Point in the latter part of May. "We've done finely this year,
better than we had hoped. But, after all, what is it to beat
every other college, and then have to go down before the Navy in
defeat at the end?"

"Who says we're going down in defeat?" grumbled Greg.

"If you say we're not, you and Prescott, then you can do a lot
to hearten us up," continued Durville, with a sharp glance at the
star battery pair.

"See here, old ramrod, you know all about that Annapolis battery,"
broke in Hackett, of the nine. "What about them as ball players?
I understand you went to school with Darrin and Dalzell. Do
that pair play ball the way they do football?"

"Yes," nodded Dick. "If anything, they play baseball better."

"But you and Holmesy put them out at football. Can't you do it
on the diamond, too?" insisted Hackett.

"I hope so, but Greg and I will feel a lot more like bragging,
possibly, after we've played the game through. There isn't much
brag about us now, eh, Greg?"

"Not much," confessed Greg. "And you fellows want to remember
that old ramrod and I are to play only two out of the nine positions.
Don't depend on us to play the whole game for the Army."

"Of course not," agreed Hackett, perhaps a bit tartly. "But if
the other seven of us were wonders we'd stand no show unless we
had a battery that can do up these awful ogres of the Navy nine."

"Oh, you're better than the Navy battery, aren't you, old ramrod?"
demanded Beckwith.

"No, we're not," replied Dick slowly, thoughtfully.

"Don't tell us that the salt-water catcher and pitcher are ahead
of you two!" protested Durville with new anxiety.

"If either crowd is better, they're likely to be It," murmured Dick.

Thereupon all in the dressing room wheeled to take a look at Greg.
But young Holmes nodded his head in confirmation.

"Don't talk that way," pleaded Beckwith.

"You'll have us all scared cold before we touch foot to the field
day after to-morrow."

"Just what I said," grumbled Greg. "Some of the fellows on the
Army nine expect two men who are not above the average to win the
whole game."

From all private and newspaper accounts many of the West Point
fans were inclined to the belief that the Navy outpointed the
Army in the matter of battery. It had been so the year before
when, as readers of "_Dave Darrin's Third Year At Annapolis_" will
recall, the Navy had succeeded in carrying the game away with
neatness and despatch.

"You