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+Project Gutenberg's Baseball Joe on the School Nine, by Lester Chadwick
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Baseball Joe on the School Nine
+       or, Pitching for the Blue Banner
+
+Author: Lester Chadwick
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2012 [EBook #38897]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE NEXT MOMENT THE HORSEHIDE WENT SPEEDING TOWARD THE
+PLATE.]
+
+
+
+
+ Baseball Joe on
+ the School Nine
+
+ OR
+
+ Pitching _for the_ Blue Banner
+
+ _By_ LESTER CHADWICK
+
+ AUTHOR OF
+ "BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS," "THE
+ RIVAL PITCHERS," "A QUARTER-BACK'S PLUCK,"
+ "BATTING TO WIN," ETC.
+
+ _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ NEW YORK
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+ BOOKS BY LESTER CHADWICK
+
+
+ THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES
+ =12mo.  Illustrated=
+
+ BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS
+     Or The Rivals of Riverside
+
+ BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE
+     Or Pitching for the Blue Banner
+
+ (_Other Volumes in Preparation_)
+
+
+ THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES
+ =12mo.  Illustrated=
+
+ THE RIVAL PITCHERS
+     A Story of College Baseball
+
+ A QUARTER-BACK'S PLUCK
+     A Story of College Football
+
+ BATTING TO WIN
+     A Story of College Baseball
+
+ THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
+     A Story of College Football
+
+ (_Other Volumes in Preparation_)
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York
+
+
+ Copyright, 1912, by
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+
+
+ =Baseball Joe on the School Nine=
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                PAGE
+       I  HITTING A TEACHER                1
+      II  PLANNING A BATTLE               12
+     III  AN ANGRY BULLY                  23
+      IV  JOE LEARNS SOMETHING            31
+       V  THE TABLES TURNED               40
+      VI  THE BULLY SNEERS                52
+     VII  A CLASH WITH LUKE               58
+    VIII  "WHO WILL PITCH?"               68
+      IX  TOM'S PLAN FAILS                74
+       X  THE BANNER PARADE               82
+      XI  JOE HOPES AND FEARS             92
+     XII  ON THE SCRUB                    98
+    XIII  JOE'S GREAT WORK               106
+     XIV  THE GAME AT MORNINGSIDE        115
+      XV  A STRANGE DISCOVERY            124
+     XVI  A HOT MEETING                  130
+    XVII  THE INITIATION                 136
+   XVIII  "FIRE!"                        143
+     XIX  A THRILLING RESCUE             150
+      XX  THE WARNING                    160
+     XXI  BAD NEWS                       167
+    XXII  BITTER DEFEAT                  173
+   XXIII  HIRAM IS OUT                   183
+    XXIV  TWO OF A KIND                  190
+     XXV  BY A CLOSE MARGIN              198
+    XXVI  THE OVERTURNED STATUE          211
+   XXVII  ON PROBATION                   218
+  XXVIII  LUKE'S CONFESSION              224
+    XXIX  A GLORIOUS VICTORY             233
+     XXX  GOOD NEWS--CONCLUSION          240
+
+
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HITTING A TEACHER
+
+
+"Look out now, fellows; here goes for a high one!"
+
+"Aw come off; you can't throw high without dislocating your arm,
+Peaches. Don't try it."
+
+"You get off the earth; I can so, Teeter. Watch me."
+
+"Let Joe Matson have a try. He can throw higher than you can, Peaches,"
+and the lad who had last spoken grasped the arm of a tall boy, with a
+very fair complexion which had gained him the nickname of "Peaches and
+Cream," though it was usually shortened to "Peaches." There was a crowd
+of lads on the school grounds, throwing snowballs, when the offer of
+"Peaches" or Dick Lantfeld was made.
+
+"Don't let him throw, Teeter," begged George Bland, jokingly.
+
+"I'll not," retorted "Teeter" Nelson, whose first name was Harry, but
+who had gained his appellation because of a habit he had of "teetering"
+on his tiptoes when reciting in class. "I've got Peaches all right,"
+and there was a struggle between the two lads, one trying to throw a
+snowball, and the other trying to prevent him.
+
+"Come on, Joe," called Teeter, to a tall, good-looking, and rather quiet
+youth who stood beside a companion. "Let's see you throw. You're always
+good at it, and I'll keep Peaches out of the way."
+
+"Shall we try, Tom?" asked Joe Matson of his chum.
+
+"Might as well. Come on!"
+
+"Yes, let 'Sister' Davis have a whack at it too," urged George Bland.
+Tom Davis, who was Joe Matson's particular chum, was designated "Sister"
+because, in an incautious moment, when first coming to Excelsior Hall,
+he had shown a picture of his very pretty sister, Mabel.
+
+Tom and Joe, who had come upon the group of other pupils after the
+impromptu snowball throwing contest had started, advanced further toward
+their school companions. Peaches and Teeter were still engaged in their
+friendly struggle, until Peaches tripped over a stone, concealed under
+a blanket of snow, and both went down in a struggling heap.
+
+"Make it a touchdown!" yelled George Bland.
+
+"Yes, shove him over the line, Peaches!" cried Tom.
+
+"Hold him! Hold him!" implored Joe, and the little group of lads, which
+was increased by the addition of several other pupils, circled about the
+struggling ones, laughing at their plight.
+
+"D-d-down!" finally panted Peaches, when Teeter held his face in the
+soft snow. "Let me up, will you?"
+
+"Promise not to try to throw a high one?" asked Teeter, still maintaining
+his position astride of Peaches.
+
+"Yes--I--I guess so."
+
+"That doesn't go with me; you've got to be sure."
+
+"All right, let a fellow up, will you? There's a lot of snow down my
+neck."
+
+"That's what happened to me the last time you fired a high snowball,
+Peaches. That's why I didn't want you to try another while I'm around.
+You wait until I'm off the campus if you've got to indulge in high
+jinks. Come on now, fellows, since Peaches has promised to behave
+himself, let the merry dance go on. Have you tried a shot, Joe? Or you,
+Sister," and Teeter looked at the newcomers.
+
+"Not yet," answered Joe Matson with a smile. "Haven't had a chance."
+
+"That's right," put in Tom Davis. "You started a rough-house with
+Peaches as soon as we got here. What's on, anyhow?"
+
+"Oh, we're just seeing how straight we can aim with snowballs," explained
+Teeter. "See if you can hit that barrel head down there," and he pointed
+to the object in question, about forty yards away on the school campus.
+
+"See if you can hit the barrel, Joe," urged George Bland. "A lot of us
+have missed it, including Peaches, who seems to think his particular
+stunt is high throwing."
+
+"And so it is!" interrupted the lad with the clear complexion. "I can
+beat any one here at----"
+
+"Save that talk until the baseball season opens!" retorted Teeter. "Go
+ahead, Joe and Tom. And you other fellows can try if you like," he
+added, for several more pupils had joined the group.
+
+It might seem easy to hit the head of a barrel at that distance, but
+either the lads were not expert enough or else the snowballs, being of
+irregular shapes and rather light, did not carry well. Whatever the
+cause, the fact remained that the barrel received only a few scattering
+shots and these on the outer edges of the head.
+
+"Now we'll see what Sister Davis can do!" exclaimed Nat Pierson, as
+Joe's chum stepped up to the firing line.
+
+"Oh, I'm not so much," answered Tom with a half smile. "Joe will beat me
+all to pieces."
+
+"Joe Matson sure can throw," commented Teeter, in a low voice to George
+Bland. "I remember what straight aim he had the last time we built a
+fort, and had a snow fight."
+
+"I should say yes," agreed George. "And talk about speed!" he added.
+"Wow! One ball he threw soaked me in the ear. I can feel it yet!" and he
+rubbed the side of his head reflectively.
+
+The first ball that Tom threw just clipped the upper rim of the barrel
+head, and there were some exclamations of admiration. The second one was
+a clean miss, but not by a large margin. The third missile split into
+fragments on the rim of the head.
+
+"Good!" cried Peaches. "That's the way to do it!"
+
+"Wait until you see Joe plug it," retorted Tom with a smile.
+
+"Oh, I'm not such a wonder," remarked our hero modestly, as he advanced
+to the line. In his hand he held three very hard and smooth snowballs,
+which he spent some time in making in anticipation of his turn to throw.
+"I haven't had much practice lately," he went on, "though I used to
+throw pretty straight when the baseball season was on."
+
+Joe carefully measured with his eye the distance to the barrel. Then he
+swung his arm around a few times to "limber up."
+
+"That fellow used to pitch on some nine, I'll wager," said Teeter in a
+whisper to Peaches.
+
+"Yes, I heard something about him being a star on some small country
+team," was the retort. "But let's watch him."
+
+Joe threw. The ball left his hand with tremendous speed and, an instant
+later, had struck the head of the barrel with a resounding "ping!"
+
+"In the centre! In the centre!" yelled Peaches with enthusiasm as he
+capered about.
+
+"A mighty good shot!" complimented Teeter, doing his particular toe
+stunt.
+
+"Not exactly in the centre," admitted Joe. "Here goes for another."
+
+Once more he threw, and again the snowball hit the barrel head, close
+to the first, but not quite so near the middle.
+
+"You can do better than that, Joe," spoke Tom in a low voice.
+
+"I'm going to try," was all the thrower said.
+
+Again his arm was swung around with the peculiar motion used by many
+good baseball pitchers. Again the snowball shot forward, whizzing
+through the air. Again came that resounding thud on the hollow barrel,
+this time louder than before.
+
+"Right on the nose!"
+
+"A clean middle shot!"
+
+"A good plunk!"
+
+These cries greeted Joe's last effort, and, sure enough, when several
+lads ran to get a closer view of the barrel, they came back to report
+that the ball was exactly in the centre of the head.
+
+"Say, you're a wonder!" exclaimed Peaches, admiringly.
+
+"Who's a wonder?" inquired a new voice, and a tall heavily-built lad,
+with rather a coarse and brutal face, sauntered up to the group. "Who's
+been doing wonderful stunts, Peaches?"
+
+"Joe Matson here. He hit the barrel head three times out of three, and
+the best any of us could do was once. Besides, Joe poked it in the
+exact centre once, and nearly twice."
+
+"That's easy," spoke the newcomer, with a sneer in his voice.
+
+"Let's see you do it, Shell," invited George Bland.
+
+"Go on, Hiram, show 'em what you can do," urged Luke Fodick, who was a
+sort of toady to Hiram Shell, the school bully, if ever there was one.
+
+"Just watch me," requested Hiram, and hastily taking some hard round
+snowballs away from a smaller lad who had made them for his own use, the
+bully threw.
+
+I must do him the credit to say that he was a good shot, and all three
+of his missiles hit the barrel head. But two of them clipped the outer
+edge, and only one was completely on, and that nowhere near the centre.
+
+"Joe Matson's got you beat a mile!" exclaimed Peaches.
+
+"That's all right," answered Hiram with the easy superior air he
+generally assumed. "If I'd been practicing all day as you fellows
+have I could poke the centre every time, too."
+
+As a matter of fact, those three balls were the first Joe had thrown
+that day, but he did not think it wise to say so, for Hiram had mean
+ways about him, and none of the pupils at Excelsior Hall cared to rouse
+his anger unnecessarily.
+
+"Well, I guess we've all had our turns," spoke George Bland, after
+Hiram had thrown a few more balls so carelessly as to miss the barrel
+entirely.
+
+"I haven't," piped up Tommy Burton, one of the youngest lads. "Hiram
+took my snowballs."
+
+"Aw, what of it, kid?" sneered the bully. "There's lots more snow. Make
+yourself another set and see what you can do."
+
+But Tommy was bashful, and the attention he had thus drawn upon himself
+made him blush. He was a timid lad and he shrank away now, evidently
+fearing Shell.
+
+"Never mind," spoke Peaches kindly, "we'll have another contest soon and
+you can be in it."
+
+"Let's see who can throw the farthest," suggested Hiram. His great
+strength gave him a decided advantage in this, as he very well knew.
+
+The other boys also knew this, but did not like to refuse to enter the
+lists with him, so the long-distance throwing was started. Hiram did
+throw hard and far, but he met his match in Joe Matson, and the bully
+evidently did not like it. He sneered at Joe's style and did his best
+to beat him, but could not.
+
+"I ate too much dinner to-day," said Hiram finally, as an excuse, "so I
+can't throw well," and though there were covert smiles at this palpable
+excuse, no one said anything. Then came other contests, throwing at
+trees and different objects. Finally Hiram and Luke took themselves off,
+and everyone else was glad of it.
+
+"He's only a bluff, Shell is!" murmured Peaches.
+
+"And mean," added George.
+
+"Joe, I wonder if you can throw over those trees," spoke Tom, pointing
+to a fringe of big maples which bordered a walk that ran around the
+school campus. "That's something of a throw for height and distance.
+Want to try?"
+
+"Sure," assented our hero, "though I don't know as I can do it."
+
+"Wait, I'm with you," put in Peaches. "We'll throw together."
+
+They quickly made a couple of hard, smooth balls, and at the word from
+Tom, Joe and Peaches let go together, for it was to be a sort of contest
+in swiftness.
+
+The white missiles sailed through the air side by side, and not far
+apart. Higher and higher they went, until they both topped the trees,
+and began to go down on the other side. Joe's was far in advance of the
+snowball of Peaches, however, and went higher.
+
+As the balls descended and went out of sight, there suddenly arose from
+the other side of the trees a series of expostulating yells.
+
+"Stop it! Stop that, I say! How dare you throw snowballs at me? I shall
+report you at once! Who are you? Don't you dare to run!"
+
+"We--we hit some one," faltered Peaches, his fair complexion blushing a
+bright red.
+
+"I--I guess we did," admitted Joe.
+
+There was no doubt of it a moment later, for through the trees came
+running a figure whose tall hat was battered over his head by the
+snowballs, some fragments of the missiles still clinging to the tile.
+
+"You sure did," added Teeter, stifling a laugh. "And of all persons in
+the school but Professor Rodd. Oh my! Oh wow! You're in for it now! He
+won't do a thing to you fellows! Look at his hat! Here he comes!"
+
+Professor Elias Rodd, one of the strictest and certainly the "fussiest"
+instructor at Excelsior, was hurrying toward the group of boys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PLANNING A BATTLE
+
+
+Professor Elias Rodd was rather elderly, and, as he never took much
+exercise, his sprinting abilities were not pronounced. So it took him
+about a minute and a half to cross the campus to where the little group
+of lads awaited him--anxious waiting it was too, on the part of Joe and
+Peaches. And in that minute and a half, before the excitement begins, I
+want to take the opportunity to tell you something about Joe Matson, and
+his chum Tom Davis, and how they happened to be at Excelsior Hall.
+
+Those of you who have read the first volume of this series entitled,
+"Baseball Joe of the Silver Stars," need no introduction to our hero.
+Sufficient to say that he was a lad who thought more of baseball than
+of any other sport.
+
+Joe was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Matson, and he had a sister named
+Clara. Joe's father was an inventor of farming machinery and other
+apparatus, and had been employed by the Royal Harvester Works of
+Riverside, which was located on the Appleby River, in one of our New
+England States. Joe lived in Riverside, his family having moved there
+from Bentville.
+
+In the previous story I told how Joe made the acquaintance of Tom Davis,
+who lived in the house back of him. Joe became interested in the Silver
+Stars, the Riverside amateur nine, and through doing a favor for Darrell
+Blackney, the manager, was given a position in the field.
+
+But Joe wanted to become a pitcher, and, in fact, had pitched for the
+Bentville Boosters. He longed to fill the box for the Stars, and was
+finally given a chance. But he had incurred the enmity of Sam Morton,
+the regular pitcher, and there were several clashes between them.
+Finally Joe displaced Sam and won many games for the Stars.
+
+Mr. Matson had some trouble with his inventions, for Isaac Benjamin,
+manager of the harvester works, and Rufus Holdney, the latter once a
+friend of the inventor, determined to get certain valuable patents away
+from Mr. Matson. How they nearly succeeded, and how Joe foiled the plans
+of the plotters once, is told in the first book.
+
+Though Joe aided his father considerably, the young pitcher never lost
+his interest in baseball, and when, at the last moment, word came that
+Mr. Matson had seemingly lost everything, Joe hid his own feelings and
+went off to pitch the deciding championship game against the Resolutes
+of Rocky Ford, the bitter rivals of the Silver Stars.
+
+Joe's heart was heavy as he pitched, for he knew that if his father lost
+his money through the taking away of his patents there would be no
+chance of his going to boarding school, and Joe desired that above
+everything.
+
+But he pluckily pitched the game, which was a close and hot one. He
+won, making the Stars the champions of the county league; and then Joe
+hurried home.
+
+To his delight there was a message from his father, stating that at the
+last minute unexpected evidence had won the patent case for him, and he
+was now on the road to prosperity.
+
+So it was possible for Joe to go to boarding school after all, and, to
+his delight, Tom Davis prevailed upon his parents to send him. So Joe
+and Tom went off together to attend Excelsior Hall, just outside of
+Cedarhurst, and about a hundred miles from Riverside.
+
+Joe and Tom, who had each finished short courses in the Riverside High
+School, started for Excelsior Hall at the opening of the Fall term, and
+had spent the Winter, with the exception of the Christmas holidays, at
+the institution. They liked it very much, and made a number of friends
+as well as some enemies. Their chief foe, as well as that of nearly
+every other lad in Excelsior Hall, was Hiram Shell.
+
+The months passed, and with the waning of Winter, Joe began to feel the
+call of the baseball diamond. He and Tom got out some old gloves and
+balls and bats, and in the seclusion of their room they played over
+again, in imagination, some of the stirring games of the Silver Stars.
+As yet, however, there had been no baseball activity at Excelsior, and
+Joe was wondering what sort of team there would be, for that there must
+be one was a foregone conclusion. Joe knew that before he picked out
+Excelsior Hall as his particular boarding school.
+
+I might add that Dr. Wright Fillmore was the principal of Excelsior
+Hall. He was dubbed "Caesar" because of his fondness for the character of
+that warrior, and because he was always holding him up as a pattern of
+some virtues to his pupils. Dr. Enos Rudden the mathematical teacher was
+one of the best-liked of all the instructors. He was fond of athletics,
+and acted as sort of head coach and trainer for the football and
+baseball teams.
+
+As much as Dr. Rudden was liked so was Professor Rodd disliked. Professor
+Rodd, who was privately termed "Sixteen and a Half" or "Sixteen" for
+short (because of the number of feet in a rod) was very exacting, fussy
+and a terror to the lads who failed to know their Latin lessons.
+
+And as we are at present immediately concerned with Professor Rodd, now
+I will go back to where we left him approaching the group of students,
+with wrath plainly written on his countenance.
+
+"Who--who threw that ball--that snowball?" the irate instructor cried.
+"I demand to know. Look at my hat! Look at it, I say!" and that there
+might be no difficulty in the boys seeing it Mr. Rodd endeavored to take
+off his head-piece.
+
+But he found this no easy matter, for the snowballs, hitting it with
+considerable force, had driven it down over his brow. He struggled to
+get it off and this only made him the more angry.
+
+"Who--who threw those balls at me?" again demanded Professor Rodd, and
+this time he managed to work off his hat. He held it out accusingly.
+
+"We--I--er--that is--we all were having a throwing contest," explained
+Teeter Nelson, diffidently, "and--er----"
+
+"You certainly _all_ didn't throw at me," interrupted the professor.
+"Only two balls struck me, and I demand to know who threw them. Or shall
+I report you all to Dr. Fillmore and have him keep you in bounds for a
+week; eh?"
+
+"Nobody meant to hit you, Professor," put in Tom. "You see----"
+
+"Will you or will you not answer my question?" snapped the instructor,
+in the same tone of voice he used in the classroom, when some luckless
+lad was stuttering and stammering over the difference between the
+_gerund_ and the _gerundive_. "Who threw the balls?"
+
+"I--I'm afraid I did," faltered Joe. "I threw one, and--and----"
+
+"I threw the other," popped out Peaches. "But it was an accident,
+Professor."
+
+"An accident! Humph!"
+
+"Yes," eagerly went on Peaches, who, having been longer at the school
+than Joe, knew better how to handle the irate instructor. "You see it
+was this way: We were having a contest, and wanted to see who could
+throw over the trees. Instead of throwing _primus_, _secondus_, and
+_tertius_ as we might have done, Joe and I threw together--um--er--ah
+_conjunctim_ so to speak," and Peaches managed to keep a straight
+face even while struggling to find the right Latin word. "Yes, we
+threw _conjunctim_--together--and we both wanted to see who could
+do the best--er--_supero_--you know, and--er we--well, it was an
+accident--_casus eventus_. We are awfully sorry, and----"
+
+Professor Rodd gave an audible sniff, but there was a marked softening
+of the hard lines about his face. He was an enthusiastic Latin scholar,
+and the trial of his life was to know that most of his pupils hated the
+study--indeed as many boys do. So when the teacher found one who took
+the trouble in ordinary conversation to use a few Latin words, or
+phrases, the professor was correspondingly pleased. Peaches knew this.
+
+"It was a _casus eventus_--an accident," the fair-cheeked lad repeated,
+very proud of his ability in the dead language.
+
+"We are very sorry," put in Joe, "and I'll pay for having your hat
+ironed."
+
+"We threw in _conjunctim_," murmured Peaches.
+
+"Ha! A very good attempt at the Latin--at least some of the words are,"
+admitted Professor Rodd. "They do credit to your studying, Lantfeld,
+but how in the world did you ever get _casus eventus_ into accident?"
+
+"Why--er--it's so in the dictionary, Professor," pleaded Peaches.
+
+"Yes, but look up the substantive, and remember your endings. Here I'll
+show you," and, pulling from his pocket a Latin dictionary, which he was
+never without, Professor Rodd, sticking his battered hat back on his
+head, began to quote and translate and do all manner of things with the
+dead language, to show Peaches where he had made his errors. And Peaches,
+sacrificing himself on the altar of friendship, stood there like a man,
+nodding his head and agreeing with everything the instructor said,
+whether he understood it or not.
+
+"Your _conjunctim_ was not so bad," complimented the professor, "but I
+could never pass _casus eventus_. However, I am glad to see that you
+take an interest in your studies. I wish more of the boys did. Now
+take the irregular conjugation for instance. We will begin with the
+indicative mood and----"
+
+The professor's voice was droning off into his classroom tones. Peaches
+held his ground valiantly.
+
+"Come on, fellows, cut for it!" whispered Teeter hoarsely. "Leg it,
+Joe. Peaches will take care of him."
+
+"But the hat--I damaged it--I want to pay for it," objected our hero,
+who was square in everything.
+
+"Don't worry about that. When Old Sixteen gets to spouting Latin or
+Greek he doesn't know whether he's on his head or his feet, and as for a
+hat--say, forget it and come on. He'll never mention it again. Peaches
+knows how to handle him. Peaches is the best Latin lad in the whole
+school, and once Sixteen finds some one who will listen to his new
+theory about conjugating irregular verbs, he'll talk until midnight.
+Come on!"
+
+"Poor Peaches!" murmured Tom Davis.
+
+"Never mind, Sister," spoke George Bland, as he linked his arm in that
+of Joe. "Peaches seen his duty and he done it nobly, as the novels say.
+When Sixteen gets through with him we'll blow him to a feed to make it
+up to him. Come on while the going's good. He'll never see us."
+
+Thus the day--rather an eventful one as it was destined to become--came
+to an end. The boys filed into the big dining hall, and talk, which had
+begun to verge around to baseball, could scarcely be heard for the
+clatter of knives and forks and dishes.
+
+Some time later there came a cautious knock on the door of the room that
+Tom Davis and Joe Matson shared. The two lads were deep in their books.
+
+"Who's there?" asked Joe sharply.
+
+"It's me--Peaches," was the quick if ungrammatical answer. "The coast is
+clear--open your oak," and he rattled the knob of the door.
+
+Tom unlocked and swung wide the portal, and the hero of the Latin
+engagement entered.
+
+"Quick--anything to drink?" he demanded. "I'm a rag! Say, I never
+swallowed so much dry Latin in my life. My throat is parched. Don't tell
+me that all that ginger ale you smuggled in the other day is gone--don't
+you dare do it!"
+
+"Tom, see if there's a bottle left for the gentleman of thirst,"
+directed Joe with a smile.
+
+Tom went to the window and pulled up a cord that was fastened to the
+sill. On the end of the string was a basket, and in it three bottles of
+ginger ale.
+
+"Our patent refrigerator," explained Joe, with a wave of his hand. "Do
+the uncorking act, Tom, and we'll get busy. You can go to sleep,"--this
+last to a book he had been studying, as he tossed it on a couch.
+
+"Oh, but that's good!" murmured Peaches as he drained his glass. "Now I
+can talk. I came in, Joe and Tom, to see if you didn't think it would be
+a good thing to have a fight."
+
+"A fight! For cats' sake, who with?" demanded Tom.
+
+"Are you spoiling for one?" asked Joe.
+
+"Oh, I mean a snowball fight. This is probably the last of the season,
+and I was thinking we could get a lot of fellows together, make a fort,
+and have a regular battle like we read about in Caesar to-day. It would
+be no end of sport."
+
+"I think so myself," agreed Joe.
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Tom sententiously, burying his nose in his ginger ale
+glass. "Go on, tell us some more."
+
+"Well, I was thinking," resumed Peaches, "that we----"
+
+He was interrupted by another tap on the door. In an instant Peaches
+had dived under the table. With one sweep of his arm Joe noiselessly
+collected the bottles, while Joe spread a paper over the glasses. The
+knock was repeated, and the two lads looked apprehensively at the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AN ANGRY BULLY
+
+
+"Well, why don't one of you fellows open the door?" demanded Peaches in
+a hoarse whisper from his point of vantage under the table. "If it's one
+of the 'profs.' or a monitor, he'll get wise if you wait all this
+while."
+
+It might be explained that there was a rule at Excelsior Hall against
+students visiting in their classmates' rooms at certain hours of the
+day, unless permission had been secured from the professor or monitor in
+charge of the dormitory. Needless to say Peaches had not secured any
+such permission--the lads seldom did.
+
+"Aren't you going to open it?" again demanded Peaches, from where he had
+taken refuge, so as to be out of sight, should the caller prove to be
+some one in authority.
+
+"Yes--certainly--of course," replied Joe. "Tom, you open the door."
+
+Once more came the knock.
+
+"Open it yourself," insisted Tom. "It's as much your room as it is mine.
+Go ahead."
+
+But there was no need for any one to first encounter the stern gaze of
+some professor, if such the unannounced caller should prove to be. The
+knock was repeated and then a voice demanded:
+
+"Say, you fellows needn't pretend not to be in there. I can hear you
+whispering. What's up?" and with that the portal swung open and Teeter
+Nelson entered. He advanced to the middle of the room and stood moving
+up and down on his tiptoes.
+
+"I like your nerve!" he went on. "Having a spread and not tipping a
+fellow off. Is it all gone?" and with a sweep of his arm he sent the
+paper cover flying from over the half-emptied ginger ale glasses.
+"Where's Peaches?" he demanded. "I know he's out, for I was at his den,
+and there's not a soul in. He's got a 'dummy' in the bed, but it's rank.
+Wouldn't fool anybody."
+
+"Then you must have spoiled it!" exclaimed Peaches, sticking his head
+out from beneath the table, the cloth draping itself around his neck
+like a lady's scarf. "I made a dandy figure. It would fool even Sixteen
+himself; and then I sneaked out. I made it look as natural as could be.
+I'll bet you did something to it."
+
+"Only punched it a couple of times to see if it was you," retorted
+Teeter. "But say, what's going on? Why didn't you open when I knocked?"
+
+"Thought it was a prof.," replied Joe. "Why didn't you give the code
+knock. Tat--rat-a-tat-tat--tat-tat--and the hiss."
+
+"That's right, I did forget it. But I got all excited when I found that
+Peaches had sneaked off without telling me. Say, what's on, anyhow?
+Where's the feed? Give me something good."
+
+"Nothing going but ginger ale," answered Joe, as Peaches crawled the
+rest of the way out from under the table. "And I don't know as there's
+any left."
+
+"Gee, you fellows have nerve!" complained the newcomer.
+
+"There's one bottle," said Tom, who had charge of the improvised
+refrigerator, and forthwith he hauled up the basket, at the sight of
+which Teeter laughed joyously, and proceeded to get outside of his share
+of the refreshments.
+
+"What's doing?" he demanded, after his thirst was quenched, and when
+they were all seated at the table.
+
+"We're going to have a snow battle," explained Peaches. "We were just
+talking about it when you gave us heart disease by pounding on the
+oak."
+
+"Heart disease; my eye!" exclaimed Teeter. "You should have a clear
+conscience such as I have, and nothing would worry you. That's good ale
+all right, Joe. Got any more?" and he finished his glass.
+
+"Nary a drop. But go on, Peaches. Tell us more about the snow fight."
+
+Whereupon the lad did, waxing enthusiastic, and causing his chums to get
+into the same state of mind.
+
+"It will be no end of fun!" declared Teeter. "We'll choose sides and see
+which one can capture the fort."
+
+"When can we do it?" asked Tom.
+
+"The sooner the quicker," was Joe's opinion. "The snow won't last long."
+
+"Then we ought to start on the fort to-morrow and have the battle the
+next day," was the opinion of Peaches.
+
+Permission to have the snow battle was obtained from Dr. Fillmore the
+next day, and the work of building the snow fort started soon after
+lessons were over. Fortunately the white flakes packed well, and with a
+foundation of a number of big snowballs the fort was shortly in process
+of construction.
+
+A better day for a snow battle could not have been desired. It was just
+warm enough so that the snow stuck, and yet cool enough so that the
+exertion would not be unpleasant. The fort was at the far end of the big
+school campus, and all about it the ground had been practically cleared
+of snow to build it. This made it necessary for the attacking party to
+carry their ammunition from afar. As for the defenders of the fort, they
+had plenty of snow inside, and, as a last resort they could use part of
+the walls of the structure itself to repel the enemy.
+
+The lads had made wooden shields for themselves, some using the heads of
+barrels, with leather loops for hand and arm. Others were content with
+something simpler, a mere board, or a barrel stave.
+
+Sides had been chosen, and, somewhat to his own surprise, Joe Matson was
+made captain of the attacking force.
+
+"We want you because you can throw straight and hard," explained Teeter,
+who was a sort of lieutenant of the attacking army.
+
+"Soak those fellows good!" pleaded Peaches.
+
+"We've got to look out for icy balls," cautioned Tom.
+
+"How so?" asked Joe, as he looked toward the fort where Frank Brown, as
+captain, was marshalling his lads.
+
+"I heard that Hiram Shell and Luke Fodick soaked a lot of snowballs in
+water last night, and let 'em freeze," went on Tom. "They're just mean
+enough to use them."
+
+"That's right," agreed Peaches, "and we made it up not to throw that
+kind. Well, if we catch Hiram or Luke using 'em we'll make a protest,
+that's all."
+
+"Say, are you fellows all ready?" asked Frank Brown at length, as he
+looked to see if he and his mates had a good supply of ammunition.
+
+"Sure," answered Joe. "Yell when you want us to come at you."
+
+"Any time now," replied Frank. "Get on the job, fellows!" he called to
+his force.
+
+The snow battle began. Joe and his lads had boxes and baskets of
+snowballs piled where they could easily get them. They took them with
+them, up to the very walls of the fort, certain boys being designated as
+ammunition carriers.
+
+The fight was fast and furious. The air was thick with flying balls; and
+the yells, shouts, cries, and laughter of the lads could be heard afar.
+
+Up to the fort swarmed Joe and his mates, only to be driven back by a
+withering fire. Then they came once more to the attack, pouring in a
+destructive rain of white balls on the defenders of the snow fort. But
+this resulted partly in disaster for the attacking foe, as several of
+their number were captured.
+
+"At 'em again!" ordered Joe, after a slight repulse. "We can capture
+that place!"
+
+Once more they swarmed to the attack, and with very good effect,
+delivering such a rattling volley of balls, that the defenders were
+thrown into confusion, and could not send back an answering fire
+quickly enough.
+
+"Swarm the walls! Swarm the walls!" yelled Joe.
+
+He and his lads scrambled up, their pockets filled with balls. Down upon
+the hapless foe they threw them, and in another moment the fort would
+have been theirs.
+
+"Repel boarders! Repel boarders!" sang out Hiram. "Come on, fellows,
+give 'em an extra dose!"
+
+Joe saw the bully, and Luke, his crony, rush to a corner of the fort and
+take something from a wooden box. The next instant several lads uttered
+cries of real pain, as they felt the missiles of almost solid ice hit
+them. Joe understood at once.
+
+"The mean, sneaking coward!" he cried. In his hand he held a large
+snowball. It was hard packed, but did not equal the ice balls in any
+particular. Yet it was effective.
