Chapter XII: The Bowling Match

Cheering loudly and blowing their horns, the cadets of Putnam Hall swept into the grounds of Pornell Academy. They expected the students of the rival academy to be lined up, waiting for them, but in this they were disappointed. Only a few lads were outside, and they took but little interest in the newcomers.

“Hullo, what’s this, a frost?” queried Jack.

“Looks like it,” answered Pepper. “I told you to beware of Roy Bock and his crowd. They may be rich, but they are no gentlemen.”

“Where is your bowling team?” demanded Dale of the first student he met.

“Down at the gym. I believe,” drawled the student, and walked leisurely away.

“Now wouldn’t that freeze you stiff?” cried Andy. “Say, for two pins I’d turn around and go back.”

Some felt as Andy did, yet the crowd leaped to the campus and walked towards the gymnasium, located some distance away.

“Hi! hi!” yelled a gardener, who was fixing up a flower bed. “You can’t walk on this grass!”

“Oh, yes, I can,” answered Pepper coolly.

“No! no! It’s against the rules,” insisted the gardener.

“Oh, that’s it,” said Jack. “Will you kindly point out the way we can walk?” he added, sarcastically.

“Keep to the paths. This grass is only to look at, not to walk on.”

“Glad you told us,” said Pepper. “I might have picked a blade for my buttonhole. Andy,” he went on, “don’t look at the grass plot sideways, you may be taxed for it.”

The crowd hurried over to the gymnasium. There they found the Pornell students assembled. All the best seats facing the bowling alleys were filled.

“So you’ve got here, eh?” said Roy Bock, with no show of cordiality.

“Yes,” answered Dale, shortly. “Where are the seats you promised us, Bock?” he added, rather sharply.

“Why—er—I guess you’ll find them somewheres.”

“You promised us half the room here, and we want it,” put in Andy.

“You have always had half of our grandstand, at baseball and football,” put in Stuffer.

“You’ll have to take what seats you can get,” said Grimes.

“Not at all,” answered Dale, the sharpness in his voice increasing. “We are young gentlemen, and we came here expecting to be treated as such. Either we get half the best seats, or we don’t bowl.”

“That’s the talk,” said Andy.

“Don’t bowl?” cried Roy Bock.

“Sure an’ that’s the plain truth av it,” cried Hogan. “We came over to play wid gintlemen, not wid hogs!”

“Don’t you call me a hog!” cried Bock, in a rage.

“Sure an’ if the boot fits yez can wear it,” answered the Irish cadet coolly. “Me own opinion is that ye are afraid to mate us fer fear av losing the match, an’ so yez want to git us mad an’ dhrive us home.”

“I reckon that’s the size of it,” said Bart Conners. “They know we can walk all over them.”

A rather heated discussion followed, but Dale and his men insisted that they would not play unless given half the seats in the place and at last Roy Bock and his followers had to give in. Some who had seats had to give them up and they started to hiss the Putnam Hall cadets in consequence. But then Doctor Pornell appeared on the scene and quietness was speedily restored.

As already told, the team representing Putnam Hall was made up of Dale, Andy, Stuffer, Hogan and Conners. The Pornell Academy team was composed of Bock, Grimes, Sedley, Carey and a tall, heavy-set youth named Noddingham. It may be remarked that Noddingham was an expert bowler and had helped to win many matches. Bock relied on him to make a big run and turn the score in favor of their side.

The match was to consist of two or three games and the side winning two games was to be the victor. Of course if one side won both the first and second games, a third game would not be necessary.

Dale and Bock were the first to bowl in the initial frame. The Pornell student was perfectly familiar with the alleys and was fortunate enough to make a strike on the first ball bowled.

“Hurrah! that’s the way to do it, Bock,” was the cry.

“Keep it up and you’ll get three hundred!”

On his first ball Dale got six and on his second he knocked down two more, netting a total of eight. The Putnam Hall boys cheered at this, but not very loudly. Then Andy followed with a spare, and Grimes did the same. When Noddingham came up he got a strike, and once more the Pornell boys cheered lustily.

After that the game became pretty well “mixed.” The Putnam Hall cadets managed to get several spares in the seventh and eighth frames, and likewise two strikes and these helped somewhat. But Noddingham was there with four strikes, and Grimes and Carey had several spares, and as a result when the first game came to a close the score stood, Pornell 834, Putnam Hall 789.

“Hurrah for Pornell!”

“Putnam Hall wasn’t in it for a minute!”

“Told you we could beat them!”

And the cheering was loud and long, while many waved their caps and handkerchiefs.

“Boys, we’ve got to take a brace,” whispered Andy.

“We should have insisted on some practice on the alleys,” answered Stuffer. “Three trial balls was not enough.”

