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Authors: Matt Christopher

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“We heard on the radio that a mad dog was loose somewhere around town,” said Tony. He grinned. “Guess it wasn’t yours, was
it?”

Bobby laughed. “Not Terry! How long ago did you hear that, Tony?”

“About an hour ago.”

“What kind of a dog was it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention. Mom and Dad heard it, and they spoke about it. Guess by now it’s caught, anyway.”

“Oh, sure,” said Bobby.

Bobby was thinking more about what he had come here for than about the mad dog. He felt guilty and ashamed. Tony was a lot
different than he had imagined.
Even though Bobby played baseball with him, he hadn’t known Tony very well. Now, just in these few moments of talking with
Tony, Bobby had learned a lot about what kind of a guy he was.

Suddenly, Bobby was glad that Tony was home. It would have been terrible to have taken a mitt from a guy like Tony. Guess
maybe it would have been terrible to take the mitt anyway, Bobby thought. The feeling of guilt grew worse, as if it were something
that had come alive inside him. He hoped that Tony would not notice how he acted.

Maybe if they did something together —

“Want to go for a hike?” Bobby suggested. His breath came fast. He couldn’t ever let Tony know what he had really come here
for.

Tony looked up. He grinned. “Down through the gully?”

Bobby’s face brightened. “Sure!”

“Okay!”

Tony tossed the mitt onto the porch. He ran toward the bridge where the kids swam. Bobby followed close behind. Once he looked
back to see if Terry was following. But Terry had found something in the yard and was playing with it. He was growling and
rolling over and over with whatever it was. It looked like an old shoe. That Terry could have fun with anything, thought Bobby,
feeling much better.

Bobby walked behind Tony down along the creek. They walked carefully over the large, flat rocks. Some of the rocks were slimy
and slippery. In different places trees had fallen over the creek.
The boys climbed onto the fallen trees and walked the full length to the other side. Then they climbed off and walked again
along the wet rocks.

The creek water was wide in some places, narrow in others; deep in some places, shallow in others.

“Look!” said Tony suddenly.

Bobby almost collided with Tony as he brought himself to a quick stop. He looked at where Tony pointed. A thin black snake
was swimming in one of the shallow places. The water was so clear that the snake’s whole weaving body — about twenty inches
of it — was easily seen.

They saw crabs, too, crawling in the crystal-clear bottom. And polliwogs. And minnows. And skippers on top of the water.

“Boy!” gasped Bobby. “Would I like to camp around here sometime!”

“Me, too,” said Tony.

Bobby told Tony about the tent he and Kirby had in the small woods above their house. And about the deer that had been feeding
on their vegetables.

“Wow!” said Tony. “That must’ve been fun!”

“It was,” said Bobby.

Now the rocky sides of the creek were higher. The trees that grew on the banks on either side towered high above their heads.
Thin slices of golden sunlight shimmered at their feet.

Just beyond them was a waterfall. It was five or six feet high. Not much water flowed over it now, though.

“Watch yourself,” cautioned Tony.

The boys climbed down the dry, sharpedged
rocks alongside the waterfall. They reached the bottom. The water gave off a hollow sound as it spilled down. It foamed up
at the bottom like a big pot of boiling water.

“Bobby!” Tony whispered. “Look! A dog!”

Bobby whirled. A brown, curly-coated dog was standing on a rock directly in front of them. His beady eyes were fastened on
the boys. A low growl broke from his throat.

“Where did he come from?” asked Bobby.

“He just got here,” said Tony. “He’s breathing hard. He must have been running.”

“Wonder whose dog he is?”

“I don’t know. Maybe his owner’s name is on his tag. I’ll take a look.”

He started forward.

The dog held his ground. He growled again. His eyes flashed angrily. His lips curled back.

“Wait, Tony!” said Bobby. He was staring at the dog’s mouth. “Tony, you don’t think that he’s the mad dog your folks heard
about on the radio, do you?”

Tony stared. “I — I don’t know!”

“Look at his mouth!”

Froth was at the corners of the dog’s open jaws.

“He doesn’t look good to me,” said Tony huskily. “But how do you know he’s mad? Ever see a mad dog before?”

“No. I — I just
feel
it!”

“Me, too.”

Bobby’s heart hammered. He didn’t dare move. He knew that Tony was trembling beside him, too.

 

“I think we’re in his way,” said Tony. “He wants to get above the waterfall.”

The dog took a step toward them. His lips curled up a little more. Another growl broke from his throat.

The boys stepped back. But they were definitely in the dog’s way. They could not go either side. The water prevented them
on their left. The high, rocky wall stopped them on their right.

Bobby felt sweat stream down his face.

“What are we going to do, Tony?”

8

T
ONY didn’t answer immediately. He was listening to something. A moment later he said, “Bobby! Somebody’s coming!”

A man came into view around a bend a short way down the creek. Other men were behind him. Two of them held large nets at the
end of poles. A third man held a shotgun.

“Now I’m sure it’s the mad dog!” cried Bobby. “Those men are looking for him!”

The dog’s head lowered. He took another step forward.

Bobby backed up against Tony. “I think he’s going to charge, Tony!”

They backed against the wall.

The men saw them. They saw the dog, too, and started forward slightly faster.

“Don’t move, boys,” one of the men said. “That dog is mad.”

As if we didn’t know,
thought Bobby.

But what could the men do? That dog had run away from them before. It would run again. The man with the shotgun would not
dare shoot. Not with Bobby and Tony in front of him.