+
+Joe saw the chance he wanted. Hiram had drawn back his hand to throw one
+of the missiles he and Luke had secretly made, when, with a suddenness
+that was startling, Joe threw his large snowball full in the bully's
+face.
+
+Hiram caught his breath. The ball he had intended throwing fell from his
+hand. He staggered back, his face a mass of snow. Then he recovered
+himself, cleared his eyes of the flakes and, with a yell of rage sprang
+forward.
+
+"I saw you throw that, Joe Matson!" he cried. "You had no right to pitch
+it with all your might at such close range."
+
+"I had as much right as you and Luke have to use iceballs," retorted our
+hero.
+
+"I--I'll fix you for that!" threatened Hiram, boiling over with wrath,
+as he scrambled up the inner walls of the fort and stood before Joe.
+"I'll knock you into the middle of next week! I'll teach you how to
+behave. I'm going to lick you good," and he drew back his fist, and
+aimed a mighty blow at our hero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JOE LEARNS SOMETHING
+
+
+Joe Matson had been in fights before. Some had been forced upon him, and
+he accepted the challenges for sufficient reasons, and had given a good
+account of himself in the battles. Other fistic encounters had been of
+his own seeking and for excellent reasons he had generally come out
+ahead.
+
+The prospective fight with the bully was very sudden. Joe had seen what
+he considered a mean trick on Hiram's part and had thrown on the impulse
+of the moment. He rather regretted his hasty action, but it was too late
+for regrets now, and he was willing to accept the outcome.
+
+"I'm going to make you wish you'd never come to Excelsior Hall!" cried
+Hiram, and with that he expected the blow which he had aimed at Joe to
+land on the countenance of our hero.
+
+But, like the celebrated flea of history, who, as the Dutchman said,
+"ven you put your finger on him, dot flea he aind't dere!" so it was
+with Joe. He cleverly ducked, and then waited for what would happen
+next.
+
+Something did happen with a vengeance. Hiram had rushed up the slippery,
+sloping, inner wall of the fort to get at Joe, and pummel him for
+sending the snowball smashing into his face, but when Joe turned aside,
+and Hiram's fist went through the air like a batter fanning over a swift
+ball, the bully was unable to recover himself.
+
+He overbalanced, clawed vainly at the atmosphere, made a grab for Joe,
+who took good care to keep well out of reach, and then Hiram Shell went
+slipping and sliding down the outside wall of the snow fort, turning
+over several times ere he landed at the bottom, amid a pile of the white
+flakes.
+
+[Illustration: HIRAM SHELL WENT SLIPPING AND SLIDING DOWN THE OUTSIDE
+WALL OF THE SNOW FORT.]
+
+In his descent he struck several lads who were swarming up to the
+attack, and these Hiram bowled over like tenpins, so that when he
+came to rest he was in the centre of a pile of heaving bodies, and
+of threshing and swaying arms and legs, like a football player downed
+after a long run.
+
+"Get off me, you fellows!" yelled Hiram, when he could get his breath.
+"I'll punch some of you good and hard for this!"
+
+"And you'll get punched yourself if you don't take your feet out of
+my face!" retorted Peaches, who was one of the few pupils not afraid of
+the bully.
+
+"Where's that Joe Matson? I've got a score to settle with him," went on
+Hiram, as he struggled to his feet, and disentangled himself from the
+mass of snow-warriors.
+
+"You'll have one to settle with me if you knock me down again!" cried
+Teeter Nelson, as he tried to shake some snow out from inside his
+collar. It was melting and running down his back in little cold streams.
+"What do you mean by playing that way?" demanded Teeter, who had not
+seen the impending fight between Joe and Hiram. "Why don't you stay
+inside your own fort, and not make a human battering ram of yourself?"
+
+"You mind your own business!" snapped Hiram with an ugly look. "I
+slipped and fell, or else Joe Matson pushed me. Wait until I get hold
+of him."
+
+With a look of anger on his face, Hiram turned and went swarming up the
+outer wall of the fort. At the top stood Joe, waiting, and the lad's
+face showed no signs of fear, though he was a trifle pale. Though Hiram
+was larger, and evidently stronger than Joe, our hero was not afraid.
+He was debating in his mind whether it would not be better to rush to
+the ground below, where he would have a better chance if it came to an
+out-and-out-fight. Yet Joe had a certain advantage on top of the snow
+wall, for he could easily push Hiram down. Yet this was not his idea of
+a contest of that kind.
+
+"I'll fix you, Matson!" muttered the bully. "I'll teach you to push me
+down! You might have broken my arm or leg," he added in an injured tone.
+
+"I didn't push you!" retorted our hero. "You tried to hit me and missed.
+Then you fell."
+
+"That's right!" chimed in Peaches, amid a silence, for the general
+snowball fight had ceased in anticipation of another kind of an
+encounter.
+
+Hiram balanced himself half way up the white wall.
+
+"What did you smash me in the face with a snowball for?" he demanded.
+"We made it up that no one was to aim at another fellow's face at close
+range, and you know it."
+
+"Of course I know it," answered Joe. "But that rule applied to hard
+balls, and I didn't use one. I threw a soft ball at you, and you know
+why I did it, too. I'll let Luke Fodick have one, too, if he does it
+again."
+
+"Does what again?" sneered the bully's crony.
+
+"Use icy balls. I saw you and Hiram take some frozen ones from that
+box," and Joe pointed to the secret supply of ammunition. "Some of our
+fellows were hit and that's why I threw in your face, Hiram. Now, if you
+want to fight I'm ready for you," and Joe stood well balanced on top of
+the wall, awaiting the approach of his enemy.
+
+Somehow the fighting spirit was oozing out of Hiram. He felt sure that
+he could whip Joe in a battle on level ground, but when his opponent
+stood above him, and when it was evident that Joe could deliver a blow
+before Hiram could, with the probability that it would send the attacker
+sliding down the wall again, the bully began to see that discretion was
+the better part of valor.
+
+"Do you want to fight?" demanded Hiram, in that tone which sometimes
+means that the questioner would be glad to get a negative answer.
+
+"I'm not aching for it," replied Joe slowly. "But I'm not going to run
+away. If you like I'll come down, but you can come up if you want to,"
+and he smiled at Hiram. "You only got what you deserved, you know."
+
+"That's right," chimed in Teeter. "You hadn't any right to use frozen
+balls, Hiram."
+
+"Sure not!" came in a menacing chorus from Joe's crowd of lads.
+
+"Well, they weren't frozen very hard," mumbled Hiram. "I only threw a
+few, anyhow, and you've got more fellows than we have."
+
+"Because we captured some of yours--yes," admitted Joe.
+
+"Well, all right then," answered the bully with no good grace. "But if
+you throw at my face again, at such close range, Joe Matson, I'll give
+you the best licking you ever had."
+
+"Two can play at that game," was Joe's retort. "I'm ready any time you
+are."
+
+"Why don't you go at him now, and clean him up?" asked Luke Fodick,
+making his way to where Hiram stood. "If you don't he'll be saying he
+backed you to a standstill. Go at him, Hiram."
+
+"I've a good notion to," muttered the bully.
+
+He measured with his eye the distance between himself and Joe, and
+wondered if he could cover it in a rush, carry his opponent off his
+feet, and batter and pummel him as they rolled down the fort wall
+together.
+
+"Go on!" urged Luke.
+
+"I--I guess I will!" spoke Hiram desperately.
+
+Then from the outer fringe of the attacking crowd there arose a cautious
+warning.
+
+"Cheese it! Here comes old Sixteen!"
+
+Professor Rodd was approaching and the lads well knew that he was
+bitterly opposed to fights, and would at once report any who engaged in
+them.
+
+"Come on! Let's finish the snow fight!" cried Teeter. "Get back in your
+fort, Hiram, and the rest of you, and we'll soon capture it."
+
+"All right," said the bully in a low voice. Then looking at Joe he said:
+"This isn't the end of it; not by a long shot, Matson. I'll get square
+with you yet."
+
+"Just as you choose," answered Joe, as he rallied his lads to the attack
+again.
+
+Then the snow ball fight went on, with Professor Rodd an interested
+onlooker. Joe's boys finally won, capturing the fort; but the real zest
+had been taken out of the battle by the unpleasant incident, and the
+boys no longer fought with jolly good-will.
+
+"Ah, that is what I like to see," remarked the Latin professor, as the
+lads, having finished the game, strolled away from the fort which had
+been sadly battered and disrupted by the attack on it. "Nothing like
+good, healthy out-door exercise to fit the mind for the classics.
+I'm sure you will all do better in Latin and Greek for this little
+diversion."
+
+"He's got another think coming as far as I'm concerned," whispered
+Teeter to Joe. "I haven't got a line of my Caesar."
+
+"This is certainly what I like to see," went on the instructor. "No hard
+feelings, yet I venture to say you all fought well, and hard. It is most
+delightful."
+
+"It wouldn't have been quite so delightful if you'd have come along a
+few minutes later and seen a real fight," murmured Peaches. "Would you
+have stood up to Hiram, Joe?"
+
+"I sure would. I was ready for him, though I don't want to be unfriendly
+to any of the fellows here. But I couldn't stand for what he did. Oh,
+I'd have fought him all right, even at the risk of a whipping, or of
+beating him, and having him down on me all the while I'm here."
+
+"I guess he's down on you all right as it is," ventured George Bland.
+"And it's too bad, too."
+
+"Oh, I don't know as I care particularly," spoke Joe.
+
+"I thought I heard you say you wanted to play ball when the Spring
+season opened," said George.
+
+"So I do, but what has Hiram Shell got to do with it?"
+
+"Lots, as you'll very soon learn," put in Teeter. "Hiram is the head
+of the ball club--the manager--I guess you forgot that, and he runs
+things. If he doesn't want a fellow to play--why, that fellow doesn't
+play--that's all. That's what George means."
+
+"Yes," assented George. "And Hiram is sure down on you after what you
+did to him to-day, Joe."
+
+The young pitcher stood still. Many thoughts came to him. He felt a
+strange sinking sensation, as if he had suddenly lost hope. He dwelt for
+a moment on his great ambition, to be the star pitcher on the school
+nine, as he had been on the nine at home.
+
+"Well, I guess it's too late to worry about it now," remarked Joe after
+a bit. "I'm sorry--no; I'm not either!" he cried, with sudden energy.
+"I'd do the same thing over again if I had to, and if Hiram Shell wants
+to keep me off the nine he can do it!"
+
+"That's the way to talk!" cried Teeter, clapping Joe on the back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE TABLES TURNED
+
+
+"Well, Joe, what do you think about it?" Tom Davis glanced at his chum
+across the room as he asked this question. It was several hours after
+the snow battle, and the two lads were studying, or making a pretense at
+it.
+
+"Think about what, Tom?"
+
+"Oh, you know what I mean--what happened to-day, and how it's going to
+affect your chances for the nine. They look rather slim, don't they?"
+
+"Well, Tom, I don't mind admitting that they do. I didn't know Hiram was
+such a high-mucky-muck in baseball here. But there's no use crying over
+spilled milk. He and I would have had a clash sooner or later, anyhow,
+and it might as well be first as last."
+
+"It's too blamed bad though," went on Tom.
+
+"Yes," agreed Joe, "especially as I picked out Excelsior Hall because
+their nine had so many victories to its credit, and because it had a
+good reputation. That's what partly induced you to come here, too, I
+guess."
+
+"Well, yes, in a way. Of course I like baseball, but I'm not so crazy
+after it as you are. Maybe that's why I'm not such a good player. If I
+can hold down first, or play out in the field, it suits me; but you----"
+
+"I want to be pitcher or nothing," interrupted Joe with a smile, "but
+I'm afraid I'm a long way from the box now."
+
+"Yes, from what I can hear, Hiram has the inside track in the baseball
+game. He's manager chiefly because he puts up a lot of money for the
+team, and because his friends, what few he has, are officers in the
+organization."
+
+"Who's captain?" asked Joe. "Maybe I could induce him to let me play
+even if Hiram is down on me."
+
+"Nothing doing there," replied Tom quickly. "Luke Fodick is captain, or,
+rather he was last year, I hear, and he's slated for the same position
+this season. Luke and Hiram are as thick as such fellows always are.
+When Hiram is hit Luke does the boo-hoo act for him. No, Luke will be
+down on you as much as his crony is. But maybe we can get up a second
+nine, and play some games on our own hook!"
+
+"None of that!" Joe exclaimed quickly. "I'm not an insurgent. I play
+with the regulars or not at all. They'd be saying all sorts of things
+against me if you and I tried to start an opposition team."
+
+"That's so. Still it mightn't be a bad idea, under the circumstances, to
+have another team, if it wasn't for what the school would say."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, Excelsior got dumped in the interscholastic league last season.
+They play for the blue banner you know--a sort of prize trophy--and it
+was won by Morningside Academy, which now holds it. That's why I say it
+might be a good thing to have some more ginger in the team here. I know
+you could put it in, after the way you pitched on the Silver Stars when
+they licked the Resolutes."
+
+"Well, it can't be done I'm afraid," Joe rejoined. "There can only be
+one first team in a school, and I don't want to disrupt things or play
+second fiddle. If I can't get on the nine I'll have to stay off, that's
+all. But it's going to be mighty tough to sit still and watch the other
+fellows play, and all the while just itching to get hold of the
+ball--mighty tough," and Joe gazed abstractedly about the room.
+
+"I wish I could help you, old man, but I can't," said Tom. "I suppose
+this clash with Hiram had to come but I do wish it had held off until
+after the season opened. Once you were on the nine you could show the
+fellows what stuff you had in your pitching arm, and then Hiram and Luke
+could do their worst, but they couldn't get you off the team."
+
+"That's nice of you to say, but I don't know about it," remarked Joe.
+"Well, I'm about done studying. I wish----"
+
+But he did not finish the sentence, for there came a knock on the
+door--a pre-arranged signal in a certain code of raps, showing that one
+of their classmates stood without.
+
+"Wait a minute," called Tom, as he went to open the door.
+
+His quick view through the crack showed the smiling faces of Teeter and
+Peaches, and there was an audible sigh of relief from Joe's roommate.
+For Tom had fallen behind in his studies of late, and had been warned
+that any infractions of the rules might mean his suspension for a week
+or two.
+
+"Gee, you took long enough to open the door," complained Teeter,
+"especially considering what we have with us."
+
+"Don't you mean 'whom' you have with you?" asked Joe, nodding toward
+Peaches.
+
+"No, I mean 'what,'" insisted Teeter with a grin as he unbuttoned his
+coat and brought into view several pies, and a couple of packages done
+up in paper.
+
+"Oh, that's the game, is it?" asked Joe with a laugh.
+
+"And there's more to it," added Peaches, as he produced two bottles from
+the legs of his trousers. "This is the best strawberry pop that can be
+bought. We'll have a feast as is a feast; eh, fellows?"
+
+"Lock the door!" exclaimed Tom, and he did it himself, being nearest to
+it. "There may be confiscating spirits abroad in the land to-night."
+
+"Old Sixteen is abroad, anyhow," spoke Teeter with a laugh, "but I guess
+we'll be safe. I have a scheme, if worst comes to worst."
+
+"What is it?" asked Joe.
+
+"You'll see when the time comes--if it does. 'Now, on with the dance--let
+joy be unconfined!' Open the pop, Peaches, and don't sample it until
+we're all ready. Got any glasses, you fellows? This is a return game for
+the treat you gave us the other night."
+
+"Then we'll find the glasses all right," spoke Joe with a laugh. "But
+what's your game, not to let old Sixteen catch us at this forbidden
+midnight feast? Have you dummies in your beds?"
+
+"Not a dum. But watch my smoke."
+
+From the parcels he carried, Teeter produced what looked to be
+books--books, as attested by the words on their covers--books dealing
+with Latin, and the science of physics.
+
+"There are our plates," he said as he laid the books down on the table.
+Then Joe and Tom saw that the books were merely covers pasted over a
+sort of box into which a whole pie could easily be put. "Catch the
+idea," went on Teeter. "We are eating in here, which is against the
+rules, worse luck. But, perchance, some monitor or professor knocks
+unexpectedly. Do we have to hustle and scramble to conceal our
+refreshments? Answer--we do not. What do we do?"
+
+"Answer," broke in Peaches. "We merely slip our pie or sandwiches or
+whatever it happens to be, inside our 'books,' and go right on studying.
+Catch on?"
+
+"I should say we did!" exclaimed Joe. "That's great!"
+
+"But what about the bottles of strawberry pop?" asked Tom. "We can't
+hide them in the fake books."
+
+"No, I've another scheme for that," went on Teeter. "Show 'em, Peaches."
+
+Thereupon Peaches proceeded to extract the corks from the bottles of
+liquid refreshment. From the packages Teeter had brought he took some
+other corks. They had glass tubes through them, two tubes for each cork.
+And on one tube in each cork was a small rubber hose.
+
+"There!" exclaimed Teeter as Peaches put the odd corks in the bottles.
+"We can pour out the pop with neatness and dispatch into our glasses and
+at the same time, should any one unexpectedly enter, why--we are only
+conducting an experiment in generating oxygen or hydrogen gas. The
+bottles are the retorts, and we can pretend our glasses are to receive
+the gas. How's that?"
+
+"All to the horse radish!" cried Joe in delight.
+
+"Then proceed," ordered Teeter with a laugh; and when all was in
+readiness each lad sat with a fake book near him, into which he could
+slip his piece of pie at a moment's warning, while on the table stood
+the bottles of pop with the tubes and hose extending from their
+corks--truly a most scientific-looking array of flasks and glassware.
+
+"Now let's talk," suggested Teeter, biting generously into a pie. "That
+was a great fight we had to-day, all right."
+
+"And there might have been one of a different kind," added Peaches.
+"Hear anything more from Hiram, Joe?"
+
+"No, I don't expect to--until the next time, and then I suppose we'll
+have it out."
+
+"I guess Joe's goose is cooked as far as getting on the nine is
+concerned," ventured Tom.
+
+"Sure thing," agreed Peaches.
+
+"Yet we're going to need a new pitcher," went on Teeter. "Probably two
+of 'em?"
+
+"How's that?" asked Tom interestedly.
+
+"Why Rutherford, our star man of last year, graduated, and he's gone to
+Princeton or Yale. Madison, the substitute who was pretty good in a
+pinch game, graduated, too; but we thought he was coming back for an
+extra course in Latin. I heard to-day that he isn't, and so that means
+we'll have to have two new box-men. There might be a show for Joe."
+
+"Forget it!" advised Peaches. "Not the way Hiram and Luke feel. They
+went off by themselves right after supper to-night, and I heard them
+saying something about Joe here, but I couldn't catch what it was. Oh,
+they're down on him all right, for Joe backed Hiram to a standstill
+to-day, and that hasn't happened to the bully in a blue moon."
+
+"Oh, well, I guess I can live if I don't get on the nine my first season
+here," spoke Joe. "I'll keep on trying though."
+
+Thus the talk went on, chiefly about baseball, and gradually the
+strawberry pop was lowered in the bottles, and the pie was nearly
+consumed.
+
+"Guess you had all your trouble for nothing, Teeter," remarked Tom. "We
+aren't going to be interrupted to-night."
+
+Hardly had he spoken than there was the faint rattle of the door knob.
+It was as if some one had tried it to see if the portal was unlocked
+before knocking. Slight as the noise was, the lads heard it.
+
+"Quick! On the job!" whispered Teeter. He crammed the rest of his pie
+into the fake book, as did the others.
+
+"Study like blazes!" was Teeter's next order.
+
+There came a knock at the door.
+
+"Young gentlemen have you any visitors?" demanded the ominous voice of
+Professor Rodd.
+
+Teeter placed the ends of the rubber tubes one in each of two glasses
+before Joe could answer.
+
+"I heard voices in there--more than two voices," went on the Latin
+instructor grimly, "and I demand that you open the door before I send
+for Dr. Fillmore and the janitor."
+
+Tom slid to the portal and unlocked it. Professor Rodd stepped into the
+room and his stern gaze took in the two visitors. But he also saw
+something else that surprised him.
+
+On the table was apparatus that very much resembled some used for
+experiments in the physics class. And, wonder of wonders, each of the
+four lads held a book in his hand--a book that the merest glance showed
+to be either a Latin grammar or a treatise on chemistry.
+
+"What--why----?" faltered the professor.
+
+"_Aliqui--aliquare--aliqua_," recited Teeter in a sing-song declension
+voice. "_Aliquorum--aliquarum--aliquorum._" Then he pretended to look up
+suddenly, as if just aware of the presence of the instructor.
+
+"Oh, good evening, Professor Rodd," said Teeter calmly.
+
+"What does this mean?" exclaimed the teacher. "Don't you know it is
+against the rules for students to visit in each others' rooms after
+hours without permission?"
+
+"I knew it was--that is for anything but study," replied Teeter frankly.
+"I didn't think you minded if we helped each other with our Latin." Oh!
+what an innocent look was on his face!
+
+"Oh!--er--um--and you are studying Latin?" asked the professor, while a
+pleased smile replaced his frown.
+
+"Yes, Professor," put in Peaches. "And I can't seem to remember, nor
+find, what the neuter plural accusative of 'some' is. I have gone as far
+as _aliquos--aliquas_, but----"
+
+"_Aliqua--aliqua!_" exclaimed the Professor quickly. "You ought not to
+forget that. We had it in class the other day."
+
+"Oh, yes, so we did!" exclaimed Teeter. "I just remember now; don't you,
+Joe?"
+
+"Yes," murmured Joe, wondering whether or not they had turned the tables
+on the teacher.
+
+"I am glad to see you so studious," went on Mr. Rodd. "And I see you do
+not neglect your physics, either. Ah--er--what is the red liquid in the
+bottles," and he looked at what remained of the strawberry pop.
+
+It was the question Tom and Joe had feared would be asked. But Teeter
+was equal to the emergency.
+
+"Professor," he asked innocently, "isn't there some rule regarding
+_quis_ used in the indefinite in connection with _aliquis_?"
+
+"Yes, and I am glad you spoke of that," said Mr. Rodd quickly, rubbing
+his hands, much pleased that he had a chance to impart some Latin
+information. "_Quis_ indefinite is found in the following compounds:
+_aliquis_--someone; _si quis_, if any; _ne quis_, lest any; _ecquis_,
+_num quis_, whether any. I am very glad you brought that up. I will
+speak of it in class to-morrow. But I must go now."
+
+The boys began to breathe easier and Teeter, who had been whispering
+declensions to himself, left off.
+
+"Oh, by the way," spoke the Professor, as if he had just thought of it:
+"I don't mind you boys studying together, if you don't stay up too
+late. But it is better to ask permission. However, I will speak to Dr.
+Fillmore about it, and it will be all right from now on. I am pleased
+that some of my students are so painstaking. I wish more were."
+
+With a bow he left them and they tried not to give way to their
+exultation until he was far down the corridor.
+
+"Say, talk about pulling off a stunt! We did it all right!" exclaimed
+Joe.
+
+"I should say yes," agreed the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BULLY SNEERS
+
+
+"Well, you ought to get out a patent on this," remarked Joe, when they
+resumed the eating of the pie and the drinking of the pop, following the
+withdrawal of the professor.
+
+"You sure had," agreed Tom. "Let Joe give you some points. His father
+has taken out several patents."
+
+"Oh, I guess we'll make it free for all--any fellow is welcome to the
+idea," replied Teeter. "So your dad's an inventor, eh, Matson?"
+
+"Yes, harvester machinery--his latest was a corn reaper and binder, and
+he nearly lost it," and Joe briefly told how Isaac Benjamin and Rufus
+Holdney had nearly ruined his father, as related in detail in "Baseball
+Joe of the Silver Stars."
+
+"Ever hear anything more of those fellows?" asked Tom, following the
+recital of the schemes of the plotters.
+
+"No, they seem to have disappeared," answered Joe. "They cleared out
+after dad won his case in the courts. But he's on the watch for them,
+he told me. His business isn't all settled yet, and there is some
+danger. But I guess Benjamin or Holdney won't bother him, though some
+other rascals may."
+
+"Anything more to eat?" asked Peaches, during the pause that followed.
+
+"Say, what are you, a human refrigerator?" demanded Teeter. "I couldn't
+carry any more pie if I tried."
+
+"It'll be our treat next time," observed Joe. "Why didn't George Bland
+come with you?"
+
+"Had to bone on trigonometry, I guess," replied Peaches.
+
+"Does he play on the team?" Joe wanted to know.
+
+"Yes, we all do. George is short, I'm on third, and Teeter holds down
+first sometimes. But you never can tell what Hiram is going to do. He
+and Luke are always making shifts, and that's what lost us the Blue
+Banner last season. The fellows would no more than get familiar with
+their positions than Hiram would shift 'em. Oh, he runs things to suit
+himself."
+
+The hour of ten boomed out from the big school clock and the visitors
+left.
+
+"Spring fever!" exclaimed Joe one day, as he and Tom came from a physics
+lecture.
+
+"Yes, I've got it, too," admitted Tom. "It's in the air, and I'm glad
+of it. What's that Shakespeare says about 'now is the winter of our
+discontent?'"
+
+"Oh, cheese it! Don't begin spouting poetry. Besides I'm not sure it
+was Shakespeare, and I don't give a hang. All I know is that Spring is
+coming, and soon they'll begin getting the diamond in shape."
+
+"Precious lot of good that will do you--or me, either. Hiram is as down
+on me as he is on you."
+
+"I know it, and I was going to speak of that, Tom. There's no use in
+your losing a chance to play on the nine just because I'm on the outs.
+Why don't you cut loose from me? You can get another room, and maybe if
+you do----"
+
+"Hold on!" cried Tom quickly. "Do you want me to go, old man?" and he
+looked sharply at Joe.
+
+"Nonsense! Of course you know I don't."
+
+"Then drop that kind of talk, unless you want a fight on your hands. You
+and I stick together, Hiram Shell or no Hiram Shell--and Luke Fodick."
+
+"Well, I didn't know," spoke Joe softly.
+
+"Here, come on; let's have a catch," proposed Tom. "I've got an old ball
+that we used in one of the Star games. Get over there and sting some in
+to me. Wait until I get my glove on," and he adjusted his mitt.
+
+"Jove! This is like old times!" exclaimed Joe, as he lovingly fingered
+the horsehide--dirty and stained as it was from many a clouting and
+drive into the tall grass and daisies. "I wish we could go and see a
+game, even if we couldn't play."
+
+"Same here," came from Tom, as he crouched to receive the ball his chum
+was about to deliver. Joe wound up and sent in a "hot" one. It landed
+squarely in Tom's glove for the first-baseman (a position he sometimes
+had played on the Stars) was not a half bad catcher.
+
+"How was that?" asked Joe.
+
+"Pretty good. Not quite over the plate, but you can get 'em there. Let
+'em come about so," and Tom indicated a stone that would serve for home.
+
+"Watch this," requested Joe as he wound up again and let drive.
+
+"A beaut!" cried Tom. "Give me some more that way, and you'll have the
+man out."
+
+"Say, what are you fellows doing?" demanded a voice, and the two chums
+looked up to see Hiram Shell gazing at them with mingled expressions on
+his fleshy face.
+
+"Oh, having a little practice," replied Joe easily. The feeling between
+himself and the bully had nearly worn off, and they were on speaking, if
+not on friendly terms.
+
+"Practice for what?" demanded Hiram.
+
+"Well, the baseball season opens pretty soon," went on Joe, "and Tom and
+I sort of felt the fever in our veins to-day. Want to have a catch?"
+
+"No," half snarled Hiram. "Say, did you fellows play ball before you
+came here?" he demanded.
+
+"Sure," put in Tom. "Joe was one of the best pitchers on the Silver
+Stars."
+
+"The Silver Stars? Never heard of 'em!" sneered Hiram.
+
+"Oh, it was only an amateur nine," Joe admitted modestly. "Tom here was
+first baseman, and we had some good country games."
+
+"Huh! Maybe you came _here_ to play baseball!" suggested Hiram with a
+leer. "Seems to me I heard that you had some such notion."
+
+"Well, I have," asserted Joe confidently. "I like the game, and I'd give
+a good deal to get on the nine. So would Tom, I guess."
+
+"First base is filled," snapped Hiram.
+
+"How about pitcher," asked Tom eagerly, anxious to put in a good word
+for his chum. "I hear you need a new pitcher."
+
+"Oh, you did; eh?" exclaimed the bully with an unpleasant laugh. "Well,
+you've got another 'hear' coming. Besides, if there wasn't another
+pitcher in the country, you wouldn't get a chance, Matson!"
+
+"No?" queried Joe easily.
+
+"No, and a dozen times no! What, you pitch? Say, you may have been all
+right on a sand-lots team, but there's some class to Excelsior Hall. We
+don't want any dubs on our nine. You think you might pitch on _my_ team?
+I guess nixy! We want some fellow who can deliver the goods."
+
+"Joe can!" exclaimed Tom eagerly.
+
+"Aw, forget it!" sneered Hiram. "Why, you'd be knocked out of the box
+first inning with some of the teams we play. You pitch! Ha! Ha! That's
+pretty rich. I'll have to tell the fellows about this!"
+
+"I didn't ask you to let me pitch," said Joe quietly though an angry
+spot burned in either cheek.
+
+"No, and you'd better not!" snapped Hiram. "You pitch! Ha! Ha! It makes
+me laugh," and with a sneering look at Joe the bully strode off,
+chuckling unpleasantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A CLASH WITH LUKE
+
+
+For several minutes Joe stood staring after the baseball manager. The
+young pitcher's arm hung listlessly at his side. There was a look on his
+face that would have been sad, had Joe been that kind of a lad--showing
+his feelings needlessly. But our hero was full of spunk and grit, and,
+though Hiram's unnecessarily cruel words hurt him grievously, Joe shut
+his teeth with a firmer grip, squared his shoulders, drew himself up,
+and then he smiled at Tom.
+
+"Well, of all the mean, unmitigated, low-down, cantankerous, sneaking,
+bulldozing and----" sputtered the first baseman.
+
+"Hold on!" exclaimed his companion. "You'll blow up if you go on that
+way, Tom. Besides, save some of those big words for a time when you may
+need 'em."
+
+"Need 'em? Say if I don't need 'em now I never will. I wish I had
+thought to get rid of a few when that bully was here."
+
+"You'd only gotten into trouble. Better keep still about it."
+
+"I can't Joe. Just think of it! We came here to play ball, and the first
+crack out of the box that fellow goes and tells us we can't."
+
+"Well, I don't know as I have any particular right to play on the nine
+here."
+
+"Yes, you have, the best right in the world! I'll bet they haven't got
+a pitcher here who can stand up to you, and I'm going to tell that
+sneaking bully so, too," and Tom started off after the departing Hiram.
+
+"No, don't!" cried Joe quickly. "It will only make matters worse."
+
+"But you want to pitch; don't you?"
+
+"Sure, but that would be the best way in the world to insure that I
+wouldn't. Hiram Shell is just the kind of a fellow who, if he thinks a
+chap wants anything, is going to do his best--or worst--to stop him."
+
+"What are you going to do then?"
+
+"I'm going to lie low and saw wood. The baseball season hasn't opened
+yet. The team isn't made up. Nobody knows who is going to play and----"
+
+"Well, Hiram as good as told us two fellows who weren't going to play,"
+interrupted Tom. "That's you and I."
+
+"Wait a bit," advised Joe. "I was going to say that when the season has
+started and several games have been played there may be a change. I may
+get a chance to play then, just as I did on the Stars. I'm willing to
+wait. The Summer is long, and there'll be more than one game. Just say
+nothing."
+
+"Well, if you say so, I suppose I'll have to," answered his chum, "but
+it's mighty hard to keep still when a fellow like Hiram Shell rubs your
+nose in the dirt, and then kicks you in the bargain. He'll have to ask
+me to play now. I won't volunteer!" and Tom shook his fist in the
+direction of the manager. "Yes, he'll have to get down on his knees
+and----"
+
+"Precious little danger of that," remarked Joe with a laugh. He was
+feeling more like himself now, though the memory of the bully's sneering
+words rankled. They had cut deep.
+
+"Guess there's no use catching any longer," resumed Tom after a pause.
+"I don't exactly feel like it."
+
+"Me either. I guess we've gotten over our touch of spring fever," and
+Joe's voice was a bit despondent. Really, he cared more about what
+Hiram had said than he liked to admit, even to himself. He had had high
+hopes when he left the Riverside High School to come to Excelsior Hall
+that he would at once become a member of the nine. His ambition, of
+course, was to pitch, but he would have accepted any position--even out
+in the field, for the sake of being on the school team. Now it seemed
+that he was fated not even to be one of the substitutes.
+
+"What are you fellows up to?" asked a voice suddenly, and the two chums
+turned to behold Peaches and Teeter walking toward them.
