uggers on
Harmony's roll. No, Jack concluded that it could not be this.

"I've just _got_ to get Alec by himself, and have it out with him!"
he told Toby, with whom he had been earnestly discussing the matter.
"Whatever is troubling the boy, the sooner it's laid the better; for if
he keeps on in the frame of mind he seems to be in just now, it's bound
to affect his work when we want him to be at his very best."

"That's the only way to do, Jack," his chum assured him. "Get Alec by
himself, and talk to him like a Dutch uncle. Nobody can do it as well as
you, I'm sure. And, Jack, if there's any way I can help, any of us, in
fact, remember you've only got to speak. Every fellow on the nine would
work his fingers to the bone to please you. And, besides, we've got our
hearts set on winning that game. It would mean the making of Chester as
a town where clean sport for boys is indulged in."

Jack therefore watched until he saw Alec Donohue put on his coat and
saunter off, as though heading for home. Then he proceeded to follow
after the pitcher.

"I'm going your way, Alec," he remarked, when the other turned his head
and lifted his eyebrows in some little surprise at discovering the
captain of the nine trotting along in his wake. "Besides, I want to have
a nice little talk with you while we have the chance."

Young Donohue flushed a bit.

"I rather half expected you'd say that, Jack," he remarked, with a tinge
of distress in his voice. "But, after all, the sooner it's over with the
better, I reckon. I was trying to muster up enough courage to speak to
you about it this afternoon, but I felt too hanged bad even to get
started."

Jack became alarmed.

"I've noticed that you seemed anything but happy lately, Alec," he
hastened to say, as he threw an arm across the shoulders of the pitcher,
"and it began to bother me a heap; because I know a pitcher can hardly
deliver his best goods unless he's feeling as fit as a fiddle. What's
gone wrong? I hope you're not feeling sick, or anything like that?"

Alec swallowed hard before starting to make answer to this question.

"Never felt better in my whole life, Jack, so far as my body goes; and,
if I do say it myself, I firmly believe I'd be able to do better work on
Saturday than any of you have ever seen me give. But I'm in a peck of
trouble at home, and I'm terribly afraid that I won't be able to pitch
again for Chester."

"How is that, Alec!" asked the other, solicitously.