A hundred and twenty had gone up

But the rot stopped with the fall of that wicket. Dashing tactics werelaid aside. The pitch had begun to play tricks, and the pair now insettled down to watch the ball. They plodded on, scoring slowly andjerkily till the hands of the clock stood at half-past one. ThenEllerby, who had gone on again instead of Grant, beat the less steadyof the pair with a ball that pitched on the middle stump and shot intothe base of the off. A hundred and twenty had gone up on the board atthe beginning of the over. 　　That period which is always so dangerous, when the wicket is bad, theten minutes before lunch, proved fatal to two more of the enemy. Thelast man had just gone to the wickets, with the score at a hundred andthirty-one, when a quarter to two arrived, and with it the luncheoninterval. 　　So far it was anybody's game. Chapter 28 Mike Wins Home The Ripton last-wicket man was de Freece, the slow bowler. He wasapparently a young gentleman wholly free from the curse ofnervousness. He wore a cheerful smile as he took guard beforereceiving the first ball after lunch, and Wrykyn had plenty ofopportunity of seeing that that was his normal expression when at thewickets. There is often a certain looseness about the attack afterlunch, and the bowler of googlies took advantage of it now. He seemedto be a batsman with only one hit; but he had also a very accurateeye, and his one hit, a semicircular stroke, which suggested the golflinks rather than the cricket field, came off with distressingfrequency. He mowed Burgess's first ball to the square-leg boundary,missed his second, and snicked the third for three over long-slip'shead. The other batsman played out the over, and de Freece proceededto treat Ellerby's bowling with equal familiarity. The scoring-boardshowed an increase of twenty as the result of three overs. Everyrun was invaluable now, and the Ripton contingent made the pavilionre-echo as a fluky shot over mid-on's head sent up the hundred andfifty.