+
+"Oh, we were having a catch," replied Tom, "until we got called down for
+it. It seems you have to have a permit at Excelsior to indulge in a
+little private practice," he added sarcastically.
+
+"What's up your back now?" asked Teeter.
+
+"Yes, who's been rubbing your fur the wrong way?" Peaches wanted to
+know. "What's riled Sister?"
+
+"Who do you reckon would, if not Bully Shell?" asked Tom. "He's the
+limit," and he rapidly told how Hiram had sneered at Joe's efforts, and
+had said that he never would be on the team.
+
+"Well, it's too bad, for Hiram has the inside track," admitted Teeter.
+"I'm as sorry about it as you are, and so are a lot of the fellows. The
+trouble is that the athletic committee is too big. There are a lot of
+lads on it who don't care a rap for baseball or football, who don't even
+play tennis, yet they have a vote, and it's their votes that keep Hiram
+as manager, and Luke as captain."
+
+"Can't it be changed?" Tom wanted to know. Joe was maintaining a
+discrete silence, for he did not want to urge his own qualifications
+as a pitcher. Tom was eager to fight for his chum.
+
+"Well, it's been tried," spoke Peaches, "but Hiram has his own set with
+him--a set that isn't the sporting element of Excelsior by a good lot,
+and their votes keep him in. He spends his money freely and toadies to
+them, and they fairly black his shoes. Luke Fodick, too, helps out. He
+has his crowd and they're all with him. I tell you it's rotten, but what
+are you going to do?"
+
+"I know what I'm going to do if I stay here!" declared Tom.
+
+"What?" demanded Peaches and Teeter eagerly.
+
+"I'm not going to tell until I'm ready to spring it," said Tom, "and
+when I do I think you'll see some fur fly. How soon before the school
+team is picked?"
+
+"Well, they ought to get at it pretty soon now," answered Teeter. "There
+is a meeting of the athletic committee some time next week, and a
+manager and captain will be elected. It's always done that way here,
+though in some places they do it right at the close of the season. But
+it has always been a cut-and-dried affair as long as Hiram has been
+here. He got in--he and Luke--and they've stayed in ever since."
+
+"Can we go to that athletic meeting?" asked Tom.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Teeter quickly. "It's open to every lad in the school,
+but lots don't take the trouble to go,--they know how it will turn out."
+
+"Well, maybe there'll be a different turn to it this time," predicted
+Tom.
+
+"I'm afraid you've got another guess coming," was the retort of Peaches;
+and then the four friends strolled toward the school buildings.
+
+"What do you say to a scrub game?" asked Teeter.
+
+"I'm willing!" said Joe eagerly; and so it was arranged.
+
+The school diamond was not in very good shape, but two teams, of seven
+lads on a side, gathered for the first impromptu baseball game of the
+season the following afternoon. Tom, Joe, Peaches and Teeter tried to
+get more out, but there were various excuses, and it might be noted that
+aside from Teeter and Peaches not one of the former regular nine
+appeared.
+
+"I guess they're afraid Hiram will release them if they play with us,"
+commented Tom.
+
+"Maybe so," admitted Teeter. "George Bland would come only he had some
+experimental work to finish. George isn't any more afraid of Hiram than
+we are."
+
+"Well, let's play ball," suggested Joe; and the game started. Joe
+occupied the box for his side, an honor that came easily to him since
+none of the others had had any experience as a twirler of the horsehide.
+
+Our hero felt a little nervous as he took his place, for he knew he was
+out of practice. Also he felt that he was being watched, not only by
+his particular friends, but by others. And some of them might not be
+friendly eyes--nay, some might be spying on behalf of Hiram Shell.
+
+But Joe pulled himself well together, laughed at his idle fears, and
+sent in a swift curve. It broke cleanly and completely fooled the
+batter.
+
+"Say, that's the way to get 'em over!" cried Teeter admiringly from
+behind the bat as the ball landed in his mitt. "Do it some more!"
+
+"I'll try," laughed Joe, and he repeated the trick.
+
+The man was easily struck out, and the next at the bat fell for a like
+fate, but the third found Joe's curve and swatted the ball for two bags.
+
+"Oh, well, Joe just allowed that so you fellows wouldn't get discouraged,"
+exclaimed Teeter as an excuse for his pitcher. "Get ready to slaughter
+the next man, Joe."
+
+And Joe did. He was delighted to find that his ability to curve the
+ball, and send it swiftly in, had not deserted him during the long
+winter of comparative inactivity. He knew that he could "come back with
+the goods," and there was a feeling of hope welling up within him, that,
+after all, there might come a chance for him to pitch on the Excelsior
+nine.
+
+The game went on, not regular, nor played according to the rules by any
+means. But it was lots of fun, and some of the lads discovered their
+weak points, while others found themselves doing better than they
+expected. Joe's side won by a small margin, and just as the winning run
+came in our hero was aware of a figure walking toward the bench on which
+the side was sitting.
+
+"Huh! Starting off rather early, ain't you?" demanded a voice, and
+they turned to behold Luke Fodick. "Who said you fellows could use the
+diamond, anyhow?"
+
+"We didn't ask anybody," retorted Teeter with a snap.
+
+"Well, you want to--after this," was the surly command. "I'm captain of
+the nine and what I say goes. I'm not going to have the diamond all torn
+up before the season opens, see! I'm captain!"
+
+"Not yet," spoke Peaches quietly. "The election isn't until next week."
+
+"What's that got to do with it? You ain't thinking of running opposition
+to me; are you?"
+
+"No," and a bright spot burned on the fair cheeks of the light-complexioned
+lad.
+
+"Because if you are you'll have a fight on your hands," threatened Luke.
+"Who's been pitching?" he asked, his gaze roving over the crowd of lads.
+
+"I was for our side," replied Joe quietly.
+
+"Oh, you--yes I heard about you!" exclaimed Luke with a grating laugh.
+"You're the fellow who wants to pitch on the nine; ain't you? Well, you
+want to get that bee out of your bonnet, or you may get stung, see?
+Hiram told me about you. Why, you are only an amateur. We want the best
+here at Excelsior. By Jove, it's queer how tacky some of you high
+school kids get as soon as you come to a real institution. Talk about
+nerve, I----"
+
+Joe fairly leaped from the bench. In another stride he confronted Luke.
+
+"Look here!" cried our hero, anger getting the best of him for the time
+being. "I've taken all of that kind of talk I'm going to either from you
+or Bully Shell! Now you keep still or I'll make you. I'll give you the
+best licking you ever had; and I'll do it right here and now if you say
+another word about my pitching! I didn't come here to take any of your
+sneers, and I don't intend to. Now you put that in your pipe, and smoke
+it, and then close up and stay closed," and shaking his finger so close
+to the astonished Luke that it hit the buttons on his coat, Joe turned
+back and sat down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+"WHO WILL PITCH?"
+
+
+For a moment there was silence--a sort of awed silence--and Teeter
+uttered a faint cheer.
+
+"That's the way to talk!" he exclaimed.
+
+"You're all right!" declared Peaches.
+
+Luke turned and glared at them. Afterward several lads said the bully's
+toady looked dazed, as if he did not understand what had happened.
+
+"He'll go tell Hiram now, and he'll be laying for you, Joe," was Tom's
+opinion.
+
+"Let him. I'm ready to meet that bully whenever he is, and I'm not
+afraid, either."
+
+"That's the way to talk!" exclaimed Teeter admiringly. "If Hiram got one
+good licking he wouldn't be quite so uppish. But I'm afraid this will
+put you on the fritz for the nine, Joe."
+
+"I don't care if it does. I'm going to let 'em know what I think."
+
+Yet in the quietness of his room that night Joe rather regretted what he
+had done. He realized that he might have turned off Luke's insult with
+a laugh.
+
+"For if I had done so I'd stand a better chance of getting on the nine,"
+mused Joe.
+
+Then a different feeling came to him.
+
+"No, I couldn't do that either," he reflected. "I'm not built that way.
+I'm not going to lie down and be walked on, nine or no nine, and I'm
+going to find some way to play ball, at that!"
+
+There was a determined look on Joe's face, and he squared his shoulders
+in a way that meant business. If Hiram and his crony could have seen our
+hero then they might not have been so sure of what they would do to him.
+
+"So that's how he acted, eh?" asked the bully, when his crony had
+reported to him what Joe had said. "Well, he'll get _his_ all right.
+He'll never play ball here as long as I am manager."
+
+"No, nor while I'm captain," added Luke. "Nor that friend of his either,
+Tom Davis."
+
+"That's right; we'll make it so hot here for both of 'em that they'll
+leave at the end of the term," predicted Hiram.
+
+What a pity he did not know that Joe and Tom were not of the "leaving"
+kind. The hotter it was the better they liked it, for they both came of
+fighting stock.
+
+But with all his nerve, and not regretting in the least what he had
+done, Joe was a bit uneasy as the time for the baseball organization
+meeting drew near. He hoped against hope that somehow he might get on
+the team, but he did not see how. He talked with other students, and
+they all told him that Hiram, Luke and their crowd ran things to suit
+themselves.
+
+"But I've got something up my sleeve," declared Tom. "There may be a
+surprise at the meeting."
+
+"What are you up to?" asked Joe. "Nothing rash, I hope."
+
+"You wait and see," his chum advised. "I'm not saying anything."
+
+As the days went by, Tom might have been seen talking in confidential
+whispers to many students. He made lots of new friends, and it was
+remarked that they were neither of the "sporting set," nor the crowd
+that trained with Hiram and Luke. To all questions Tom turned a deaf
+ear, and went on his way serenely.
+
+It was almost a foregone conclusion as to who would constitute the nine,
+with the exception of the pitchers. As already explained, the students
+who, as regular and substitute, had filled the box the previous season
+had left, and it was up to Hiram and Luke to find new pitchers. Hiram
+did not play on the nine, being content to manage it, but Luke was
+catcher and some of the friends of Joe and Tom filled regular places.
+
+"How do you dope it out?" asked Tom of Peaches one day, shortly before
+the organization meeting.
+
+"Well, it'll be about like this," was the reply. "We will all gather in
+the gymnasium--as many as want to--and Hiram will be in the chair. He'll
+call the meeting to order and state what we're there for, which everyone
+knows already, without being told. Then he'll ask for nominations for
+secretary, and one of his friends will go in. Then he'll spout about
+what we ought to do to win this season, and how to do it, and say we're
+sure to be at the head of the league and win the Blue Banner and all
+like that.
+
+"Then he'll ask for nominations for players and they'll be voted on;
+we'll have a little chinning about money matters, Hiram may say who the
+first few games will be with, and it will be all over but the shouting."
+
+"Well, won't lots of fellows have a chance to nominate players, or won't
+the players themselves ask to be given a chance?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but what's the use? It's all cut and dried."
+
+"Who'll be on the nine?"
+
+"I can pretty near tell you, all but the pitcher. And that will lay
+between Frank Brown and Larry Akers--both friends of Hiram. Luke will
+catch--that's a cinch. George Bland will be in centre-field. I may be
+at first, though I doubt it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh, because I dared to say Joe was right for answering Luke back that
+time. I'll probably be sent out in the daisies, but I don't care, for
+with Luke catching it's no easy matter to hold down the first bag. He
+throws so rotten high. Then Teeter will be on second. Nat Pierson on
+third, Harry Lauter in right, Jake Weston at short, and Charlie Borden
+in left. That's how it will be."
+
+"And no show for Joe?"
+
+"I can't see any, nor for you, either."
+
+"Oh, I don't care about myself, but I'm interested in Joe. I _do_ wish
+he could pitch."
+
+"I'm afraid he can't," answered Peaches with a sigh. "I'd almost be
+willing to give my place to him, but I'm not altogether sure that I'll
+get on the nine, though I'm going to make a big fight for it."
+
+"Oh, Joe wouldn't think of doing anything like that!" objected Tom. "But
+maybe my plan will work. If it does, Hiram won't have so much to say as
+he does now."
+
+"I hope to gracious you can work something. It's rotten the way things
+are now, and it is our own fault, too. But I'm afraid it's too late to
+change. No, you can figure that the nine is already made up between
+Hiram and Luke--that is, all but pitcher."
+
+"Then I think Joe has a chance!" exclaimed Tom. "I'm not going to give
+up until the last minute. I'm working hard for him, but don't say
+anything to him about it. I want to surprise him."
+
+"I'm afraid it will be a disagreeable surprise," commented Peaches, as
+he left his friend.
+
+The time for the meeting was at hand and on all sides there seemed to be
+but one question:
+
+"Who will pitch?"
+
+There were many shakes of heads and much speculation, but Hiram and Luke
+kept their own counsel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+TOM'S PLAN FAILS
+
+
+"The meeting will come to order!" called Hiram. "I'll cuff some of you
+fellows over the head if you don't sit down."
+
+It was rather an unparliamentary way of doing things, but it proved
+effective, and at length quiet reigned. As Peaches had said, Hiram began
+by stating what they were there for, and by announcing that the make-up
+of the nine was in order.
+
+Some unimportant business was disposed of, there were remarks from
+several lads about what the season might have in store, there were many
+determinations expressed about how well the Excelsior team would play
+that season, and then Hiram said:
+
+"Nominations for the team are in order. Of course we expect that there
+will be a lot more fellows named than we can use, but there'll probably
+be a weeding-out when we get at practice. The team named to-night will
+only be a tentative one."
+
+"Like pie!" murmured Tom. "You and Luke have it all up your sleeves."
+
+"Has the nominating committee anything to report?" asked Hiram, looking
+over at Luke. His crony arose. Luke was chairman of the nominating
+committee, as well as chairman of the committee on membership.
+
+"Your committee would recommend the following names," said Luke, and
+then he read off most of those named by Peaches to Tom. He did not call
+off his own name, however, and there was a blank opposite the positions
+of pitcher and left field.
+
+"Say, what's the matter, don't I play?" demanded Peaches, jumping up.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Luke quickly. "But we haven't just decided where.
+I'm going to leave that with Hiram, and also the position for left
+field."
+
+"Well, I'll settle it right now!" exclaimed the manager. "You'll play
+left field, Peaches, and Charlie Borden will move up from there to first
+base."
+
+"What did I tell you?" murmured Peaches to Tom. "What about the stunt
+you were going to pull off?"
+
+"It isn't time yet. See the gang I have with me?" and Tom motioned to a
+lot of lads in the rear of the hall.
+
+"What is it--a rough house?" asked Peaches, and then he noticed for the
+first time that the athletic meeting was much better attended than
+usual.
+
+"Those are new members," declared Tom in a whisper. "I'm counting on
+turning the balance of power away from Hiram and the crowd with him.
+I've been canvassing the last week, and I've got a lot of fellows to
+join who never took an interest in sports before."
+
+"Oh, ho! So that's your game!" exclaimed Peaches. "Well, it's a good one
+all right."
+
+"They'll all vote for Joe for pitcher," went on Tom.
+
+"I notice that there are still two vacancies in the team," spoke Jake
+Weston, who had been named as shortstop. "We had such success with Luke
+as catcher last year, that I move that he again go behind the bat."
+
+"Second it," sung out Harry Lauter.
+
+"It has been moved and seconded," began Hiram, and there came a shout of
+"ayes" before he had finished.
+
+"That's the way it always is," whispered Peaches. "Luke pretends he's
+too modest to name himself, and some one else does it for him. Oh, the
+cut-and-dried program is going through all right!"
+
+"Wait and see," suggested Tom with a wink.
+
+"Are the selections of the nominating committee sanctioned?" asked
+Hiram.
+
+Again came a chorus of "ayes."
+
+"What about the pitcher?" asked Luke. "Will you name him, Hiram?"
+
+"Yes!" said the manager and he looked about the room until his eyes lit
+on those of Joe. "I'll name Frank Brown as regular pitcher with Larry
+Akers as substitute."
+
+Again came the chorus of confirmation.
+
+"Just as I told you," murmured Peaches.
+
+Tom was on his feet as the murmurs died away. Hiram was speaking.
+
+"That completes the regular nine," the manager said, "and it only
+remains to name the substitutes. I think we will let them go until you
+fellows have had some practice, so we can get a line on you. There's
+time enough. We'll begin regular practice next week, if the weather
+permits, and then I'll arrange for games. I have some in prospect, and
+the Blue Banner----"
+
+"Mr. Chairman!" interrupted Tom.
+
+"Well, what is it?" snapped Hiram. "I'm talking, and I don't want anyone
+to butt in."
+
+"I rise to a point of order," went on Tom, in a loud voice. "The
+nominations have not been closed, and I want to put in nomination the
+name of a friend, who is one of the best pitchers that ever----"
+
+"None of that!" cried Hiram. "Get down to business. I'll allow your
+point of order. Who do you name?"
+
+"Joe Matson!" cried Tom, "and----"
+
+"You can't elect him, what's the use of trying?" sneered Luke.
+
+"Maybe I can't, with your crowd, but I came here to-night with some
+friends of mine, new members of the athletic committee, and they'll vote
+for Joe, and I think we can outvote you!" cried Tom defiantly.
+
+"That's right!" yelled the lads toward whom he waved his hand. "Joe
+Matson for pitcher."
+
+Luke turned pale. So did Hiram as they looked at each other. This was
+something they had not counted on--an effective trick.
+
+"For myself and for these new members I demand a vote on the name of Joe
+Matson!" went on Tom, ignoring Joe's efforts to stop him.
+
+"That's right--we're for Joe!" yelled the new crowd. There were many of
+them, and with the usual element always ready to break away from him,
+Hiram knew that he would lose on the combination.
+
+"One moment!" he shouted, banging his gavel. Then he hurried over to
+Luke and the two conferred excitedly, while there was a near-pandemonium
+in the gymnasium.
+
+"I have an announcement to make!" shouted Hiram after a bit, making
+his way back to the platform. "It is true that you have the right to
+nominate any one you please--that is, a member of the athletic committee
+has, and members have the right to vote as they please. But I have to
+inform this audience that Sister Davis is not yet a fully-qualified
+member of this committee. That is not just yet." Hiram sneered
+disagreeably.
+
+"Why not? I signed my application, was properly endorsed, and paid in my
+dues!" cried Tom. "And so did these other fellows."
+
+"That's right," shouted his crowd in a chorus.
+
+"Very true," went on Hiram coolly. He was master of the situation now,
+and he knew it. "But there is a rule of this organization, which states
+that at the discretion of the chairman, and the manager and captain of
+the team, or any two of them, new members may be taken on probation for
+three months, and during that term of probation they have no voting
+power, so you see----"
+
+"That's an old rule!"
+
+"It's never been enforced!"
+
+"It's rotten!"
+
+"That's only a trick!"
+
+These were some of the cries that greeted the announcement Hiram made.
+
+"It may never have been enforced, but it's going to be _now_!" he
+shouted. "It was made to cover just such snap cases as this. You tried
+to work a trick, Tom Davis, but you got left. You and those other lads
+can't vote for three months, and so the team stands as originally
+named."
+
+"But we have no captain--your rule won't work. You said the manager,
+chairman and captain could apply that rule. Who is the captain?"
+demanded Tom, as he saw his game blocked.
+
+"Luke Fodick is captain of this nine; isn't he?" shouted Hiram, closing
+the last loophole.
+
+"Aye!" yelled the bully's crowd.
+
+"No!" yelled Tom's.
+
+"The ayes have it," announced the chairman, "and Luke and I agreed on
+enforcing that rule at this time. Besides, I am acting as chairman in
+place of Henry Clay, who isn't present, and I have his voting proxy, so
+Henry and I also agree on it, if you question the election of Luke."
+
+"That ends it," murmured Peaches in Tom's ear. "Henry Clay never does
+preside as chairman. He's only a figurehead for Hiram, and that's well
+known. Hiram always votes for him. I guess you're beaten Tom."
+
+"I'm afraid so. I wish I'd known about that rule."
+
+"I'd forgotten it myself," admitted Peaches. "It's rotten, but you can't
+do anything unless you outvote Hiram."
+
+The bully was smiling mockingly at Tom and Joe. The young pitcher felt
+rather foolish, but he gave Tom credit for originating a bold move and
+one that, under ordinary circumstances, would have been effective.
+
+"You may renew your nomination in three months, if you like, Sister
+Davis," spoke Hiram sarcastically "as you and the others will then be
+voting members. I believe that is about all the business to come before
+us to-night." And he announced the adjournment of the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE BANNER PARADE
+
+
+Instantly following Hiram's words a hub-bub burst out in the gymnasium.
+Everyone seemed to be talking at once, and the crowd of boys split up
+into two factions.
+
+There were those who were with Joe and Tom in their contention, and who
+thought that they had not been given a fair opportunity. Among these
+were, of course, the lads who had not hitherto belonged to the athletic
+committee, and who had been induced by Tom to put in their applications.
+
+On the other side were what might be called the "conservatives," those
+who, while not exactly favoring Hiram and his high-handed methods,
+preferred to take the easiest way and let the old order of things
+prevail.
+
+Then, too, was a smaller crowd of distinct "Shellites" as Peaches dubbed
+them--friends and close cronies of the manager who sided with him in all
+things and looked upon him as a sort of hero. Chief among them, of
+course, was Luke Fodick, and perhaps next in line stood Charlie Borden,
+who had replaced Peaches at first.
+
+"It's a rotten, mean shame!" burst out Teeter as he came over to where
+Tom, Joe and Peaches were standing. "I'm not going to stand for it,
+either!"
+
+"Well, what can you do?" asked the practical Peaches. "They have it on
+us good and proper. There's the rule."
+
+"Well, I don't like it, but I'm going to stay here just the same,"
+snapped Tom.
+
+"And so am I," added Joe frankly. "There's no use saying I don't care,
+for I do. I'd like to get on the team. But if I can't--why I'll root for
+'em, that's all."
+
+"Maybe you'll be picked as one of the subs," was what Charlie Borden
+said. "We always have lots of them to make up the scrub nine. But
+frankly, Matson, I don't think you'll pitch. Frank Brown is going to
+make good, and if he doesn't Larry Akers will."
+
+He turned to join some of his own particular crowd, and with them
+continued the discussion of the unexpected turn given to the athletic
+meeting. Hiram and Luke were surrounded by a throng of their cronies,
+and from time to time there could be heard from them such remarks as:
+
+"Serves 'em good and right for trying to butt in."
+
+"What right have new fellows to try to run our affairs for us, anyhow?"
+
+"You sat on 'em proper, Hiram."
+
+"Yes, Luke and I fixed up that scheme," answered the bully, with no
+little pride.
+
+Joe heard, and the thought came to him that possibly there might be a
+split in the ranks of the lads--a school divided against itself, and on
+his account. He took a quick resolve.
+
+Striding over to Hiram he held out his hand, saying with a frank smile:
+
+"Hiram, don't think for a minute I'm sore. It's all right, and I haven't
+a word to say. I did want to get on the nine, but I realize that I am a
+new lad here, and maybe next year things will be different. I'm for the
+team first, last and always. Will you shake on it--you and Luke?"
+
+For a moment the bully eyed our hero. Luke, too, gazed at him with a
+sneer on his face. Then as a little murmur of admiration for Joe's
+conduct arose--a murmur in which some of Hiram's own friends joined--the
+latter knew that it was the wisest policy to be at least outwardly
+friendly with Joe.
+
+"All right, Matson," replied Hiram. "I guess you can come in. I'm sorry
+if you feel hurt about the way we run things here at Excelsior Hall,
+but----"
+
+"Not at all--'to the victors belong the spoils,'" quoted Joe. "Maybe
+you'll let me play on the scrub."
+
+"Sure, if there's a chance," put in Luke eagerly. He, too, saw which way
+the wind was likely to blow, and noting that Hiram had changed his
+conduct toward Joe it was up to the bully's toady to do the same. "You
+can play on the scrub all you want to," Luke added.
+
+Hiram held out his hand and, though the clasp he gave Joe might have
+been more friendly, our hero took the will for the deed. Luke, also,
+shook hands, and thus, for the time being, the threatened breach was
+closed. But Joe knew, and Hiram knew, that never could there be real
+friendship between them.
+
+Some of the lads began leaving the gymnasium now. There was more talk
+about the coming ball season, and some still persisted in denouncing the
+high-handed methods of the manager and his crowd. But in the main
+the feeling was smothered, due chiefly to Joe's manly act. The young
+pitcher even remained for a while chatting with Hiram, Luke and some of
+their cronies.
+
+"Say, you sure did have your nerve with you, when you shook hands with
+those two sneaks," remarked Tom, when he and Joe reached their room, a
+little later.
+
+"Yes, it did take nerve, but it was the only thing to do. I'm a thousand
+times obliged to you, Tom, for what you did for me, and----"
+
+"For what I didn't do for you, I guess you mean," interrupted his chum
+with a smile. "Well, I meant all right, but they beat us out. But
+I'm not done trying. Joe, you're going to pitch on the first nine of
+Excelsior Hall before this season is over, or I'll eat my hat."
+
+"I wish I could believe so," replied Joe with a little sigh of longing.
+
+Baseball practice formally opened the next day, which proved unexpectedly
+warm and springlike. The diamond was in good shape, and a crowd of lads
+turned out. A host of candidates did their "stunts" and Luke and Hiram
+"sized them up." Joe wanted to pitch on the tentative scrub nine that was
+picked to play against the first team, but Luke, who seemed to manage the
+second squad as well as the first, sent our hero out in the field, as he
+also did Tom.
+
+"Never mind," consoled Peaches, who was on the first team. "Luke doesn't
+captain the scrub when it's formed regularly, and when the fellow is
+picked out who is to have charge I'll speak for you, Joe."
+
+"Thanks. I would like a chance to get in the box."
+
+That the first nine had many weak spots was soon made plain to captain
+and manager, and, to give them credit, they at once set at work
+correcting them.
+
+"I'll get Dr. Rudden out to give you fellows some pointers as soon as
+we're in a little better shape," said Hiram, referring to the instructor
+who usually acted as coach.
+
+"Yes, and you fellows need it all right," said Tom in a low voice.
+
+"Everybody in the gym right after the game," ordered Hiram, during a
+lull in the play. "We're going to arrange about the Blue Banner parade."
+
+"What's that," asked Joe of Teeter.
+
+"Oh, every year all the teams in the Interscholastic League meet and
+have a parade to sort of open the season. The nine that holds the banner
+marches at the head, we have a band, and after that a little feed and
+it's jolly fun. You'll like it."
+
+"Morningside holds the banner now, doesn't she?"
+
+"Yes, worse luck. It ought to come here, and would have if Hiram and
+Luke had run things differently last year. But they wouldn't listen to
+reason. Well, I've got to play ball. See you at the meeting."
+
+The regulars won the ball game by a small margin, and then the
+lads trooped off to the gymnasium to the meeting. It was much more
+friendly and enthusiastic than the organization session had been, and
+arrangements were quickly made for taking part in the annual parade.
+
+"As is the custom," said Hiram, "we will all meet on the grounds of the
+school that holds the Blue Banner--that's Morningside, I'm sorry to say,
+but next season will be different. We are going to win the Blue Banner
+this time."
+
+"That's what he always says," murmured Peaches in Tom's ear.
+
+"So we will meet on the Morningside diamond, do the regular marching
+stunt and have a feed there. It will be necessary for you fellows to
+chip in for part of the expenses as our treasury is low just now. It
+won't be much. Now the parade committee will meet to talk over details,
+and so will the rooting crowd. Get busy now, fellows; we want to make a
+good showing in the parade."
+
+The Interscholastic League, of which the Blue Banner was the trophy,
+consisted of these schools beside Morningside Academy and Excelsior
+Hall: Trinity School, Woodside Hall and the Lakeview Preparatory
+Institute--or, more briefly the Lakeview Prep., which I shall call it.
+
+In the parade of the nines of these institutions, and the followers
+of them, there were always some novel features, and the lads tried to
+outdo each other in singing, cheering or giving their school yells. A
+committee generally had charge of the cheering and yelling contingents,
+and this body of students for Excelsior now got busy making up new
+war-cries.
+
+The day of the parade was a glorious one. It was Saturday, naturally,
+as that was the only time the students could be free. Early in the
+afternoon a big crowd left Excelsior Hall, the nine and the substitutes,
+including Joe and Tom, in their uniforms, each carrying a bat as an
+insignia of office. Morningside Academy was about five miles from
+Excelsior, and could be reached by trolley. Several special cars carried
+our hero and his companions.
+
+All the other marching contingents save Trinity were on hand when the
+Excelsior lads arrived at Morningside, and they were noisily greeted. A
+few minutes later the Trinity lads arrived and then pandemonium broke
+loose.
+
+"Say, this is great!" cried Joe, as cheer after cheer, and school-yell
+after school-yell, rent the air. "I guess we'll have some fun after all,
+Tom."
+
+"Oh, sure. It's jolly."
+
+The managers of the parade were rushing wildly to and fro, trying to get
+things in shape for the start. Lads who had not seen each other for some
+time were exchanging greetings, and the members of the various nines
+were talking "shop" to their hearts' content.
+
+"Get in line! Get in line!" cried the marshals. "We're going to start."
+
+The lads were to parade around the Morningside diamond, as a sort of
+tribute to the winning team of the league, and then go down through the
+town to the public square, where the yelling, cheering and singing would
+take place. Then they were to come back to Morningside for the feast.
+
+The band struck up a lively air and a silence fell over the crowd. Then,
+out from the midst of the throng came the lads of Morningside. They
+were to lead the line, as was their right, by virtue of being champions,
+and as they swung into formation Joe looked at them with critical eyes.
+Here was the doughty foe of his school.
+
+His gaze fell upon one sturdy lad who carried a staff--carried it
+proudly--and no wonder, for, floating from it was the Blue Banner,
+glorious in gold embroidery and silver lace--the Blue Banner of the
+Interscholastic League--the trophy which meant so much.
+
+"'Rah! 'Rah! 'Rah!" yelled the lads. "Three cheers for the Blue Banner!"
+
+And how those cheers welled out! The lad carrying the banner dipped it
+in response to the salute.
+
+Joe felt his heart strangely beating. A mist of tears came into his
+eyes--not tears of regret, but rather tears of joy and pride, that he
+belonged to the school which had a right to fight for that banner. Ah,
+if he could but enter that struggle himself!
+
+Slowly the Morningside lads filed to their places. Louder played the
+band. There were more cheers, more salutes to the blue trophy, and then
+the banner parade was under way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+JOE HOPES AND FEARS
+
+
+Around the Morningside diamond marched the singing, cheering and yelling
+lads. The Blue Banner fluttered in the Spring breeze, and not a student
+in the crowd but either hoped it would stay in the possession of the
+present owners, or would come to his school, the desires varying
+according to the allegiance of the wisher.
+
+[Illustration: AROUND THE MORNINGSIDE DIAMOND MARCHED THE SINGING,
+CHEERING AND YELLING LADS.]
+
+It was a gala occasion for the town of Morningside, this Blue Banner
+parade, and the people turned out in great numbers to watch the lads.
+Throngs came from neighboring towns and villages, and some even from a
+distant city, for the boys could always be depended on to make the
+occasion enjoyable.
+
+The Excelsior Hall crowd did some new "stunts." Under the leadership of
+Luke and Hiram they rendered some odd songs and yells, and then, as they
+passed around the public square, Hiram executed his main surprise. The
+leader of Excelsior, none other than Luke Fodick, had been carrying a
+pole, on the top of which was a canvas bundle. It was tied about with
+strings in such a manner that, by pulling on one cord the wrapping would
+fall off, as when a statue is unveiled. To all questions as to what was
+on the pole under the canvas Luke and Hiram returned only evasive
+replies.
+
+But on reaching the public square, when the cheering was at its height,
+Luke pulled the string. At once there floated from the staff an "effigy"
+of the Blue Banner. It was made of blue calico and worked on it in
+strands of yellow rope were the words:
+
+     WE'LL HAVE THE REAL BANNER THIS YEAR!
+
+Surmounting the odd trophy was a stuffed eagle, rather the worse
+for being moth-eaten, and worn "to a frazzle," as Tom said. But it
+made a hit, and the yells of laughter bore evidence of how the crowd
+appreciated it.
+
+"Guess we've made good all right," said Hiram to his crony. "There's
+nothing else like it in the parade."
+
+"That's right," answered Luke. "Oh, it takes us to do things."
+
+"And sometimes _not_ do them," murmured Teeter. "We ought to have the
+real banner."
+
+"Maybe we will," spoke Joe.
+
+The other schools had their own specialties in singing, cutting queer
+capers, or in cheers, and made hits in their own way. Around the square
+marched the lads, and then, with a final chorus, rendered by all the
+students, the parade was over. Back to Morningside Academy they went,
+and sat down to what the papers described later as a "sumptuous repast;
+a feast of reason and a flow of soul."
