Page:The Rival Pitchers.djvu/33

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A GOOD THROW
23

ing should presage others which were to follow, and in which the rivalry thus early established was to be fought out to the bitter end.

"Hurry!" urged Kerr. "We're going to have our hands full now. They're going to rush us."

Tom Parsons grasped the lead weight, and shook the cord to free it of kinks. He stepped back a few feet, looked up in the darkness to where the cross was dimly visible, and then, drawing back his arm, sent the lead with great force and straight aim up into the air.

"A good throw!" cried Sid Henderson, as the moon, just then coming out from behind a bank of clouds, showed that the cord had fallen squarely over one arm of the cross, the weight coming down to the ground on the other side of the chapel.

"A good throw!" echoed Clinton.

"Humph!" growled Langridge. "I could have done as well on the next try."

"Haul up the rope!" ordered Kerr. "Lively, now!"

Several lads ran around to where the end of the cord, still attached to the weight, was on the ground. All around a struggle was going on, the freshmen endeavoring to hold back the attacking sophomores. Now and then a second-year lad would break through the protecting fringe, only to be hurled or pushed back again by the defenders.

Quick hands hauled on the cord, and the heavier