ms are there?"

"Four in all, although beyond the second team the other two are not
particularly strong. The second team fancies it's as good as the
regulars, and it has beaten the regulars once. Let's go down."

A few minutes later they walked onto the field, where a hot dispute
seemed to be taking place. Guy Featherstone, the pitcher of the second
team, was furiously arguing with the umpire, who threatened to put him
out of the game.

"Put me out! put me out!" dared Feather. "You're robbing us, anyhow!
You're giving Sparkfair's bunch everything! You passed Bemis when I had
him fairly struck out, and that gave Sparkfair a chance to make that
hit. Before that we had three to one and were trimming them in great
shape. Now they're two runs ahead of us. I suppose you've fixed it up
with Spark. He's bound to win, if he has to make a deal with the umpire
to do it."

Dale Sparkfair, a handsome lad with blue eyes, broke into a merry laugh.

"Featherstone, your head is as light as the front part of your name and
as thick as the rear end of it," he declared. "You know I'm not given to
making deals with umpires. All I ever ask for is a square show, and I'll
have that or take to the warpath."

"Well, what do I get, what do I get?" snarled Feather, showing his
teeth. "You can't bully everybody, Dale Sparkfair! I demand a square
show myself. I can tell when I strike a man out. I put the third strike
over fairly, and Bemis never wiggled at it. Kilgore called it a ball and
filled the bases."

The umpire was a boy with a queer, crooked mouth, one corner of which
twisted up while the other drooped.

"You seem to think everybody's crooked, Featherstone," he said angrily.
"I'm not umpiring this game for fun, but because you--you asked me to."

"I didn't suppose you were another of Sparkfair's sycophants!" flung
back Featherstone. "You're as crooked as your mouth!"

An instant later, had not Sparkfair and others held them apart, Kilgore
would have struck Featherstone.

"Stop where you are, both of you!" commanded Dale sternly. "We'll have
no fighting here on this field."

"He'll have to swallow his words, or I'll punch him for them!"

"I'll play no further with that fellow umpiring!" declared Featherstone.
"I am going to stop right here, and I think some of the rest feel the
same. Come on, boys, let's quit."

"The quitters will quit," came from Sparkfair; "but I don't believe
there are many quitters here, Feather."

Guy