+
+Jolly good fellowship prevailed at the board. Speeches were made, toasts
+responded to, and baseball talk flowed on all sides. Hiram and Luke
+made remarks, as did the managers and captains of the other nines.
+Predictions were freely expressed as to who would have the banner the
+next year, and then came more singing, more cheering and more yelling.
+
+The dinner broke up finally, and then the various managers and captains
+got together to arrange the Interscholastic League schedule of games.
+
+"Well, it was all right; wasn't it?" asked Tom of Joe, when they were on
+their way back to Excelsior Hall.
+
+"Fine and dandy," was the answer. "They're a nice lot of fellows--all of
+'em."
+
+"Quite some class to those Trinity School lads," remarked Tom. "It's a
+swell place--a lot of millionaires' sons go there I understand."
+
+"Yes, but I hobnobbed with some of 'em, and they weren't a bit uppish.
+Right good fellows, I thought."
+
+"Oh, yes, all millionaire lads aren't cads though money sometimes makes
+a chap that way. Trinity must be quite a school."
+
+"I guess it is, but Excelsior is good enough for me. We're in with a
+dandy crowd of fellows, though, and that makes it nice if you've got to
+play a lot of games with 'em. Nothing like class when it comes to sport.
+We ought to have some corking good games this Summer."
+
+"I only wish you and I were more in it," went on Tom.
+
+"Wait until we see about the scrub," suggested him chum. "I'm not
+worrying as much as I was at first."
+
+But, though Joe thus lightly passed over the matter, deep down in his
+heart there was a great longing. To him baseball meant more than to the
+average player. From the time when he had seen his first game, as a
+little chap, our hero had fairly lived, eaten and slept in an atmosphere
+of the diamond. He had organized a team of lads when he was scarcely
+nine years old, and played those little chaps in a sort of improvised
+circuit.
+
+Then, as he grew, and developed, and found that he could pitch, the
+world seemed to hold something worth while for Joe Matson. "Baseball
+Joe," he had been dubbed, when as a small chap he shouldered his bat and
+started off across the lots to a game, and "Baseball Joe" he was yet.
+
+How he longed to be on the regular nine, even in the outfield, none but
+himself knew. And when he dreamed of the possibility that he might some
+time occupy the pitching mound--well, he had to stop short, for he found
+himself indulging in a too high flight of fancy.
+
+"Get back to earth, Joe," he told himself. "If you want to pitch for
+Excelsior you've got to do a heap of waiting, and you are pretty good at
+that game."
+
+And so Joe had hopes and fears--hopes that his dream might come true,
+and fears lest the enmity of Hiram and Luke would keep him one of the
+"scrubbiest of the scrubs."
+
+He was tired after the excitement of the parade, and so was Tom, but
+they were not too weary to accept an invitation to gather in the room of
+Teeter and Peaches that night for a surreptitious lunch of ginger
+snaps, cheese and bottled soda water, which had been smuggled in. And,
+as before, the lads took the same precautions with the fake books and
+the tubes, hose and bottles. But they were not disturbed.
+
+"Well, we'll have to get busy next week," remarked Teeter as he slowly
+sipped his glass.
+
+"How so?" asked Joe.
+
+"Hard practice against the scrub starts Monday."
+
+"Who's captain of the scrub; did you hear?" asked Peaches eagerly.
+
+"Yes, Ward Gerard--a nice fellow, too."
+
+"That's the stuff!" cried Peaches. "Now there's a chance for you, Joe.
+Ward's room is on this corridor. I'm going to see him."
+
+"You'll be caught," warned Teeter.
+
+"Caught nothing!" retorted his chum. "It's so late none of the profs. or
+monitors will think a fellow will dare go out. Ward isn't an early
+sleeper, and I'm going to see him and ask him to let Joe pitch on the
+scrub before some one else gets the place. I'll be back in a few
+minutes, fellows. Don't eat up all the grub," and with that Peaches
+slipped noiselessly from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ON THE SCRUB
+
+
+"It doesn't take Peaches long to make up his mind," remarked Tom.
+
+"No, he's always right on the job," agreed Teeter.
+
+"It's mighty good of him--and all of you--to go to all this trouble and
+fuss on my account," added Joe. "I appreciate it, too."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Teeter, as he balanced himself on his toes to see
+if it was safe to indulge in any more cheese and ginger snaps. "We're
+glad to do it. I only hope you do make the team, and pitch, at that."
+
+"If I can pitch on the scrub, I'll be satisfied for a while."
+
+"We want to make Excelsior the best nine in the league this year," went
+on Teeter. "We've got to have the Blue Banner, and one way we can cinch
+it is to have a good pitcher."
+
+"Thanks!" laughed Joe.
+
+"Well, I mean it," resumed Teeter, helping himself to a handful of the
+crisp snaps. "That's where our weak point was last season. Many a game
+we gave away after we had it practically won, just because our pitchers
+went up in the air. And I'm afraid it'll be the same now. Frank Brown
+isn't much, unless he's improved a whole lot over season, and I don't
+believe he has. And as for Larry Akers--well, he's only a makeshift.
+Now, I'd like to see----"
+
+But Teeter's little talk was interrupted by the sound of footsteps in
+the corridor outside. For a moment the lads gazed anxiously at each
+other, and Tom made a grab for one of the fake books, but a look of
+relief came over their faces when the door opened and Peaches entered,
+followed by some one.
+
+"I brought Ward with me," explained the lad with the fair complexion.
+"Thought it was the safest way. Come on in, Ward; I guess these Indians
+haven't scalped all the grub."
+
+"Yes, fall to," invited Teeter. "There's plenty."
+
+"Charmed, I'm sure," murmured Ward with an assumed society air.
+
+"You know Joe Matson, of course," went on Peaches.
+
+"Oh, sure. He beat me in physics class the other week and I haven't
+forgotten it."
+
+"He wants to pitch on the scrub," went on the originator of the scheme.
+"He's all to the mustard, too, and----"
+
+"Say, let me say a word for myself," put in Joe. "I'm not a political
+candidate in the hands of my friends. Is there a show for me on the
+scrub, Ward?"
+
+"Well, I haven't made up the team yet, and you're the first applicant
+for pitcher, so you'll have first choice."
+
+"Then it's as good as settled!" declared Peaches. "When do you make up
+the team, Ward?"
+
+"To-morrow, I guess. I'll put you down as first pitcher, Joe, and I hope
+you can throw a scare into the school team--not because I'm not on it
+myself, but the better opposition they have, the better they'll play for
+the banner."
+
+"What about Hiram?" asked Tom. "Won't he kick up a fuss if he knows
+you've got Joe? And what about Luke?"
+
+"Say, I'm running the scrub!" exclaimed Ward. "They haven't anything to
+say after I take charge. What I say goes!"
+
+"That's right," agreed Teeter. "I'll do Hiram that much justice. He
+never interferes with the scrub after the season starts. Neither does
+Luke. They have their hands full managing their own players."
+
+"Then I guess I'll get a chance to pitch," murmured Joe, and he was
+happier than he had been in some time. It was only a small beginning,
+but it was a start, and that meant a good deal.
+
+Ward Gerard, whom Joe and Tom did not know very well, turned out to be a
+good-natured and pleasant companion. He was one of the new arrivals at
+the school, but already stood well in his classes and on the athletic
+field. Football was his specialty, but he was none the less a good
+baseball player and might have made the first team had he tried harder.
+
+The boys talked of the diamond until the booming of the big school clock
+warned them that they had better get to bed; so with good-nights and
+a renewed promise on the part of Ward to place Joe in the box, the
+conference broke up.
+
+"Oh, things are coming your way slowly," remarked Tom, as he and Joe
+reached their room, having successfully dodged a prying monitor on the
+look-out for rule violators.
+
+"Yes, and now I've got to make good."
+
+"You can do that easily enough. You always have. And when the three
+months are up I'm going to make my motion over again, and I'll bet we'll
+elect you as regular pitcher."
+
+"I guess you forget that when the three months are up the Summer vacation
+will be here and the nine will be out of business," remarked Joe. "No,
+I've got to work my own way, I guess."
+
+There were some murmurs of surprise when it was announced the next day
+that Joe Matson was to be the scrub pitcher. Friends of rival candidates
+urged their claims on Ward, but he stuck to his promise and the place
+went to Joe.
+
+"Did Hiram or Luke say anything when you told them?" asked Tom of the
+scrub captain.
+
+"Oh, yes--a little."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"Nothing very pleasant, so don't repeat it to Joe, but Hiram wanted to
+know why I didn't pick out a decent fellow to pitch against the first
+team, and Luke remarked that Joe would be knocked out of the box in the
+first practice game, and that I'd have to get some one else."
+
+"Oh, Luke said that, did he?" asked Tom, and there was a look of
+smothered anger in his eyes.
+
+"Yes, and then some more."
+
+"Just wait until the first game--that's all," requested Tom quietly. "If
+they knock Joe Matson out of the box it will be the first time it's
+happened since he found that he was a real pitcher."
+
+"There are some pretty good batters on the first team," warned Ward.
+
+"That's the kind Joe likes," replied his chum. "Just you wait; that's
+all."
+
+It was the day for the first regular practice between the scrub and
+first teams. For several afternoons Joe had been pitching to Bob
+Harrison, who often acted as the scrub catcher, and as there was so much
+other individual playing going on no one had paid much attention to the
+work of our hero.
+
+"Say, I think we've got a 'find' all right," announced Bob to Ward, just
+before the practice game was called.
+
+"How so?" asked the scrub captain.
+
+"Why, that Matson can sting 'em in for further orders, and he's got some
+of the prettiest curves that ever came over the plate. The Hiram-Luke
+crowd is going to sit up and take notice, take it from yours truly."
+
+"I'm glad of it!" declared Ward. "We'll do our best to beat 'em, and it
+will be for their own good. They're soft, naturally at the beginning of
+the season, and so are we, but if we can wallop 'em, so much the better.
+Have you and Joe got your signals down?"
+
+"Yes, he's better at that than I am. He must have played some pretty
+good games."
+
+"So Sister Davis says. Well, here they come. Now to see what we can do?"
+
+There was a conference between Luke and Ward, and in order to give his
+team the most severe kind of a try-out, Luke arranged to let the scrub
+bat last.
+
+The first practice game was important in more ways than one. Not only
+did it open the season for Excelsior Hall, but it would show up the weak
+players, and, while the first team was practically picked, there might
+be a change in it. At least so every lad who was not on it, but wanted
+to be, thought, and he hoped against hope that his playing might attract
+the attention of the manager.
+
+Another thing was that Dr. Rudden, the coach, sometimes took a hand in
+the baseball affairs and occasionally he had been known to over-ride the
+judgment of Hiram and Luke, insisting that some player whom they had not
+picked be allowed to show what he could do on the first team. So there
+were many hearts that beat high with hope, and among them was Joe's.
+And there were hearts that were a bit anxious--to wit, members of the
+first team who were not quite sure of themselves.
+
+There was a large crowd in the grandstand and on the bleachers when the
+gong rang to start the game--a throng of students mostly, for the
+general public was not admitted so early in the season.
+
+It was a good day for the game, albeit the ground was a trifle soft, and
+the Spring wind not as warm as might be. The boys in their spick and
+span new uniforms made a natty appearance as they trotted out on the
+diamond.
+
+According to custom, Dr. Fillmore, the venerable head of the school,
+pitched the first ball formally to open the season. It was a sort of
+complimentary ball, and was not expected to be struck at.
+
+"Play ball!" yelled the umpire as he took the new horsehide sphere from
+its tinfoil wrapping and handed it to Dr. Fillmore. The president bowed
+as though about to make a speech, and Joe, who was in the box, stepped
+back. Our hero's heart was thumping under his blouse, for at last he was
+about to pitch his first game at Excelsior Hall, even if it was but on
+the scrub.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+JOE'S GREAT WORK
+
+
+"Let her go, Doctor!"
+
+"Make him hit it, Professor!"
+
+"Strike him out!"
+
+"Give him an old Greek curve!"
+
+These were some of the cries that reached Dr. Fillmore as he stood in
+Joe's place in the pitching box. The president of the faculty smiled
+pleasantly. He was used to this mild "joshing," which was always
+indulged in by the lads of Excelsior on the occasion of the opening of
+the season. Not that it was at all offensive; in fact, it rather showed
+the good feeling existing between the instructors and their pupils.
+
+"Are you all ready?" asked Dr. Fillmore, as though he was inquiring
+whether a student was prepared to recite, and as if he really expected
+to pitch a ball that was to be hit.
+
+"Play ball!" called Harvey Hallock, who was umpiring.
+
+"Not too swift now, if you please, Doctor," stipulated Nat Pierson, who
+was first up.
+
+Then the venerable president delivered the new, white horsehide sphere.
+He threw rather awkwardly, but with more accuracy than might have been
+expected from a man who had a ball in his hands but once a year. Right
+over the plate it went, and though usually the initial ball was never
+struck at, Nat could not resist the opportunity.
+
+He "bunted," and the ball popped up in the air and sailed back toward
+the pitcher's box. To the surprise of all, Dr. Fillmore stepped forward
+and neatly caught it.
+
+"Hurray!"
+
+"That's the stuff!"
+
+"Put him on the team!"
+
+"Why didn't you say you were a ball-player, Doctor?"
+
+"Let him play the game!"
+
+These and many other cries greeted the president's performance. He bowed
+again, gravely, and smiled genially as he tossed the ball to Joe, who
+was waiting for it. A little round of applause came from some members of
+the faculty who had accompanied the doctor to the grounds, and then the
+head of the school walked off the diamond amid a riot of cheers. The
+baseball season at Excelsior Hall had opened under auspicious occasions
+everyone thought, and more than one lad had great hopes that the Blue
+Banner would come back there to stay for a while.
+
+"Play ball!" called the umpire again, and this time the game was on in
+earnest.
+
+Joe dug a little hole for the toe of his shoe, revolved the ball in his
+hands a few times, and looked to get the signal from Bob Harrison, the
+scrub catcher.
+
+Bob, who knew the individual characteristics of each batter better than
+did Joe (though the latter was rapidly learning them) signalled for a
+high out, and our hero nodded his head in confirmation. The next instant
+he delivered the ball.
+
+There was a vicious swing of the bat, and there could almost be heard
+the swish as it cut the air. And that is all it did do, for the
+horsehide landed squarely in Bob's glove with a resounding ping! and
+there was one strike against Nat.
+
+"That's the way to do it!" cried Bob.
+
+"Say, what's the matter with you?" angrily demanded Luke Fodick of one
+of his best batters. "What do you want to fan for?"
+
+"Couldn't help it, I guess," answered Bob rather sheepishly. "It was a
+curve."
+
+"Well, don't you know how to handle them by this time?" fairly snarled
+Hiram, who was closely watching every player. "If you don't know how to
+hit out a hot one you'd better go back on the scrub. Don't do it again."
+
+"I'll kill the next ball!" declared Nat, but he did not like the looks
+of it as Joe delivered it, and did not swing his bat.
+
+"Strike!" called the umpire sharply.
+
+"Wha--what?" cried Nat.
+
+"I said strike. It was right over the plate."
+
+"Plate nothing!"
+
+"What's he doing, calling strikes on you?" demanded Hiram.
+
+"It looks that way," spoke Nat.
+
+"Well, say----" began the manager in his bullying manner, as he strode
+toward the umpire.
+
+"Hold on now!" interposed Luke, who sometimes had better judgment than
+Hiram. "It's all right. Don't get excited. It may have been a strike.
+The fellows haven't got on to all the points of the game yet this
+season. Go on."
+
+"All right," growled Hiram. "But don't you dare strike out, Nat."
+
+Joe's next delivery was called a ball, though it was rightly a strike.
+Joe said nothing, realizing that the umpire was naturally a bit afraid
+of offending Hiram and Luke too much. Then Nat knocked a little pop
+fly, which was easily taken care of by the second baseman, and the first
+man on the regular, or school team, as it was called, was out.
+
+"All ready for the next one!" called Catcher Bob.
+
+"Don't you fan!" warned Hiram to Jake Weston, who was next up.
+
+"Just watch me!" exulted Jake as he walked confidently to the plate.
+
+Joe sent in a puzzling drop, with considerable swiftness, but to his
+chagrin Jake "killed" it, landing on it squarely and lining it out for
+two bags.
+
+"That's the way to do it!" yelled Luke, capering about.
+
+"Now, where's your star pitcher?" inquired Hiram, and he looked toward
+Tom Davis, who was playing first. "I guess he isn't so much!"
+
+Tom said nothing. He realized that perhaps his advocacy of Joe's
+abilities had brought his friend and himself too much in the limelight.
+But he meant well.
+
+"Oh, well, we just let you hit that one to see how it felt," shouted Bob
+Harrison, and that brought back Joe's nerve, which, for the moment, had
+deserted him as he saw his effort go for naught. Jake was on second,
+but he only got one bag farther, stealing to third as Joe struck out the
+next man.
+
+The school nine members were now whispering uneasily among themselves.
+Never before, at the opening of the season had they had a scrub pitcher
+who did such things to them. They realized that they had to play the
+game for all it was worth.
+
+Luke and Hiram were whispering earnestly together and when Harry Lauter,
+whom Joe had struck out walked to the bench, Luke stepped up to the
+plate.
+
+"Hold on!" cried Ward Gerard quickly. "You are out of your turn, Luke."
+
+"How's that?" indignantly demanded the school captain.
+
+"George Bland is up next, according to the batting order you gave me."
+
+"Well, we've changed the batting order," put in Hiram quickly.
+
+The truth of the matter was that George was not a very good hitter,
+while Luke was, and both the latter and the manager had seen the
+necessity of making at least one run the first inning in order to
+inspire confidence in the school team. They had hoped to change the
+batting order unobserved, and bring up a good hitter when he was most
+needed. But the scrub captain had been too sharp for them.
+
+"Changed the batting order, eh?" asked Ward. "You can't do it now under
+the rules."
+
+"Oh, well, we ain't playing strictly according to rules yet," said Luke
+weakly. "I'm going to bat, anyhow. You can change your batting order if
+you like."
+
+"We don't have to," responded Ward. "But go ahead, we'll allow it."
+
+"Thanks--for nothing!" exclaimed Hiram sarcastically, and Luke held his
+place at home plate.
+
+The situation was now rather tense. There were two men out, a man was on
+third and the captain of the school team himself was at bat. It was up
+to Luke to bring in his man and save his side from a goose egg in the
+first inning. Luke fairly glared at Joe, as if daring our hero to strike
+him out, and Joe was no less determined to do that feat if possible.
+
+He looked at Bob for a signal, and got one that meant to deliver a
+swift in. Then Joe knew that Luke, for all his boasting was a bit
+afraid--afraid of being hit by the ball, and, being timid would
+involuntarily step back if the horsehide seemed to be coming too close
+to him.
+
+"Here goes!" murmured Joe, and he sent in one with all his force.
+
+As he had expected, the school captain did step back, and, an instant
+later, the umpire cried:
+
+"Strike!"
+
+"What?" fairly yelled Luke turning at him. There was a laugh from
+some of the scrubs, and it was joined in by a number of the other
+students--lads who were kept from the athletic committee by the snap
+ruling of Luke and Hiram. The captain realized that there was a feeling
+against him, and he quickly swallowed his wrath.
+
+"Watch what you're doing," warned Hiram.
+
+"Oh, that was only a fluke," declared Luke. Joe smiled. He was going to
+send in another "fluke," but not the same kind. He delivered a quick
+ball, with a peculiar upward twist to it, and, as Luke swung viciously
+at it, but too low, naturally his bat passed under the ball.
+
+"Strike two!" yelled the umpire, as the ball landed safely in Bob's big
+mitt.
+
+There was a murmur of astonishment from the school nine and its
+particular sympathizers, and a breath of delight from the despised
+scrubs. Hiram flushed angrily, yet he dared say nothing, for there was
+no doubt about this strike. As for Luke, he was too surprised to make
+any comment.
+
+"I'll get the next one!" he declared, as he tapped his bat on the home
+plate. He did hit it, but it was only a foul, and, being on the last
+strike, did not count against him.
+
+"That's the way to do it. You're finding his curves if he has any!"
+cried Hiram. "Swat it!"
+
+"Sure!" assented Luke.
+
+With all his might he hit at the next ball, only to fan the air.
+
+"Strike three--batter's out!" called the umpire amid a tense silence.
+Luke had done what he was seldom guilty of; he had struck out, and to a
+pitcher whom he not only hated but despised. Joe's great work had
+enabled the scrub to retire the school team without a run--a thing that
+had not been done at Excelsior in many years.
+
+"Wow! That's the stuff!" yelled Tom, as he raced in from first. "I knew
+you could do it, Joe."
+
+"Great work, old man!" complimented Ward. "Now we'll see what we can
+do."
+
+There were gloomy and dubious looks on the faces of Hiram and Luke as
+the school team filed out on the field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE GAME AT MORNINGSIDE
+
+
+Interest, especially for Joe, centered in what Frank Brown, the school
+pitcher, might do. So, as a matter of fact, was the attention of nearly
+all the players and spectators on him. For, to a large extent, the
+victories of the Excelsior team would depend on what their battery could
+do. Of course it was up to the other players to lend them support, but
+it was pretty well established that if the pitcher and catcher did well,
+support would not be lacking.
+
+At the catching end of it Luke Fodick could be depended on nearly every
+time. But Frank Brown had yet to show what he could do as a twirler. In
+practice he had made out fairly well, but now the real test was to come.
+
+Naturally he was a bit nervous as he walked to the box, to face his
+first opponent, none other than Ward Gerard, the scrub captain; and Ward
+was a good hitter. He managed to hit a two bagger.
+
+Luke and Hiram cast anxious looks at each other. Well they knew how much
+depended on the showing their pitcher would make.
+
+"Watch yourself, Frank," called Hiram--just the very advice to make poor
+Frank more nervous. But he braced up, struck out the next man, and
+managed to hold the succeeding one hitless.
+
+The school nine was now about in the same position as the scrub had
+been. Their opponents had a man on third and two out. It was a time when
+Frank needed to brace up, and repeat Joe's trick. But he could not do
+it. Joe himself came to the bat, and with watchful eyes picked out just
+the ball he wanted after two strikes had been called on him. He rapped
+out as pretty a single as had been seen on the diamond in many a long
+day, and brought in Ward with the first run.
+
+"Wow! Wow!" yelled the scrubs, capering about. "That's the way to do
+it!"
+
+Luke and Hiram were almost in a panic. They saw the team they had so
+carefully built up in danger of disintegration; and holding a hasty
+conference, warning was sent to every school player to do his very best
+to get the scrub side out without another run.
+
+Frank did it, for he struck out the next man, and Joe died at second.
+But the scrub had one run and the school nine nothing. It was a poor
+beginning for Excelsior's chances at the Blue Banner when the players
+realized what a strong team Morningside had, and how efficient were the
+other nines in the league.
+
+I am not going to describe that first school-scrub game in detail. I
+shall have other more important contests to tell you about, as the story
+goes on. Sufficient to say that after the ending of the first inning
+Hiram and Luke went at their lads in such a fierce spirit that there was
+a big improvement.
+
+Joe kept up his good work in the box, but he had not yet "found" himself
+that season. He was not hardened enough; he lacked practice, and his arm
+soon gave out. Then, too the fielding of the scrubs was ragged, after
+Joe once began to be hit. The result was that the school nine began to
+pile up runs, and Hiram and Luke were jubilant.
+
+"Now, where's your wonderful pitcher?" asked Luke of Ward.
+
+"Oh, he's coming on. No use to work him too hard at first," replied the
+scrub captain good naturedly. "Look out for your own."
+
+This advice was needed, for, after helping his team to get a good lead,
+Frank Brown also rather went to pieces and when the game was over the
+school team led by only two runs.
+
+"That's too close for comfort," observed Hiram to Luke, as they walked
+off the diamond. "Frank has got to do better than that."
+
+"Oh, he'll be all right after a little more practice," spoke the
+captain.
+
+"If he isn't Larry Akers will go in," warned the manager.
+
+"Sure. Well, we've got lots of time before the first Morningside game.
+We'll win that."
+
+"I hope we do," but Hiram's tone was not confident. Somehow he was
+worried over the way Joe Matson pitched.
+
+As for our hero, he was warmly congratulated by his friends. Tom Davis
+was particularly enthusiastic.
+
+"We'll have you in the box for the school nine before long," he
+predicted.
+
+"I don't know," answered Joe rather dubiously. "It's a close combination
+between Hiram and Luke, and they may get Frank Brown into shape."
+
+"Don't you believe it. He can't pitch as good as you in a thousand
+years."
+
+"That's right," chimed in Teeter.
+
+"Nothing like having good friends," remarked Joe laughingly.
+
+Now that the season was started the baseball practice went on with a
+vim. Luke and Hiram had some of their players out every day, batting or
+catching the ball. Others were sent around the track to improve their
+wind, and in the gymnasium others were set at work on the various
+machines, as Dr. Rudden found their weak spots.
+
+The school nine battled against the scrub, too, and though Joe improved
+in his pitching so did the members of the first team in their batting,
+so that there were no other contests as close as the first one.
+
+The time for the first Morningside game was approaching. It was the
+first regular contest of the season and as such was always quite an
+affair. This time it was to be played on the Morningside diamond, and
+Luke and Hiram were bending every effort to win the game.
+
+The nine picked to play was practically the same as the one that played
+the first game against the scrub. There had been some shifts, and then
+shifts back again, and under the urging of the coach, the captain and
+the manager, the lads had improved very much.
+
+The day of the first game came. In special cars or in stage coaches, for
+those who preferred that method of locomotion, while some of the more
+wealthy lads hired autos, the nine and its supporters made their way to
+Morningside. Hiram, Luke and a few of their cronies went in a big
+touring car that Spencer Trusdell, a millionaire's son, owned.
+
+"Some class to them," remarked Joe, as he and Tom with a squad of the
+scrub and substitutes, got aboard a trolley car.
+
+"They may have to walk back," predicted Tommy Barton, one of the scrub.
+
+"Why?" asked Joe.
+
+"Spencer may not have money enough left to buy gasolene. He's a sport,
+you know, and always betting."
+
+"Well, he'll bet on his own nine; won't he?"
+
+"Oh, yes--but----" and Tommy paused significantly.
+
+"You don't mean to say you think Morningside will win, do you?" asked
+Ward Gerard. "You old traitor, you!"
+
+"I shouldn't be surprised to see our side licked," replied Tommy calmly.
+"They're soft, and Morningside has already played one game with Trinity
+and trimmed them."
+
+And as Joe and Tom journeyed to the grounds they heard others say the
+same thing. Nevertheless, Luke, Hiram and their own particular crowd
+were very confident.
+
+There was a big attendance at the game. The stands were filled with a
+rustling, yelling, cheering and vari-colored throng--the colors being
+supplied by scores of pretty girls, whose brothers, or whose friends,
+played on either nine.
+
+"Jove! What wouldn't I give to be booked to pitch to-day!" exclaimed
+Joe, as he and Tom found their seats, for neither was on the list of
+substitutes.
+
+"I know how you feel, old man," sympathized Tom. "But just hang on, and
+things may come your way."
+
+"Play ball!" cried the umpire, and the first big game of the season for
+Excelsior Hall was underway.
+
+That contest is still talked about in the annals of the two schools. It
+started off well, and Excelsior, first to the bat, rapped out two runs
+before the side was retired. Then came the first real intimation that
+the opponents of Morningside were weak in several places, notably in the
+pitching box, and in fielding and stick-work.
+
+Frank Brown, after striking out two men in succession, and giving the
+impression to his mates that he was going to make good, and to his
+rivals that they had a strong boxman to fight against--Frank, I say,
+literally went up in the air.
+
+He was not used to being hooted at and jeered, and this is just what the
+Morningsideites did to him to get his "goat." They got it, for before
+the first inning closed he had been unmercifully pounded, and four runs
+were chalked up to the credit of the foes of Excelsior Hall.
+
+Still that score might not have been so bad had Hiram and Luke kept
+their heads. They changed their batting order, put in some substitutes,
+and Hiram used strong language to Frank.
+
+"You've got to do better!" insisted the bullying manager. This had the
+further effect of getting on Frank's nerves, and he did worse than ever.
+
+"Say, why don't you fellows get a real pitcher?" asked Halsted Hart,
+manager of the Morningsides.
+
+"This is too easy," added Ted Clay, the opposing pitcher with a laugh.
+
+In desperation Luke finally sent in Larry Akers to pitch. At first he
+tightened up and stopped the winning streak of Morningside, and then,
+he, too, fell by the wayside, and the hooting, yelling crowd had his
+"Angora," as Peaches dolefully remarked.
+
+It might be said in passing that both Peaches and Teeter did well, and
+George Bland not quite so well. But the rest of the Excelsior team made
+many errors. Even Luke was not exempt, and this had the further effect
+of worrying his players.
+
+It is no pleasure to write of that first game, and that is why I have
+not gone into details about it, for Excelsior Hall is a school dear to
+my heart, and I do not like to chronicle her defeats.
+
+When the ninth inning came the score stood fourteen to six. In
+desperation, Luke had sent in Ned Turton to replace Larry. Several of
+his own friends asked him to give Joe a chance, but neither he nor Hiram
+would listen. In fact, there was a disagreement between Hiram and Luke.
+The manager wanted to shift Peaches back to first base but Luke would
+not hear of it until Hiram threatened to resign as manager, and that so
+alarmed the captain that he let him have his way.
+
+That settled matters, not because Peaches went to first, though he did
+good service there, but it was too late to stem the losing tide. The
+Excelsior team could not get a run in their share of the ninth, and
+Morningside did not take the trouble to finish out, the final score
+being fourteen to six in their favor. The opponents of Excelsior had
+snowed them under.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A STRANGE DISCOVERY
+
+
+"Three cheers for Excelsior Hall!" cried Captain Elmer Dalton of the
+Morningside team. "All ready boys, with a will!"
+
+The cheers were deafening and perhaps they were all the more hearty
+because it was the winning nine and its supporters who were giving them.
+
+The crowd swarmed over the diamond, players and spectators mingling.
+Everybody was talking at once, the losing side and their supporters
+trying to explain how the defeat had come about, and the victors
+exulting in their victory.
+
+"I don't see what's the matter with you fellows, anyhow," growled Hiram,
+as he strode over and joined the little group of disconsolate ones who
+were walking toward the dressing room. "You ought to have beaten 'em."
+
+"And so we would have if they'd given me decent support," broke in Luke.
+"There were too many changes on the team."
+
+"And I suppose you think I'm responsible for that," retorted Hiram
+quickly.
+
+"I didn't say so. One thing, though; there's got to be another change."
+
+"That's right," added the manager scowling at the team, but neither he
+nor Luke intimated where the change ought to be made.
+
+"They're right on that one point," said Peaches, "a big shift is needed,
+and I can tell 'em one place to make it, if not two."
+
+"Where?" asked Teeter.
+
+"Pitcher for one," replied Peaches quickly, "and catcher for the other.
+If we had two good men as a battery there would have been a different
+story to-day."
+
+"What's that?" quickly demanded Hiram, turning around, for Peaches had
+unconsciously spoken louder than he intended.
+
+"I said I agreed with you," spoke the lad diplomatically, "that if we'd
+had some changes the result would have been different to-day," but he
+did not mention the changes.
+
+"Well, it's all over," remarked Joe to Tom, as they descended from the
+grandstand. "Let's get back home. Jove! But it's too bad to start the
+season with a defeat."
+
+"Somebody had to lose," replied Tom philosophically. "We couldn't both
+win, and I didn't expect it would turn out much different when I heard
+the talk on the way to the game. But it will teach Luke and Hiram a
+lesson."
+
+"If they want to learn it--yes."
+
+"Oh, don't worry. They'll be only too anxious, after to-day. But I
+notice some of the Trinity Hall and Lakeview Prep. players here. Getting
+a line on us, I guess."
+
+"Shouldn't wonder. We play Trinity next week."
+
+"Well, we ought to win that game. Hurry up, Joe, and we can get the next
+trolley back. No autos for us."
+
+As the two chums hurried across the diamond they found themselves in the
+midst of a crowd of Morningside players and students. At the sight of
+one lad in the uniform of Morningside, a uniform not soiled by the dust
+and grime of the diamond, Tom plucked Joe by the sleeve.
+
+"For the love of Mike, look there!" exclaimed the former first baseman
+of the Silver Stars.
+
+"Where?" asked Joe, and Tom pointed to the player in the spick and span
+new uniform.
+
+"Sam Morton!" gasped Joe, as he recognized his former rival on the Stars
+and his sometime enemy. "Sam Morton! What's he doing here?"
+
+"Looks as if he was on the nine," replied Tom. "He's in one of the
+Morningside uniforms, but he didn't take part in the game."
+
+"Sam Morton here!" went on Joe, wonderingly. "It doesn't seem possible.
