"Thanks," said Tom.

"Good of you," said d.i.c.k.

"Don"t mention it," said Harry.

There are two sorts of country cricket. There is the variety you get at a country-house, where the wicket is prepared with a care as meticulous as that in fashion on any county ground; where red marl and such-like aids to smoothness have been injected into the turf all through the winter; and where the out-fielding is good and the boundaries s.p.a.cious. And there is the village match, where cows are apt to stroll on to the pitch before the innings and cover-point stands up to his neck in a furze-bush.

The game which was to decide the fate of Tom and d.i.c.k belonged to the latter variety. A pitch had been mown in the middle of a meadow (kindly lent by Farmer Rollitt on condition that he should be allowed to umpire, and his eldest son Ted put on to bowl first). The team consisted of certain h.o.r.n.y-handed sons of toil, with terrific golf-shots in the direction of square-leg, and the enemy"s ranks were composed of the same material. Tom and d.i.c.k, in ordinary circ.u.mstances, would have gone in to bat in such a match with a feeling of lofty disdain, as befitting experts from the civilised world, come to teach the rustic mind what was what.

But on the present occasion the thought of all that depended on their bats induced a state of nerves which would have done credit to a test match.

"Would you mind taking first b-b-ball, old man?" said Tom.

"All r-right," said d.i.c.k. He had been on the point of making the request himself, but it would not do to let Tom see that he was nervous.

He took guard from Farmer Rollitt, and settled himself into position to face the first delivery.

Whether it is due to the pure air of the country or to daily manual toil is not known, but the fact remains that bowlers in village matches, whatever their other shortcomings, seldom fall short in the matter of speed. The present trundler, having swung his arm round like a flail, bounded to the crease and sent down a ball which hummed in the air. It pitched halfway between the wickets in a slight hollow caused by the foot of a cow and shot. d.i.c.k reached blindly forward, and the next moment his off-stump was out of the ground.

A howl of approval went up from the supporters of the enemy, lying under the trees.

Tom sat down, limp with joy. d.i.c.k out for a duck! What incredible good fortune! He began to frame in his mind epigrammatic sentences for use in the scene which would so shortly take place between Miss Dolly Burn and himself. The next man came in and played flukily but successfully through the rest of the over. "Just a single," said Tom to himself as he faced the bowler at the other end. "Just one solitary single. Miss Burn--may I call you Dolly? Do you remember that moonlight night? On the Char? In my Canadian canoe? We two?"

""S THAT?" shrieked bowler and wicket-keeper as one man.

Tom looked blankly at them. He had not gone within a mile and a half of the ball, he was certain. And yet--there was the umpire with his hand raised, as if he were the Pope bestowing a blessing.

He walked quickly back to the trees, flung off his pads, and began to smoke furiously.

"Well?" said a voice.

d.i.c.k was standing before him, grinning like a gargoyle.

"Of all the absolutely delirious decisions----" began Tom.

"Oh, yes," said d.i.c.k rudely, "I know all about that. Why, I could hear the click from where I was sitting. The point is, what"s to be done now? We shall have to settle it on the second innings."

"If there is one."

"Oh, there"ll be a second innings all right. There"s another man out.

On a wicket like this we shall all be out in an hour, and we"ll have the other side out in another hour, and then we"ll start again on this business. I shall play a big game next innings. It was only that infernal ball shooting that did me."

"And I," said Tom; "if the umpire has got over his fit of delirium tremens, or been removed to Colney Hatch, shall almost certainly make a century."

It was four o"clock by the time Tom and d.i.c.k went to the wickets for the second time. Their side had been headed by their opponents by a dozen on the first innings--68 to 56.

A splendid spirit of confidence animated the two batsmen. The umpire who had effected Tom"s downfall in the first innings had since received a hard drive in the small of the back as he turned coyly away to avoid the ball, and was now being ma.s.saged by strong men in the taproom of the village inn. It was the sort of occurrence, said Tom, which proved once and for all the existence of an all-seeing, benevolent Providence.

As for d.i.c.k, he had smoothed out a few of the more important mountain-ranges which marred the smoothness of the wicket, and was feeling that all was right with the world.

The pair started well. The demon bowler of the enemy, having been feted considerably under the trees by enthusiastic admirers during the innings of his side, was a little incoherent in his deliveries. Four full-pitches did he send down to d.i.c.k in his first over, and d.i.c.k had placed 16 to his credit before Tom, who had had to look on anxiously, had opened his account. d.i.c.k was a slow scorer as a rule, but he knew a full-pitch to leg when he saw one.

From his place at the other crease Tom could see Miss Burn and her mother sitting under the trees, watching the game.

The sight nerved him. By the time he had played through his first over he had reduced d.i.c.k"s lead by half. An oyster would have hit out in such circ.u.mstances, and Tom was always an aggressive batsman. By the end of the third over the scores were level. Each had made 20.

Enthusiasm ran high amongst the spectators, or such of them as were natives of the village. Such a stand for the first wicket had not been seen in all the matches ever played in the neighbourhood. When Tom, with a nice straight drive (which should have been a 4, but was stopped by a cow and turned into a single), brought up the century, small boys burst b.u.t.tons and octogenarians wept like babes.

The bowling was collared. The demon had long since retired grumbling to the deep field. Weird trundlers, with actions like nothing else on earth, had been tried, had fired their ringing shot, and pa.s.sed. One individual had gone on with lobs, to the acute delight of everybody except the fieldsmen who had to retrieve the b.a.l.l.s and the above-mentioned cow. And still Tom and d.i.c.k stayed in and smote, while in the west the sun slowly sank.

The Rev. Henry looked anxious. It was magnificent, but it must not be overdone. A little more and they would not have time to get the foe out for the second time. In which case the latter would win on the first innings. And this thought was as gall to him.

He walked out and addressed the rival captain.

"I think," said he, "we will close our innings."

Tom and d.i.c.k made two bee-lines for the scorer and waited palpitatingly for the verdict.

"What"s my score?" panted Tom.

"Fifty-fower, sur."

"And mine?" gasped d.i.c.k.

"Fifty-fower, too, sur."

"You see, my dear fellows," said the Rev. Henry when they had finished--and his voice was like unto oil that is poured into a wound--"we had to win this match, and if you had gone on batting we should not have had time to get them out. As it is, we shall have to hurry."

"But, hang it----" said Tom.

"But, look here----" said d.i.c.k.

"Yes?"

"What on earth are we to do?" said Tom.

"We"re in precisely the same hole as we were before," said d.i.c.k.

"We don"t know how to manage it."

"We"re absolutely bunkered."

"Our compet.i.tion, you see."