Challenge at Second Base by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316095495
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

9

You crazy fool!” yelled Phil as he slowed the boat alongside Stan so that Tommy and Larry could haul the boy in. “What’re you trying to do? Drown?”

“I wanted to save my glove,” Stan murmured hoarsely.

“Save your glove?” Larry echoed. “You make it sound as if it was human.”

With his friends’ help, Stan got into the boat and sat on the rear seat. Instantly, Phil increased the throttle, and the boat began speeding forward again.

“To blazes with the glove!” yelled Phil over his shoulder. “I’m trying to save us from being hit by a storm and you want to save a glove! Try to top that, will you?”

Phil would say that, of course. Perhaps he had never felt the way Stan did about a glove. Perhaps that was why he didn’t care about playing baseball any more.

“Here, put this on,” said Tommy, and helped Stan with a life jacket.

Stan steadied himself against the bouncing of the boat. Already the waves were rolling high. Drops of water fell upon them. For a moment Stan wasn’t sure whether they came from the water about them or the heavy clouds swirling overhead.

Again lightening pierced the sky for a moment and then abruptly vanished. Again thunder rumbled.

The boys hung on for dear life to the sides of the boat. Ahead of them the shoreline seemed to be rising and falling. Trees leaned under the power of the wind. Leaves broke loose from their branches, flew swiftly and crazily through the air. Birds swooped low and high, carried every which way by the wind. The drops fell thicker, and now Stan knew they were falling from those black clouds.

The boat lifted on the crest of a wave, then came down smack! The bow pierced the water, and gallons of the churning whiteness spilled into the boat, covering the boys’ feet.

Phil hung desperately onto the wheel to keep the boat from getting out of his control. It was up to him now. It was a fight between him and the mad waters of the lake.

For a while the gap between the boat and the shore seemed to remain the same. Then slowly it closed, and Stan saw several men appear on the dock. They were waiting to help pull in the boat and secure it.

Finally the boat rocked close to the dock. The boys tossed out the rope. The men caught it, pulled the boat in against a pair of rubber tires, and secured it. The last puff-puff of the motor died away as Phil turned it off.

“Thanks, guys,” he said gratefully. “We’d have a real damaged boat if it weren’t for you.”

“We were ready to call the Coast Guard,” one of the men replied, grinning.

Hardly five minutes had passed when a car drove up, stopped with a sudden jerk, and three anxious-looking people jumped out.

“Stan! Phil! Are you all right?”

The boys grinned at Mom, Dad, and Dottie, who stared at them white-faced.

“All right?” echoed Phil innocently. “Why? Is something wrong?”

Dottie’s green eyes flared. “Don’t be smart, Philip Andrew Martin! We saw that storm coming, and we knew you were out on the lake.

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