+I wonder why we didn't hear something about it? It sure is he, and
+yet----"
+
+"Wait, I'll ask some one," volunteered Tom, and tapping on the shoulder
+a Morningside player near him, he asked: "Is he one of your nine?" Tom
+pointed to Sam Morton, who had not yet observed our heroes.
+
+"What? Oh, yes; he's a newcomer here I believe, but he had quite a
+reputation, so Captain Dalton put him on as substitute pitcher."
+
+"Substitute pitcher!" gasped Joe.
+
+"Yes, he's rather good I believe. He hasn't had much practice with us as
+yet or we'd have played him part of the time against you fellows to-day.
+Why, do you know him?"
+
+"Yes. He used to be on the same town team with me," replied Joe.
+
+"He'll probably play next week," went on the Morningside lad, "and when
+we meet you fellows again he'll probably do what Ted Clay did to-day,"
+and he grinned cheerfully--there is nothing like a cheerful enemy.
+
+"Sam Morton here," murmured Joe, as if unable to believe it, while his
+old enemy strode on without having seen him, and the Morningside lad,
+who had given them the information swung about on his way to the
+dressing rooms.
+
+"Say, that's going some!" exclaimed Joe, as he and Tom walked on. "Fancy
+meeting Sam Morton here. I didn't hear that he was going to boarding
+school."
+
+"Neither did I. He must have made up his mind lately. Probably he began
+right after the Easter vacation. I didn't spot him at the time of the
+banner parade."
+
+"Me, either. But there was such a mob of fellows that it was hard to
+find anyone. But if he's here and he makes good, and pitches in some of
+the games, and if----"
+
+"If you get the chance to pitch for the school nine, you and Sam may
+fight your old battles over again," finished Tom.
+
+"That's right," agreed Joe.
+
+It was a discouraged, disgruntled and altogether unhappy crowd of lads
+that returned to Excelsior Hall late that afternoon. Despondency perched
+like a bird of ill-omen on the big flagstaff; and a celebration that
+some of the lads had arranged for, in case of a victory, did not come
+off.
+
+Tom and Joe were seated in their room, talking over various matters,
+including the game of the day, when there came the usual signal on their
+door, indicating that a friend stood without.
+
+"That's Teeter," predicted Tom.
+
+"Peaches," was Joe's guess, but when he swung open the portal both lads
+stood there. On their faces were looks of suppressed excitement.
+
+"What's up?" demanded Joe.
+
+"Lots. Special meeting of the athletic committee called. In the gym.
+Come on!" panted Peaches.
+
+"We're going to protest against the way Hiram manages the team!" added
+Teeter.
+
+"Come on!" urged Peaches, recovering his breath. "We want you with us.
+There's a lot of feeling against Hiram and Luke. They practically lost
+the game for us to-day. The revolt is spreading. It's a chance for you,
+Joe. Come on."
+
+"There's going to be a hot time!" predicted Teeter. "We have permission
+to hold a meeting. All the fellows are coming. Get a move on."
+
+Joe and Tom grabbed up their caps and hurried after their chums, Joe
+with a wildly-beating heart. Had his chance come?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A HOT MEETING
+
+
+"The meeting will come to order!"
+
+Teeter was in the chair, looking over a talking, shifting, excited crowd
+of lads gathered in the school gymnasium. He had assumed the office, and
+no one had disputed him.
+
+"The meeting will come to order!" he cried again.
+
+"Order! Order!" begged George Bland and Peaches. "We can't do anything
+like this."
+
+"What are we going to do?" asked Tommy Barton.
+
+"Try and fix things so we can win ball games," answered Tom Davis.
+
+Joe did not say much. He realized that this was, in a measure, a meeting
+to aid him, and he felt it would be best to keep quiet. His friends were
+looking out for his interests.
+
+"Order! Order!" begged Teeter again, and after many repetitions, and
+bangings of his gavel, he succeeded in producing some semblance of
+quietness.
+
+"You all know what we're here for," went on Teeter.
+
+"No, we don't; tell us!" shouted some one.
+
+"We're here in the first place to make a protest against the way Hiram
+Shell and Luke Fodick managed the baseball team to-day," went on Teeter,
+"and then we'll consider what can be done to make things better. We
+ought to have won against Morningside to-day, and----"
+
+"That's the stuff!"
+
+"That's the way to talk!"
+
+"Hit 'em again!"
+
+These were a few of the cries that greeted Teeter's announcement. He was
+very much in earnest.
+
+"This isn't a regular session of the athletic committee at all," he
+resumed. "It's a protest meeting, and it's going to be sort of free and
+easy. Any fellow that wants to can speak his mind. I take it you all
+agree with me that we ought to do something."
+
+"That's right!" came in a chorus.
+
+"And we ought to protest against Hiram's high-handed method. What about
+that?"
+
+"That's right, too," responded several. Joe looked over the crowd. As
+far as he could see it was composed in the main of lads who were only
+probationary members of the school society--lads without voting power.
+
+Neither Hiram nor Luke was present, and Joe could not see any of their
+particular crowd. He was mistaken in thinking that Hiram had no friends
+there, however, for no sooner had Teeter asked the last question than
+Jake Weston arose and asked in rather sneering tones:
+
+"Do you call this giving a fellow a square deal?"
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Teeter. The room was quiet enough now.
+
+"I mean just this," went on the lad who was perhaps the closest of all
+on the nine to Hiram save Luke. "I mean that Hiram Shell isn't here to
+defend himself, and you're saying all sorts of mean things against him."
+
+"We intend to have him here--if he'll come," spoke Teeter significantly.
+"Luke, too. We want them to hear what we say about them."
+
+"You're trying to disrupt the team!" yelled Jake, who had lost his
+temper.
+
+"I am not! I'm trying to do anything to better the team. We ought to
+have won that game to-day, and you know it."
+
+"I know that I played my best!" shouted Jake, "and if you accuse me
+of----"
+
+"Nobody's accusing you," put in Peaches.
+
+Several lads were on their feet, all seeking to be heard. Teeter was
+vainly rapping with his gavel. It looked for a few moments as if there
+would be several fights, for lads were shaking their fists in each
+other's faces.
+
+"Why don't you give Hiram a show?" demanded Jake. "Let him know this
+meeting is being held."
+
+"I sent word to him, but he didn't come," called Teeter, above the din.
+
+"Well, he's here now!" interrupted a sudden voice, and Hiram Shell
+fairly jumped into the room, followed by Luke and a score of their
+particular friends. "I just heard of this snap session, and I want to
+know what it's about. How dare you fellows hold a meeting of the
+athletic committee when I didn't call it?"
+
+"Say, you drop that kind of talk!" fairly yelled Teeter. "This isn't a
+meeting of the athletic committee!"
+
+"Come on down off that platform!" demanded the bully striding toward the
+chairman _pro tem_. "What right have you got there?"
+
+"Just as much right as you have, and I'm going to stick! This is just a
+meeting of the fellows of Excelsior Hall, and I've got just as much
+right to preside as you have."
+
+Perhaps it was the gavel which Teeter clenched in his hand, perhaps it
+was the fearless manner in which he faced Hiram, or perhaps it was the
+way in which Joe, Tom, Peaches and several of the larger students
+crowded up around Teeter, like a bodyguard, that caused Hiram to pause
+in his progress toward the chairman.
+
+Whatever it was, it proved effective and probably prevented a serious
+clash, for Hiram was in the mood to have struck Teeter, who surely would
+have retaliated.
+
+"Well, what's it all about?" asked the bully, after a pause. "What do
+you fellows want, anyhow?"
+
+"We want the ball team managed differently," retorted Teeter.
+
+"That's right!" came from a score of ringing voices.
+
+Hiram turned a bit pale. It was the first time he had ever witnessed an
+organized revolt against his authority.
+
+"Aren't you fellows satisfied with the way I manage things?" the bully
+sneered.
+
+"No, and not with the way Luke Fodick captains the team," went on the
+now fully aroused Teeter. "There's got to be a change."
+
+"Aw, you're sore because some of your friends can't play!" cut in Jake
+Weston.
+
+"Not at all," spoke Teeter. "Everyone knows we should have won to-day,
+and what a miserable exhibition of baseball we gave! It was rotten, and
+we want to protest. We're willing to let you continue as manager, Hiram,
+and have Luke for captain, only we fellows want to have more of a say in
+how the team is run."
+
+"Why, you fellows haven't any rights!" cried Hiram. "A lot of you are
+only probationary members, anyhow, and can't vote."
+
+"They don't need to vote," declared Teeter. "It isn't a question of
+voting. We're students at Excelsior--all of us--and we have a right to
+say what we think. We think things ought to be done differently."
+
+"That's right--we're with him," was shouted in such a volume of energy
+that it clearly showed to Hiram that, even though he held the balance of
+power in the committee proper, yet he did not in the whole school, and
+it was to the whole school that the team would have to look for support.
+It was a crisis in the affairs of Excelsior Hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE INITIATION
+
+
+For a moment after the unexpected support of Teeter's ultimatum to Hiram
+there was a tense silence. The lads who had come in with the bully--his
+supporting army so to speak--remained grouped around him and Luke. On
+the other side stood Teeter, Peaches, Tom, Joe and their friends, and a
+number of the better players of the school nine. Included among them
+were a number of the substitutes.
+
+Hiram Shell looked around him. He must have been aware that his power
+might slip very easily from him now, unless something was done. It was
+no time to pursue his usual tactics. He must temporize, but he made up
+his mind that those who had revolted from his authority would pay dearly
+for it sooner or later.
+
+"Well, what do you fellows want?" he fairly growled.
+
+"I'll tell you what we want," said Teeter firmly. "In the first place
+we want this business of shifting players all about, stopped. A fellow
+gets used to playing in one position and he's best there. Then you or
+Luke change him."
+
+"Well, hasn't the captain the right to do that?" demanded Luke.
+
+"Sure, yes," spoke Peaches, "but when you get a good lad in a good place
+keep him there."
+
+"Is that all?" sneered Hiram.
+
+"No, we think there ought to be better pitching," went on the
+self-constituted chairman.
+
+"Ha! I guess that's where the whole trouble is!" cried Hiram quickly.
+"This meeting is for the benefit of Joe Matson."
+
+"Nothing of the sort!" exclaimed Joe quickly. "I knew nothing about it
+until Teeter told me. Of course I'd like to pitch; there's no use
+denying that, but I don't want any fellow to give way for me if he's
+making good."
+
+"That's the trouble--he isn't," put in Teeter.
+
+Hiram took a quick resolve. He could smooth matters over now, and later
+arrange them to suit himself and Luke. So he said:
+
+"All right, I admit that we didn't make a very good showing to-day. But
+it was our first game, and Brown and Akers didn't do very well in the
+box. But don't be too hasty. Now I'll tell you what I'll do," and he
+acted as though it was a big favor. "I'll let you fellows have a voice
+when I make changes after this. We'll do some harder practice. I'll make
+Brown and Akers pitch better----"
+
+"I don't believe he can," murmured Tom.
+
+"We won't make any more shifts--right away," went on Hiram. "Maybe you
+fellows were right. I haven't given as much time to the team as I
+should. But wait--we'll win the Blue Banner yet."
+
+"That's all we ask," said Teeter. "We just wanted you to know how we
+felt about it, and if things are better and our nine can win, we won't
+say another word."
+
+"All right, let it go at that," and Hiram affected to laugh, but there
+was not much mirth in it. "Might as well quit now, I guess. Everybody
+out for hard practice next week. I want to see some better stick-work,
+and as for pitching--where are Brown and Akers?"
+
+"Here!" cried the two boxmen.
+
+"You fellows will have to brush up a bit on your speed and curves," went
+on the bully manager. "Isn't that right, Luke?"
+
+"Sure," grunted the captain. There was more talk, but it was not of the
+fiery kind and, for the time, at least, the threatened disruption had
+passed. But there was still an undercurrent of dissatisfaction against
+Luke and Hiram.
+
+"Well, I don't see as it did an awful lot of good," remarked Tom Davis
+to Peaches and Teeter, as they walked out of the gymnasium with Joe, a
+little later. "I don't see that Joe is benefitted."
+
+"I didn't expect much," spoke our hero. "It was well meant and----"
+
+"And it did good, too," interrupted Teeter. "It's the first time any one
+ever talked to Hiram like a Dutch Uncle, and I guess it sort of jarred
+him. He'll sit up and take notice now, and it will be for the good of
+the team."
+
+"But where does Joe come in?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Well, I figure it out this way," replied Teeter. "Brown and Akers will
+try to make good but they can't. The fellows will see that we've got to
+have a new pitcher, and Hiram will have to give 'em one. Then Joe will
+step in."
+
+"There are others as good as I in the school," remarked Joe modestly.
+
+"Well, they haven't shown themselves if there are," was Teeter's retort.
+"No, Joe will be pitching before the season is over, you see if he
+isn't."
+
+The question was discussed pro and con, as they went to their rooms, and
+continued after they got there until a monitor warned them that though
+permission had been given to hold a meeting it did not extend to
+midnight lunch.
+
+It was one night, after a hard day on the diamond, that Joe and Tom, who
+were studying, or making a pretense at it, heard the usual knock on
+their door.
+
+"Teeter and Peaches--I wonder what's up now?" asked Tom.
+
+"Let 'em in and they'll tell us," suggested Joe, as his roommate went to
+the door. It was kept locked, for often some of the fun-loving students
+would come in unannounced to create a "rough-house," to the misery of
+the two chums.
+
+As the portal swung back, there was revealed to Joe and Tom several
+sheet-clad white figures, each one with a mask of black cloth over his
+head. The sight was rather a weird one, and for the moment Tom was
+nonplussed.
+
+"Shut the door," commanded Joe quickly. "They're up to some high jinks!"
+
+Tom hesitated for a moment. If it was Peaches, Teeter and their friends,
+he did not want to shut them out, but, on the contrary might want to
+join the fun. If, on the contrary, it was a hostile crowd there was no
+use getting into trouble. So Tom hesitated and was lost.
+
+For a moment later, the throng of white-clad and unrecognizable figures
+(because of the masks) stepped into the room.
+
+"We have come," announced one in a voice that sounded hollow and deep,
+"to initiate you into the Mystic and Sacred Order of the Choo-Choo!"
+
+"Get out, Peaches, I know your voice," said Joe, not quite sure whether
+he did or not.
+
+"Prepare to join the Mystic and Sacred Order of the Choo-Choo! Shall he
+not, comrades?" demanded a second figure.
+
+"Toot! Toot! He shall!" was the answer in a chorus.
+
+"That's Teeter all right," affirmed Tom.
+
+"Come!" commanded the first figure, advancing to take hold of Tom's arm.
+
+"Shall we go, Joe?" asked his chum.
+
+Joe thought a minute. There had been rumors in the school of late, that
+several initiations had been held into a newly-formed society. Reports
+differed as to what society it was, some lads stating that they had been
+made to join one and some another. But all agreed, though they did not
+go into particulars, that the initiations were anything but pleasant.
+Joe was as fond of fun as anyone but he did not like being
+mistreated--especially when it was not by his friends.
+
+"Don't go!" he called suddenly to Tom.
+
+"Then we'll make you!" said the disguised voice. "Grab 'em fellows!"
+
+Instantly there was a commotion in the room. Joe leaped back to get
+behind a sofa, but one of the black-masked figures was too quick for him
+and seized him around the neck. Our hero tried to tear the mask from the
+face to see who his assailant was, but other hands clasped his arms from
+behind and he was helpless.
+
+Tom, too, was having his own troubles. He was beset by two of the
+unknowns and held in such a way that he could do nothing. The struggle
+though sharp was a quiet one, for the students did not want to attract
+the attention of a monitor or prowling professor.
+
+"'Tis well," spoke the lad who was evidently the leader, when Tom and
+Joe were held safely, their hands having been tied behind their backs.
+"Away with them to the dungeon deep, and they will soon be good,
+faithful and true members of the Mystic and Sacred Order of the
+Choo-Choo!"
+
+Then, realizing that discretion was probably now the better part of
+valor, Joe and Tom meekly followed their captors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+"FIRE!"
+
+
+"Where are you fellows taking us?" demanded Joe, as they walked softly
+down the corridor.
+
+"Toot-Toot!" was all the answer he received.
+
+"Say, we don't mind having fun," added Tom, "but if you fellows are
+going to cut up any, we want to know it."
+
+"Toot-Toot!" came again in imitation of a whistle. It was evident that
+this was a sort of signal or watchword among the members of the Order of
+Choo-Choo.
+
+"These aren't Peaches, Teeter, and our fellows," spoke Joe into Tom's
+ear as they were forced to descend a back and seldom used staircase.
+
+"That's right," agreed Tom. "I wonder who they are?"
+
+"Some of the seniors, maybe," suggested the young pitcher. "I wish I
+knew where they are taking us."
+
+"The candidates who are about to be initiated into the Mystic and Sacred
+Order of the Choo-Choo will kindly keep quiet!" came the quick command
+from the leader. "Silence is imperative to have the spell work."
+
+"Oh, you dry up!" retorted Joe.
+
+"Silence!" came the command again, emphasized this time by a dig in the
+ribs.
+
+"You quit----" began our hero, but his voice ended in a grunt, for some
+one had hit him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He was
+indignant, and had half a mind to make a fight for it then and there.
+But he was practically helpless, and was descending a flight of stairs
+which made it dangerous to chance a scuffle. He made up his mind to
+fight when the time came.
+
+"If you fellows----" began Tom.
+
+"Silence over there!" hissed one of the white-robed figures. "If they
+talk any more, Master of Ceremonies, gag 'em."
+
+"Right, Chief Engineer," was the hollow answer.
+
+Tom thought it best to keep quiet. Silently the little crowd advanced.
+They halted at the door of one of the many store-rooms in the basement
+of the largest of the school dormitories. One of the lads opened the
+portals with a key. It was as black as pitch beyond.
+
+"Enter, timid and shrinking candidates," commanded some one. "Enter into
+the sacred precincts of the Choo-Choo."
+
+"Not much I won't!" declared Joe. "I can't see my hand before my face,
+and I'm not going into a dark room, not knowing what is there."
+
+"Me either!" declared Tom.
+
+"It is so ordered," came the deep voice of the leader. "Enter or be
+thrown in!"
+
+Joe turned, trying in vain to pierce the disguise of the black mask. He
+struggled to free his arms from the rope that bound them, but could not.
+He was half-minded to strike out with his feet, but he was now so
+surrounded by the initiators that he could not. Besides, if he did that
+he might lose his balance and fall hard. Tom was in like straits.
+
+"Forward, march!" came the command.
+
+"I'm not going in I tell you!" insisted Joe.
+
+"If he doesn't go in, shove him," came the command.
+
+Joe, as he felt that resistance was useless, started forward. It was
+better to keep his own footing, if he had to go in the room and not run
+the risk of being shoved down.
+
+Advancing cautiously, followed by Tom, the young pitcher stepped over
+the threshold. Almost instantly he felt cold water spurting up around
+his ankles, and he sought to draw back. He did not want to fall into a
+deep tank, with his arms bound.
+
+"Go on! Go on in!" was the command and he felt himself being shoved from
+behind. There was no help for it, but to his relief he found, as he
+advanced, that the water did not come higher than his knees.
+
+"Great Scott! What are we up against?" asked Tom.
+
+"Search me," responded Joe.
+
+"Silence! Blindfold 'em!" came a command, and before they could have
+prevented it, had they been able, Joe's and Tom's eyes were covered with
+big handkerchiefs.
+
+"Keep on!" was the order again, and the candidates did, soon stepping
+out of the water upon the solid floor.
+
+"Tie their feet," was the next order, and this was done. "Now,
+candidates," spoke the leader, "you have crossed the river of blood and
+the first part of your journey is over. But, to be good and loyal
+members of the Mystic and Sacred Order of Choo-Choo, it is necessary
+that you make a noise like a locomotive. Go ahead now, puff!"
+
+For a moment Joe and Tom hesitated and then, absurd as it was, they
+entered into the spirit of the affair and gave as good an imitation as
+possible of a steam locomotive in operation.
+
+"Very good! Very good," was the comment. "Now go up grade," and the
+blindfolded candidates were forced to go up a steep incline of boards,
+slipping and sliding back half the time.
+
+"They are coming on," commented some one. "At the next stop they take
+water. Hose-tender, get ready!"
+
+"Hold on! What are you going to do?" demanded Joe.
+
+"You'll see," was the answer. Joe and Tom were led to another part of
+the room. It was dimly lighted now, as they could see, for a faint glow
+came under the handkerchiefs.
+
+A moment later each of the luckless candidates felt a cold stream of
+water strike him full in the face. They tried to duck, and to turn their
+heads away, but the others held them until the upper part of their
+bodies were thoroughly soaked.
+
+"That's enough for steam," came the order from one of the party. "Now to
+see how they can carry passengers. Off with their bonds, but keep the
+blinders on."
+
+This was done.
+
+"Down on your hands and knees, candidates," came the order, and Joe and
+Tom had nothing for it but to obey.
+
+A moment later some one sat on each back and again came the order:
+
+"Forward march!"
+
+Now Joe, while liking fun as well as any lad, thought there was a limit
+to it, and to the indignities of the initiation, especially in a
+mythical society which they did not care about joining. When a heavy
+lad, therefore, sat down on our hero's back Joe made up his mind that
+matters had gone far enough.
+
+"Go ahead! Carry your passenger!" was the command.
+
+"Not by a jugful!" cried Joe, and with a quick motion he stood up,
+spilling off the lad on his back. The latter hit the floor with a
+resounding whack. The next instant Joe had torn off the blinding
+handkerchief, and made a grab for the lad whom he had upset. He tore off
+his mask and there was revealed the scowling face of Hiram Shell.
+
+At the same moment Tom had done the same to his tormentor, discovering
+Luke Fodick under the black mask.
+
+"Oh, so it's your crowd, is it Hiram?" asked Joe.
+
+"Yes, and by Jove, you'll suffer for this! Why aren't you sports enough
+to take your initiation as the others do?"
+
+"Because we don't choose to," replied our hero.
+
+"Then I'll make you!" cried Hiram, doubling up his fists and leaping at
+Joe. "Come on, Luke, give 'em what's coming to 'em!"
+
+"Two can play at that game," spoke Joe coolly. He noted that the room
+had been roughly fitted up as a sort of society meeting chamber. At the
+entrance was a long, narrow and shallow tank of water. It was through
+this that Joe and Tom had waded.
+
+"I'll fix you!" cried Hiram.
+
+"All right," agreed Joe easily. "As well here and now as anywhere,
+anytime."
+
+He threw himself into a position of defense as Hiram came on. Luke was
+advancing toward Tom, while the others, still wearing their masks,
+looked on in anticipation.
+
+There might have been two stiff fights the next moment had there not
+suddenly sounded from without a series of startled cries. Then came the
+clanging of bells, and above the riot of noise the lads heard some one
+shouting:
+
+"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A THRILLING RESCUE
+
+
+"What's that?" asked half a dozen of the white-robed lads.
+
+"Fire, somewhere," answered Hiram, pausing in his rush toward Joe.
+
+"Come on, this can wait," added one of his companions. "We're through
+with this initiation, anyhow."
+
+"But I'm not through with him," snapped the bully with a glance of anger
+at the young pitcher. "I'll settle with him later."
+
+"Fire! Fire!"
+
+Again the cries rang out on the night air.
+
+"The school must be on fire!" yelled Luke Fodick. "Come on, fellows!"
+
+"Fire! Fire!"
+
+Many voices now took up the cry outside, and through a
+partially-curtained window could be seen the dancing light of flames.
+
+"Come on!" cried Joe to Tom. "We've got to be in on this, whatever it
+is!"
+
+"Surest thing you know," agreed his chum.
+
+They rushed from the room, following after Hiram and Luke. The others
+straggled out as fast as they disrobed, for they did not want to be seen
+in their regalia by any of the school authorities who might be on hand
+after the alarm of fire.
+
+"I hope it isn't any of the school buildings!" exclaimed Joe as he and
+Tom raced along.
+
+"That's right. So do I. Look, you can see the reflection from here."
+
+The boys were opposite a window in the corridor, and over the roof and
+spire of the school chapel could be seen a lurid glare in the sky, but
+what was burning could not be made out.
+
+"It's the gym!" gasped Tom.
+
+"Don't you dare say that!" cried Joe, "and with the baseball season just
+starting."
+
+"Well, it looks like it anyhow."
+
+Together they raced on until they came to a door that gave egress to the
+campus. Students were pouring out from their rooms in all directions,
+some eagerly questioning, and others joining in the cries of "Fire!" No
+one seemed to know where the blaze was.
+
+Professor Rodd came out with his precious tall hat in one hand and a
+bundle of books in the other.
+
+"Is the school doomed, boys?" he asked. "How did it start? Have I time
+to save anything else? I have some Latin books----"
+
+"I don't know where it is, Professor," answered Joe. "But it isn't this
+building, anyhow."
+
+"Good! I'm glad of it. I mean I'm sorry it's anywhere. Wait, and I'll be
+with you to help fight the flames."
+
+He ran back to his quarters to return quickly minus his silk hat and the
+books, and he wore an old fashioned night-cap.
+
+"There now, I'm ready," he announced, and he ran on as though he had
+donned a modern smoke helmet, used by the firemen. The boys laughed,
+serious and exciting as the situation was.
+
+Dr. Rudden saw our two friends hurrying across the campus together.
+
+"Why, boys!" cried the coach and athletic director. "You're all wet! How
+did it happen? Have you been playing the hose on the fire? Did it
+burst?"
+
+"No, we haven't been to the blaze yet," answered Joe. "We had----"
+
+"A sort of accident," finished Tom, as his chum hesitated for the right
+explanation. Then they avoided further conversation by racing toward the
+blaze, the light of which was becoming every minute more glaring.
+
+A stream of students and teachers was now hurrying across the campus,
+heading for the path around the chapel, which building hid the fire from
+sight. As Tom and Joe turned the corner they saw at a glance what was
+burning.
+
+It was an old disused factory about half a mile from the school, a
+building pretty much in ruins and of little value save as a sleeping
+place for tramps. Several times in the past there had been slight fires
+there but they had been quickly extinguished, though many said it would
+have been as well to let the old structure burn down.
+
+This time it seemed as if this would happen. The factory was of wood,
+and there had been no rain recently, so it was quite dry, and there was
+a brisk wind to fan the flames.
+
+"I guess it's a goner," panted Tom.
+
+"Looks that way," agreed his chum.
+
+"Here comes the fire department," went on the other, as they heard the
+clanging of a bell down the road. A little later they could see, by the
+glare of the fire, a crowd of village men and boys dragging, by the long
+rope attached to it, a combined chemical engine, and hook and ladder
+vehicle. It was a new acquisition in the town of Cedarhurst, and the
+citizens were very proud of it, though they had no horses to pull it.
+But everyone who could do so grabbed hold of the long rope.
+
+"They're making good time," commented Joe.
+
+"But they might as well save themselves. The old factory is better
+burned than standing. Guess some more tramps went in there."
+
+"Then they'd better be getting out by now," observed the young pitcher,
+"for it must be pretty hot."
+
+The lads ran on, and soon found themselves close to the burning
+structure. The heat of the flames could be felt, and Tom and Joe moved
+back into the crowd that had gathered. Up clattered the fire apparatus,
+and there was the usual excitement, with everyone giving orders, and
+telling how it ought to be done.
+
+Finally a chemical stream was turned on, the whitish foaming mixture of
+bicarbonate of soda, sulphuric acid and water spurting upon the flames.
+There was a hiss, and the part of the fire that was sprayed quickly died
+out.
+
+But it was evident that several chemical streams would be needed if the
+fire was to be completely extinguished, whereas two lines of hose were
+all that were available. In fact nothing but a smothering deluge of
+water would have been effective, and this was not obtainable.
+
+"They'll never get that fire out!" cried a man in the crowd. "Why don't
+you let it burn, Chief?"
+
+"Because we're here to put out fires. I'm going to----"
+
+But what the chief was going to do he never said, for at that moment,
+above the crackling of the fire and the shouts of the men and boys,
+there arose an agonized shout.
+
+"Help! Help! Save me!"
+
+All eyes turned instinctively upward, and there, perched on the ledge of
+what had once been the clock tower of the factory, high above the
+roaring, crackling flames, stood a man, wildly waving his arms and
+crying:
+
+"Help! Help! Save me!"
+
+"Look! A man! He'll be burned to death!" yelled a score of persons as
+they saw the danger.
+
+"That's about right, unless he gets down pretty soon," shouted Tom into
+Joe's ear. "Why doesn't he go down?"
+
+"Probably because the stairs are burned away," was Joe's shouted
+answer--everyone was shouting, partly to make themselves heard and
+partly because of the excitement, which was contagious.
+
+"Help! Help!" cried the man again. He gave one look below him and
+crowded closer to the outer edge of the tower.
+
+"Look out! Don't jump!" someone cried.
+
+"We'll save you!" shouted the chief. "Get the ladder, boys! Lively now!"
+
+Scores of willing ones raced to the wagon and began pulling out the
+ladders. They were the extension kind, and could be made quite long.
+Several men ran with one toward the building.
+
+"Not that side! The flames are too hot! You can't raise it there!" cried
+the chief. "Try around back!"
+
+The men obeyed but a moment later there came a disappointing shout:
+
+"Too short! The ladder's too short! Get a longer one!"
+
+"That's the longest we've got!" answered the chief.
+
+"Then splice two together!" urged some one, but the suggestion could
+hardly have been carried out with safety. No one knew what to do. The
+flames were mounting higher and higher, bursting out on all sides now,
+so that in a few moments, even had there been a ladder long enough to
+reach to the man, it could not have been raised against the building.
+
+"Help! Help!" continued to call the seemingly-doomed one. He moved
+still nearer to the edge of the tower.
+
+"Don't jump! Don't!" yelled the crowd. "You'll be killed!"
+
+"He might just as well be killed by the fall as burned to death,"
+remarked one man grimly. "In fact I'd prefer it."
+
+"Can't someone do something?" begged a woman hysterically.
+
+The man held out his hands appealingly.
+
+"Oh, if we only had an airship, we could rescue him!" murmured Tom.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Joe. "I have an idea. If I could only get a rope up
+to him he could slide down it, if we held the outer end away from the
+fire--a slanting cable you know."
+
+"That's it!" yelled his chum.
+
+"How are you going to get a rope up to him?" asked Luke Fodick, who was
+standing beside our hero. "No one could throw a rope up there."
+
+"No, perhaps not a rope," admitted Joe, "but if I could throw a string
+we could tie the rope to the string and he could haul it up and fasten
+it."
+
+"But you can't even throw a string up there," insisted Luke.
+
+"Of course not!" added Hiram, who had joined his crony. "Nobody could."
+
+"Yes they can--I can!" cried Joe. "I'll throw up this ball of cord. It
+will unwind on the way up if I keep hold of one end of it," and he
+pulled from his pocket a ball of light but strong cord. Joe used it to
+wind around split bats. "I'm going to throw this," cried the young
+pitcher. "Hey there!" he yelled to the man on the tower. "Catch this as
+it comes, and pull up the rope we're going to fasten on!"
+
+The man waved his hands helplessly. He could not hear.
+
+"Where you going to get the rope?" asked Tom.
+
+"Off the fire apparatus, of course. It's long and strong. Tom, you go
+get the rope off; I've got to make the man hear and understand before I
+can throw the cord."
+
+"That's the stuff! The rope from the engine!" cried the man near Joe.
+"That's the idea, young fellow!"
+
+Accompanied by Tom, the man raced to the engine. He quickly explained
+what the plan of rescue was, and others aided in taking from the reel
+the long rope by which the apparatus was pulled. Once more Joe shouted
+his instructions, while the fire raged and crackled and the crowd
+yelled.
+
+"Quiet! Quiet!" begged Joe. "I've got to make him hear!"
+
+"Make a megaphone--here's a newspaper," suggested a man. He quickly
+rolled it into a cone, tore off the small end to make a mouthpiece and
+Joe had an improvised megaphone. Through it he begged the crowd to keep
+silent, and at last they heard and understood.
+
+"I'm going to throw you a ball of cord!" called Joe through the paper
+cone to the man on the tower. "Catch it, and when I yell again, pull up
+the rope. Fasten it to the tower and we'll hold the ground end out and
+away from the flames. Then slide down."
+
+The man waved his hands to show that he understood. Then Joe got ready
+to throw up the cord.
+
+"He can't do it! He'll never be able to get that ball up to the man. It
+will fall short or go into the flames," said Luke Fodick.
+
+"He can't, eh?" asked Tom, who came back, helping to pull the long rope.
+"You don't know how Joe Matson can throw. Just watch him."
