was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam.

The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and
Billy Westlake hunting for him.

"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas.

"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an
expert pitcher."

"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch,
but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis
Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early
trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and
we're about crazy to win."

"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go
out and practise."

They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they
had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly:

"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of
corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis
Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of
all the girls."

Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he
walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls
was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much
preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized
that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not
afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner,
he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses.

That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him
lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for
some music, sat by her father.

"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for
you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get
it away from him by telephoning?"

"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there
with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get
it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I
paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled
my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were
playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player."

"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner
happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he
hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it.
If