Mr. Schimmelpodt?"
The German, who knew his own weight, glanced at the boy"s slight figure rather doubtfully.
"Bresgott, how many horsepower are you alretty?"
But d.i.c.k, standing carefully so that he would not slip again, displayed more strength than the contractor had expected. In another moment the German was on his feet, moving cautiously away, his eyes on the sidewalk. Yet he did not forget to mutter his thanks to the boy.
As d.i.c.k now went on his way again, slipping around the corner and into a bakeshop, he noticed that his right wrist felt a bit queer.
"Well, I haven"t broken anything," he murmured, feeling of the wrist with his left hand. "But what on earth happened to the sidewalk."
As he paused before his door on the way back, he looked carefully down at the sidewalk. Right before the door several flags in the walk appeared to be thinly coated with some colorless specimen of slime.
"It looks as though it might be soft soap," pondered Prescott, examining the stuff more closely. "It"ll be dry in a half an hour more, but I think I had better fix it."
In the bas.e.m.e.nt was a barrel of sand that was used for sanding the icy sidewalk in winter. As soon as d.i.c.k had run upstairs with the bread he went below, got a few handfuls of sand and fixed the sidewalk.
At recess d.i.c.k noticed just enough about his wrist to make him speak about it to Submaster Luce.
"Let me see it," demanded coach. "Hm!" he muttered. "Another peculiar accident, and only two days before our game with Chichester!
See Dr. Bentley about your wrist at his office this afternoon.
I"m beginning to think, Prescott, that it"s a fortunate thing for you that the medical director is paid out of the fund. You"d bankrupt an ordinary citizen if you"re going to keep on having these tumbles."
Dr. Bentley"s verdict was that, while the wrist was not in a condition that need bother men much in ordinary callings, yet, as a pitcher"s wrist, it would need rest and care.
"I"ve just got the tip that I"m to pitch in the Chichester game,"
said Dave, coming to his chum that afternoon.
"Yes; Doe thinks I ought to look after this wrist---that it wouldn"t stand extraordinary strain during the next few days. But, Dave, old fellow, watch out! Keep your eye on the sidewalks near your home. Don"t prowl in lonely places after dark. Act as if you were made of gla.s.s until you get on the field at the Chichester game."
Darrin glanced shrewdly at his friend, then nodded.
"I"m on, d.i.c.k! Confound that fellow, Ripley. And he"s as slick and slippery as an eel. I don"t suppose there is any way that we can catch him?"
"If I knew a way I"d use it," growled Prescott. "I"m sick of having this thing so onesided all the time. Ripley plans, and we pay the piper. The blackguard!"
"Then you"re sure Ripley is at the bottom of these accidents?"
"The accidents are planned," retorted d.i.c.k. "Who else would care to plan them, except that disagreeable fellow?"
"I"d like to get just proof enough to justify me in demanding that he stand up before me for twenty rounds," gritted Dave Darrin.
Dave did take extraordinary care of himself, and was on hand to pitch at the game with Chichester. This game, like the first, was on the home grounds.
It was a close game, won by Gridley, two to one. In some respects Chichester"s fielding work was better than the home team"s. It was undying grit that won the battle---that and Dave Darrin"s pitching.
As the jubilant home fans left the ball grounds it was the general opinion that Dave Darrin was only the merest shade behind d.i.c.k Prescott as a pitcher.
"Either one of them in the box," said Coach Luce to a friend, "and the game is half won."
"But how about Ripley?"
"Ripley?" replied the coach. "He made a good showing in the tryouts, but we haven"t had in the field yet. He will be, though, the next game. We play Brayton High School over at Brayton. It"s one of the smaller games, and we"re going to try Ripley there."
Then the coach added, to himself:
"Ripley is presentable enough, but I believe there"s a big yellow streak in him somewhere. I wouldn"t dare to put Fred into one of the big games requiring all the grit that Prescott or Darrin can show!"