+
+And, amid a silence that was painfully tense, the young pitcher got
+ready to deliver a ball on which more depended than on any other he had
+ever thrown in all his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE WARNING
+
+
+Joe hesitated a moment. Everything would depend on his one throw,
+because there was no chance to get another ball of cord, and if this one
+went wide it would fall into the fire and be rendered useless.
+
+The fire was increasing, for all the chemicals in the tank on the wagon
+had been used, and no fresh supply was available. Below the tower on
+which the man stood, the flames raged and crackled. Even the tower
+itself was ablaze a little and at times the smoke hid the man from view
+momentarily.
+
+"I'll have to wait until it clears," murmured the young pitcher, when,
+just as he got ready to throw, a swirl of vapor arose.
+
+"You can't wait much longer," said Tom, in an ominously quiet voice.
+
+"I know it," agreed Joe desperately, and it was but too evident. The
+tower itself, weakened by the fire, would soon collapse, and would
+carry the man down with it into the seething fire below.
+
+"Throw! Throw!" urged several in the throng.
+
+Joe handed the loose end of the cord to Tom. He wanted to give all his
+attention to throwing the ball. He poised himself as if he was in the
+pitching box. It was like a situation in a game when his side needed to
+retire the other in order to win, as when two men were out, three on
+bases and the man at bat had two strikes and three balls. All depended
+on one throw.
+
+With a quick motion Joe drew back his arm. There was an intaking of
+breath on the part of the crowd that could be heard even above the
+crackling of the flames. All eyes were centered on the young pitcher.
+
+"He'll never do it," murmured Hiram Shell.
+
+"If he does he's a better pitcher than I'll ever be," admitted Frank
+Brown.
+
+Suddenly Joe threw. The white ball was plainly visible as it sailed
+through the air, unwinding as it mounted upward. On and on it went, Joe,
+no less than every one in the crowd, watching it with eager eyes. And as
+for the man on the tower he eagerly stretched out his hands to catch the
+ball of cord, on which his life now depended.
+
+[Illustration: THE WHITE BALL WAS PLAINLY VISIBLE AS IT SAILED THROUGH
+THE AIR.]
+
+Straight and true it went, as swift and as direct a ball as Baseball
+Joe had ever delivered. Straight and true--on and on and then----
+
+Into the hands of the anxiously waiting man went the ball of cord.
+Eagerly he clutched it, while the crowd set up a great cheer.
+
+"That's the stuff!" yelled a man in Joe's ear. "You sure are one good
+pitcher, my boy!"
+
+"Never mind about that now," said the practical Joe. "Fasten on the
+rope. Quick!"
+
+Willing hands did this, and Joe looked to see if the knot would not
+slip. He seemed to have assumed charge of the rescue operations.
+
+"Haul up!" he yelled to the man through the newspaper megaphone. "Haul
+up the rope and make it fast. Then, when I give the signal, slide down."
+
+The man waved his hands to show that he understood, and the next moment
+he began pulling on the cord. The rope followed. Quickly it uncoiled
+from where the strands had been piled in readiness for just this. Up and
+up the man on the tower pulled it until he held the end of the heavy
+rope in his hands.
+
+There now extended from the tower to the ground a slanting pathway of
+rope, such as is sometimes seen leading down into a stone quarry. It was
+high enough above the flames to enable a man to swing himself along
+above them, though doubtless he would have to pass over a zone of fierce
+heat.
+
+"All ready! Come on down!" yelled Joe, and the man on the tower lost no
+time in obeying.
+
+He let go the rope as his feet touched the earth and then with a groan
+he collapsed. The crowd closed in around him, and two minutes later the
+tower, with a crash, toppled into the midst of the seething furnace of
+fire. The rescue had been made none too soon.
+
+"Don't crowd around him so!" shouted Joe, hurrying over to where the man
+lay.
+
+He pushed his way into the throng, followed by Tom, and the two lads
+actually forced the men and boys away from the man, who had evidently
+fainted. Joe whipped off his coat and made a pillow for the sufferer's
+head.
+
+As he bent over him, the man's face was illuminated by the glare from
+the burning factory, and our hero started back in astonishment.
+
+"Isaac Benjamin!" he exclaimed, as he recognized the former manager of
+the Royal Harvester works where Mr. Matson had been employed. Isaac
+Benjamin, the man who, with Mr. Rufus Holdney, had conspired to ruin
+Joe's father by getting his patents away from him.
+
+"Isaac Benjamin!" said Joe again.
+
+Mr. Benjamin opened his eyes. Into them came the light of recognition as
+he gazed into Joe's face. He struggled to a sitting position.
+
+"Joe--Joe Matson!" he murmured. "I--I hope your father will forgive me.
+I--I----"
+
+"There, don't think of that now," said Joe gently. "Are you hurt?"
+
+"No--nothing of any consequence. I'm not even burned, thanks to you. I
+climbed up into the tower when I found the place on fire. I--I--Joe, can
+you ever forgive me for trying to ruin your father?"
+
+"Yes, of course. But don't talk of that now," Joe said, while the crowd
+looked on and wondered at the man and boy knowing each other--wondered
+at their strange talk.
+
+"I--I must talk of that now--more--more danger threatens your father,
+Joe."
+
+Joe thought perhaps the man might be in a delirium of fright, and he
+decided it would be best to humor him.
+
+"That's all right," he said soothingly. "You'll be taken care of. We've
+sent for a doctor. How did you come to be in the old factory?"
+
+"I--I was sleeping there, Joe." Mr. Benjamin's tones did not indicate a
+raving mind.
+
+"Sleeping there?" There was surprise in the boy's voice.
+
+"Yes, Joe, I'm down and out. I've lost all my money, my friends have
+gone back on me--though it's my own fault--I have lost my home--my
+position--everything. I'm an outcast--a tramp--that's why I was sleeping
+there. There were some other tramps. They were smoking--I guess that's
+how the fire started. They got away but I couldn't."
+
+The man's voice was excited now, and Joe tried to calm him. But Mr.
+Benjamin continued.
+
+"Wait, Joe, I have something to tell you--something important--a warning
+to give you. If we--can we talk in private?"
+
+"Yes, later, when you are stronger," answered the lad soothingly.
+
+"Then it may be too late," went on Mr. Benjamin. "I am strong enough
+now. It was just a passing faintness. I--I am weak--haven't had much to
+eat--I'm hungry. But no matter. Here, come over here, I'll tell you."
+
+He struggled to his feet with Joe's aid and led the lad aside from the
+crowd, which parted to make way for them.
+
+"I'm down and out, Joe. Money and friends all gone."
+
+"What about Mr. Holdney?"
+
+"He too, has deserted me--turned against me, though I helped him in many
+schemes. I'm nothing but a tramp now, Joe."
+
+The young pitcher looked at the wreck of the man before him. Truly he
+was "down and out." His once fine and well-dressed appearance had given
+place to a slouchy attire.
+
+"But I must tell you, Joe. Your father's patent rights are again in
+danger. Rufus Holdney is going to try to get some valuable papers and
+models away from him. That's what he and I quarreled over. I'd do
+anything to spoil his plans, after he has thrown me off as he has. I
+left him, and since then I have had only bad luck. I don't know how I
+came to come here. I didn't know you were here. But warn your father,
+Joe, to look well after his new patents. Warn him before it is too
+late."
+
+"I will," promised Joe. "I will. Thank you for telling me. Now we must
+look after you." And indeed it was high time, for, as the young pitcher
+spoke Mr. Benjamin tottered and would have fallen had not our hero
+caught him.
+
+"Quick, get a doctor!" cried Joe, as the crowd surged up again around
+the unfortunate man, who had fainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BAD NEWS
+
+
+Attention was divided, on the part of the crowd, between the man who had
+been rescued, and the fire. The old factory was now burning fiercely and
+it was useless to try to save the structure. In fact, nearly everyone
+was glad that it had been destroyed, for it would harbor no more
+tramps. So the man who had been so thrillingly rescued was the greater
+attraction.
+
+Fortunately there was a doctor in the throng, and he gave Mr. Benjamin
+some stimulants which quickly brought him out of his faint. Then a
+carriage was secured, and the man was taken to the village hotel, Joe
+agreeing to be responsible for his board. Though Mr. Benjamin had
+treated Mr. Matson most unjustly, and had tried to ruin him, yet the son
+thought he could do no less than to give him some aid, especially after
+the warning.
+
+"Well, I guess it's all over but the shouting, as they say at the
+baseball games," remarked Tom to Joe. "Let's get home. I'm cold," for
+they had both been drenched over the upper part of their bodies by the
+initiation, and the night wind was cold, in spite of the fact that
+Spring was well advanced.
+
+"So am I," admitted Joe, as he watched the carriage containing Mr.
+Benjamin drive off. "I'd like some good hot lemonade."
+
+The fire now held little attraction for our friends and they hastened
+back to the dormitory, Joe explaining on the way how he had unexpectedly
+rescued a former enemy of his father's.
+
+"And aren't you going to send some word home about that warning he gave
+you?" asked Tom, as Joe finished. "That Holdney scoundrel may be working
+his scheme now."
+
+"Oh, yes, sure. I'm going to write to dad as soon as we get back to our
+room. Sure I'm going to warn him. I'm mighty sorry for Mr. Benjamin.
+He's a smart man, but he went wrong, and now he's down and out, as he
+says. But he did me a good service."
+
+"It doesn't even things up!" spoke Teeter. "He surely would have been a
+gone one but for you."
+
+"Oh, some one else might have thought of that way of getting him down
+if I hadn't," replied Joe modestly. "I remember a story I read in one of
+the books I had when I was a kid. A fellow was on a high chimney, and a
+rope he had used to haul himself up slipped down. A big crowd gathered
+and no one knew how to help him. His wife came to bring his dinner and
+she got onto a scheme right away.
+
+"'Hey, John!' she called 'unravel your sock. Begin at the toe!' You see
+he had on knitted socks. Well, he unravelled one, got a nice long piece
+of yarn and lowered it to the ground. He tied on his knife, or something
+for a weight. Then they fastened a cord to the yarn, and a rope to the
+cord, he pulled the rope up and got down off the chimney."
+
+"Your process, only reversed," commented Tom. "I say fellows," he added,
+"let's run and get warmed up. I'm shivering."
+
+"It was warm enough back there at the fire," said Teeter, as he looked
+to where the blaze was now dying out for lack of material on which to
+feed.
+
+"Beastly mean of Hiram and Luke," commented Peaches. "They're getting
+scared I guess. I hope we get 'em out of the nine before the season's
+over."
+
+Joe and Tom entertained their friends with crackers and hot lemonade,
+and none of the professors or monitors annoyed them with attentions.
+They must have known of it, when Peaches went to get the hot water in
+the dormitory kitchen, but it is something to have a hero in a school,
+and Joe was certainly the hero of the night.
+
+The two lads, who had been thoroughly soaked, stripped and took a good
+rub down, and this, with the hot lemonade, set them into a warm glow.
+Then they sat about and talked and talked until nearly midnight.
+
+Joe wrote a long letter to his father explaining all the circumstances
+and warned him to be on the lookout. One of the janitors who had to
+arise early to attend to his duties promised to see that the missive got
+off on the first morning mail.
+
+"There, now, I guess we'll go to bed," announced Joe.
+
+There was much subdued excitement in chapel the next morning, and Dr.
+Fillmore made a reference to the events of the night before.
+
+"I am very proud of the way you young gentlemen behaved at the fire," he
+said. "It was an exciting occasion, and yet you held yourselves well
+within bounds. We have reason to be very proud of one of our number who
+distinguished himself, and----"
+
+"Three cheers for Joe Matson!" yelled Peaches, and they were given
+heartily--something that had never before happened in chapel. Dr.
+Fillmore looked surprised, and Professor Rodd was evidently pained, but
+Dr. Rudden was observed to join in the ovation, over which Joe blushed
+painfully.
+
+Joe caught a cold from his wetting and exposure. It was nothing serious,
+but the school physician thought he had better stay in bed for a couple
+of days, and, much against his will the young pitcher did so.
+
+"How is baseball practice going on?" he asked Tom after the first day.
+"I wish I could get out and watch it."
+
+"Oh, it's going pretty good. We scrubs have a hard job holding the
+school nine down when you're not there to pitch. There's a game with
+Woodside Hall to-morrow, and I guess we'll win."
+
+Excelsior Hall did win that contest, but not by as big a score as they
+should have done. It was the old story of Hiram and Luke not managing
+things right, and having weak pitchers. Still it was a victory, and
+served to elate the bully and his crony.
+
+It was on the third day of Joe's imprisonment in his room, and his cold
+was much better. He had heard that Mr. Benjamin had recovered and left
+the hotel; no one knew for what place.
+
+He sent Joe a note of thanks, however, and it came in with some mail
+from home. Joe opened the home letters first. There was one from his
+father, enclosed in one from his mother and Clara.
+
+     "Dear Joe," wrote Mr. Matson. "I got your warning, but it was
+     too late. Why didn't you telegraph me? The night before your
+     letter got here some valuable papers and models were stolen
+     from my new shop. I have no doubt but that Holdney did it--he
+     or some of his tools. It will cripple me badly, but I may be
+     able to pull through. I appreciate what Benjamin did for us,
+     and it was mighty smart of you to save him that way. But why
+     didn't you telegraph me about the danger to my models?"
+
+"That's it!" exclaimed Joe bitterly to himself. "What a chump I was. Why
+didn't I telegraph dad, and then it would have been in time. Why didn't
+I?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+BITTER DEFEAT
+
+
+Joe's first act, after receiving the bad news from home, was to sit down
+and write his father a letter full of vain regrets, of self-accusation,
+upbraiding himself for having been so stupid as not to have thought of
+telegraphing. He hastened to post this, going out himself though barely
+over his cold.
+
+"I'm not going to take any more chances," he remarked to Tom. "Maybe
+that other letter wasn't mailed by the janitor, or it would have gotten
+to dad in time."
+
+"Hardly," remarked his chum. "Your father says the things were taken the
+night before your letter arrived, so you would have had to write the day
+before to have done any good. Only a telegram would have been of any
+use."
+
+"I guess so," admitted Joe sorrowfully. "I'm a chump!"
+
+"Oh, don't worry any more," advised his friend. "Let's get at some
+baseball practice. The school has two games this week."
+
+"Who with?" asked Joe.
+
+"Woodside Hall and the Lakeview Preps. We ought to win 'em both. They
+need you back on the scrub. The first nine has had it too easy."
+
+"And I'll be glad to get back," replied the young pitcher earnestly. "It
+seems as if I hadn't had a ball in my hands for a month."
+
+Joe mailed his letter and then, as the day was just right to go out on
+the diamond, he and Tom hastened there, finding plenty of lads awaiting
+them. A five-inning game between the scrub and school teams was soon
+arranged.
+
+"Now boys, go in and clean 'em up!" exclaimed Luke, as his men went to
+bat, allowing the scrub the advantage of being last up. This was done to
+make the first team strive exceptionally hard to pile up runs early in
+the practice.
+
+"Don't any of you fan out," warned Hiram. "I'm watching you."
+
+"And so am I," added Dr. Rudden, the coach, as he strolled up. "You
+first team lads want to look to your laurels. You have plenty of games
+to play before the finals to decide the possession of the Blue Banner,
+but remember that every league game counts. Your percentage is rather
+low for the start of the season."
+
+He was putting it mildly. The percentage of Excelsior Hall was
+exceedingly low.
+
+"Beat the scrub!" advised the coach-teacher.
+
+"They can't do it with Joe in the box!" declared Tom; and Luke and Hiram
+sneered audibly. Their feeling against our two heroes had not improved
+since the event of the initiation.
+
+The scrub nine was not noted for its heavy hitting, but in this practice
+game they outdid themselves, and when they came up for their first
+attempt they pulled down the lead of four runs which the school nine
+had, to one. There was an ominous look on the faces of Luke and Hiram as
+the first team went to bat for the second time.
+
+"Make 'em look like a plugged nickel," advised Tom to his pitching chum.
+"The worse you make 'em take a beating the more it will show against
+Hiram and Luke. We want to get 'em out of the game."
+
+"All right," assented Joe, and then he "tightened up," in his pitching,
+with the result that a goose egg went up in the second frame of the
+first team.
+
+Even Dr. Rudden looked grave over this. If the school nine could not put
+up a better game against their own scrub, all of whose tricks and
+mannerisms they knew, what could they do against the two regular nines
+with whom they were to cross bats during the week? When the scrubs got
+another run, Joe knocking a three bagger, and coming home on Tommy
+Barton's sacrifice, there was even a graver look on the face of the
+coach. As for Luke and Hiram, they held a consultation.
+
+"We'll have to make a shift somewhere," declared Hiram.
+
+"I'll just let Akers go in the box in place of Frank Brown," decided the
+captain.
+
+"No, that's not enough," insisted the manager. "You don't know how to
+play your own men."
+
+"I know as much as you do about it!" fired back Luke. Of late the bully
+and his crony had not agreed overwell.
+
+"No, you don't!" reaffirmed Hiram. "I tell you what you ought to do. You
+ought to get rid of Peaches, Teeter and George Bland."
+
+"Why, they're three of the best players on the nine."
+
+"No, they're not, and besides they're too friendly with Joe Matson and
+Sister Davis. They don't half play. They make errors on purpose, just to
+make the school team have a bad reputation."
+
+"Why should they do that?"
+
+"Don't you understand, you chump? They want to force you and me out.
+That's their game. They're sore about that meeting, and Matson and Davis
+are sore about lots of things. Peaches and the other two think if they
+get us out there'll be a chance for Joe to pitch."
+
+"So that's their game, is it?" exclaimed Luke. "Well, I'll put a stop to
+it. I'll make subs of Peaches, Bland and Teeter, and put in some other
+players. They can't come it over me that way."
+
+"Play ball!" called the umpire, for the talk between the captain and
+manager was delaying the game.
+
+"Oh, we'll play all right," snapped Luke, and he knew that he and his
+nine had to, for the score was now tie. "Peaches, Teeter, Bland, you can
+sit on the bench a while!" went on Luke. "Wilson, Natch and Gonzales,
+you'll take their places."
+
+"What's that for?" asked the innocent and unoffending Peaches.
+
+"Have we played so rotten?" Teeter wanted to know.
+
+"I made the changes because I wanted to," snapped Luke. "Go sit down
+with the other subs, and we'll see if we can't play a decent game."
+
+Perhaps Peaches and his chums may have understood the reason for Luke's
+act, but if they did, they did not say so. The game went on with the
+three new players, and the result may be imagined. The scrub continued
+to get ahead, and the school nine could not catch up because Joe was
+pitching in great form, and striking out man after man, though he was
+hit occasionally.
+
+"This is worse than ever," growled Hiram, when another inning passed and
+the scrub was five runs ahead. "Change back again, Luke."
+
+"Say, they'll think I'm crazy."
+
+"Can't help it. We'll be worse than crazy if we don't win this little
+measly game. And think what will happen Friday and Saturday. Change
+back."
+
+So Peaches, Teeter and George were called from the bench again, and they
+played desperately. There was a general tightening all along the line,
+and the school nine began to see victory ahead. Joe got a little wild
+occasionally, principally because he was out of practice, but the best
+the school nine could do was to tie the score in the fifth inning, and
+it had to go to seven before they could win, though they had planned to
+play only five. The school nine won by a margin of one.
+
+"That's too close for comfort, boys," said the coach. "Why didn't you
+have a little mercy, Joe?" he asked of the young scrub pitcher.
+
+"I will next time--maybe," was the laughing answer. Luke and Hiram
+scowled at him as they passed. They would have witnessed with pleasure
+his withdrawal from the school. But Joe was going to stick.
+
+"What are we going to do?" asked Luke of Hiram as they walked on.
+
+"About what?"
+
+"The nine. We've just _got_ to win these two games."
+
+"Well, we'll have to do some more shifting, I guess, and Brown and Akers
+have got to tighten up on their pitching. We'll try some more shifting."
+
+"Oh, you make me sick!" exclaimed the captain. "Always changing. What
+good does that do?"
+
+"Say, I'm manager of this nine!" declared the bully, "and if you don't
+like the way I run things, you know what you can do."
+
+Luke subsided after that. He was afraid of Hiram, and he wanted to
+remain as captain. The two discussed various plans, but could come to
+no decision.
+
+The inevitable happened. In the game with Woodside the Excelsiors
+managed to get a few runs in the early innings, but their opponents did
+likewise, because the Hall pitcher could not hold the batters in check.
+Then Woodside sent in another pitcher, better than the first, and the
+Excelsiors got only a few scattering hits, while, after shifting from
+Brown to Akers, Luke's nine did even worse, for Akers was pounded out of
+the box. The score was fifteen to six in favor of Woodside when the
+final inning ended, and the Excelsiors filed off the diamond in gloomy
+mood.
+
+"Well, it couldn't have been much worse," growled Luke to the manager.
+
+"Oh, it was pretty bad," admitted Hiram, "but we'll whitewash the
+Preps."
+
+The Excelsior Hall nine journeyed to the Lakeview school full of hope,
+for the lads there did not have a very good reputation as hitters, and
+their pitcher was not out of the ordinary. But it was the same old
+story--mismanagement, and a captain of the Excelsiors who didn't dare
+speak his own mind.
+
+If Luke had been allowed to run the team to suit himself he might have
+been able to do something with it, but Hiram insisted on having his way.
+
+The result can be imagined. Instead of beating the Lakeview boys by a
+large score, as they had done the previous year, Excelsior was beaten,
+nine to seven.
+
+"Well, it's not as bad as the last game," was all the consolation Hiram
+could find.
+
+"Say, don't talk to me!" snapped Luke. "Something's got to be done!"
+
+"That's right," put in Peaches, who came up just then. "Something has
+got to be done, Hiram Shell, and right away, too."
+
+He looked the bully squarely in the face. Behind Peaches came Teeter,
+George Bland and several of the subs.
+
+"What--what do you mean?" stammered Hiram.
+
+"I mean that it's either you or us," went on Peaches.
+
+"Either you get out as manager or we get out as players," added Teeter.
+"We're tired of playing on a nine that can't win a game. We can play
+ball, and we know it. But not with you, Hiram. What's it going to
+be--you or us?"
+
+"Say!" burst out the bully. "I'll have you know that----"
+
+A hand was placed on his shoulder. He wheeled about to confront Dr.
+Rudden.
+
+"I think something _must_ be done," said the coach quietly. "Call a
+meeting of the Athletic Committee, Shell."
+
+"What for?" asked the bully.
+
+"To discuss the situation. There has got to be a change if Excelsior
+Hall is to have a chance for the Blue Banner. If you don't call the
+meeting, Shell, I will."
+
+It was perhaps the best thing that could have happened, and to save
+friction among the students, many of whom were still for the manager,
+Hiram knew he had to give in to Dr. Rudden.
+
+"All right," he growled. "The meeting will take place to-night."
+
+Quickly the word went around through the precincts of Excelsior Hall.
+
+"There's going to be another hot meeting."
+
+"Hiram's on his last legs."
+
+"His game is up now."
+
+"This means that Joe Matson will pitch, sure, and we'll win some games
+now."
+
+"If Hiram goes, Luke will, too, and there'll be a new captain."
+
+These were only a few of the comments and predictions made by the
+players and other students as they got ready to attend the session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+HIRAM IS OUT
+
+
+There was an ominous silence over the gathering in the gymnasium. It
+was entirely different from the former meeting which started in such a
+hub-bub, and which created such a stir. This time it meant "business,"
+as Peaches said.
+
+Hiram called the session, but refused to preside. He wanted to be able
+to say what he thought from the floor, and from the manner in which he
+and Luke and one or two of their friends conferred before the session
+opened, it was evident that Hiram was going to make a fight to maintain
+his prestige.
+
+"Come to order, young gentlemen," suggested Dr. Rudden, when the
+gymnasium was well filled. It seemed as if every lad in Excelsior Hall
+was there. "You know what we are here for----"
+
+"To elect a new manager and captain!" shouted someone.
+
+"Stop!" commanded the coach, banging his gavel.
+
+"Who said that?" cried Hiram, springing to his feet. "If I find out----"
+
+"Silence!" commanded the chairman, while Luke pulled his crony to his
+seat.
+
+"This meeting will be conducted in a gentlemanly manner, or not at all,"
+went on the professor quietly; but the boys knew what he meant. "We are
+here to discuss the baseball situation, and try to decide on some plan
+for bettering the team. I will hear suggestions."
+
+"I just want to say one thing," began Hiram. "I have managed this team
+for three seasons, and----"
+
+"Mis-managed it," murmured someone.
+
+"Why didn't we get the Blue Banner?" asked another voice.
+
+"Young gentlemen, you will have to keep from making side remarks, and
+interrupting the speakers," said Dr. Rudden. "Go on, Shell."
+
+"I never had any kicking on my management before," continued Hiram,
+glaring at those around him. "I can manage it all right now, and it's
+only some soreheads----"
+
+"Rather unparliamentary language," the chairman warned him.
+
+"If we had a few good players we could win every game," went on the
+bully. "But the season is young yet, and----"
+
+"I don't think that is a valid excuse," said the professor. "You had
+your choice of the whole school in picking the nine, so it is the fault
+of yourself and the captain if you haven't a good team. As for the
+earliness of the season, the boys have had plenty of practice and they
+ought to have struck their gait before this. I'm afraid something else
+is to blame."
+
+"We need better pitchers for one thing!" called someone.
+
+"That's right!" yelled a double score of voices, and Dr. Rudden, seeing
+the sway of sentiment, did not object.
+
+"We've got two good pitchers!" fairly yelled Hiram. "I know what this
+all means--that Joe Matson and his crowd----"
+
+"That will do," the chairman warned him.
+
+"It's true!" exclaimed Frank Brown, jumping to his feet. "I'm not a good
+pitcher, and I don't mind admitting it. I can't hold the other fellows
+down enough. If I could, we would have won these last two games, for our
+boys can bat when they haven't the heart taken out of them."
+
+"That's the way to talk!" cried Tom Davis.
+
+"Nothing like being honest about it," commented Dr. Rudden. "That
+statement does you credit, Brown. How many of you think the same--that
+a different pitcher would strengthen the team?"
+
+"I! I! I!" yelled scores.
+
+"It's not so! Our pitchers are good enough!" These cries came from Luke,
+Hiram and a few of their cronies.
+
+"There seems to be a division of opinion," began the chairman. "I think
+we had better vote on it."
+
+"There are a lot of fellows here who have no right to vote!" cried
+Hiram.
+
+"That won't do, Shell," said Dr. Rudden sternly. "This is a matter that
+concerns the entire school--to have a winning nine. Every student is
+entitled to vote."
+
+"Hurrah!" yelled Tom. "This is a victory all right. The end of Hiram,
+Luke and Company has come."
+
+"You'll pitch on the school team, Joe!" called Peaches in our hero's
+ear.
+
+"I'd like to," Joe answered back, "but I'm afraid----"
+
+"All in favor of having a change in pitchers, since Frank Brown has
+been good enough, and manly enough, to say that he knows his own
+weakness--all in favor of a change vote 'aye,'" directed the chairman.
+
+"Aye!" came in a thunderous chorus.
+
+"Contrary minded----"
+
+"No!" snapped Hiram. Luke and Jake Weston followed with feeble negatives.
+They, too, were beginning to see which way the wind blew.
+
+"Whom will you have for pitcher?" asked the Professor. "Can you decide
+now, or will you wait and----"
+
+"Decide now!" was yelled. "Joe Matson for pitcher! Baseball Joe. Joe
+Matson!" was cried in different parts of the room.
+
+"Very well," assented the chairman. "This may be a wise move. All in
+favor of Joe Matson as pitcher, since Frank Brown, the regular boxman,
+has practically resigned--all say 'aye.'"
+
+Again came the hearty assent, and again the feeble objection of Hiram.
+
+"Joe Matson is now the regular pitcher for the school nine," said Dr.
+Rudden.
+
+"And I want to say that I'm glad of the change," put in Larry Akers.
+
+"Hurray! Hurray!" yelled the now excited and enthusiastic students.
+Things seemed to be coming out right after all.
+
+"I want to say," exclaimed Joe, "that while I appreciate the honor done
+me, we may need substitute pitchers. In fact, I'm sure we will, and I
+wish Frank and Larry would remain to help me. I'll coach them all I can,
+and I know they both have pitching stuff in them. I've made quite a
+study of pitching as an amateur. Some day I hope to be a professional,
+and I'm willing to tell Frank and Larry all I know."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed the chairman. "I think they'll take your offer.
+Well, we have now made one change. Are there any more that you think
+necessary?"
+
+It was rather a delicate question, for everyone knew what was meant. But
+the lads were saved from doing what most of them knew ought to be done.
+
+"Do I understand that Joe Matson is the regular pitcher on the school
+team?" asked the manager, sourly.
+
+"That seems to be the sentiment of the students, Shell," answered Dr.
+Rudden.
+
+"And without me, or the captain, having anything to say about it?"
+
+"You were out-voted, Shell."
+
+"Well, then all I've got to say is that I don't manage this nine any
+more!" fairly yelled Hiram. "There's my resignation, and it takes effect
+at once!" and, walking down the aisle he threw a folded paper on the
+table at which the professor sat.
+
+"Shall this resignation be accepted?" asked the chairman, amid a rather
+tense silence.
+
+"Yes!" came so quickly and with such volume that there was no doubt
+about the sentiment of the crowd. Perhaps Hiram had hoped that he would
+be asked to reconsider it, but if so he was disappointed. He walked back
+to where Luke sat. He leaned over the captain and said something in a
+whisper.
+
+"I'm not going to," replied Luke, loudly enough for all in the room to
+hear.
+
+"Go on!" ordered the bully. "If you don't, I'll----" and then his voice
+sank to a whisper again.
+
+"All right," assented Luke, and walking forward as his crony had done,
+he, too, tossed a paper on the table. "There's my resignation as captain
+and a member of the Excelsior baseball nine!" he exclaimed.
+
+There was a gasp of surprise from the crowd. Hiram and Luke both out! It
+was rather unexpected, but Tom and his friends felt elated. Now they
+would have a chance to play. It looked like the dawn of a brighter day
+for Excelsior Hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TWO OF A KIND
+
+
+"There is another resignation to act on," said Dr. Rudden, after a
+pause, and, somehow he did not seem half as worried over it as Luke
+had hoped he would be. "What shall we do with it?"
+
+"Take it!" exclaimed Tom, and it was accepted with a promptness that
+startled the former captain.
+
+"The action taken to-night makes it necessary to elect a new manager
+and a captain," went on the professor. "Perhaps the manager should be
+elected first. Whom will you have?"
+
+"Peaches Lantfeld," called some.
+
+"Teeter Nelson," said others.
+
+"George Bland! Sister Davis! Ward Gerard! Tommy Barton," called various
+lads. There were more nominations, but Peaches received the majority of
+votes, and was declared elected. Teeter was the first to congratulate
+him, and the others followed.
+
+"Now a captain," suggested the chairman.
+
+"Joe Matson!" yelled scores of voices.
+
+"No, I can't accept," cried Joe, jumping to his feet. "If I'm going to
+pitch I want to give all my time to that. I'm much obliged, but I
+decline."
+
+"I think it would not be wise to make your pitcher the captain,
+especially at this time," spoke Dr. Rudden. "The catcher is in a better
+position to captain a team, for he can see all the plays. You will have
+to have a new catcher, and----"
+
+"Ward Gerard!" called Joe. "He's caught for me on the scrub, and----"
+
+"Ward! Ward Gerard!" Scores of lads took up the calling of his name. He
+was very popular, and was elected in a minute, while Hiram and Luke,
+followed by Jake Weston, filed from the room in plainly-shown disgust,
+sneers on their faces.
+
+Nothing more remained to do save to have a conference of the new captain
+and manager, to arrange for future practice and playing. This was soon
+done, and Ward told the lads to report early the next Monday afternoon,
+when they would play the scrub, which organization had also to select a
+new captain and pitcher, as well as catcher.
+
+"Now, all I want is to get Tom Davis on the school nine, and I'll be
+happy," said Joe to Peaches and Teeter, as the meeting broke up.
+
+"I think you can," declared Teeter. "Jake Weston is going to get out, I
+hear, and Tom will fit in. Charlie Borden can take Jake's place at short
+and Tom can play first, which he's used to. Oh, I guess old Excelsior
+Hall has come into her own again, and we'll make some of these other
+teams sit up and take notice."
+
+And Jake did resign, following the example of his two cronies. This made
+a place for Tom, and he promptly filled it.
+
+There was a snap and a vim to the playing of the school nine when they
+first went at it with the changed players, that fairly took the breath
+out of the scrub. Of course that unfortunate collection of players was
+weakened by the withdrawal of Joe, Ward and Tom, but even with players
+of equal strength it is doubtful if they could have held the school nine
+down.
