The San Francisco call., 1910-07-10


That large sinister looking brass
cannon trained on tho diamond and the
fiourishing revolyers prevented any at
tack upon the Big Chief. But six boats
were saved at that. The fuses went out
on four and daring under water swim
ming by Joe Fisher saved the others,
the boy diving under and swapping
them by grasping their keels as they
passed, thus quenching the burning
fuses.
This nettled Ben, who now boldly
sailed the Big Chief right into the
water diamond, relying on the brass
cannon and the sight of his gangs
revolvers to drive Franks party Off
He seemed in fair way to accom-
plish this final act OF revenge, judging
form the manner the "grandstands'
scurried up the river. Frank was sim
ply boiling over with anger at seeing
Ben smash all his cherished plans for
the fourth. He had retreated on board
the Zip III with Joe Fisher, who was
making ready to run for 1t"
Frank jumped to where Joe was
leaning over the motor and shouted:
Joe, I've got a scheme! If you'll
help carry IL through maybe we'll win
yet. I'll bet those pistols are only
loaded with blanks-and the cannon,
toor He quickly explained his plan to
Joe who instantly acted Ben saw the
Zip ii start upstream, but his elation
quickly abated when this real thing"
in motor boats only followed the re-
treating fiotilla a few hundred feet.
Then she turned about and began to
fly through the water, headed straight
for the Big Chief!
Ben. seeing what this new move
would mean, hastily tried to back out
of the way, but the Big Chief only
sluggishly responded in the light
.breeze TO Ben's excited attempt to
ba in
her speed at every foot, and as she was
a larger, stronger boat than the Big
Chief Ben had cause for alarm.
He screamed at Frank to steer off or
he'd fire, but Frank at the steering
wheel up forward in the little cockpit
only crouched lower. while Ben
drenched the engine with more oil.
Crash! But it was another sound be-
sides the boom of the brass cannon.
The Zip III struck Ben's craft squarely
athwart her side. The gunwale caveo
in like pasteboard as the lips sharp
PROV splintered the light hull below the
water linei Frank had not thought OF
doing any damage He had simply in
tended to capsize the Big Chief in the
shadows, but he miscalculated the Zip
lis power
But now see what happened! The
collision was so tremendous that the
force of impact happened to explode
-
against the gunwale. This explosion
ignited the Big Chiefs entire cargo OF
firecrackers and powder. And as FRANK,
unhurt but badly shaken up from the
shock of the collision and the can
mons discharge, backed the Zip III of
he saw the Big Chief leap into flames,
while Ben and his gang jumped over
board into. the shallow water One
explosion followed another. until the
piratical Big Chief, her hold sieve,
sank to the bottom of the Prairie river,
only her burning mast and sail above
the water!
Fortunately none of Bens band was
hurt, and they all escaped safely to
shore, where they had the further hui
initiation of seeing Frank carry out the
rest of his fourth of July program 1t
must have been bitter sight after
losing the Big Chief. Still, Ben had
nothing but his own vengeful disposi-
tion to blame for everything.
But it took some little time for the
excited teams to settle down and really
play ball so Frank adjourned the game
until afternoon. The day fireworks"
had mostly been shot off by the time
their turn arrived on the schedule, but
the declaration of independence was
read with great zest, and some of the
audience interpreted it with quite q
new meaning by pointing to the
charred remains OF the Big Chief which
seemed to stand as a monument of vic
tory achieved by liberty and justice
over oppression and injustice.
And the battle spirit quite permeated
the Water Dogs, for when Frank or
dered the interrupted seventh to be
played out they seemed more fish than
human. Then they showed the Land
Crabs the fine points of the game and
completed the inning by pulling of" a
trick that can only happen in water
baseball.
great stunt" Is to turn and swing
with the ball as ii passes you. A good
batsman can knock what would be
called on land foul" right over the
catcher's head for a home run. And
that's exactly what one OF the Water
Dogs did. The bases were full, too.
n nd har, hn hnd nIn 10