The second game was soon started and now the Putnam Hall boys began to score a little better. But so did the Pornell team, and during the sixth, seventh and eighth frames it was nip and tuck. But in the ninth Dale got a strike and so did Hogan, while the others got spares, and in the tenth Hogan added another spare and Dale got a strike. On the other side Noddingham, with a spare in the ninth, dropped to but seven in the tenth frame, and only one player got a strike.

Score in the second game, Putnam Hall 918, Pornell Academy 862.

“That’s the time we did it!” cried Pepper enthusiastically.

“Keep it up, boys!” shouted Jack. “You’ve got ’em on the run now!”

“Nothing but strikes and spares now, nothing but strikes and spares!” yelled Harry Blossom.

The Pornell Academy boys looked very glum, but they revived with the opening of the third game, when two of their side made strikes and one a spare. The Putnam Hall team did not do so well, but Dale covered a difficult “bridge” that won him loud applause.

“Sure an’ that’s a bridge wan man in a hundred couldn’t make,” was Emerald’s comment. “’Twas foin, so ’twas!” And he slapped Dale heartily on the back.

Both teams were now on their mettle and bowled with great care. Bock was very swift in his movements and twice Andy caught him overstepping the mark when delivering his ball.

“Say, Bock, we want none of that,” he said to the Pornell player.

“What?” demanded Bock, innocently.

“You overstep the mark when you run. You keep back, or I’ll claim a foul.”

“I didn’t overstep the mark.”

“I say you did.”

“So do I,” added Bart Conners. “I saw it as plain as day.”

“Humph! Maybe I did go over an eighth of an inch,” sneered Bock.

“You went over half a foot,” said Andy.

“Play fair!” shouted a score of Putnam Hall students. “Everybody watch the foul line!”

After that Roy Bock did not dare to overstep the line. As a consequence his delivery was not so good, and his score dropped behind a dozen points or more.

At last the two teams reached the ninth frame. Pornell was leading by seventeen points. They got two spares, one made by Carey and the other by Noddingham.

“Do your very best, fellows!” cried Jack, to his friends, and they bowled with such care and swiftness that they got three strikes and two spares.

“Hullo, it’s almost a tie!” cried Harry Blossom. “Go in and win!”

“Make every ball count now, fellows!” yelled Pepper. He was so excited he could not keep his seat.

Everybody was talking or cheering and the din was terrific. In the midst of the excitement the Pornell students made one spare and a seven, two eights and a nine. Putnam Hall came to the front with two strikes and two spares. Then the extra balls were speedily bowled.

Score of third game, Putnam Hall 1042, Pornell Academy 982.

“Hurrah! Putnam Hall wins the match!”

“Wasn’t that last frame great!”

Then a wild cheering ensued, in the midst of which the cadets from the Hall surrounded the victors and shook hands over and over again. It was certainly a moment of great triumph.

“I’m proud of you, boys,” said George Strong. “You did very well indeed.”

“Silence!” came suddenly from Roy Bock, as he climbed up on a bench.

“What’s the matter?” asked several, pausing in the midst of the general excitement.

“I claim a foul. Putnam Hall did not win that last game fairly.”

“What do you mean, Bock?” demanded Dale, indignantly.

“I say you did not win the game fairly,” repeated the Pornell student stubbornly.

“We did win it fairly.”

“Explain yourself, Bock!” called out several.

“I will. In the ninth and tenth frames three of their bowlers overstepped the foul line. I saw them do it, and so did Carey, Gussic and Grimes.”

“That charge is absolutely false,” cried Andy. “I for one did not come within three inches of the mark.”

“Nor did I,” added Stuffer, and the others of the team said practically the same thing.

“This is very unfortunate,” said George Strong. “You should have had an umpire for the line.”

“I was watching the line,” said a Putnam Hall student named Barton. “I saw none of our bowlers overstep the mark. But the Pornell men went over—until Andy and the others protested.”

“I say they did go over,” insisted Roy Bock. “You may call this match yours, but I’ll not give it.”

“Nor I,” added Carey.

“As you please,” answered Dale, with a shrug of his shoulders. “We won it, and did so fairly, and that is all there is to it,” and turning on his heel he walked off.

In the meantime Pepper had gone outside to the carryall. Now he came around to a back door of the Pornell gymnasium carrying the box he had brought along.

“Help me, Jack!” he called to his chum.

“What have you got?”

“A surprise for the Pornell boys. I was sure they’d treat us meanly, so I planned to get square.”

With great caution the two cadets took the box to a corner of the building and opened it. Then they took the contents up to a small gallery.

“Now then, let ’em go!” cried Pepper, and Jack obeyed the command.

Soon around the gymnasium half a dozen big black crows were flying. Caw! caw! caw! they cried in their bewilderment.

And as they flew around each crow dropped some cards which had been loosely attached to its wings.

And the cards read:

_We are to be eaten by the Pornell Bowling Team._