+
+Joe and his mates struck a winning streak, and the young pitcher never
+was better than in that practice game on Monday afternoon.
+
+"Joe's pitching his head off," observed Tom Davis, and when Ward missed
+holding one or two particular "hot" ones he thought the same thing. The
+school team won a decisive victory.
+
+"But that doesn't mean we will beat Trinity on Saturday," said Peaches,
+the new manager. "Don't begin to take it easy, fellows. And then follows
+the second game in the series with Morningside. We've got to get that or
+those boys will think they've gotten into the habit of beating us."
+
+"We'll trim 'em both!" cried Tom.
+
+"Sure," assented Joe. It was like old times now, he reflected, he and
+Tom together on a team as they had been on the Silver Stars. The only
+thing that worried Joe was the theft of his father's papers and patent
+models. He knew it would mean a serious loss to his parents, and Joe was
+rather in fear that he might have to leave boarding school.
+
+"If I have to go away, I hope it won't be until after I have helped win
+back the Blue Banner," he confided to Tom.
+
+"Oh, don't worry," advised his chum; and a few days later Joe received a
+letter from home, telling him the same thing.
+
+Mr. Matson wrote that whereas the loss would badly cripple him, yet he
+did not want Joe to worry.
+
+The game with Trinity was a source of delight to the Excelsior team.
+Their rivals came to the diamond battlefield eager for a victory, and
+they worked hard for it, but the new combination was too much for them.
+When the final run was chalked up the score stood:
+
+Excelsior Hall, 11; Trinity, 4.
+
+"That's what we want to do to Morningside," said Tom.
+
+"And we will!" predicted Joe.
+
+They had hard practice before the second game with their ancient
+rivals--for Morningside was a foe whom Excelsior Hall was always eager
+to beat. In the series for the possession of the Blue Banner she had
+three games with Morningside and a like number with the other teams in
+the league.
+
+It was the day of the second Morningside game, and it was to take place
+on the Excelsior diamond. The weather could not have been better. Spring
+was just merging into Summer, and the lads were on their mettle. There
+had been a big improvement in their playing, and they were ready to do
+battle to a finish.
+
+Luke and Hiram had not been much in evidence since their resignations.
+They occasionally came to a game, or to practice, but they made sneering
+remarks, and few of the students had anything to do with them. It was
+quite a jolt for Hiram, used as he was to running matters to suit
+himself.
+
+The crowd began arriving early at the Excelsior diamond, for word had
+gone around that it was to be a game for "blood," and both teams were
+on edge. If Excelsior had improved, so had Morningside. They had
+strengthened their men by long, hard practice, and they were confident
+of victory.
+
+Joe and Tom had expected before this to hear something about their old
+enemy, Sam Morton, at Morningside, but the former pitcher for the Silver
+Stars was seldom mentioned. However, it was learned that he was to
+substitute in the Morningside-Excelsior game.
+
+Out on the diamond trotted the renovated Excelsior nine. They were
+received with a burst of applause, and at once got to practice. A little
+later out came their rivals, and there was a cheer for them. Immediately
+the opposition cheering and shouting contingents got busy, and there was
+a riot of sound.
+
+"Going to stay and see the game?" asked Luke of Hiram, as they entered
+the gate.
+
+"Yes, might as well. Gee! But I hope our fellows lose!"
+
+Nice sentiments, weren't they for an Excelsior student? But then Hiram
+was very sore and angry.
+
+"So do I," added Luke. "It would show them what a mistake they made by
+dropping us."
+
+"That's right," agreed the conceited Hiram. "If they had only waited
+we'd have come out all right. It was all the fault of Joe Matson and Tom
+Davis. I'll get square with 'em yet."
+
+They strolled over the grounds, winding in and out amid the throngs.
+They almost collided with a Morningside player.
+
+"Beg your pardon," murmured Luke. "Oh, it's Sam Morton," he added, for
+he had met Sam in town a week or so previously. "Have you met Hiram
+Shell, Sam," and he introduced the two.
+
+"Oh, yes, you're the manager of the Excelsiors," said Sam. "Glad to know
+you. I think we'll beat you again. I may pitch after the fifth inning.
+I'm only the sub now, but I expect to be the regular soon."
+
+"I _was_ manager," replied Hiram bitterly, "but Joe Matson and his crowd
+put up a game on me, and I resigned."
+
+"Joe Matson, eh? He's the same fellow who made a lot of trouble for me."
+
+"Excuse me," murmured Luke. "I see a friend of mine. I'm going to leave
+you for a minute."
+
+"All right," assented Hiram. "So Joe Matson made trouble for you, too,
+eh?" he went on to Sam, curiously.
+
+"Yes, he played a mean trick on me, and took my place as pitcher," which
+wasn't exactly true, as my old readers know. "I'd like to get square
+with him some way," concluded Sam.
+
+"Say, so would I!" exclaimed Hiram eagerly. "Shake hands on that. He's a
+low sneak, and he played a mean trick on me. I'd do anything to get
+even."
+
+"Maybe we can," suggested Sam.
+
+"How?"
+
+"Oh, lots of ways. Come on over here where no one will hear us. Maybe we
+can fix up some scheme on him. I'd give a good deal to get even."
+
+"So would I," added Hiram. "I wish I could get him off the nine, and out
+of the school."
+
+"I'll help you," proposed Sam eagerly; and then the two, who were very
+much of a kind when it came to disliking our hero, walked off,
+whispering together.
+
+"Play ball!" came the distant cry of the umpire, and the great
+Excelsior-Morningside game was about to start. But the plotters did
+not turn back to watch it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+BY A CLOSE MARGIN
+
+
+"Whew!" whistled Captain Elmer Dalton of the Morningside nine, as he
+greeted some of the lads against whom his team was to play, "you fellows
+have been making a lot of changes, haven't you?" and he looked at the
+several new members of the school team, including Joe and Tom.
+
+"Yes, a bit of house cleaning," replied Ward Gerard. "I am captain now.
+Hiram and Luke got out."
+
+"Yes, I heard there was some sort of a row."
+
+"Oh, I suppose it's all over the league by this time," put in Peaches.
+"But it couldn't be helped. It was like a dose of bitter medicine, but
+we took it, and I think it's going to do us good."
+
+"You mean _we're_ going to do you good," laughed Elmer. "We're going to
+trim you again to-day."
+
+"Not much!" cried Ward. "We'll win. Come now, a little wager between you
+and me--for the sodas, say."
+
+"You're on!" agreed Elmer. "Where's your batting list?"
+
+The two captains walked over to the scoring bench to arrange the details
+of the game. The two teams were made up as follows, this being the
+batting order:
+
+        EXCELSIOR--
+    George Bland      centre field
+    Dick Lantfeld       left field
+    Harry Nelson       second base
+    Nat Pierson         third base
+    Tom Davis           first base
+    Charles Borden       shortstop
+    Harry Lauter       right field
+    Joe Matson             pitcher
+    Ward Gerard            catcher
+
+        MORNINGSIDE--
+    Dunlap Spurr      centre field
+    Will Lee             shortstop
+    Wilson Carlburg     left field
+    Ted Clay               pitcher
+    Wallace Douglass       catcher
+    Elmer Dalton        first base
+    Walker Bromley      third base
+    Loftus Brown       second base
+    Harry Young        right field
+
+The Excelsiors were to bat last, and while the rival crowds of school
+boys were singing, cheering and giving their class yells, Joe Matson
+walked to the box for the second time as pitcher on the school nine in
+a big school league game. No wonder he felt a trifle nervous, but he did
+not show it, not even when some one yelled:
+
+"Look at the new pitcher they've got! We'll get his number all right."
+
+"Yes, we'll have his goat in about a minute!" added another Morningside
+partizan.
+
+"Go as far as you like," answered Joe with a smile.
+
+"Play ball!" yelled the umpire, and Joe faced the first batter, Dunlap
+Spurr, who had the reputation of being a heavy hitter. Ward signalled
+for a low one, for he knew that Dunlap had a tendency to hit over such a
+ball. Joe nodded his head to show that he understood, and the next
+moment the horsehide went speeding toward the plate.
+
+The batter swung viciously at it but--missed. He had gone half a foot
+over it.
+
+"Strike!" cried the umpire.
+
+"Make him give you a pretty one!" called Elmer. "He will if you wait."
+
+"He won't have long to wait," retorted our hero. This time he decided to
+send one over the corner of the plate, as he noticed that Dunlap had a
+free swing. Joe hoped he would strike at it and miss, and that was
+exactly what happened.
+
+"Strike two!" howled the umpire, and there followed a gasp of dismay.
+Dunlap was not in the habit of doing this, and he rather scowled. Joe
+smiled.
+
+"One more and we'll have him down!" called the catcher.
+
+"Where'd you get the pitcher?" asked a Morningside wit.
+
+"Oh, we had him made to order," replied Tom Davis, who was anxiously
+waiting on first.
+
+Joe hoped he could make it three straight strikes, but his next was
+called a ball, and the Morningside supporters let out a yell of
+gratification.
+
+"There's his glass arm showing! He's going to pieces!" they yelled. Joe
+shut his jaw grimly. He was going to fool the batter if possible, and
+the next ball he sent in was a puzzling inshoot.
+
+Instinctively Dunlap started away from the plate, but he need not have
+moved, for the ball, with a neat little twist, passed him at a safe
+distance, and at a point where he could almost have hit it had he tried.
+But he did not move his bat, and an instant later the umpire called:
+
+"Three strikes--batter out!"
+
+Then indeed was there a gasp of dismay and protest from the big crowd of
+Morningside sympathizers, and the visiting nine.
+
+"Say," began Dunlap Spurr, "that was never----"
+
+"You dry up!" commanded his captain with a laugh. "It was a peach of a
+ball, and you ought to have hit it. Don't begin that way. We can beat
+'em without that. Good work, Matson, but you can't keep it up. Come on,
+Lee; you're up next. Carlburg on deck."
+
+Joe was immensely pleased, but he knew it was only the beginning of the
+battle. He got two strikes on Lee and that player began to get worried.
+Then, after one ball, Lee hit the next one for a pop fly that Joe hardly
+had to step out of his box to get.
+
+"Two down, play for all you're worth, Joe," called Ward; but Joe needed
+no such urging. However, something went wrong. Either Joe did not have
+as good control, speed or curving ability as when he had started in, or
+the next players found him. At any rate Carlburg knocked a dandy two
+bagger, and Ted Clay, who followed, duplicated the trick. Carlburg came
+in with the first run of the game, amid a riot of noise, and when
+Wallace Douglass hit safely to first, Clay got to third, coming in with
+the second run a little later, when Captain Dalton also singled.
+
+"We've got 'em going! We've got 'em going!" yelled the delighted
+Morningside crowd, and it did seem so. Joe felt that he must tighten
+up, and strike out the next man, or all would be lost.
+
+He glanced at the bench, where the jubilant Morningside players were
+sitting, all regarding him sharply. It was a supreme test. Then Joe
+caught the eyes of some one else on him. The eyes of Sam Morton, his old
+enemy.
+
+It was like a dash of cold water. For the time being he had forgotten
+that Sam was the substitute pitcher on the visiting team, but had Joe
+seen him and Hiram in close consultation a little while previously, our
+hero would have had reason long to remember it.
+
+"I'll show 'em I am still in the ring!" Joe murmured, and when he wound
+up for his next delivery he knew that he had himself well in hand again.
+
+"Come on now, bring us all in!" urged Captain Dalton, when Walker
+Bromley got up to the plate. "He'll walk you, and then Loftus and Harry
+will have a show. We'll have the whole team up."
+
+It began to look so, for already seven of the nine had been at bat. Joe
+might have wasted time trying to nail some lad who was playing too far
+off base, but he did not. Instead he sized up Bromley and sent him a
+swift one. The batter struck at it and missed. The next ball was called
+a strike, and attention was at fever heat. Would Walker hit it?
+
+The question was answered in the negative a moment later, for he swung
+at it with all his force and fanned the air.
+
+"Out!" called the umpire, and the side was retired. But Morningside had
+two runs, and the way Joe had been hit by four men did not augur well
+for Excelsior's chances.
+
+"Oh, we'll do 'em!" said Ward, with more confidence than he felt.
+
+"I hope they pound Joe out of the box," murmured Hiram to Luke.
+
+"So do I," said the former catcher.
+
+Excelsior hoped for great things when it came her turn at stick-work,
+but alas for hopes! A series of happenings worked against her. George
+Bland rapped out as pretty a two bagger as one could wish, but he tried
+to steal third, slipped on a pebble when almost safe, and was thrown
+out. Peaches Lantfeld knocked a sharp grounder that looked almost
+certain to get past the shortstop; and it did, but the third baseman,
+who was a rattling good player, nabbed it and Peaches went down.
+
+"Now, Teeter!" called Ward. "See what you can do."
+
+Teeter got to first on a muffed fly, and it was Nat Pierson's turn. Nat
+could usually be depended on, but this time he could not. He fanned
+twice and the third time got two fouls in succession.
+
+"Well, we're finding the ball, anyhow," said Ward cheerfully. "Kill it
+next time, Nat, and give Sister Davis a show."
+
+Nat tried to, but he knocked an easy fly, which the pitcher gathered in,
+and the opportunity of the Excelsior nine was over for that inning. A
+big goose egg went up in their frame. Score: 2--0, in favor of the
+visitors.
+
+Joe took a long breath when he went into the box again, and facing
+Loftus Brown, struck him out in such short order that his friends began
+to breathe easier again. The game was far from lost, and as long as Joe
+did not allow his "goat" to be gotten, Excelsior might win yet. Then
+Harry Young, probably the poorest batter the visitors had, fanned thrice
+successively, and it was Dunlap Spurr's turn again. Joe knew just what
+to give him, and when he struck him out, after two foul strikes had been
+made, the crowd set up a yell.
+
+The visitors did not get a run in their half of the second, and once
+more Excelsior had a show. Tom Davis singled, got around to third when
+Charlie Borden knocked a two-bagger, and slid home in a close play when
+Harry Lauter was thrown out at first. There was only one gone when Joe
+came to bat, and one run had come in. Joe knocked a safety, or at
+least it looked as if it was going to be that, but the shortstop, by a
+magnificent jump into the air, nabbed it, and then came as pretty a
+double play as had ever taken place on that diamond. Joe was put out and
+Charlie Borden, who had been hugging third, was caught at home, for he
+was not a fast runner.
+
+That retired the side, and there was only one run to match the two which
+Morningside had. Still it was something, and the home team began to take
+heart.
+
+Then began what was one of the most remarkable games in the series. Joe
+did not allow a hit in the first half of the third inning and the
+Excelsiors got one run, tying the score. In the fourth the visitors
+pulled a single tally down, putting them one ahead, and then, just to
+show what they could do, the home team knocked out two, gaining an
+advantage of one.
+
+The crowd was wild with delight at the clean playing, for both teams
+were on their mettle, and the rival pitchers were delivering good balls.
+But the fifth inning nearly proved a Waterloo for our friends. The
+Morningsides got four runs, which made Joe groan inwardly in anguish,
+for he was severely pounded.
+
+"Maybe you'd better let Brown or Akers go in," he suggested to Ward.
+
+"Not on your life!" cried the captain. "You are all right. It was just a
+slip. Hold hard and we'll do 'em."
+
+Joe held hard, and there was a little encouragement when his team got
+one run, making the score at the ending of the fifth inning seven to
+five in favor of the Morningside team.
+
+Once more in the opening of the sixth Joe did the trick. He allowed but
+one single, and then three men fanned in succession, while, just to make
+things more than ever interesting, the Excelsiors got two runs, again
+tying the score.
+
+"Say, we'll have to wake up if we're going to wallop these fellows,"
+confided the visiting captain to his lads. "They have certainly improved
+a lot by getting Hiram and Luke out."
+
+"Oh, we'll do 'em," predicted Ted Clay, the pitcher.
+
+From then on the Excelsiors fairly "played their heads off," and they
+ought to have done much better than they did when their hard work was
+taken into consideration. But there were many weak spots that might
+in the future be eliminated by good coaching, and Joe needed harder
+practice.
+
+But in every inning thereafter the home team got at least one run, save
+only in the seventh. In their half of the sixth they got two, as I have
+said, and though the visitors got one in their half of the seventh,
+again making the score one in their favor, in the eighth our friends got
+three, while the visitors got only two. So that at the close of the
+eighth the score was: Excelsior, 10; Morningside 10.
+
+"A tie! A tie!" cried hundreds of voices. Indeed it had pretty nearly
+been a tie game all the way through, and it might go to ten innings or
+more.
+
+"We've got to beat 'em!" declared Captain Ward. "Joe, whitewash 'em this
+inning, and in the next we'll get the winning run."
+
+"I'll do it!" confidently promised the young pitcher, and he did. He was
+tossing the ball according to his old form again, and not a man landed
+his stick on it during the first half of the ninth. Then, as the home
+team came up for their last whacks (except in the event of the score
+being a tie), they were wildly greeted by their schoolmates.
+
+"One run to beat 'em! Only one!" yelled the crowd.
+
+"I guess it's all up with us," remarked the visiting captain to his men,
+as they took the field. "They're bound to get that one."
+
+"Not if I can help it!" exclaimed the pitcher fiercely.
+
+And it looked as if he was going to make good his boast, for he struck
+out two men in quick order. And then up came Tom Davis.
+
+"Swat it, Tom. Swat it!" was the general cry. "Bring in a home run!"
+
+"Watch me," he answered grimly.
+
+Two strikes were called on him, and two balls. There was a nervous
+tension on everyone, for, unless Tom made good, the game would have to
+go another inning, when all sorts of possibilities might happen.
+
+Ping!
+
+That was the mighty sound of Tom's bat landing on the ball. Away sailed
+the horsehide--up and away, far over the head of the centre fielder, who
+raced madly after it.
+
+"Go on! Go on!"
+
+"Run, you swatter, run!"
+
+"A homer! A homer!"
+
+These cries greeted and encouraged Tom as he legged it for first base.
+On and on he went, faster and faster, rounding the initial bag, going on
+to second and then to third. The centre fielder had the ball now, but he
+would have to relay it in. He threw as Tom left third.
+
+"Come on! Come on!" yelled Joe, jumping up and down.
+
+"If you don't bring in that run I'll never speak to you again!" shouted
+Ward.
+
+The crowd was in a frenzy. Men and women were standing up on the seats,
+some jumping up and down, others yelling at the tops of their voices,
+and some pounding each other on the back in their excitement.
+
+On and on ran Tom, but he was getting weary now. The second baseman had
+the ball and was swinging his arm back to hurl it home. But Tom was
+almost there now, and he slid over the plate a full two seconds ere the
+ball landed in the catcher's big mitt.
+
+"Safe!" howled the umpire.
+
+"And we win the game!" yelled Joe, as he raced over to Tom and slapped
+him on the back, an example followed by so many others that poor Tom
+nearly lost his breath. "You won the game for us, Tom!"
+
+"Nonsense! If you hadn't held 'em down by your pitching, Joe, my run
+wouldn't have done any good."
+
+"That's right!" cried the others, and it was so. Excelsior Hall had won
+the second of the big games with her ancient rival, though it was by the
+narrow margin of one run.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE OVERTURNED STATUE
+
+
+"Three cheers for the Excelsiors!" cried the visiting captain, swinging
+his hat around in the air as a signal to his crowd, after the excitement
+had somewhat calmed. "Three good cheers, boys! They beat us fair and
+square! Three big cheers!"
+
+And how they rang out! And how also rang out the return cheers, which
+Joe and his mates rendered. Never had applause sounded sweeter in the
+ears of our hero, for it seemed that the school nine had now begun to
+live in better days, since the dismissal of Hiram and Luke.
+
+Joe kept at his pitching practice, and he himself knew, even had others,
+including Tom, not told him, that he was doing well.
+
+"You're better than when you pitched for the Silver Stars," said Tom,
+"and you were no slouch then."
+
+"Yes, I think I _am_ more sure of myself," admitted Joe. "And I've got
+more speed and better curves." It was natural that he should have. He
+was growing taller and stronger that Summer, and he had most excellent
+practice. He had not given up the idea of becoming a professional
+pitcher, and everything he could do tended that way for him.
+
+He had heard nothing more definite from home, but Mr. Matson said he was
+still trying to trace the stolen models and papers.
+
+"I'll help you when vacation time comes," said Joe in a letter. "But I'm
+playing ball for all I'm worth now."
+
+"Keep at it," his father wrote back.
+
+There were many games played that season by Excelsior Hall--many more
+than the previous Summer--for Spring had now given place to warm
+weather. The school term was drawing to a close, but there were still
+many more games to play in the league series.
+
+In succession Excelsior met and defeated Trinity, the Lakeview Preps.
+and Woodside Hall. She was near the top of the list now, though
+Morningside was quite a way in advance. It looked as if eventually there
+would be a tie for first place between the old rivals--a tie for the
+possession of the Blue Banner, and if there was it meant a great final
+game. Joe looked forward to it with mingled fear and hope.
+
+"How I hate him!" exclaimed Hiram to his crony, Luke, one day after a
+close game, when Joe's pitching had won again for Excelsior. "I wish I
+could get him out of the school, or off the nine, or something."
+
+"Why don't you? I thought you and Sam Morton had some scheme."
+
+"We thought so, too, but it fell through. But I've thought of something
+else, and if you and Sam will help me carry it out, I think we can put
+it all over that fresh guy."
+
+"Sure, I'll help; what is it?"
+
+"First we've got to get hold of something belonging to him--his knife,
+if it's got his name on; a letter addressed to him, that he's opened and
+read; a handkerchief with his name on; anything that would show he'd
+been in a certain place at a certain time."
+
+"Suppose we do?"
+
+"Leave the rest to Sam and me, if you can get us something."
+
+"I'll do it!" promised Luke. "I'm on the same corridor with Joe now; I
+changed my room, you know. I shouldn't wonder but what I could sneak in
+and get something belonging to him."
+
+"Do it, then. I've got a date with Sam, and I'll go see him. See if you
+can get something this afternoon or evening, and if you can we'll do
+it."
+
+"I will," and the two plotters parted, the chief one to keep an
+appointment with Joe's enemy. Sam's hatred against our hero was
+increased because Sam was not allowed to pitch for his own team.
+
+"I've got to keep Ted Clay in condition, so that when we meet Excelsior
+again he'll be on edge," said Captain Dalton of the Morningsides. "That
+Matson is a wonder and we can't take any chances. I don't dare risk
+letting you pitch."
+
+"That's another one I owe to Joe!" muttered Sam. "I must certainly get
+even with him. Hiram and I ought to pull off something," and then he
+sent word to the Excelsior bully. That afternoon the three conspirators,
+with guilty looks, met in a secluded place and talked over their plans.
+
+There was a knock on Joe's door. His chum Tom had gone out that evening
+to a lecture, and our hero was all alone.
+
+"Come!" called Joe, and from down the corridor Luke Fodick peered out of
+his slightly-opened door to see what was going on.
+
+"Here's a telegram for you," said one of the school messengers, handing
+in a yellow envelope.
+
+"A telegram for me," murmured Joe. "It must be from dad. I may have to
+send an answer. Did the messenger wait?"
+
+"No, he's gone."
+
+"All right, if I do have to wire, perhaps I can get permission to go in
+to town to do it."
+
+Quickly Joe tore open the message. It was brief, and it was from his
+father.
+
+"Understand Holdney is somewhere near Cedarhurst," the message read.
+"Keep a lookout, and if you get trace notify police there at once.
+Arrest on larceny charge."
+
+"Rufus Holdney near here," murmured Joe. "I must keep my eyes open. I'll
+wire dad at once, telling him I'm on the job."
+
+He hurried from his room, stuffing the telegram in his pocket as he
+went, and never noticing as he passed Luke's door that it fell out into
+the corridor.
+
+"I hope I can get permission to go to the telegraph office," mused Joe
+as he hastened to the office. "I guess the doctor will let me when I
+tell him what it's about."
+
+As Joe turned a corner out of sight, Luke sprang out, picked up the
+message and envelope, and exclaimed:
+
+"This will do the trick! Now to find Hiram and Sam."
+
+He hurried to tell his crony, who was being visited by Sam, and once
+more the three put their heads together, to work the ruin of our hero.
+
+Joe easily obtained permission to go to town to send his message. He was
+rather surprised on looking in his pocket for his father's telegram, not
+to find it, but concluded that he had left it in his room. He did not
+really need it, anyhow, as he knew the contents perfectly well.
+
+The telegraph office was closed when he reached it, but the operator
+lived near by, and agreed to open his place, and tick off the message.
+This delayed Joe, however, and he was rather late getting back to the
+school. He did not see a teacher to report to him, as he had been bidden
+to do, but hurried to his own room.
+
+He was tired and soon fell asleep, noting that Tom was already in bed
+and slumbering. Joe did not look for his lost message.
+
+There was a thundering knock at Joe's door the next morning. It awoke
+him and Tom.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Fire!"
+
+"Fire! No. Haven't you heard the news?" asked the voice of Peaches.
+"There's a big row on."
+
+"What's up?" demanded Tom, slipping out of bed, and opening the door.
+
+"The Founder Statue has been pulled from its base, and overturned!" said
+Teeter, who was with Peaches. "Look, you can see it from your window."
+
+Tom and Joe hastened to the casement to look. On the campus, not far
+from the school, stood a bronze statue of Dr. Theodore Whittleside, the
+original founder of the institution. It was a fine piece of work, the
+gift of several of the alumni societies, and was almost sacred. Now some
+ruthless hand had pulled it from its base, and part of one of the hands
+was broken off.
+
+For a moment Joe and Tom stood aghast, looking at it. Then the meaning
+of it came to them. Some sacrilegious student, or students, had done the
+deed.
+
+"There'll be a peach of a row over this!" declared Teeter. "Hurry up and
+get to chapel. Old Caesar is sure to spout a lot about it. It's sure
+dismissal for whoever did it."
+
+"And it ought to be!" exclaimed Joe wrathfully.
+
+"If they catch them," added Tom, thoughtfully. "I wonder who did it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ON PROBATION
+
+
+Joe did not get to chapel that morning. He was all ready to go with Tom
+and the others after making a hasty toilet, when a messenger came to the
+door.
+
+"Dr. Fillmore wants to see you in his office, Joe," said the messenger--a
+nice lad who did this work to help pay for his tuition.
+
+"Wants to see me--what for?" demanded our hero. "Are you sure that's
+right, Georgie?"
+
+"Sure, and a teacher's there with him. I'm not sure but I think it's
+something about the overthrown statue. I heard them mention it as they
+called me to go for you."
+
+"The overturned statue? I don't know anything about it!" exclaimed Joe.
+"I only just this moment saw it--from my window."
+
+"Well, the doctor wants you, anyhow," repeated the messenger lad. "You'd
+better go."
+
+"Oh, sure," assented Joe, and he started for the doctor's study with
+wonder in his heart and a puzzled and rather an ominous look on his
+face. His companions regarded him seriously.
+
+"What do you s'pose is in the wind?" asked Peaches.
+
+"Give it up," remarked Teeter. "Are _you_ on, Tom?"
+
+"Nary a bit. First I knew of it was when you fellows came and told me."
+
+"Was Joe out last night?" asked Peaches.
+
+"That's so, he did go into town," replied Tom. "He left a note to tell
+me--but that was all straight--he had permission. It can't be that."
+
+"Well, we'll hear in chapel," said Teeter.
+
+"Ah, it's you is it, Matson?" asked the doctor, as our hero entered the
+study. There was a curious note in the master's voice, and he glanced
+narrowly at Joe. "Come in. I am sorry to have to summon you on such an
+unpleasant and important matter, but I have no choice. As you probably
+know, the Founder's Statue was overturned last night."
+
+He looked questioningly at Joe.
+
+"I just saw it from my window," was the simple answer.
+
+"It was done last night," went on the doctor with a look at a teacher
+who acted as proctor. "It was a disgraceful, vile piece of vandalism.
+The guilty one will be severely punished. Doubtless you are wondering
+why we sent for you. It was on account of this, which was picked up by
+one of the janitors in front of the statue, when he discovered its
+fallen position this morning."
+
+Dr. Fillmore held out to Joe the telegram our hero had received from his
+father the night previous!
+
+"Is this yours?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Ye--yes, it came to me last night. It's from my father."
+
+"What did you do after you got it?"
+
+"Put it in my pocket and went out to answer it. I had permission from
+the proctor."
+
+"That is right," assented that official. "But I did not see you come
+in."
+
+"No, I was late. The telegraph office was not open, and I had to rouse
+the operator."
+
+"When did you last see this telegram?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I missed it soon after I started, but I concluded that I had dropped
+it," said Joe. Then it all came to him. The school authorities believed
+that the telegram had dropped out of his pocket when he was at the work
+of overturning the statue, in which vandalism he had no hand.
+
+"It was picked up near where the vile work went on," said the doctor
+bitterly. "It is evidence that even if you had no actual hand in the
+dastardly horseplay, that you might have witnessed it, and you can tell
+us who did it. That is what we now call on you to do, Matson. Tell us
+who did it."
+
+"But I don't know!" cried poor Joe. "I didn't see anything of it. I got
+in a little late, and went at once to my room. That telegram may have
+dropped from my pocket at any time, someone may have picked it up and
+put it--I mean dropped it--as they were passing the statue--either
+before or after it was pulled from the base."
+
+"That is hardly likely," said the doctor. "I am very sorry, Matson, but
+I must conclude that even if you had no hand in the vandalism, that you
+know who did it, or suspect."
+
+"But I don't!" cried Joe eagerly. "Someone may have put this telegram
+there to make it look----"
+
+He stopped in some confusion. He never had been a "squealer," and he was
+not going to begin now.
+
+"I think I know what you mean," said the proctor quietly. "You mean that
+some enemy of yours may have had an object in making it appear as if
+you had a hand in this work." He looked narrowly at Joe.
+
+"I--I, well, it might have happened that way."
+
+"And of the students here, whom would you regard as your enemy?" asked
+Dr. Fillmore quickly.
+
+"I--I--I must refuse to answer," said Joe firmly. "It would not be
+fair."
+
+"You mean you won't tell?"
+
+"I can't, Doctor. I haven't any right to assume that the telegram came
+there that way. I know that I didn't pass very near the statue, either
+on leaving or coming back to school. The message dropped from my pocket,
+I'm sure of that, but the wind may have blown it near the statue."
+
+"There was no wind last night," said the proctor severely.
+
+"Then--then----" stammered Joe.
+
+"That will do, Matson," said the doctor quietly, and there was sorrow in
+his voice. "I will not question you further. I am convinced that if you
+had no hand in the actual overturning of the statue, that you know
+something of how it was done, or who did it. Are you prepared to tell
+us?"
+
+"No, sir, I am not. I--can't."
+
+"I think I understand," said Dr. Fillmore. "Very well. Understand, we do
+not accuse you of anything, but under the circumstances I must put you
+on probation."
+
+"Probation?" murmured Joe.
+
+"Yes," added the proctor as the doctor turned away. "That means that you
+will not be allowed to leave the school grounds. You will report to your
+classes and lectures as usual, but you will not be allowed to take part
+in athletic contests."
+
+"Not--not baseball?" gasped Joe.
+
+"Not baseball," replied the proctor. "I am sorry, but that is the rule
+for one who is on probation. When you make up your mind to make a
+complete confession, and tell whom you saw at the work of tearing down
+the statue----"
+
+"But I didn't----" began Joe.
+
+"That will do," interrupted the proctor gently. "You are on probation
+until then. And you will not be allowed to play baseball."
+
+Joe felt his heart wildly thumping under his coat. Without a word he
+turned aside and went back to his room. And that is why he missed chapel
+that morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+LUKE'S CONFESSION
+
+
+The anticipation of Teeter, Peaches and the others that there would be a
+sensation in chapel that morning was borne out. Never, in all their
+experience, had the boys recalled Dr. Fillmore being more bitter in his
+denunciation of what he characterized as "sensational vandalism."
+
+He liked boys to have good, clean healthy fun, he said, and an occasional
+prank was not out of order, but this pulling the statue from its base
+passed all bounds. More and more bitter the good doctor became. Perhaps
+part of his feeling was due to the fact that the Founder had written a
+book on Caesar that the head of the school considered an authority, and
+you remember how fond Dr. Fillmore was of the writer of the
+"Commentaries."
+
+The boys looked at each other as the denunciation proceeded, and there
+were whispers of:
+
+"Who did it? Why doesn't he name some one?"
+
+The doctor came to that part in a moment.
+
+"We are unable to say who perpetrated this act of sensational vandalism,"
+he went on, "but I may say that once the students are discovered they
+will be instantly dismissed from Excelsior Hall--this is no place for
+them. I say we do not know who did it, but we have reason to suspect----"
+
+Here the good doctor paused and there was an uneasy movement among
+several lads.