Bobby held his breath. There wasn’t much space between them and the water. The dog could run past them easily enough. But
maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe, being mad, it would attack them. Bobby shivered as he thought about it.

The men were walking slower, now. They advanced closer and closer. They wore high-topped shoes which were good for walking
on rocks like these.

Suddenly, the dog’s ears perked up. He looked behind him.

Bobby’s heart skipped a beat. What would the dog do now?

Quickly, the dog turned his head back toward the boys.

“Here, Rex!” said the nearest man softly. “Here, Rex! Come here, boy!”

Just then Tony moved from Bobby’s side — and stood directly in the path of the dog!

“Tony!” Bobby shrilled. “Get back here!”

“Sh!” said Tony. He remained still, looking straight at the dog. His lips were pressed into a thin line. You could tell he
was scared, but he stood there just the same.

He’s crazy! thought Bobby. He shouldn’t do that!

“Here, Rex, boy,” the man said again. He was three or four feet away from the dog, now. “Come here, boy.”

The dog looked around again. Then he looked at Tony. He seemed confused. He stopped growling.

“Here, Rex. Easy, boy. Just take it easy, now.”

The man took another step forward. He whipped the net over the dog’s head. The dog yipped in anger. He fell back on his rear
legs and tried hard to free himself. The other man dropped his net and rushed forward. He grabbed hold of the dog’s collar.
The dog kicked hard, but the grip on his collar was too much for him. The net was taken off and a muzzle put over his face.

Bobby took a deep breath and let it out. Boy! What a close call
that
was!

 

The men looked at the boys and grinned. The man who held the dog said, “Thanks, boys, for helping us catch my dog. Rex got
bit by a rabid fox while I was out hunting with him. I got the fox all right, but Rex got rabies from the bite.”

Bobby shook his head. “Boy! He sure gave us a scare!”

The man chuckled. “He gave us a scare, too. A mad dog might do anything, you know.” Then he looked at Tony with pride. “You
were mighty brave to get in the path of Rex like that, kid. You were taking a chance doing that.”

“I guess I was,” said Tony quietly. “But if he came after me, I was ready to jump aside.”

Bobby grinned at him. Nobody would have done what Tony had done. That took
a lot of nerve. Except, maybe, Kirby. Kirby had a lot of nerve, too.

“What are your names, boys?” the man asked.

“I’m Tony Mandos and this is Bobby Jamison,” said Tony.

The man opened his mouth in surprise. “Well, what do you know? I know your dads.”

“You do?” Bobby’s brows shot up.

“Sure do. I’m Ben Watkins. Tell them I said hello. So long, boys. We have to be going. And thanks again for your help.”

The men walked down the creek, then climbed the bank to the road.

Bobby sighed with relief. He felt tired from the excitement of coming face to face with the mad dog. “Want to go back, Tony?
I think I’d better get home.”

“Okay.”

They returned to Tony’s house. Terry dashed around a corner, his ears perked up and his short tail whipping back and forth.
He nipped playfully at Bobby’s pant legs.

“Hey, cut that out!” said Bobby. “Come on. We’re going home.”

“Wait a minute,” interrupted Tony. “My mitt’s gone.”

Bobby stared. “Isn’t it on the porch?”

Tony searched the porch carefully. “I don’t see it.”

Bobby turned a suspicious look at Terry. Terry stood with his front legs spread apart, his tongue hanging out one side of
his mouth and his tail snapping back and forth like a short whip. If Terry was guilty of taking the glove, he certainly did
not show it. But, who except Terry could have taken it?

Bobby helped Tony look for the mitt. They searched around the house and all around the yard. They could not find it.

A car turned into the driveway. Tony’s parents were home.

Bobby’s heart ached. Only a little while ago he had wanted to take Tony’s glove and hide it somewhere so that Tony could not
use it in a ball game. Now, he wanted to find it more than anything. He had learned to like Tony a lot in the last hour or
so. Tony was very different than Bobby had expected him to be. He was better than just all right. He was — well, he was pretty
wonderful.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Bobby said seriously. “If you can’t find it, I’ll be back tomorrow and help you look for it.”

Tony pressed his lips tightly together.
He said, “We play the Mustangs tomorrow. If I don’t find my glove, I’ll have to borrow one from somebody.”

Bobby thought a moment. “If you were only a lefty, then you could use Kirby’s. I’ll help you borrow one, Tony, but first let’s
look some more tomorrow.”

Bobby scolded Terry on the way home. Terry must have understood; his ears drooped, and he wagged his tail very slowly.

Bobby told Kirby and Ann about the mad dog. Then he told them about Tony’s missing mitt. They searched for it the next morning.
They covered the ground thoroughly around Tony’s house. But, no mitt.

It was almost noon when the three of them — Kirby, Ann, and Bobby — returned
home. Bobby was very sad. He felt as though he was responsible for Tony’s missing mitt.

Kirby started at first base for the Redbirds that afternoon in the game against the Mustangs. He got on base once on an error.
In the bottom of the third inning, Tony took Kirby’s place. The first baseman for the Mustangs let Tony use his glove.

Bobby hoped that no grounders would come down to him at short. He’d been thinking about Tony’s missing mitt. But with men
on second and third a high, bouncing ball was hit down between short and third. Bobby ran to his right. He caught the ball.
He took it in his bare hand and very carefully tried to throw a perfect peg to Tony.

He heaved it. The ball sailed high —
and wide. Tony jumped off the base after it. He still could not reach it. The ball hit the grass behind first and the runner
went to second. The men on second and third scored.

BOOK: Long Stretch At First Base
12.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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