+
+"We have reason to suspect that some one knows who did it, but will not
+tell. I am sorry to say that we have been obliged to inflict the usual
+punishment on this--ahem--student and he is now on probation. The usual
+exercises will now be held."
+
+They went on, but it is doubtful if the lads were in a very devotional
+spirit. Joe's absence was at once noted, and of course it was guessed
+why he was not there, though being on probation did not bar one from
+chapel or classes.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Tom, when they were on their way to first lectures.
+"It's Joe! Who'd ever dream it?"
+
+"So that's why he was wanted in the office," added Peaches.
+
+"I don't believe he had a thing to do with it!" declared Teeter
+vehemently.
+
+"Of course not!" chorused the other two.
+
+"But they evidently think he does," went on Tom. "Here he comes now;
+let's ask him."
+
+"Say, what does it all mean anyhow?" inquired Teeter when he had warmly
+clasped Joe's hand.
+
+The young pitcher told of the finding of the telegram, and its result.
+
+"But, hang it all, that's no evidence!" burst out Tom.
+
+"The doctor thinks so," replied Joe grimly.
+
+"Some one who has a grudge against you--Say!" exclaimed Teeter with
+a sudden change of manner. "I'll bet it was Luke or Hiram who did
+it--pulled the statue down and then tried to blame it on you."
+
+"Sure!" chorused Tom and Peaches.
+
+"Wait!" cried Joe. "It's bad enough for me to be suspected of knowing
+something that I don't, but we can't go to accusing even Hiram or Luke
+on mere guesswork. It won't do."
+
+"But hang it all, man!" cried Peaches. "You _can't play ball_."
+
+"No," answered Joe quietly.
+
+"And the league season is closing! How are we going to win without you
+in the box?"
+
+"You'll have to--that's all. Brown or Akers will have to twirl--they're
+pretty good at it now."
+
+There were sorrowful shakes of the heads, but so it had to be. It may
+well be imagined that there was a sensation in Excelsior Hall when it
+was known that Joe was the one on probation, and he was urged by more
+than one to tell all he knew, no matter on whose shoulders the guilt
+would fall.
+
+"But I don't know!" he insisted again and again. "And it wouldn't be
+fair to guess."
+
+The days went on. Frank Brown was tried out in the box and did fairly
+well, thanks to the efficient coaching Joe had given him. Excelsior even
+won a game with him twirling, though by a narrow margin, and against a
+weak team.
+
+But there were dubious shakes of the heads of the students--especially
+those on the team--when they thought of the games to come--the important
+final with Morningside. Still there was no help for it, and Brown and
+Akers redoubled their practice in anticipation.
+
+There was no objection to Joe practicing, or in coaching the two
+substitute pitchers, and he did this every day. Our hero did not write
+home about the disgrace that had come so undeservedly upon him, merely
+telling general news, and assuring his father that he had kept a
+lookout, and made inquiries, but had neither seen nor heard anything of
+Mr. Holdney.
+
+Meanwhile the affairs of Mr. Matson--due to the theft of the
+models--were in anything but good shape. Still nothing could be done.
+
+Joe bitterly felt his position. So did his chums, and they even tried
+their hand at amateur detective work, endeavoring to discover who had
+pulled down the statue and put Joe's telegram where it had been found.
+That it was put there was certain, for Joe, on the night in question,
+had not gone near the statue. In the meanwhile the bronze had been put
+back in place and repaired. Among the students there were those who
+thought they knew the guilty ones, but nothing definite was disclosed.
+
+The school term was drawing to an end. After the hard work of getting
+the ball team into shape for championship honors it was hard to see it
+begin to slip back. Yet this is what took place. Brown and Akers could
+not keep up the pace set by Joe, and several games were lost.
+
+By hard work, and more due to errors on the part of their opponents,
+Excelsior won victories over Trinity and the preparatory school. This
+made her percentage just high enough so that if she should win from
+Morningside in the final game the Blue Banner would come to her. But
+could Excelsior win? That was what every lad there asked himself.
+
+It was rumored that Morningside was never in better shape. Ted Clay, the
+pitcher, was twirling in great form it was said, and Sam Morton, as
+substitute, was sure to go in for several innings in the final contest.
+
+"They say he's a wonder for a short time," Peaches confided to Joe.
+
+"He is," frankly admitted our hero. "I know his style. He can't last,
+but he's good for part of a game. With him and Ted against us I'm afraid
+it's all up with our chances."
+
+"Oh, Joe, if you could only play!"
+
+"I want to as much as you want me, Peaches, but it's out of the
+question."
+
+"Maybe if we were to put it up to the doctor--that we would lose the
+Blue Banner without you--he'd let you play."
+
+"I couldn't play that way, Peaches--under a ban. I want vindication--or
+nothing."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so--only it's hard."
+
+At last came the night before the final game with Morningside. There
+was a spirit of unrest and a sense of impending disaster abroad in
+Excelsior. Every student was talking of it, even Hiram and Luke. The
+latter, for some days past had not been his usual self, and his crony
+could not understand it.
+
+"What's the matter with you, anyhow?" Hiram asked. "Aren't you glad we
+did that chump Matson up good and brown?"
+
+"Oh, well, I don't know," answered Luke slowly. "I didn't think it would
+mean that we'd lose the Blue Banner."
+
+"How do you know we are going to lose it?"
+
+"Of course we are. Morningside will win, with no good pitcher to hold
+her down, and Joe is a good pitcher, no matter what hand he had in
+getting us out of the nine. I'm sorry I got out anyhow. I'd like to be
+on it now."
+
+"You're sorry?" gasped Hiram.
+
+"Yes, I wouldn't have resigned only you made me."
+
+"_I_ made you! Say, what's eating you, anyhow? You were as hot against
+Matson and his crowd as I was."
+
+"No, I wasn't, and while we're on this subject I'll tell you another
+thing. I'm mighty sorry I had a hand in that statue business."
+
+"You didn't do anything--Sam and I yanked it down."
+
+"I know, but I put Joe's telegram there--I'm responsible for him being
+on probation, so he can't play to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, you are; eh?" sneered Hiram. "Then you'd better go tell the doctor
+that."
+
+"By Jove I will!" suddenly exclaimed Luke with a change of manner. "I
+haven't had a decent night's sleep since I did it. I am going to tell. I
+can't stand it any longer. I want to see Excelsior win the Blue Banner.
+I'm going to tell the doctor!"
+
+"Hold on!" Hiram fairly hissed. "If you squeal I'll make it so hot for
+you that you'll wish you'd never seen me--and so will Sam."
+
+"I'm not afraid! Besides I'm not going to tell on you--only on myself.
+I'll say I put the telegram there. The doctor can think what he likes
+about who pulled down the statue. He can put me on probation for I won't
+tell, but it doesn't matter, for I don't play ball. But that will let
+Joe play, and it's not too late for him to get in shape--in fact, he's
+at top notch, for I saw him practice to-day. I'm going to tell, and you
+can do as you like, Hiram."
+
+"I say you shan't tell. I'll----"
+
+But Luke slipped from Hiram's room, where the talk had been going on,
+and made his way to the doctor's office.
+
+Dr. Fillmore, as may well be imagined, was surprised to see Luke at that
+late hour, for it was past eleven. He laid aside a book on the immortal
+Caesar, looked over his glasses at the conscience-stricken lad, and asked
+in his kind voice:
+
+"Well, Fodick, what is it?"
+
+"I--I--Doctor Fillmore, I've come to--confess. I put that telegram by
+the statue. Joe Matson didn't do it. He dropped it--I picked it up. He
+had nothing to do with pulling down the statue and doesn't know who did
+it. But he's got to play ball to-morrow or we'll lose the Blue Banner
+again. I'm the guilty one, Doctor--not of pulling the statue down--I
+won't tell who did that, no matter what you do to me. But I want Joe to
+play. Oh, I--I couldn't stand it any longer. I haven't slept,
+and--and----"
+
+Poor Luke burst into a fit of weeping--hot, passionate tears of real
+sorrow--the best thing he had done in many a long day--and Dr. Fillmore,
+understanding a boy's heart as few heads of schools do, put his big arm
+over Luke's shoulder. Thus was the confession made, and of its effect
+you shall soon hear.
+
+That night Luke slept soundly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+A GLORIOUS VICTORY
+
+
+It was the morning of the day of the big game--the final contest between
+Morningside and Excelsior for the possession of the Blue Banner. So far
+the two nines were tied as regards their percentage of victories, and
+the banner would go to whoever won the diamond battle on this occasion.
+
+Dr. Fillmore, after hearing Luke's confession, had sent a messenger to
+Joe's room with instructions to see if our hero and Tom were asleep. The
+apartment was in darkness and quiet reigned when the messenger listened,
+so he reported that both lads were slumbering. But he was not altogether
+right, for Joe tossed restlessly on his pillow and thought bitterly of
+the morrow.
+
+"Well, as long as he is asleep," remarked the good doctor to the coach
+whom he had summoned, "we won't tell him the good news until to-morrow.
+He'll need his rest if he is to pitch against Morningside."
+
+"Then you're going to remove the probation ban, Dr. Fillmore?" asked Dr.
+Rudden eagerly.
+
+"Of course. I shall make the announcement at chapel, and wish Matson and
+the others of the nine all success."
+
+"And you don't yet know who pulled down the statue?"
+
+"No. It was manly of Fodick to confess, and though I shall have to
+suspend him, of course, I didn't even ask him to inform on the guilty
+ones. I really couldn't, you know."
+
+"No, I suppose not. But I'm glad Joe is going to play. I think we shall
+win."
+
+"I hope so," murmured Dr. Fillmore.
+
+The surprise and gratification of the students may easily be surmised
+when the next morning at chapel, Dr. Fillmore made his announcement,
+stating that Joe had been on probation under a misapprehension, and that
+now the ban was removed he could play ball.
+
+"And I hope that he and the others of the nine play their very best,"
+concluded the head of the school, "and win!"
+
+There was a spontaneous cheer, and neither the doctor nor any of the
+teachers took the trouble to stop it. Joe's face was burning red, his
+heart was thumping like a trip hammer, but he was the happiest lad in
+school.
+
+"Oh, it's great! Glorious! I can't talk! Whoop!" yelled Teeter, once out
+of chapel, as he balanced himself on his toes.
+
+"Say, old man, it's too good to be true!" cried Peaches, yelling and
+capering about until his usually fair complexion was like that of a
+beet.
+
+"We'll make Morningside look like thirty cents!" declared Tom.
+
+"Come on, you and Ward get in all the practice you can," ordered
+Peaches.
+
+The game was to be played on the Morningside diamond, this having been
+decided by lot, the choice having fallen to the rivals of Excelsior.
+
+"Well, we'll beat 'em on their own grounds!" declared Peaches, when he
+and the others of the nine, with some substitutes, and a host of
+"rooters" and supporters, departed for the contest.
+
+What a crowd was there to see! What hosts of pretty girls! Men and
+women, too; old graduates, students from both schools, many from other
+schools in the league, for this was the wind-up of the season.
+
+Out on the diamond trotted the Morningside nine, to be greeted with a
+roar of cheers. They began practice at once, and it was noticed that
+Sam Morton was "warming up."
+
+"They're going to use two pitchers all right," observed Tommy Barton.
+"Guess they heard that Joe was going to be on deck again."
+
+A noisy welcome awaited the Excelsior nine as they trotted out, and
+they, too, began batting and catching practice. Then, after a little
+delay and the submitting of batting orders, the details were completed,
+and once again the umpire gave his stirring call:
+
+"Play ball!"
+
+Morningside was to bat last and so George Bland was the first of the
+Excelsior players to face Pitcher Clay. The two nines were the same as
+had met a few weeks previously.
+
+"Play ball!" called the umpire again, and the game was on.
+
+It was a memorable battle. They talk of it to this day at Excelsior and
+Morningside. For three innings neither side got a run, goose eggs going
+up in regular succession until, as is generally the case "pitchers'
+fight" began to be heard spoken on the stands and side lines. And truly
+it was rather that way. Both Joe Matson and Ted Clay were at their best,
+and man after man fanned the air helplessly, or stood while the umpire
+called strikes on them.
+
+But there had to be a break, and it came in the fourth inning. In their
+half of that Excelsior again had to retire without a run, and the four
+circles looked rather strange on the score board.
+
+Then something happened. Joe was delivering a puzzling drop, but his
+hand slipped, the curve broke at the wrong moment and the batter hit it
+for three bases. That looked like the beginning of the end for a little
+while, as the Morningside lads seemed to have struck a winning streak
+and they had three runs to their credit when Joe, after having struck
+two men out, caught a hot liner himself and retired the third man.
+
+"Three to nothing," murmured Captain Ward as his men came in to bat
+again. "It looks bad--looks bad."
+
+"That will only give us an appetite," declared Joe. "You'll see," and
+it did seem as if he were a prophet, for the rivals of Morningside,
+evidently on desperation bent, "found" Ted Clay, rapped out five runs,
+putting them two ahead, and then the crowd went wild.
+
+So did Joe and his mates. They fairly danced as they took the field
+again; danced and shouted, even jumping over each other in the
+exuberance of their joy.
+
+"We've got 'em going! We've got 'em going!" they yelled.
+
+Glumly, and almost in a daze, the Morningside players looked at the
+figures. Their rivals were two ahead in the fifth inning and Baseball
+Joe, the pitcher on whom so much depended, was "as fresh as a daisy,"
+as Tom declared.
+
+"But we haven't won the game by a whole lot!" warned Captain Ward to his
+enthusiastic lads. "Play hard--play hard!"
+
+Morningside managed to get one run in their half of the fifth, but when
+Excelsior came up for her stick-work again she easily demonstrated her
+superiority over the other lads. Four runs went to her credit, and only
+one to the rival team, and then, as Peaches said, "it was all over but
+the shouting."
+
+"The game is in the ice box now, all right," Teeter added.
+
+And so it was. Two runs for Excelsior in the seventh to one for her
+opponent; four in the eighth, while Joe held the enemy hitless in their
+half of that inning, brought the score to the tally of fifteen to six in
+favor of our friends.
+
+"Let's make it an even 20 fellows!" proposed Teeter when they came to
+have their last raps in the ninth. "We can do it!"
+
+"Sure!" his mates assured him, and it did seem possible, for Morningside
+appeared to have gone to pieces. Ted Clay was being batted all over the
+field, his support was poor, while the Morningside lads could not seem
+to find the ball.
+
+In desperation, that last inning, Sam Morton was sent in, and he faced
+Joe with a scowl on his face. But Sam could not stem the winning tide,
+and he was batted for five runs, making the even twenty.
+
+"Now, hold 'em down, Joe--don't let 'em get a run!" urged Teeter, when
+Morningside prepared to take her last chance to retrieve her falling
+fortunes.
+
+And Joe did. Amid a riot of cheers he struck three men out in quick
+succession, and a final goose egg went up in the last frame, the score
+reading:
+
+Excelsior, 20; Morningside, 6.
+
+"The Blue Banner is ours! The Blue Banner comes back where it belongs!"
+yelled Joe, and then, amid a silence, the banner was taken from in front
+of the Morningside stand, where it had flaunted in the breeze, and
+presented to Captain Ward Gerard, who proudly marched about the diamond
+with it at the head of his victorious lads.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+GOOD NEWS--CONCLUSION
+
+
+There were the usual cheers first by the victors and then by the
+vanquished, and it would be hard to say which were the heartiest. For
+Morningside was a good loser and next to a well-beaten rival, she loved
+a staunch victorious one.
+
+"You fellows certainly did us up good and proper--the worst beating we
+ever got," admitted Captain Dalton to Ward.
+
+"That's what we came here for," was the reply. "It was Joe's twirling
+that did it."
+
+"Get out!" cried the modest pitcher.
+
+"Yes, that certainly held us down," went on Dalton. "We couldn't seem
+to find you. I'll need some new pitchers next season, I guess, for you
+certainly batted Ted and Sam all over. But I'm not kicking. How are you
+fixed for next year, Joe? Don't you want to come to Morningside?" and he
+laughed.
+
+"I don't know," answered our hero. "I haven't quite made up my mind what
+I shall do. I'm going to play ball, I know that much, anyhow."
+
+"I should think you would--any fellow who can twirl the horsehide as you
+can. Well, might as well get off these togs," spoke Dalton. "I won't
+need 'em here any more this season, though I'm going to join some
+amateur team for the vacation if I can."
+
+The cheering and yelling kept up for some time; and then with the
+glorious Blue Banner, that meant so much to them in their possession,
+the Excelsior Hall lads started back for the school.
+
+"So you don't know what you are going to do next season, eh, Joe?" asked
+Tom, as he and his chum were riding back. "I thought you'd stick on
+here."
+
+"Well, I'd like to, first rate but I don't know how dad's business is
+going to be since this second robbery. I may have to leave school."
+
+"Oh, I hope not. So they haven't any trace of the missing papers and
+models?"
+
+"Not according to what I last heard. I'm going to get on the trail of
+that scamp, Holdney, this vacation, though."
+
+As might have been guessed, there was a big banquet for the baseball team
+that night. And such a spread as it was, held in the big gymnasium.
+Every player came in for his share of praise, and there was so much of it
+for Joe; and his health was drunk in soda and ginger ale so often that
+his complexion was like that of Peaches'--red and white by turns. But
+nearly everyone felt that he deserved all the nice things that were said
+about him, not only for his share in the victory, but for what he had
+suffered.
+
+There were two absentees at the banquet--and only two. One was Hiram
+Shell and the other Luke Fodick. Luke humbly told Dr. Fillmore that he
+thought it best to leave the school after what had happened. The good
+doctor thought so, too, for it would have been hard for Luke to live
+down what he had done.
+
+As for Hiram, he said nothing, but when he knew that Luke had made his
+confession, the bully, after using harsh language to his former crony,
+quietly packed his things and went also. He sent word to Sam, at
+Morningside, that "the jig" was up, and there was a pre-vacation vacancy
+on the books of that institution.
+
+It was never definitely stated who had pulled down the statue, but the
+withdrawal of Hiram, Luke and Sam was confession enough.
+
+It was in the midst of the banquet, when Joe had been called upon to
+respond to the toast, "The Baseball Nine," that a messenger was seen to
+enter with a telegram.
+
+"It's for Joe Matson," the boy announced loudly enough for all to hear.
+"Gee, but he's de stuff; eh? I'd like to shake hands wit a pitcher like
+dat! I'm goin' t' be one mysel' some day. Here's de tick-tick, sport,"
+and he passed the message to Joe, at the same time regarding our hero
+with worshipful eyes.
+
+Joe read the message at a glance, and a change came over his face.
+
+"No bad news, I hope," murmured Tom, who stood near him.
+
+"No, it's the very best!" cried the young pitcher, and he showed Tom the
+telegram. "I wired dad that we'd won the game," Joe stated.
+
+Mr. Matson said in his telegram:
+
+     "Best of congratulations. Models and papers recovered. Everything
+     all right."
+
+"Hurray!" yelled Tom, waving the message above his head. "Three cheers
+for Baseball Joe!" and, when the cheers had subsided he briefly informed
+his mates what the telegram meant to our hero. Mr. Matson would still
+retain his fortune, and probably make more money than ever out of his
+patents.
+
+"Gee! Dis is great!" murmured the diminutive messenger, as he listened
+to the cheers and watched the jolly crowd of students. "I wish I was
+studyin' here!"
+
+Joe shook the messenger's hand and left in it a crisp bill, to show his
+appreciation of the good news the lad had brought. And the toasting, the
+cheering and singing went on again.
+
+"Now you can continue your studies," said Tom to Joe.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," was the answer.
+
+"Maybe I'll even go to college."
+
+What were his further fortunes on the diamond I shall tell you in the
+next book of this series, to be called: "Baseball Joe at Yale; or
+Pitching for the College Championship." In that we shall see him in
+adventures as strenuous as any he had yet encountered.
+
+"One last song, fellows, and then we'll quit!" called Peaches. "I want
+you all to join with me in singing: 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow,' and
+by '_He_' I mean Joe Matson--Baseball Joe!"
+
+And as the strains of that ever-jolly, and yet somewhat sad, song are
+dying away, we will take our leave for a time of Baseball Joe and his
+friends.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES
+
+BY LESTER CHADWICK
+
+_12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS=
+ _or The Rivals of Riverside_
+
+Joe is an everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and
+particularly to pitch.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE=
+ _or Pitching for the Blue Banner_
+
+Joe's great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the school
+team.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE AT YALE=
+ _or Pitching for the College Championship_
+
+Joe goes to Yale University. In his second year he becomes a varsity
+pitcher and pitches in several big games.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE=
+ _or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher_
+
+In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale college to a
+baseball league of our central states.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE=
+ _or A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggles_
+
+From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. A
+corking baseball story all fans will enjoy.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS=
+ _or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis_
+
+How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay in the box
+makes an interesting baseball story.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES=
+ _or Pitching for the Championship_
+
+The rivalry was of course of the keenest, and what Joe did to win the
+series is told in a manner to thrill the most jaded reader.
+
+
+ =BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD= (_New_)
+ _or Pitching on a Grand Tour_
+
+The Giants and the All-Americans tour the world, playing in many foreign
+countries.
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers    New York
+
+
+
+
+THE Y. M. C. A. BOYS SERIES
+
+By BROOKS HENDERLEY
+
+=_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid._=
+
+
+_This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake boys' club of the Y.
+M. C. A., full of good times and every-day, practical Christianity.
+Clean, elevating and full of fun and vigor, books that should be read by
+every boy._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ =THE Y. M. C. A. BOYS OF CLIFFWOOD=
+ _or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize_
+
+Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a wild set and how, on Hallowe'en,
+they turned the home town topsy-turvy. This led to an organization of a
+boys' department in the local Y. M. C. A. When the lads realized what was
+being done for them, they joined in the movement with vigor and did all
+they could to help the good cause.
+
+
+ =THE Y. M. C. A. BOYS ON BASS ISLAND=
+ _or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp_
+
+Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the Y. M. C. A.
+of Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer camp should be
+instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot on Bass Island, and
+there the lads went boating, swimming, fishing and tramping to their
+heart's content.
+
+
+ =THE Y. M. C. A. BOYS AT FOOTBALL=
+ _or Lively Doings On and Off the Gridiron_
+
+This volume will add greatly to the deserved success of this well-written
+series. The Y. M. C. A. boys are plucky lads--clean minded and as true as
+steel. They have many ups and downs, but in the end they "win out" in the
+best meaning of that term.
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON CO.    Publishers    New York
+
+
+
+
+ALIVE, PATRIOTIC, ELEVATING
+
+BANNER BOY SCOUTS SERIES
+
+By GEORGE A. WARREN
+
+Author of the "Revolutionary Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+The Boy Scouts movement has swept over our country like wildfire, and is
+endorsed by our greatest men and leading educators. No author is better
+qualified to write such a series as this than Professor Warren, who has
+watched the movement closely since its inception in England some years
+ago.
+
+
+ =THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS=
+ _or The Struggle for Leadership_
+
+This initial volume tells how the news of the scout movement reached the
+boys and how they determined to act on it. They organized the Fox Patrol,
+and some rivals organized another patrol. More patrols were formed in
+neighboring towns and a prize was put up for the patrol scoring the most
+points in a many-sided contest.
+
+
+ =THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS ON A TOUR=
+ _or The Mystery of Rattlesnake Mountain_
+
+This story begins with a mystery that is most unusual. There is a good
+deal of fun and adventure, camping, fishing, and swimming, and the young
+heroes more than once prove their worth.
+
+
+ =THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT=
+ _or The Secret of Cedar Island_
+
+Here is another tale of life in the open, of jolly times on river and
+lake and around the camp fire, told by one who has camped out for many
+years.
+
+
+ =THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS SNOWBOUND= (_New_)
+ _or A Tour on Skates and Iceboats_
+
+The boys take a trip into the mountains, where they are caught in a big
+snowstorm and are snowbound. A series of stirring adventures which will
+hold the interest of every reader.
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+THE HARRY HARDING SERIES
+
+By ALFRED RAYMOND
+
+=_12mo. Cloth. Handsomely Illustrated. Beautiful jackets printed in
+colors. 75 Cents Per Volume, Postpaid._=
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+The trials and triumphs of Harry Harding and Teddy Burke, two wide-awake
+boys who make a humble beginning on the messenger force of a great
+department store, with the firm resolve to become successful business
+men, form a series of narratives calculated to please the alert,
+progressive boys of today.
+
+
+ =HARRY HARDING--_Messenger "45"_=
+
+When Harry Harding bravely decided to leave school in order to help his
+mother in the fight against poverty, he took his first long step towards
+successful manhood. How Harry chanced to meet mischievous, red-haired
+Teddy Burke who preferred work to school, how Teddy and Harry became
+messengers in Martin Brothers' Department store and what happened to
+them there, is a story that never flags in interest.
+
+
+ =HARRY HARDING'S YEAR OF PROMISE=
+
+After a blissful two weeks' vacation, spent together, Harry Harding and
+Teddy Burke again take up their work in Martin Brothers' store. Their
+"year of promise" brings them many new experiences, pleasant and
+unpleasant, but more determined than ever to reach the goal they have
+set for themselves, they pass courageously and hopefully over the rough
+places, meeting with many surprises and exciting incidents which advance
+them far on the road to success.
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON CO.    Publishers    New York
+
+
+
+
+THE WEBSTER SERIES
+
+By FRANK V. WEBSTER
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Mr. Webster's style is very much like that of the boys' favorite author,
+the late lamented Horatio Alger, Jr., but his tales are thoroughly
+up-to-date.
+
+Cloth. 12mo. Over 200 pages each. Illustrated. Stamped in various
+colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents, postpaid.
+
+    Only A Farm Boy
+    _or Dan Hardy's Rise in Life_
+
+    The Boy From The Ranch
+    _or Roy Bradner's City Experiences_
+
+    The Young Treasure Hunter
+    _or Fred Stanley's Trip to Alaska_
+
+    The Boy Pilot of the Lakes
+    _or Nat Morton's Perils_
+
+    Tom The Telephone Boy
+    _or The Mystery of a Message_
+
+    Bob The Castaway
+    _or The Wreck of the Eagle_
+
+    The Newsboy Partners
+    _or Who Was Dick Box?_
+
+    Two Boy Gold Miners
+    _or Lost in the Mountains_
+
+    The Young Firemen of Lakeville
+    _or Herbert Dare's Pluck_
+
+    The Boys of Bellwood School
+    _or Frank Jordan's Triumph_
+
+    Jack the Runaway
+    _or On the Road with a Circus_
+
+    Bob Chester's Grit
+    _or From Ranch to Riches_
+
+    Airship Andy
+    _or The Luck of a Brave Boy_
+
+    High School Rivals
+    _or Fred Markham's Struggles_
+
+    Darry The Life Saver
+    _or The Heroes of the Coast_
+
+    Dick The Bank Boy
+    _or A Missing Fortune_
+
+    Ben Hardy's Flying Machine
+    _or Making a Record for Himself_
+
+    Harry Watson's High School Days
+    _or The Rivals of Rivertown_
+
+    Comrades of the Saddle
+    _or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains_
+
+    Tom Taylor at West Point
+    _or The Old Army Officer's Secret_
+
+    The Boy Scouts of Lennox
+    _or Hiking Over Big Bear Mountain_
+
+    The Boys of the Wireless
+    _or A Stirring Rescue from the Deep_
+
+    Cowboy Dave
+    _or The Round-up at Rolling River_
+
+    Jack of the Pony Express
+    _or The Young Rider of the Mountain Trail_
+
+    The Boys of the Battleship
+    _or For the Honor of Uncle Sam_
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers,     NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BOYS' OUTING LIBRARY
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full color. Price, per volume, 50
+cents, postpaid._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+=THE SADDLE BOYS SERIES=
+
+BY CAPT. JAMES CARSON
+
+    The Saddle Boys of the Rockies
+    The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon
+    The Saddle Boys on the Plains
+    The Saddle Boys at Circle Ranch
+    The Saddle Boys on Mexican Trails
+
+
+=THE DAVE DASHAWAY SERIES=
+
+BY ROY ROCKWOOD
+
+    Dave Dashaway the Young Aviator
+    Dave Dashaway and His Hydroplane
+    Dave Dashaway and His Giant Airship
+    Dave Dashaway Around the World
+    Dave Dashaway: Air Champion
+
+
+=THE SPEEDWELL BOYS SERIES=
+
+BY ROY ROCKWOOD
+
+    The Speedwell Boys on Motorcycles
+    The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto
+    The Speedwell Boys and Their Power Launch
+    The Speedwell Boys in a Submarine
+    The Speedwell Boys and Their Ice Racer
+
+
+=THE TOM FAIRFIELD SERIES=
+
+BY ALLEN CHAPMAN
+
+    Tom Fairfield's School Days
+    Tom Fairfield at Sea
+    Tom Fairfield in Camp
+    Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck
+    Tom Fairfield's Hunting Trip
+
+
+=THE FRED FENTON ATHLETIC SERIES=
+
+BY ALLEN CHAPMAN
+
+    Fred Fenton the Pitcher
+    Fred Fenton in the Line
+    Fred Fenton on the Crew
+    Fred Fenton on the Track
+    Fred Fenton: Marathon Runner
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers    New York
+
+
+
+
+THE KHAKI BOYS SERIES
+
+BY CAPT. GORDON BATES
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full color._
+
+=_Price per volume, 50 cents, postpaid._=
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_All who love the experiences and adventures of our American boys,
+fighting for the freedom of democracy in the world, will be delighted
+with these vivid and true-to-life stories of the camp and field in the
+great war._
+
+
+ =THE KHAKI BOYS AT CAMP STERLING=
+ _or Training for the Big Fight in France_
+
+Two zealous young patriots volunteer and begin their military training.
+On the train going to camp they meet two rookies with whom they become
+chums. Together they get into a baffling camp mystery that develops into
+an extraordinary spy-plot. They defeat the enemies of their country and
+incidentally help one another to promotion both in friendship and
+service.
+
+
+ =THE KHAKI BOYS ON THE WAY=
+ _or Doing Their Bit on Sea and Land_
+
+Our soldier boys having completed their training at Camp Sterling are
+transferred to a Southern cantonment from which they are finally sent
+aboard a troop-ship for France. On the trip their ship is sunk by a
+U-boat and their adventures are realistic descriptions of the tragedies
+of the sea.
+
+
+ =THE KHAKI BOYS AT THE FRONT=
+ _or Shoulder to Shoulder in the Trenches_
+
+The Khaki Boys reach France, and, after some intensive training in sound
+of the battle front, are sent into the trenches. In the raids across
+No-Man's land, they have numerous tragic adventures that show what great
+work is being performed by our soldiers. It shows what makes heroes.
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers    New York
+
+
+
+
+THE KHAKI GIRLS SERIES
+
+BY EDNA BROOKS
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors._
+
+=_Price per volume, 50 cents, postpaid._=
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_When Uncle Sam sent forth the ringing call, "I need you!" it was not
+alone his strong young sons who responded. All over the United States
+capable American girls stood ready to offer their services to their
+country. How two young girls donned the khaki and made good in the Motor
+Corps, an organization for women developed by the Great War, forms a
+series of stories of signal novelty and vivid interest and action._
+
+
+ =THE KHAKI GIRLS OF THE MOTOR CORPS=
+ _or Finding Their Place in the Big War_
+
+Joan Mason, an enthusiastic motor girl, and Valerie Warde, a society
+debutante, meet at an automobile show. Next day they go together to the
+Motor Corps headquarters and in due time are accepted and become members
+of the Corps, in the service of the United States. The two girl drivers
+find motoring for Uncle Sam a most exciting business. Incidentally they
+are instrumental in rendering valuable service to the United States
+government by discovering and running down a secret organization of its
+enemies.
+
+
+ =THE KHAKI GIRLS BEHIND THE LINES=
+ _or Driving with the Ambulance Corps_
+
+As a result of their splendid work in the Motor Corps, the Khaki Girls
+receive the honor of an opportunity to drive with the Ambulance Corps in
+France. After a most eventful and hazardous crossing of the Atlantic,
+they arrive in France and are assigned to a station behind the lines.
+Constantly within range of enemy shrapnel, out in all kinds of weather,
+tearing over shell-torn roads and dodging Boche patrols, all go to make
+up the day's work, and bring them many exciting adventures.
+
+
+ _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
+
+
+ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers    New York
+
+
+
+
+ Transcriber's Notes:
+
+ --Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+ --Text in bold is enclosed by "equal" signs (=bold=).
+
+ --Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
+
+ --Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
+
+ --Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
+
+ --Normalized instances of "Lakeville" (p. 180, p. 181) to the more
+   frequent "Lakeview" Preparatory Institute.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Baseball Joe on the School Nine, by Lester Chadwick
+
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